I have just finished my first semester at medical school! It’s so crazy to think that this time last year I had just had my interview and was super worried if I was going to get an offer or not, and a year on so much has changed! Sometimes I just have to take a step back and think how grateful I am that I’m studying my dream course at an amazing university, it still seems surreal sometimes!
I’ve had an amazing first semester at medical school and I’m excited for the next 5 years! I’m loving my course and I’m so happy that I’ve made such great friends. So far, I’ve only done one hospital placement but I’m super excited to do more hospital and GP placements from January onwards 😊
I’m going to split up this blog post into different sections because I know that different people will be interested in different things- I’ll also share some tips for anyone who is currently at university or who is hopefully going next year. I do have a separate blog post focused on applying to medicine (in a Q&A style), so if you are currently in the process of applying, maybe that will be useful for you!
Making friends In the lead up to moving to university, one of the biggest concerns I had was making friends. I knew I was going to be surrounded by so many new people, but I just hoped that I’d make great friends who would be a big part of my university journey. On the first day I moved in, a met a girl who I had spoken to beforehand which made everything a lot less scary! We went into our common room in our hall and met a big group of people who we stuck with for the first few days. I was so glad that I made friends so soon because it really helped me to relax quickly. I’m still really good friends with a few people who I met during Fresher’s week but, naturally, I have made lots of new friends since then and drifted from others. My friends are a mix of medics and non-medics which I really like! I’d probably say that I have more friends from my course than in my accommodation, just because everyone on my course is so like-minded and everyone just gets on so well! There are lots of university-organised events which I love- I’ve been to 2 Medic Balls, 1 fancy dress Medic event, 1 hall formal alongside some others, but I love that the university organises lots of different things because it’s a great chance to make new friends but also to make memories with the friends you’ve already made 😊 Tips for making friends at university: When you have just moved in: · Leave your door open- lots of people had door stops but I just used a little stool that was already in my room – it just lets people know that you’re social and open to meeting new people, and it really helps to initially meet people you will be living with 😊 · Join as many group chats as you can, then you know what’s going on and it’s really nice when you can put a face to someone you saw in the group chat · If there’s someone who you see in a Facebook/group chat who you think you could get along with well, message them! Someone sent me a message to say hello before we even had our university offers, and now she is one of my best friends! It may seem scary at first, but it’s so worth it 😊 · Make your room cosy and invite people to come and have a look! A lot of people did this in the first week, and it just makes a nice environment for people to sit in your room and get to know each other · Join clubs/societies, even if you’re not too sure about them, lots of societies don’t involve commitments so its really easy just to try things for a few weeks and meet new people! Later in the year: · Get involved! You can still join societies throughout the year, and they’re a great way of meeting people. · Don’t be afraid of talking to people in lectures who you haven’t met yet! If you’re part of a big cohort, chances are you won’t have spoken to everybody yet so if you see someone new, say hello 😊 · Keep a balance between work and a social life! It’s important to keep doing other things aside from work- if you plan everything out it can really help you to find a good balance 😊 Living away from home I have moved about 3.5-4 hours away from home (by train), which means that it’s a pretty big journey for me to come home. I haven’t been back home since I moved to university, so it does feel so good to be back home for Christmas! It is just a big journey for me to come for one weekend, and I didn’t feel desperate to come home at any point. Of course, I missed home and I missed my family and it is amazing to be home for Christmas, but I think being settled at university made it a lot better for me to cope. My mum did come to visit me at university after 1 month, which was so nice, and it really helped to break up the term, even though it was just for one weekend! Tips for living away from home: · Keep yourself busy! This could mean going out with friends, but it doesn’t have to – even if you’re just in your room, find yourself something to do 😊 This might even be as simple as watching a TV show, but just try and focus on something rather than sat feeling homesick. I know it can be so difficult for some people, but it will get easier with time! · Take lots of pictures of family/friends/pets with you to university – not only does it help your room to feel homely but it’s just really nice to have all the pictures there! · If you’re struggling, talk to your friends about how you’re feeling – if you speak to someone who is feeling the same way (which is so likely !) it will help you to realise that you’re not alone and you can help each other along the way 😊 · Be grateful- if you’re living away from home, it’s likely you’ve had to work really hard to get there! Be mindful of your achievements and live in the moment! Workload Looking back at the 12 weeks, we have covered a LOT of content! Each week, we have a different theme- so far, we have covered muscles, embryology, immunity, pharmacology alongside other things. I do love how the course is organised because it gives a lot of structure to the topics we are learning. At university, I think the workload is what you make it. It is really difficult to know how much time you should be spending working, and how much detail you should go into – everyone I have spoken to seems to be doing things differently and you really just have to find what works for you. Since being at university, I have worked pretty much every day, but some days have been busier than others. I have found it okay to keep up with lectures notes and to be revising at the same time, but it’s really hard to cover everything! I think I will get used to it more as time goes on, and I think when we start learning anatomy in January, I will develop some new revision techniques since it will be a lot of memorising different structures. About a month into med school, I wanted to change when I revise as I felt like I was being pretty unproductive in the evenings and not having much time to unwind before I went to sleep. I started waking up between 6 and 6.30 and working in the mornings (usually I have 9 or 10am starts, so this wasn’t a huge slot to work in, but it really helped me to work more productively and get more done in a smaller about of time!). I’d usually work when I returned from dinner, around 6pm, and then stop by about 8.30pm. I feel like the routine I developed is working really well and I hope I carry it on into next year. I think it’s important to have a cut off time in the evening, it gave me time to unwind and maybe watch a film or facetime my family – I also think that having a relaxing evening makes it easier to get up and work the next morning. In terms of waking up early, I have never been a morning person, so I didn’t expect it to last very well for me. I was recommended to try a ‘Sleep Calculator’ which works based on 90-minute sleep cycles, and the idea is that you will wake up feeling refreshed if you wake up at the end of a sleep cycle. I’m not sure if it is a placebo effect or if it genuinely has scientific evidence, but either way, it’s definitely made it easier to me to get up in the mornings! Typically, I have been having 7 hours and 45 minutes of sleep (which, a few months ago I would have thought would be way too little for me!) but I have got through super long days without feeling tired. If you type ‘sleep calculator’ in Google, there are lots of different options and I’d say it’s definitely worth a try! Tips for coping with university workload: · Plan! For A-Levels, I used to plan the night before, but I kind of forgot about that in the first couple of months at uni. For about a week before my final exam, I started planning the night before again, and it honestly made such a difference. It saved my time in the morning deciding what I should revise today, and it helps me to work more productively when I know exactly what I need to get done · Break everything into smaller chunks- we have really big topics at once so it’s impossible to set yourself the task of revising the whole topic in one go. I tend to plan in terms of individual lectures, which is a lot more realistic to do in one go · Find what time you work most productively and if you’re unsure, maybe try switching it up for a couple of weeks and see if you find yourself working more or less productively · Try and keep on top of lectures as you go, and if there’s something you don’t understand, address it straight away! This makes it a lot easier when it comes to revision as you already have your notes to revise from, and you don’t have to ‘re-understand’ the topic, it’s just a case of refreshing what was already somewhere in your brain! If you made it this far, thank you for reading 😊 I hope it helped some of you who are at university or are hoping to go in the future. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me on Instagram (@studyingwithjasmine). Jasmine x
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