Medical School Fears or Facts

One of the challenges of being a medical student involve working harder and putting in more wee hours than you’ve ever imagined in your life – but chances are, it’ll also be a more dynamic experience than you’ve ever had before. There are plenty of daunting myths about being a medical student, but in reality, it is quite a respectable, exciting and highly rewarding profession, especially in light of what you’re working towards. In this article, I want to touch base on a few things about being a medical student that I hope will reassure, re-ignite and excite you about the prospect of studying medicine.


A lifelong learning experience

This might seem like a somewhat trivial point, but it should not be overlooked. The truth for many courses is that you are only really studying to pass your exams and once you have managed this, the knowledge that you have gained so relentlessly is mostly useless to you. This is, however, not the case in medicine, with areas of study including anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and pathology all being directly applicable in diagnosing, understanding and treating a disease process. Not only is this a great incentive to learn the core course material well, so that you will be a competent doctor, it is also an incentive to go beyond the basic lecture material and satisfy your curiosity about what you have been taught in your clinical rotations. As a medic, this extra detail could one day be put into practice in a clinical situation and could be a matter of life and death for a patient. When you are studying medicine, you are not just studying for the next exam but taking the first steps on a course of lifelong learning, building your basis of professional knowledge throughout your medical career.

It is not all-hard work!

Don’t panic, medicine can be challenging. However, there are a lot of perks for a medical student, an experience that many people say are the best times of their lives. Sometimes the level of coursework is such that you will have time to make the most of other activities, such as sports, music, and the vast range of other societies that are offered at the University of your choice. Managing coursework along with these other activities requires efficient time management. Don’t spend a whole afternoon watching YouTube videos if you know you have a music rehearsal that evening. Medical University is a lot more than just gaining a degree, you will learn a lot about yourself and other people, and hopefully build yourself into someone who is capable of being an able doctor.



Being a medical student isn’t all about studying medicine

All the extra-curricular activities that you can do in your spare time aren’t just about having fun. Whether the main reason you do them is to enjoy yourself and take your mind off work or pursue your passion or hobbies, they are actually crucial to your “personal development”. This is, as mentioned above, working on skills that are outside the scope of academic study but are still vital to being an effective doctor.




You have a vacation, not a holiday

What that means is that the Christmas and Easter breaks are simply the times when you vacate your accommodation and not a complete holiday from coursework. Of course, this does not necessarily have to be true. If you’ve managed your coursework efficiently during term time, and stayed on top of everything, there is no reason why you can’t enjoy a well-deserved rest for a few weeks. If you prefer to do as many activities as you can while in a student hostel or residence, the vacations can be an important opportunity to pay back the time you borrowed during the term. Most importantly, it’s similar to finding a work life balance. You don’t want to start the term feeling fatigued from working too hard during the holidays, however, on the same note, you don’t wish to start the term not having a clue what’s going on.


Organization is the key

One of the main challenges of studying at a prestigious medical university is keeping a balance between being organized in your coursework and other activities. You can no longer rely on your parents to maintain a calendar for everything that’s going on in your personal and professional life, instead you must sort things out for yourself and prioritize. Add this to the fact that a significant portion of time at university will be spent feeling tired, due to excessive studying or partying, and it can be a recipe for potential disaster if the balance is lost. Tutorials may clash with rehearsals, practicals may coincide with sports matches, or a MedSoc event might be happening when you’re meant to be seeing your family. The most important thing is to have some kind of system in place, whether it is a paper diary you keep with you, or a calendar on your phone that keeps you organized. Make sure you’re not the one who is always missing out on lectures, course works, practicals, and exams, or running around at the last minute trying to work out where you’re supposed to be.


Finally, the key is to work hard and play hard in order to keep a student/life balance since medical coursework can be rather overwhelming at times and the more you are motivated, prepared and organized for it, the better the outcomes.

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