Med school life discussion thread

[MelonBar]

Moderator action: this thread has been split from Medicine FAQ / So You Want To Be A Doctor and is aimed to be a thread about discussion pertaining to med school experiences, studying, pre-clinical and clinical years, etc. and beyond; to build a medical student culture in AN.

Points to note:
- If you want to ask questions about the UMAT please take them here
- If you want to ask questions about the GAMSAT, please take them here
- If you want to ask questions about interviews/MMIs, make a new thread in this board
- If you want to ask questions about UoM MD (Chancellor's) vs Monash MBBS, or BSci vs BBiomed vs BBiomedSci, search the forums as your question has probably been answered in great detail already
- If you want to ask questions on what doctors do and the intern crisis, read this thread first and ask questions in there (which may or may not be added to the FAQ), or if they are pertaining to med school then here may also be appropriate

Thanks.


How was week 1 melb md'ers?

Had first real pbl session, am youngest in group, avg age = 26 wat. Everyone's so on point with the discussions it's hard to get into the case, Had like 12 lectures this week, feeling out of my depth already !

[pi]

Split this as it's not really FAQ and could become a thread in it's own right

Had a chat with an old school mate who is now an MD2 at the hospital I'm BMedSci'ing at, good to see him doing well Also now I've got some good exposure to the course structure of each of Monash, Deakin (via Eastern) and UoM mwahahahahaha here come the comparisons at the end of the year!

[ChickenCh0wM1en]

Yup, had first week of examinable content and I'm already behind. Having no background in micro/immuno/path definitely does not help

[heart]

Will give a one week overview once I start this monday especially given how it is a flipped classroom system

[Shenz0r]

Histology is a pain but luckily Micro/Immuno has been helping me get through Foundations so far.

But jfc being around so many smartasses makes you feel dumb/average in comparison. Everyone is so on point in CSLs!

We had our first clinical tute this week as well, which was mainly teaching us how to introduce ourselves, take a history of the complaint by following the cardinal framework and also asking about past history.

[Orson]

How was week 1 melb md'ers?

Had first real pbl session, am youngest in group, avg age = 26 wat. Everyone's so on point with the discussions it's hard to get into the case, Had like 12 lectures this week, feeling out of my depth already !

So people know mediciny stuff in week one!? Did you move to Waurn Ponds, or are you traveling everyday?

[pi]

Yup, had first week of examinable content and I'm already behind. Having no background in micro/immuno/path definitely does not help

I know dem feels hahaha. In all honesty the whole of pre-clin felt that way to me, things got exponentially better in clin years where I did much better

We had our first clinical tute this week as well, which was mainly teaching us how to introduce ourselves, take a history of the complaint by following the cardinal framework and also asking about past history.

Ah yes, the old history tutes. Worth mentioning that the history is probably the most important part of your patient interaction, having a solid foundation will put you in good stead

edit: Having spoken to a few MD2s last week, it seems UoM doesn't use Talley and O'Connor in first year? If that's true and you don't use it, I'd highly recommend using it anyway for this year. Not sure why they wouldn't use it given it's widely considered to be the gold-standard text for clinical history-taking and physical examination all the up to and including registrar years.

So people know mediciny stuff in week one!?

Yeah some people pre-read in the holidays and whatnot, really not necessary. Although I did find it useful for 4th year where my workload was high, but otherwise not at all necessary.

[Stick]

Just going to say that I'm really glad this thread was made and I look forward to hearing about what you have to say.

[pi]

Just going to say that I'm really glad this thread was made and I look forward to hearing about what you have to say.

Haha hoping that we'll shift med school discussion away from UoM and Monash chat threads and into this one, get this board some med students (and doctors) and not just year 12s asking about medicine hahahaha ^_^

[Stick]

Haha hoping that we'll shift med school discussion away from UoM and Monash chat threads and into this one, get this board some med students (and doctors) and not just year 12s asking about medicine hahahaha ^_^

That would be great. It's been really difficult to get an accurate sense of what medical school is like, because it seems like the majority of people who have turned to the internet have had a negative experience. I'm pretty much at the point where I've accepted that I don't think I'm ever going to be 100% on a career path and that I'll need to take a leap of faith. Medical school makes me nervous, but at the same time I feel like I need to give it a go and not write it off (and potentially regret it later). I'd have no qualms in dropping out if it didn't suit me, but I think I need to find out for myself.

[pi]

That would be great. It's been really difficult to get an accurate sense of what medical school is like, because it seems like the majority of people who have turned to the internet have had a negative experience. I'm pretty much at the point where I've accepted that I don't think I'm ever going to be 100% on a career path and that I'll need to take a leap of faith. Medical school makes me nervous, but at the same time I feel like I need to give it a go and not write it off (and potentially regret it later). I'd have no qualms in dropping out if it didn't suit me, but I think I need to find out for myself.

I think you're far from alone there. The way I see it, it's pretty much impossible to be 100% sure of a course or career until you try it. Even as a med student who has now done all their exams, I can bet my bottom dollar that despite my expectations and preparation, intern year will be something different, and again for every subsequent year.

It's /normal/ to feel a bit apprehensive or unsure about what's next, especially when they can be pretty big decisions... But it's also exciting and rewarding, and that's what keeps me going

[DeezNuts]

anyone care to enlighten me on their experiences in terms of work life balance and free time? Anyone have had any time to travel overseas as such?

Does it get even harder to do so as you progress to internship,etc?

Thanks

[pi]

anyone care to enlighten me on their experiences in terms of work life balance and free time? Anyone have had any time to travel overseas as such?

Does it get even harder to do so as you progress to internship,etc?

Thanks

In terms of work life balance, it's achievable. You hear stories of med students slaving away in the libraries until 2am every night... but you only hear of those because those are extreme situations and you never hear the far more common story of the student who puts in a couple of hours a night and still gets through alright. There are people in med who balance work, study, social life, sport, etc. with ease. Personally, I don't work or tutor, and I only play sport socially sometimes, so I have a lot of potential free time and don't ever feel particularly stressed about my study load (exception was the infamous 'Week of Death' last year where we had 5 consecutive days on exams in a week... bad times!). Obviously, as you move up the chain through internship, residency, registrar, etc. you have less and less free time because you have more obligations and responsibilities, in addition to more study for the various exams that exist later down that line (during those exam times life may temporarily = work + study hahaha). edit: I'd like to add that it can take some time to strike that balance, you'll inevitably be feeling like you're drowning at times, but there will also be times where you're swimming at a Thorpe-level, eventually you'll find your jam and you'll be Hackett-ing through in the long-run (apologies to people who don't know anything about swimming athletes!)

You need to be prepared to make sacrifices to study medicine, but you don't need to sacrifice your life for it. 

I personally haven't traveled overseas, but that's more because I couldn't be bothered and didn't really want to rather than not having the time. Holidays are the time to go overseas and it's very common for people to go on a South East Asia bender, or the old "Euro trip". Furthermore, during the year, you can [pay] to go to conferences that interest you overseas and get official conference leave to do that, although not many people do that just because the cost:benefit ratio isn't really in your favour There are also opportunities to go on exchange, speaking for Monash there are semester-long or year-long exchanges with Monash Malaysia and there are also elective rotations in final year which can be done overseas. It's also not uncommon for people to take gap years to travel, most commonly after MBBS IV or MD3 from what I've been hearing!

Had first real pbl session, am youngest in group, avg age = 26 wat.

Haha plenty of oldies over in Deakin. Probably because they don't have pre-reqs. From my exposure to them at Eastern a couple of years ago, lovely bunch

[Splash-Tackle-Flail]

Personally, I don't work or tutor, and I only play sport socially sometimes, so I have a lot of potential free time and don't ever feel particularly stressed about my study load (exception was the infamous 'Week of Death' last year where we had 5 consecutive days on exams in a week... bad times!).

Please tell me this Week of Death is just a fourth year thing..

[pi]

Please tell me this Week of Death is just a fourth year thing..

Just a fourth year thing But the good news is that like 98-99% of people pass (after supps)!