Dr. Britain

I’m entering my second proper week of medical school. Wow! I’m so useless! I’m about to start my first semester which is all about the life cycle; aging, pregnancy etc. Why haven’t I learnt CPR? I thought that would be like my first lecture, and that I’d be able to save lives now… Maybe I’ll have to wait a few years :P. Everything seems amazing so far, I’ve met so many great people, and my flat mates are all super friendly and super supportive, so I’m very lucky. My PBL group is pretty sweet too, there is a girl called (new pseudonym alert) Dr Belfast who seems pretty nice… Hurm! Its all moving so fast… I’ve been here two weeks already ( the drunken revelry of freshers seems a distant memory). I’m excited and nervous!

By this time next week, i’ll probably be highly inebriated at Uni. I don’t know how i feel at the moment really, a week seems like such a long time when it really isn’t. I keep putting it to the back of my mind but i think i have to realise that i’m going away! I’ve never even moved before and i’m going to disappear in less than a week. I hope that some relationships that are barely beginning don’t come crashing down, i hope that friendships that have come to mean so much remain, its a scary, scary time. 

But ignoring all that, i’m going to be starting as a medical student! A medical student - which will require constant effort. I hope I can keep it up for the sake of everyone who has invested in me.

If your not back at school, you’ll be going back to school. If your in year 12, welcome to sixth form, the next two years will probably drain you if you put in the effort, or they will leave you unfulfilled and in a place you don’t want to be in if you don’t focus.

If your going for high flying courses, or are generally aspiring for something, now is the time to really put the effort in, if you do you will be left with a sense of achievement and will be able to look back and be all like: “BOO-YEAH!”.

1. Be realistic: Sometimes it sucks, but you have to take stock of things, if your not scoring A’s and you really are working your nuts off then don’t apply for courses that require A’s. One important caveat: If your riding on the coat tails of your GCSE or AS success you’ll get disappointed you got to up the ante and put the maximum level of effort in. So if you get like BCC in January (a la me) and know you didn’t work your backside off then go back and do it properly. Once you’ve discovered your limits, then its time to think of something worth doing that will satisfy you.
2. Go over your notes:  I can’t emphasise this enough, if you expect to just learn something first time off, your going to sit down and revise for your exams and hit a wall of purest “WHAT IS THIS BS?1?!?!” and that isn’t fun. Ok, don’t expect to go into you revision knowing your colour chemistry off by heart. But at least no the basics. What I did is copy up all my notes at the end of each sub topic (AAAAAH THERE IS A JACK OFF SPIDER IN MY ROOM!!!!) so you at least know it.
3. Find a revision method that doesn’t leave you dying: Okay, make sure you find a revision method that actually works for you, I used to make massive spider diagrams, other people like to make flash cards, what ever. Just don’t read the module book, all the peeps who say this “works for me”, i bet you a fiver you just blankly glance at each page and that isn’t revision. (Hell if it genuinely does work for you, and I see some proof, i’ll wang that £5 your way)
4. Take some time to yourself: I used to work every night till about 8/8.30 and I took Friday evening and Saturday off. If you don’t take a bit of personal time off each night, you will get burn out. Let me tell you, it fridging sucks!

Just, good luck everyone, this next year/ two years will make or break you. Aspire, and work!

If there’s anything that signified what I am now, its the little package that arrived today. Inside was a Littmann Classic II S.E stethoscope, in hunter green with my name engraved on the bell. Whenever you see a doctor what are they wearing, or carrying or not far away from? What do you always associate a doctor with? A stethoscope!

And now I have mine, its weird, I got one before, from a medical convention, but it felt a bit like a cheat, because it wasn’t mine, and this one well and truly is!

It’s all becoming so real!

My next purchase is going to be a lab coat, for anatomy and dissection. This is all getting way, way too cool!

Ok so it’s like what, 3 weeks until i begin medical school? I have never, ever moved in my life. I am not an independent individual, and now i’m going to have to look after myself completely in an instant.

That’s a scary thought! And now I’ve made it to uni there is all this expectation on me, I have to be the best of the best and i’m just feeling plain nervous. 

What if they make us do a maths exam? I’ll be screwed and I’ll be so scared. 

Man i’m excited, yet also so very, very scared. 

After the initial high of receiving my results, I’m kind of coming down, I’ve started buying all the stuff i think I’ll need, started getting my accommodation sorted. Just all that very basic stuff that needs doing. Nonetheless, even through all this mediocrity I cannot physically wait for it to start!

I’M GOING TO MEDSCHOOL AAAAAAAAH!!! 

AHAHA! You no longer follow the humble ramblings of a meer “medical applicant” OH NO! You now follow a full on medical student. Yes, you heard me right, on Thursday the 16th of August I was confirmed at my medical school, I’m in - I’ve made it! 

I will be starting mid-september, and therefore Dr. Britain is actually on his way to becoming a doctor!

After all the trials and tribulations, failures and successes, countless hours of study, i’ve done it. I can’t believe it, I’m ecstatic, i cannot wait to start. 

One step closer to being JD…

I’m revising for possibly some of the most important exams ever, yet I’ve also just started seeing someone. How do I balance these two things? I’m working a lot harder one day so I can see her for an afternoon or something, and it seems to be working, I don’t feel guilty that I haven’t done enough revision, and I feel comfortable with the amount of time I enjoy with her. Buuuuuuuuut what’s going to happen if I get into Med school? Am I going to be able to keep whatever this is going? That is going to be taxing, seeing as the work load will be treble what it is now… I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Also i’m thinking of doing more doodles. Look out for those soon!

Hello All! Its been along time since I posted here, but not much has really happened. I have firmed my first choice and visited recently - its absolutely lovely, an amazing place I cannot wait to start. I’m literally in the middle of my last set of exams. I’ve done philosophy and ethics which I think went ok. I need a C in chemistry for an A overall , and I’m not sure what I need in biology. I’m a lot closer to medical school - I’m excited and nervous I just want my results!!

That interview mustn’t have gone that badly - a medical school have given me a conditional offer -AAA. I can’t describe how sweet this moment is. After the tribulations of the last year and a half, to see I have an offer - at one of the best universities in the world - is absolutely amazing. I have a place for medicine, I just need to get the grades, and then I could realise my dream - to be a doctor. Wow, just wow.