How to Ace Your First Year Of Medicine

Tip 1 - Organisation

Think about how you are going to organise your notes and stick to it. In my opinion, unless by the end of the year you want three ring binders full of paper, do not print off all the lecture slides like I tried to do at the beginning. In my first year I had over 250 lectures, each being about 50 slides long! What I like to do is to convert the lecture file into a powerpoint presentation. I then add anything that the lecturers says which I think is important into the notes section while at the lecture. After the lecture I then summarise the lecture notes in Microsoft OneNote. I prefer OneNote over individual word documents as I find it is easier to organise my notes and go between different sections. Although I find that handwriting notes allow me to consolidate my learning better near the time of exams, I still like to have a set of notes on a computer that I can always refer back to and won’t lose. Living in London, I don’t find it practical to carry a massive ring binder of notes with me everywhere I go.

Tip 2 - Anatomy

Anatomy is important! Throughout my first two years of medicine I neglected anatomy a lot. I told myself that only surgeons need to know anatomy. While it is potentially true that surgeons need to know anatomy in greater detail, every doctor needs to know the fundamental anatomy of the human body. Whether you have dissections or pro-sections, really get stuck into these sessions and ask your facilitator as many questions as you like! If you have dissections, like I did at King’s, please note that you will leave the anatomy session smelling very strongly of formaldehyde and make sure you eat before the session…

Tip 3 - Lectures

Keep on top of your lectures! The amount of science-based content in your pre-clinical years is enormous. Make sure you keep up to date each week with writing your lecture notes otherwise you will fall behind and it will be so difficult to catch up. I would also try to consolidate what you have covered in the lectures at the end of each week. Even if this is just 2 hours of your Friday afternoon or weekend, you will be so grateful for it at the time of exams.

Tip 4 - Tutorials

Do try and work on the questions prior to a tutorial - honestly you will learn so much more than if you turn up to the tutorial completely blind without having gone over the questions. Also I don’t think in first year I realised how valuable these tutorial sessions actually were. These are a great opportunity to properly understand a topic as you can ask all the questions you have! You should never leave the tutorial not understanding the topic. As these are one of very few sessions at uni you have in a small group - make the most of them!

Tip 5 - Societies and Sports

Join as many societies and sports as possible. Find out which societies you enjoy and which you want to continue with throughout your medical school. Do not neglect academic societies and tell yourself you’re too early on in your training to attend! Although some of you may not consider yourself a “sporty person” at all it does not matter! By joining a sports team you will automatically mix with medics from all different years. They can give you advice and help you out with things throughout your degree. Also sports are a great way to go to social events and just have a really enjoyable time at uni in my opinion.

Tip 6 - Clinical skills

Do not stress about clinical skills sessions. I got so so so nervous prior to a mock patient session. This is where you have an actor playing a patient and you have to take a history from them. Remember you are in your first year! You have never done this before! You are at the beginning of your training! Do not beat yourself up if you have to time out and ask a question during the session. Do not neglect teaching sessions where you learn clinical skills such as taking a blood pressure, as these are vital skills that you will use in later years whilst on clinical placement.

Tip 7 - Feeling overwhelmed

If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of content and you are not enjoying how much science-related content there is, just stick with it and push through as you will get onto learning about diseases and doctor-specific content in later years. I considered dropping out of medical school in my first year as I really didn’t enjoy the content. But I pushed through it and started to love medical school once I was in my second year! Remember that is good to have a science-based background, but you will not use the majority of things you learn in your first year at uni in your day to day life as a doctor.

Tip 8 - Books

Do not feel you need to buy every book that is recommended to you in each module. Take out books from the library! I purchased quite a few books in my first year and many of them I have hardly opened and they are still sitting on my bookshelf looking brand new. There are so many resources now online and you can access many of the books through your online library for free! We are very fortunate as medics, as there is an enormous amount of learning material online.

Tip 9 - Libraries

In my first year I only visited one of the many libraries my university has. I didn’t explore the vast amount of libraries that were available to me. As well as my university ones, there are many other libraries in London which I didn’t know about and therefore didn’t go to. I believe it is important to differentiate your bedroom environment from your study environment. Furthermore the only library I went to in first year is now my least favourite library to study in. So explore all the facilities available to you in first year and be brave and try out new places!

Tip 10 - Enjoy it

I think this is the most important of my top tips! Enjoy your first year! Starting university is an amazing experience. Enjoy socialising. Enjoy meeting new friends. Enjoy the opportunity of trying out new activities. You will enjoy your time at university so much more if you find a good group of friends. They will get you through the harder and stressful times later on in your training. Do prioritise finding “your people”. Although this can be hard at the start of university, do take the time in first year to get to know as many people and find out who you want to spend more time with.

I hope these tips have been useful. I just want to emphasise that I was definitely not the “perfect” student in my first year...and for that matter I am still not in third year. I missed lectures, I didn’t do all the questions before my tutorials - so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t follow each of these tips completely!