Study Skills for Medicine - Why is it different?

Group mentoring was on the 24th November 2011 *This is a late post*

• For the UKCAT/BMAT prepare earlier - At least 6 months before hand.

I got this advice from the year 13s that were there, they've experienced a lot with this whole application thing so I have a lot of respect for them, I understand the hard work needed to do well in your studies as well as doing all the stuff to get into medicine.

• Hard work + conscientious attitude = Graduation!

Adult education  in medicine

• Exposure to content (lectures, tutorials and dissection)
• Learning the content (wider reading & independent study)
• Apply content (clinical practice or examinations)

Studying medicine

• Unlike any other academic discipline at university
• A lot to learn
• Little time
• Pressure is intense
• Cognitive changes
• Behavioural changes (required by GMC)
• Assessment driven (roughly every 6 weeks at Kings College University)
• Even the smartest student has to work hard
• Attention to detail, critical thinking and conscientiousness.

Some of the details of a normal term at Kings that scared me! (Sept - Oct 2012)

• 110 Lectures 2 - 6 PER DAY
• 10 - 15 tutorials 
• 15 - 30 practicals
• Interactive learning days
• They expect you to do 21 hours of independent studying per week

Some revision tips:

• Don't prepare last minute
• Read wider and longer!
• Prepare beforehand
• Past papers
• Don't miss lectures (or lessons), you'll miss out on a lot!

I really learnt a lot from this group mentoring! I hope you learnt from my notes too!

Updatesssss

Really happy had some great news today, pushing me closer to my medical career!!

So my place volunteering at the hospital has been confirmed, (received the call today) my CRB check came in clean! So I start volunteering in January, I have to get my ID and tabbard in the new year!

Andddd, a few months ago, I applied for the UCL target medicine mentoring scheme. Just checked my email a few minutes ago, I got a space! YIPPEEEE! I'm really happy, I can see that 2012 is going to be a hardworking and exciting year for me. I really thank God for blessing me with these amazing opportunities.

Ermm yeah, so that is what has been happening so far, so basically in 2012, I need to look for work experience ASAP.

I have a feeling that medicine is actually for me, because everything seems to be going really easy for me. I'm really excited for the next year!

In case I dont say guys, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year

Its Been A While...

Heyy,
Sorry for no recent updates, I've been soo busy revising for the January exams.
But I will be posting up what I learnt from the last few lectures I haven't put up yet and any recent updates to my journey!

Just a random post

There was a scheme going on for young volunteers at the hospitals local to me.
Sent off my application form a long time ago, had no reply and my friend did, so I lost hope.
Got a call this morning saying I have an interview with them in a few weeks!

Yayyyyy!
I have hope now.
Hopefully I dont mess up the interview. And do really good in it.
If I get this place then, it makes my med school application sooooo much easier!
All I need to do now is :

• Write up letters for work experience
• Find more voluntary work just in case this doesn't work out
• REVISE REVISE REVISE
• Join some more extra-curricular stuff

So basically I'll have no free time, between now and uni!

I really do hope I get a place volunteering at the hospital!

x

In year 12?

If you're in year 12 and have a burning passion for medicine *cliche but true* like me, here are some amazing schemes I've come across, that I've/I'm currently applied to!

UCL Mentoring Scheme

UCL (University College London) are doing a mentoring scheme for those in year 12. Heres a little about it:

Target Medicine Mentoring Scheme matches teams of volunteer UCL medical students with sixth form students from London-based, non-selective state schools who want to study medicine. It aims to give AS/A2 students a better understanding of what is needed to be a successful applicant to medical school and provides structured support and guidance to them during the application process. 

The deadline to apply is 5th December 2011

Social Mobility Foundation

The Social Mobility Foundation exists to support high-achieving young people from low-income backgrounds into the top universities and professions. We do this by providing a holistic programme of support encompassing internships, mentoring, university application support and skills development to students predicted to achieve ABB or above at A-Level who have been eligible for Free School Meals.

The deadline to apply is 14th December 2011

 If I see more, I'll be sure to post them up!

Or if you see any, be sure to tell me by posting a comment!

Emergency Medicine Lecture 2nd Nov 2011

Sorry! Late post! Been rushed off my feet with all these subjects, but I'm doing really well, I'm so proud of myself! yayyy!
Anyway....

Heres my thoughts and notes from the last lecture!

The lecturer was amazing! He didn't look like your typical doctor, he was funny and human. Which is great because you mostly hear doctors saying they have to become more robotic and inhuman to be unaffected by whats going on around them. And I totally understand, but being human now and again, can't hurt, can it?

Right so, Emergency medicine!

-Its the field of practice based on knowledge, skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and urgent aspects of illness and injury.
-Patients of all age groups
-Patients have "undifferentiated" presentations (they don't know the problem)
-Any age group, time, body system

Specialists in

• Resuscitation
• Initial management of trauma
• 'Minor' injuries
• Major incident management
• Front door diagnostic and treatments strategies
• Short stay / observation medicine

How to get there -

-FY1 / FY2 ~ two years (Foundation years 1 & 2, if you don't know what that is, its the first two years you do as a junior doctor after you've left med school doing 6 month rotations of different specialities)

-Acute care common stem CT1 / CT2 ~ two years (Core training year 1 and core training year 2)

-CT3 ~ one year

-ST4 / ST5 / ST6 ~ three years (Subspeciality training)

-CCT in Emergency medicine ~ eight years 

The lecturer told us he worked 82 hour weekends, obviously we were all surprised and wondered whether that was even possible!

One thing he said that really struck out to me was "It's hard to be a good doctor, if you're not happy," which is really true. We all have to find that balance between work and play because it can tremendously affect how we work! So I find this quote applicable to all walks of life, even if you aren't a doctor ! I loved what he said, so I'm going to see if I can apply it to my life when I become a doctor. :)

Pros of Emergency medicine

• Exciting
• Different
• Funny
• Team approach
• Multi-disciplinary

Cons

• Follow ups - Never really get to develop relationships with your patients.
• Out of hours work
• No private practice

Overall he said, EM is fun, intellectually stimulating and hard work!

I really loved the lecture, I thought it was the best so far. Definately considering doing EM although paediatrics / Obstetrics and Gynaecology is my preferred speciality. But for EM, I don't think I could live with the immense pressure that comes from it. It seems to be the most draining speciality (not to say they all aren't).

So the next lecture I'm going to is the obstetrics and gynaecology lecture (yayyyyyyy!) I can't go to the next one (Addiction: Why do people use drugs and what can Doctors do about it?)  and honestly, I think I should miss out on the one after (Psychiatric medicine: Are you mad?) I really need to catch up with my studies!

I'll post more tomorrow! I'll have more time then!

Found some interesting schemes for those interested in medicine!

Bye for now! 

Happy studying! 

:)

Wednesday 18th October

This is a late post! I've been so busy so I couldn't write on the blog


On the 18th, I went to a lecture held by Kings College London (one of my uni choices) about Paediatric Asthma. Its a part of a series of lectures called "The Worshipful Company of Barbers’ Science and Medicine in Action Lecture Series" held by Kings College, every fortnight. They last for about an hour.

So the doctor giving us the lecture was of course a paediatrician. He spoke to us about what is asthma and the effects on children.
Heres some of the things I learnt from it (or took notes of) :

• In 2005, 5.7 million children in England were diagnosed with asthma.
• And 3 million of those required recent medical treatment. 

(Data from QReasearch, from 422 practices which had 30 million patients from years of observation)

• Asthma affects 5% of children
• In the ratio of 3:2 (boys : girls at age 5 yrs)
• Its higher in 'westernised countries', in warmer climates than in Asia or Africa
• 40 children per year die of asthma
• Hospital admissions (in the year 2000) : 48 per 10,000 children less that 5 yrs, 16 per 10,000 children aged between 5 - 14 yrs
• 50% reduction in hospital admissions since 1990, why? There's a greater awareness of the problems and there's better management guidelines.

Also learnt about the causes, symptoms etc, but it was very brief. Its made me excited about what I'll be learning about in biology and of course, at medical school.

The next one I'll be going to is about emergency medicine, so looking forward to that!

Half term started today and I have a LOT of work to do, no rest for the wicked, eh?

I think getting into medical school is probably harder than med school itself!

Its not easy!

But I'll make it (by the grace of God) and everyone else that is interested in medicine and works really hard, shall too!

:)

Happy studying!

 

11th October 2011

I've started my voluntary work at a charity shop, close to my school last weekend (8/10/11)
I reallyyyyy need to get some work experience letters out!
ASAP!

Just a random post, not going to be writing that much on here because of my studies and stuff.
But, I will be writing as frequently as possible as soon as my January exams are over!

Happy studying!

An Introduction to Medical School.

So yesterday (6/10/11) I went to a lecture at Kings College, at Guys Campus about entry into medical school. Its part of a series of lectures they're doing for year 13. Anyway it started at 5 but me and a friend got lost on the way down there, but managed to find it! I love Kings College, its my first choice of medical school.
During the lecture, of course I was taking notes and what they were saying.

At Kings college they look at :

• Your eligibility
• Academic criteria
• Non-academic criteria

So in the non-academic criteria, you should have:

• Community activities - Do you care for others?
• Scholastic activities - Can you be a leader?
• General activities - Are you a joiner and a team player?
• Paid/voluntary work - Can you deal with the general public?
• Work shadowing/observation - Do you have a realistic view of what a career in medicine entails?

So in terms of those, I'm really close. I start my voluntary work at the British Heart Foundation tomorrow (8/10/11) hopefully to improve my communication skills and such. Community activities, I start to tutor year 11s on Tuesdays after school, starting (11/10/11) to help them with their maths GCSE exam coming up soon. I remember those days *sighs*. General activities thinking of returning to my drama group in a few months time, hopefully after the January exams, which I'm panicking for even though we are in October. 

Your personal statement should:

• Reflect your experiences, commitments and achievements
• Be truthful
• Be specific
• Not plagiarise
• Express your motivation, interests and experiences.
• Be in first person ("I")
• Have an active and direct voice. E.g "I organised two weeks work experience on the labour ward."
• Only use words you understand and can explain

AVOID:

• Using slang or jargon, write simply and clearly
• CLICHES - "I have wanted to be a doctor since I was two" "Medicine is a dream job" "I want to free the world from pain"
• Irrelevant quotations - any quotes must be explained
• Meaningless cliches - "I am fascinated by the complexity of the human body

Tips for writing your personal statement:

• Write a series of drafts
• Organise what you say logically, write no more than 3 or 4 paragraphs, don't write two line fragments of information
• Ask someone to proof read it
• Ask yourself: what would a stranger learn about me if they read it?
• Could you break your statement into headings? If not, organise it
• Line the headings up and ask if it makes sense.
• CHECK YOUR SPELLING!

So there are some of the points I took down at the lecture. I'm going down to some more soon! Kinda excited for those! Right now, I've got to motivate myself to actually study hard. I constantly find myself doing nothing. I really need to push myself!

Cutting Edge Career... An Introduction to Surgery

Yesterday (28th Sept 2011), I went on a trip to the Royal College of Surgeons Of England in West London (I think). It was a day for yr12s like me to discover more about the medical profession especially surgery.

The day started off with a talk about how to get into medical school ie, what to do, how to make your personal statement stand out, entrance exams etc. A surgeon gave us a talk about life as a surgeon even showing us some clips of surgery taking place, which was really fascinating!

Since I was placed in group 1, we learnt how to suture on a rubber arm, meh my stitches were a bit dodgy but with a bit of practice it would be fine! We worked with a lovely medical student who was at UCL in her final year.

We had a lunch break (yum!!) then we had a question/answer session with 6 medical students! I really loved their answers, I aspire to be a medical student talking to year 12 saying how I was in their position, I'd love to do that! There was actually one student (well, technically doctor) who went to Cambridge for the first three years then to Oxford for the last three, which is beyond amazing! It makes me want to apply to Cambridge. I've always had it in the back of my mind but I don't have the confidence to do it!

Then at the end of the day, we had a tour of the Hunterian Museum, which was really good! So many interesting artefacts there, so making a plan of going there again (possibly during half term) to spend a bit of time there, going over the artefacts and watching the videos of surgery. It might be my second favourite place after the 4th floor at the Science Museum at Kensington! We also had to do an evaluation about how we felt about the day - even got a free pen! Wooo!

It was really amazing day overall, it inspired me to work even harder in school. I'm even more determined to make it. Nothing can stop me.

23rd Sept 2011

Right, so far:

• Emailed around for some work experience. 
• Writing a letter asking for work experience.
• Signed up for some medical lectures taking place at Kings College London (My future med school, hopefully *crosses fingers*
• I've read the "Getting into medical school 2011 entry" book, I'll read it again, highlighting the good advice parts.
• Got a trip next Wednesday to the Hunterian (?) Museum, there's a special medical day going on.

I feel like I actually have a chance to get into medicine! Yayyyyy!

I just need to get my head down and get the best grades (and good predictions) too!

There's an enrichment fair on Tuesday, we get to choose some extra-curricular activities ! So looking forward to that. I saw the price for the New Scientist (£3.50) so hopefully I'll be buying that like fortnightly although it comes out weekly. Argh it'll pain me man. I love reading the New Scientist, I got hooked after I used to read some interesting articles in my year 11 science class. I think doing triple science made me passionate about science.

I'm not sure if I'll be writing here regularly because of school and stuff. But I'll try too, because I think its easier for me to just go back and remember!

An Introduction...

My name is Satta and I'm currently (well just started) year 12.


This blog is too record all the work experience, voluntary work etc I've done to progress into medicine.

So its easier to remember for when I apply next year.

Hopefully, by the end of the two years, I would be a successful medic fresher! *2013*

I'm currently taking AS Biology, AS Chemistry, AS Maths, AS Further Maths and also AS RS. (I'm only taking Further Maths for a year as it is not necessary for medicine)

I'll also be writing about any interesting science-y or health stuff l've seen lately, or just plainly about the NHS.

I'm using this blog as a medium to display my love of all things science and medical!

I now proclaim this blog open! 

yayyyyyy!