ATAR Notes: Forum
Uni Stuff => General University Discussion and Queries => The University Journey Journal => Topic started by: justaloser on July 15, 2020, 10:56:12 pm
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So after having a geeze and coming across a mate's journal on here I decided to start my own uni journal!
I'm usually terrible at having any sort of consistency in scheduling my writing, so I'm going to try and write a reflection of my week every Sunday, 4pm. I typically journal for myself but perhaps detailing my journey through uni will be useful for both aspiring medical students and actual medical students.
What course?
Bachelor of Medical Science/Doctor of Medicine (Bonded) @ Monash Uni
What scores did you get to get an interview??
I don't like talking about my scores but because I've been getting a lot of questions about what score is enough to get
99.00 ATAR + 2780 UCAT (88th percentile).
Keep in mind, I'm doing Bonded. Although this is easier to get into than the regular/ERC (IIRC) Bonded med may not be right for you as there are legal obligations after graduation.
When did you decide you wanted to do medicine?
Only by the start of Year 12. I was never really hot about medicine. Although the idea of learning things and treating people always sounded great I discounted it because I thought my results would never be good enough. Only after getting a good study score for my 3&4 in Year 11 did I realise I potentially had what it took to get in and started looking into the details from there.
Why med?
It's hard to put it into words, I just felt like it called to me (sorry for those expecting some sort of interesting backstory!)
- I like talking to people
- Learning things is extremely gratifying
- The ability to learn a lot and be able to apply that to help people sounds appealing
What are your hobbies?
- Playing the violin, started really young (Asian life) but only really appreciated it in the past few months
- I really like listening to music
- I like writing, mostly short stories but I dabble in poetry sometimes
- Video games
- A good late-night kebab with friends
What are your goals for 2020?
- Not get COVID
- Submit at least one piece for the faculty magazine (I'm madly self-conscious about my own writing)
- Maintain a 70% average (as of July '20 I'm alright)
- Hopefully have a physical get-together and meet my med friends in real life*
- Finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I read half during the holidays and the entire background of it flew over my head lol)
- Go for a kebab run with my high school friends like we did in Year 10+11*
*That is, if the COVID-19 situation ever improves...
Hopefully I'll manage to stay afloat in the deep end of the pool that is medical school. If not, at least I'll have this, ay?
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It’s really great to see a med journal pop up, especially because that’s my dream course haha. I can’t wait to read your journal! Hopefully the situation with COVID improves soon - then you can have your kebab runs and meet up with friends and the world can start healing again. I was also wondering, how do you currently find med? Is it time-consuming and difficult to study for, or is it not too bad?
All the best for the rest of the year. :)
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Welcome to AN! Super excited to hear your updates :)
How has online learning been for you this year? Uni is such a huge change from high school so I imagine having it all be online would be an even bigger transition to deal with - have you found this to be the case?
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Great to see a Monash med journal on here.
Two questions
1. How has the difficulty of medicine compared to that of what you heard before you began?
2. I remember year 1 was full of social events and opportunities to make friends. How has the lack of this helped you? Have you simply formed a group with those you do your zoom sessions with?
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Welcome to AN! Super excited to hear your updates :)
How has online learning been for you this year? Uni is such a huge change from high school so I imagine having it all be online would be an even bigger transition to deal with - have you found this to be the case?
Online's been alright, not a fan of it and especially not a fan of Zoom tutorials. There's been some technical issues where our physiology lecture got cancelled (still no replacement) and we've had some really confusing biochem tutes that were rushed/not very clear/contradictory to lectures. I also find it's easier to be distracted when the bulk of content is online which is why sometimes I've had to take social media fasts to concentrate. Finally, it's been slightly confusing as to how to study; I only realised that the lecture notes were just a starting point and that you had to read your textbooks AFTER semester one ended.
Great to see a Monash med journal on here.
Two questions
1. How has the difficulty of medicine compared to that of what you heard before you began?
2. I remember year 1 was full of social events and opportunities to make friends. How has the lack of this helped you? Have you simply formed a group with those you do your zoom sessions with?
1. So far I'm finding it not too difficult, maybe slightly harder than VCE. It definitely matches my expectations of a high volume of content though, which isn't too hard to manage as long as you study consistently (I find scheduling study times with friends keeps yourself accountable). This is only Year 1 though, I'm sure it'll get much more difficult down the line.
2. Thankfully I've made some friends despite the relative lack of social events. There's been some social Zooms organised by social rep which are definitely better than nothing (have one tomorrow) and some online trivia nights. We've also been put into groups for tutes (so each group is together for all tutes) which is nice and better than not knowing anyone, but they're too large to get close to anyone without having to do some other activities (like trivia).
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ur talented man ur going to do great :))
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Online's been alright, not a fan of it and especially not a fan of Zoom tutorials. There's been some technical issues where our physiology lecture got cancelled (still no replacement) and we've had some really confusing biochem tutes that were rushed/not very clear/contradictory to lectures. I also find it's easier to be distracted when the bulk of content is online which is why sometimes I've had to take social media fasts to concentrate. Finally, it's been slightly confusing as to how to study; I only realised that the lecture notes were just a starting point and that you had to read your textbooks AFTER semester one ended.
Oh yeah it's so hard to know how much study to do! I'm in my fourth year and still don't know exactly how much to do lol, so don't feel too bad for not having perfected studying just yet!
It is really difficult to have motivation to do online learning. I don't have lots of actual uni work to do this year but I have a whole bunch of stuff to do before a zoom day tomorrow where we actually do stuff and I've just been putting it off all week. I often wonder if it'd just be a constant battle with doing a whole semester or whether you'd get into a routine - I imagine it's a bit of both?
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This week went pretty well! It's amazing how fast time has passed by in the holidays; only 3 more weeks left (which sounds like plenty but time is a blur nowadays)
Studying-wise I finished biochemistry and moved on to studying physiology - probably my weakest subject but the most important from what I've heard. I'm super happy with the progress I made last week and fairly happy with the progress I made studying physiology -- particularly body fluids, osmosis + osmolarity, fluid compartments of body etc.. I've found that, compared to the last time I studied body fluids, this time was far more effective because a) I used questions + flashcards to check my understanding and b) I used a textbook (Guyton + Hall) in addition to my lecturer's notes. Only weak area I have left with this topic is the calculations - my math is terrible - so I'll have to have a dig around the textbook tonight for some calculations to do. I understand the method for calculating changes to body fluid volumes and concentrations when solutions are added (like saline solutions), I just need to apply it consistently to drill it into my head. Tonight I'll also try and read up on some clinical aspects of changes in body fluids/concentrations in my textbook, but I've promised to play video games with my mates so I'll see what I can fit in.
Unfortunately I didn't study as much as last week where I hit about 2 hours a day. I took 2 break days this week (well, 3 if you count Sunday so far but I've got a study session planned tonight) when I usually take 1. There's probably a variety of factors at play here: turns out a few of my cohort friends have been taking breaks which lead me to reconsider whether I should be studying or not, plus my sleep schedule. I've also been going through a bit of a bad spell mentally so that's been mucking my sleeping time up, plus I try not to study when I feel bad because I usually get highly distracted by my thoughts -- I need some sort of structured way to overcome that. Perhaps some sort of regular meditation schedule before studying and before bed?
On the plus side, I did manage to do a few non-academic things this week. I did a fair amount of violin practice on Wednesday (probably the most I've done in a single sitting in 5 years lol) which turned out pretty productive in that I corrected a few errors with timing and pitch (recording your own playing to play back is super helpful). Also wrote a few poems at the cost of messing up my sleep schedule even further. Furthermore, I entered the University Cancer Case Competition with a friend and her friends -- looking very forward to what I can learn and the friends I can make. The Competition's about finding a solution/proposing a model to deal with a cancer-related issue, which this year is cancer survivorship; this definitely will be relevant for future medical practice. My only reservation is that the organisers encourage interdisciplinary teams and we're all health sciences students, oops.
My sleep schedule's also been pretty messed up so far this week. It's the fallout from a few weeks ago where I'd have these midnight studying sessions (which are a bit of an idiosyncrasy for me because every few weeks I get into the habit, achieve a lot, then stop and readjust me sleep). Readjusting it next week is a priority because I don't want to be waking up at noon during semester..
Next week, I hope to get through some more Physiology done (particularly action potentials, which is the way nerves transmit messages) and revise what I've done this week. I'm tossing up between revising my ICL or HKS material (former is like case studies of certain diseases/conditions, latter is a first-sem subject about how health interconnects with society eg. pharmaceutical industry, refugee health). I'll get this done by planning my week (which I didn't do for this week) and particularly give myself more time blocks to study a particular topic -- I found when studying biochem from the textbook that I underestimate how much time it takes to study a particular topic (I often gave myself a 25 minute block to go through one topic - big mistake).
And that should be it for this week. Not too much has happened -- it's holidays with enforced social distancing after all -- and I'll maybe try and update this thread with little tidbits if anything interesting happens (probably not).
Thanks for reading. Stay safe, take care everyone.
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Great week this week. Got back into the studying momentum (no break days!) and more importantly I'm closer to reaching my goal of making good use of my time.
Finally received the results for a group assignment about Australia's response to COVID-19: an 82.5%! I'd usually say that this doesn't count because it's a group project but I think I contributed my fair share by organising meetings and developing a timeline for our project so I'm pretty proud.
Studying-wise this week was mostly Physiology -- firstly, finishing up what I started last week regarding body fluids. Managed to do some fun reading on hypernatraemia, hyponatraemia and oedema which just apply the body fluid concepts into clinical scenarios -- I find it a lot easier to understand physiology when there are examples of how the mechanics work. Funnily enough a non-med friend recommended me a video that coincidentally applied these concepts to a real-life scenario.
Moving on from that, the other half of the week I spent going through action potentials + synaptic transmission - basically the mechanisms through which messages are transmitted through nerve cells. Having a look-see at next semester's content reveals we'll be going through anatomy of the upper limbs + nerves in week 1, which I'm sure will be rewarding given I'm halfway through grinding through my neurology/physiology stuff right now. Apart from that, I started going back through content for ICL and just creating Word documents profiling the relevant conditions + making flashcards. I always find case studies/clinical stuff interesting. From now on, I'm going to try and study 2 subjects every day, with one block for each. Next week, I'll be doing HKS throughout, Physiology in the first half and ICL in the second. I just want to keep my momentum going.
Side note: I've been doing a lot of textbook/document reading this week and I've tried some ways of note-taking. I've tried using a Cornell note-like structure twice in conjunction with creating Anki flashcards and it seems to work. Setting objectives for which pages I want to read in advanced has helped but I need to do it consistently.
Managed to hit an average of 2.5 hours' study a day. I think I've found my structure for the next week or so: a block of study in the afternoon, dinner then one in the night. If I can reorient my sleep schedule, maybe I can fit in a block before lunch, which leads me to my two key lessons this week:
1. There's always enough time for everything. I counteract procrastination by saying "There's X hours till sleep, and a studying block is just 1.5 of those". I think this will be my secret weapon in counteracting procrastination.
2. Procrastination is my enemy (it always has been, but only now did I notice the exact time I spend). I usually lose 1-2 hours to mindlessly browsing the internet, which are 1-2 hours of study, violin, gaming, writing, working out etc..
I'm also not going to take break days anymore. I feel like there's plenty of time in a day to study, take time off and talk to mates.
Outside of uni work there's not much to say. I picked up Final Fantasy 7 to play through for the next few weeks (been meaning to play through it). Funnily enough, playing video games to enjoy the games themselves and not socialise with friends is actually what helped me realise there's always time for everything. Managed to have a nice session of violin practice where I managed to actually confidently play the first page of my piece. The Cancer Case Competition also opened up -- our task is to create a model that helps cancer survivors navigate the transition period between active treatment (eg. chemo, surgery) and returning to normal life whilst having follow-up appointments. It's going to be hard coming up with a model but personally I'm not fussed about winning or our response, rather I'm focused on what I can learn and how our team manages our work.
My sleep schedule's slightly less messed up so far this week. Now it's because I've been having late-night-ish sessions of playing through Final Fantasy, which is definitely my fault (usually tend to leave games till after I've done studying). That being said I've been waking up earlier. I notice I usually procrastinate sleeping due to social media, so I'll try and charge my phone outside every night so I don't bring it into bed and ruin my eyes.
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Congrats on the awesome mark!! Doesn't matter whether it's group work or individual work - that's a great effort.
Your comment about being able to apply stuff to examples, etc. made me think of a podcast I'm subscribed to - medconversations. It was made by a bunch of Australian doctors to help med students learn about conditions, pathophys, signs and symptoms, treatment, etc. and I've found it to be really good. Some of it goes over my physio head but I reckon it'd be perfect for you!
Enjoy learning the mess that is the brachial plexus in anatomy ;)
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Enjoy learning the mess that is the brachial plexus in anatomy ;)
I was having a great day until I read this and was reminded I still don't know it. Thanks.....
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I was having a great day until I read this and was reminded I still don't know it. Thanks.....
I graduate at the end of the year and still feel like I don't know it properly 😂
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Congrats on the awesome mark!! Doesn't matter whether it's group work or individual work - that's a great effort.
Your comment about being able to apply stuff to examples, etc. made me think of a podcast I'm subscribed to - medconversations. It was made by a bunch of Australian doctors to help med students learn about conditions, pathophys, signs and symptoms, treatment, etc. and I've found it to be really good. Some of it goes over my physio head but I reckon it'd be perfect for you!
Enjoy learning the mess that is the brachial plexus in anatomy ;)
Thank you! I did check out an episode of medconversations and found it was quite interesting! I'll keep it in mind for later years once we get to properly learning conditions in detail.
Funnily enough, for our online anatomy practicals my group has to give a presentation on the brachial plexus. From what I saw on Google images it looks ... confronting.
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Short post this week, firstly due to the week being uneventful, secondly because I want to try a more laconic writing style. Holidays are over -- it's both a bit sad and exciting.
Mainly covered physiology, particularly immunology, particularly innate immunity (how the body fights/prevents infection in the initial stages). A standout tidbit of knowledge was Tumour Necrosis Factor alpha -- a protein that allows white blood cells to travel to a local infection site and clot small blood vessels to prevent spread of pathogens to the rest of the body. However if a bacterial infection is body-wide, the same response happens but it causes cause shock, organ failure and death. Bit of a double-edged sword there and pretty interesting.
Also experimenting with a new form of notetaking -- I try to divide sections of a page into "Process" and "Components", eg. proteins, cells. It helps show which processes lead into which and gets a nice "big picture" thing, plus the Components section shows which specific things I should make flashcards for/remember. For the UCCC I experimented with notetaking that had sections for key statistics, key ideas/findings and implications for our model, which worked a treat.
Apart from that I did study HKS -- reviewed Indigenous healthcare. However I didn't get as much done with HKS as I would've liked to, mainly because I saw a lot of content in the immunology textbook. However I did do a few practice exam questions for HKS that were mostly simple apart from technicalities eg. what requirements one has to meet to acquire refugee status in the US.
I found I was procrastinating slightly less -- before starting studying for the day I was consciously procrastinating, and it felt terrible. However once I got started, starting up the second block was very easy. What galvanised me halfway was logging onto a voice call and having a friend call me a machine with studying ... I felt both encouraged and like a fraud because I don't work as much as people think I do. No biggie though, I've lived with impostor syndrome all my life and I can see beyond those feelings.
On the days that I didn't do work -- Saturday and Sunday -- I either spent playing video games or spending time with family. Usually I'd feel intensely guilty about being unproductive but I decided that since sem 2 will be very busy, it's alright to give up just two days, right. Something inside me says this is a mistake though, but we'll see.
Spent Friday not studying uni content, but rather reading research papers for the University Cancer Comp. I was assigned to read about the psychosocial issues cancer survivors face by the group -- particularly the fear of recurrence, the lack of formal care/referrals and the generally concerning rates of distress/depression/anxiety. Depressing but great stuff. Had a 2 hour meeting for the Comp., too, which was great but also quite tiring as now we have to somehow quantify (cost) the model we've come up with. Respect to those working from home.
My sleep schedule's getting back on track -- usually sleeping around 12:30-ish and waking up around 10.
Coming up next week is anatomy of the upper limb. I noticed sem 2's content is a lot more anatomy/physiology-focused than sem 1. I'm doing some pre-reading immediately after posting this -- particularly on the anatomical metalanguage/terms -- and maybe watching a lecture. Although it looks challenging, I feel like I can handle it. After all, first sem's content seemed confronting to fresh-out-of-highschool me, and now I'm very comfortable with it.
In the broader term, I'm going to try and aim for a 80% average with my assignments/exams/quizzes in sem 2. I think I'm a bit better at learning content than I thought so no harm raising expectations, right? Things are looking up, my mental health is slowly recovering (it will inevitably crash in sem 2). Let's see where I'll be 1 week into sem 2.
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Thank you! I did check out an episode of medconversations and found it was quite interesting! I'll keep it in mind for later years once we get to properly learning conditions in detail.
Funnily enough, for our online anatomy practicals my group has to give a presentation on the brachial plexus. From what I saw on Google images it looks ... confronting.
TeachMeAnatomy have a good summary - https://teachmeanatomy.info/upper-limb/nerves/brachial-plexus/
And there's some awesome youtube videos - I recommend going through a couple. The videos are great for teaching you to get familiar with its structure and how to draw it. I think there's also some fun mnemonics (not as good as the mnemonics for the cranial nerves, though).
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Just had to pop in to say new order rules~
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UPDATE: Just started using Notion as a central hub for my anatomy notes/sem 2 notes(it's really intuitive). I'll also be storing my daily to-do lists there - I usually make the lists on small sticky notes and will continue to do so, but I'll store them digitally as well for future reference. This'll hopefully make revision super easier then and allow me to use my precious workbook space for scribbles/notes/exercises etc
I used to take all my notes physically and still will, but only as rough notes/sketches/scribbles (super into those); I'll collate all those in Notion for when I revise later on.
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UPDATE: Just started using Notion as a central hub for my anatomy notes/sem 2 notes(it's really intuitive). I'll also be storing my daily to-do lists there - I usually make the lists on small sticky notes and will continue to do so, but I'll store them digitally as well for future reference. This'll hopefully make revision super easier then and allow me to use my precious workbook space for scribbles/notes/exercises etc
I used to take all my notes physically and still will, but only as rough notes/sketches/scribbles (super into those); I'll collate all those in Notion for when I revise later on.
Welcome to the bandwagon. I rate notion.
I know you didn't ask, but I thought this could be useful to you and anyone else reading. A notion database that was really helpful for me last semester was something I called the ‘tracker’.
It was essentially a notion database where I listed every class I had alongside labelling
- What week it was in
- What type of class it was (ICL/Tutorial/AL/Lecture)
- The topic of the class
- Priority/yield
And then I had 3 tick boxes
- Whether I've planned out when I intend to work on it
- Whether I've made notes on it
- Whether I've made anki flashcards on it
I found this was SUPER useful in tracking the overwhelming amount of activities. Here's an image of this for my first week of sem 2.
(https://i.imgur.com/WOrcRBM.png)
ETA: Forum sizing makes it look terrible. Here's the link if you want to see it normal size https://i.imgur.com/WOrcRBM.png
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Welcome to the bandwagon. I rate notion.
I know you didn't ask, but I thought this could be useful to you and anyone else reading. A notion database that was really helpful for me last semester was something I called the ‘tracker’.
It was essentially a notion database where I listed every class I had alongside labelling
- What week it was in
- What type of class it was (ICL/Tutorial/AL/Lecture)
- The topic of the class
- Priority/yield
And then I had 3 tick boxes
- Whether I've planned out when I intend to work on it
- Whether I've made notes on it
- Whether I've made anki flashcards on it
I found this was SUPER useful in tracking the overwhelming amount of activities. Here's an image of this for my first week of sem 2.
(https://i.imgur.com/WOrcRBM.png)
ETA: Forum sizing makes it look terrible. Here's the link if you want to see it normal size https://i.imgur.com/WOrcRBM.png
Absolutely mad - thank you so much. First two days (lol) of sem so far have been pretty overwhelming, I've been trying to log every class + related notes in standard "note"-form on Notion which is pretty janky. This should be a good way of organising all the classes.
Unrelated note: First anatomy tute today, pretty overwhelming. Lots of nomenclature, definitely more 'competitive' than say, clin. skills (seems like everyone knows everything except me), but she'll be right with enough organised study I reckon.
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Absolutely mad - thank you so much. First two days (lol) of sem so far have been pretty overwhelming, I've been trying to log every class + related notes in standard "note"-form on Notion which is pretty janky. This should be a good way of organising all the classes.
Unrelated note: First anatomy tute today, pretty overwhelming. Lots of nomenclature, definitely more 'competitive' than say, clin. skills (seems like everyone knows everything except me), but she'll be right with enough organised study I reckon.
Haha yeah, I tried note-taking on notion but ended up sticking to word because that platform is just much more powerful in terms of flexibility.
The initial shock of anatomy is pretty brutal but you'll get used to it. The best thing you can do for yourself is pre-learn before classes otherwise you'll just be left there blank-faced not understanding anything. Gray's anatomy for students is an excellent textbook to refer to for this as it breaks down and organises areas such as upper limb very nicely. Not the atlas, specifically the 'anatomy for students' one. If you can't get your hands on it PM me.
Best get used to feeling other people know everything except you. Everyone feels like this from time to time, even those who seem 'on top of it'. You're working alongside some very smart cookies. The ultimate aim is to help each other become good doctors ;).
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ETA: Forum sizing makes it look terrible. Here's the link if you want to see it normal size https://i.imgur.com/WOrcRBM.png
When you put in the image you can customise it so it has the dimensions you want. Additionally, someone viewing the image later can click on it to make it have "normal" dimensions for that image.
(https://i.imgur.com/WOrcRBM.png)
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Mid-week update:
Getting used to the shock of anatomy. I'm adjusting; the tracker's helped, and pre-reading was also immensely helpful for a tutor. Should've done this earlier because I read ahead in VCE and that helped. Am relatively fine with the brachial plexus now.
EDIT: Just did PACA which is like an anatomy Kahoot tutorial. It's mad fun, tutors are super supportive & everyone's asking question like rapid-fire. Most importantly I've learnt a ton from this because everyone makes their own mistakes rather than choosing to ask the questions in front of everyone (no awkward silences). It's such a big contrast to Tuesday's specimens tute because I feel like in PACA everyone's making mistakes & answering questions where else in specimens it's more about who gets pimped by the tutors lol. Maybe that's just my own observation. Anyway, gonna study joints and bone landmarks now and write up my Anki cards. Feeling confident about muscles & brachial plexus now.
Sleep schedule's also back to normal, sleep at 12am, wake up at 9am. Getting lots of work in morning done now and less procrastination (probably because of the load of content). Only issue is that my diet's very ... questionable atm.
There's more I'll write about on Sunday. Take care
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Good first week back.
The first half of this week was pretty overwhelming. It was definitely a huge struggle getting used to the initial punch of anatomy (of muscles, bones, movements of upper limb) and 4 consecutive hours of tutes was quite a slog. Nevertheless I've learnt some key information which I've absorbed quickly, not just pertaining to anatomical terminology but also to clinical skills. I can confidently do a systemic & musculoskeletal systems review after having practised a few times which is nice. There were some lectures on physiology (how alpha neurons cause muscle contraction -- I'm fairly confident in how it works), epidemiology/population health (only introductory lectures though so not enough to really talk about) and HEP (self-care program that people make fun of, I think it's neat, maybe that's because I'm weird though). Anatomy has overshadowed all of those.
I had a 4 hour Zoom sesh with friends from the cohort where we quizzed each other/ran through tute work/gave explanations on areas we were missing today as well, which was fantastic. The time flew by.
Since we covered so much however, I'm not sure if I can retain all of it and I'm feeling a bit uneasy with how much detail I need to remember. I'm not sure whether I should commit to detail or clinical application of anatomy.
Although I've hit around 2 hours' average study a day, out-of-class studying has been a bit unstructured; I haven't stuck to my 25 minute blocks as much but I have been pulling undisturbed concentrated sessions after tutes to formalise my "messy" notes into neat, presentable versions on, as well as doing labelling that I missed out on during tutes. Maybe it's the urgency/load of the content that just pressures me to concentrate. I think as the sem continues, I'll settle into structured study. I haven't been sticking to Anki cards as much as last sem -- mostly this week it's been labelling my anatomy textbook (henceforth M&D's) and less making Anki cards and studying them. Still, I'm retaining content well -- I'm confident about but quite a few details elude me. I'm not entirely confident about clinical applications of anatomy (eg. fractures of humerus, clavicle, dislocations of the shoulder joint) which is concerning because that's a way to apply my knowledge and it's supposedly what they'll test on the exam (M&D's blue boxes, those are fun to read). I've retained some knowledge on Erb's & Klumpke's palsies (sort-of paralyses of the arm due to damage to roots) which I'm happy with. I haven't gotten around to reading about physical exams for muscles (I know how to test for normal functioning of the lats from reading a paragraph of M&D's and that's it) which I'll do after this and maybe tomorrow too, since I have a bit of free time tomorrow. It's pre-reading for Tuesday's tute anyway.
Mental health has not been good; I've realised how really bad my anxiety is this week. Earlier in the week faculty released scores for a midsem formative exam to show us we were doing as fine as last years' cohort but I saw that my score placed me in the bottom 25%. Not good, but then again, I did that exam before I revised my sem's content and the exam opened multiple times during the semester (is that an excuse?). Realising I scored so low also gave me a hard bout of impostor syndrome. Friends also pointed out I had a panic attack (not a panic attack by my standards though) in our study sesh today when I got worried about the level of detail of anatomy we needed to know. I'm aware now that the stuff we're learning now is just a stepping stone to applying it later clinically ... I think?
I should see my uni doc for a referral but he knows I'm a medical student and may brush me off. Who knows. Just want to get it out of the way before I start work.
For context, I think I have some sort of chronic anxiety disorder (I've never been diagnosed but a lot of people over the past 5 years have told me to "stop stressing", "stop being a worrywart", I've had panic attacks at school).
Sleep is all good now.
Outside of uni I haven't been up to much. Snuck in a three hours' of Final Fantasy to stream for mates on Friday and been having meetings with the Cancer Case group -- our work is slowly getting there but we're behind schedule and it's a bit tough being able to cram our research and model into the allocated slide/word count we've been given. It's tough since our model is a little bit here-and-there but we've all agreed that the knowledge we've gained is a lot regardless. Learnt about the psychosocial issues cancer survivors face (like fear of recurrence, distress), how care for (rural) cancer survivors is mostly from friends/family rather than from social workers or healthcare providers. Learnt about importance of fostering independence in cancer survivors -- supposedly it decreases distress but the research says it may be a multidirectional relationship. It's been great learning to read research articles and recognising the methods of study (eg. qualitative vs quantitative) or limitations as well as structure. Plus I've been able to have nice conversations with the other group members - that's always a plus.
Looking cautiously forward to next week -- it's got fewer tutes because our learning that week is "asynchronous" so we have to do it on our own.
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Short and sweet post this week because I'm a little bit tired.
Continued anatomy this week -- we moved "inferiorly" and studied the forearm & arm (elbow joint, muscles, innervation etc). Surprisingly there was a lot of revision of the shoulder joint and there'll be a revision week next week to catch up, so that's nice. Other highlights were physiology of the muscles and how muscle contraction occurs -- really intuitive (I love our physiology lecture, he deserves another post) and easy to apply to weightlifting/exercise. Also did clinical content -- we learnt how to perform inspections, examinations and tests on peoples' shoulder areas -- which was a mess because it's so hard to learn examinations via Zoom. I practised exams on my dad and realised I needed to know why these tests are being performed (also remembering how to do them is already hard, the only ones I truly remember are the painful arc and bicep flexion test)
In terms of studying I've found my groove I think -- reading the clinical sections of the textbook, then using conditions to "consolidate" content seems to be the best for me (eg. damage to the median (anterior interosseous) nerve paralyses the flexor digitorum profundus & flexor pollicis longus and prevents flexion of the DIP and thumb joint. this is how I remember that FDP and FPL respectively flex the finger joints and the thumb joint). Drawing and annotating diagrams/images has also really helped, but I need a computer stylus so I can do it digitally too (I've been doing it on "scrap" paper and on my textbook). Also, what I've been doing is thinking about movements & anatomy in regards to lifting -- eg. in a shoulder press, your shoulder joint abducts and scapula elevates (correct me if I'm wrong). Researching the etymology of muscles has also allowed me to better remember names and purposes -- so the flexor digitorum superficialis is the "superficial flexor of the digits" (try putting your fingers in a claw) and extensor pollicis longus is "long extensor of the thumb" etc.. Honestly I don't think terminology could be any better, it's quite intuitive (if I said that in front of Year 12 me he'd think I'm mad).
All of this has helped a lot, and musculature, tendons are what I'm comfortable with (vasculature, not so much). The names are the least of my worries now, it's just about remembering the clinical applications I think.
Having the Sunday study sesh has also helped to consolidate content and has been a nice time to just catch up and chat which is honestly something that's been a rarity in iso. We ask each other questions and clarify confusing parts of the course which is a godsend and really leverages that "teaching is the best way to learn" idea. Also I think I'm kind of annoying because I keep talking about Moore & Dalley's blue boxes lol. Moore & Dalley's Clinically Oriented Anatomy can honestly have my children.
I've stopped using Anki pretty much (only making cards now). Maybe I should bring it back in to augment my current studying, but right now I prefer more visual methods like annotating diagrams, drawing diagrams etc. (whenever I see a hand I try to annotate which joints are which so I can better imagine it since I'm a visual learner).
Also had my first meeting with my mentor for med and we had a nice chat. She's also into writing and is also submitting something for the Auricle, plus she's into medicine for the same reason - the human element and interacting with people. We discussed about clubs which made me really think about the first years who didn't join clubs and might be a bit lost socially -- I know I was lucky and got into a club via an old HS friend.
Apart from that my group finally finished our UCCC presentation. I got the vibe all of us were getting burnt out by it but we're friends now. Submitting it and collaborating on the project was a good feeling and it definitely taught me something about teamwork, referencing and . Most importantly it's been the catalyst for me using Notion, which has really improved my note-taking and organisation - having all my to-dos in the same place as my timetable and notes is great. Only issue is that typing will never beat pen and paper.
That's it. Take care, have a good week.
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Every single time I saw "this'll be short and sweet" I end up taking 30 minutes to write it. Wew
Also if I might add. This week was asynchronous so most of the activities we had to do independently. Frankly I didn't like this method -- there was less opportunity to ask questions (which is also good) -- and it was easier to delay/procrastinate (eg. I'll do the activity tonight..). As much as I despise Zoom, I prefer the normal Zoom tutes (and being scared about the tutors pimping me eek)
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Definitely recommend seeing a GP to discuss your mental health. First year uni in particular is usually a huge stressor (without having a global pandemic...add that into the mix and of course your mental health will be impacted!) and is often a time when people reach a mental health crisis (speaking from personal experience here). When I spoke to my GP about my MH issues I found them really understanding (and they knew the stress of studying a course in the health sector). Take care of yourself x
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Mid-week update.
Opened up to my tutor about my mental health issues and she was really nice and supportive about it. Also finally booked an appointment with my uni GP and he was surprisingly sensitive about the topic too. Gonna undergo some screening tests next week and then work our way from there.
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It's scary that we're already through 1/4 of the Sem. Anatomy of the upper limb has been fully covered.
This week there happened to be no anatomy lectures, which was great for catching up. On Tuesday in specimens they were asking for call-outs of certain muscles and it was actually pretty shocking how I was able to recall them so easily despite being overwhelmed like 2 weeks ago. Apart from that there was a pharmacology lecture, slides on adolescent development (ie. physical changes, social, friendships, risky behaviours, pathologies like obesity) which I found very interesting to read through (can't find the prescribed textbook for it though). There was also a microbiology lecture that was unremarkable.
We had clinical skills this week and that was really overwhelming. Examination of the elbow (alright), wrist (really tough palpating all the carpal bones) and hand (haven't practised this one yet). Hopefully I can grasp it soon enough for whatever exams they might hold soon this year.
No innovations in studying technique. Just trucking on as per usual. I noticed I've stopped using pomodoros as much (did 2x1 hour blocks on Saturday and a couple of 25 mins here and there) so it's harder to record how long I study. Instead I've been using the learning objectives provided by the uni as a scaffold/marker of my progress. Reading on clinical conditions as per usual has allowed me to more easily remember anatomy. For example, this week has had a lot of emphasis on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and it's helped me to remember which areas of the skin/muscles the median nerve innervates (eg. a severe symptom of CTS is wasting of the thenar muscles below the thumb. Since CTS is compression of the median nerve that's how I can remember that the median nerve innervates the thenar muscles).
Thinking about studying anatomy has also made me less neurotic about the whole deal. The knowledge that I'm not expected to know every single detail and every pathology about it makes me feel more secure about my own knowledge. Sure, I guess it's put less pressure on me to study but I feel better about not knowing things and I'm pretty sure mental health > academics. I'd rather take being told by the tutor to "go do your reading" over having panic attacks right now, because I can always alleviate the former. And the awareness that there's always someone who knows more than me is pretty relieving because I view anatomy more as something constructive rather than a competition (not like I'm good enough to compete either).
Outside of uni nothing really major has happened. Such is socially-distanced life. Some friends and I agreed about how the memories of standout conversations we have are usually anchored in a context -- like an event, place, time -- but now that they occupy the same online space as the mundane conversations, they kind of just blend into that iso blur that people keep talking about. And it really feels that way -- I can't remember anything special about the past 4 months or so, just what I studied, even though I've had some key conversations in that time. I also picked up chess and dragged my friends into it, and even though I always lose, it's good fun and a relaxing way to unwind after tutes. My openings are usually good but I tend to make stupid moves where I let my queen or rook get sniped and it's downhill from there.
I have an appointment with my GP next week and I'm excited mainly because I can finally go through my anxiety with a professional and begin to get things sorted out. Being able to talk to someone about it has made me feel a lot better. Just the catharsis of not having to repress things is great.
Next week is really chill. No anatomy at all, just revision lectures/tutes. Introduction to rural health which is interesting, I remember an older student telling me he actually got to suture in his rural rotations which sounds cool. And the idea of there being fewer people, just you and an attending sounds chill (provided they're not a dick lol).
That's it for the week. Take care.
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Minor update.
Got a psych appointment scheduled out but it's a far way away. And I can't help feeling like a fraud constantly and undeserving of my spot right now. It's a deep-rooted issue and I'll try and ride this out for the next few weeks.
A friend got me to download Flora which is basically an app that locks your phone and logs your study period. I've been aware of this sort of app (Forest, which some of my friends use) but never used it. But now that I have it, I've felt more driven to work, managed to clock in 2.5 hours and get some prep for a clinical practice sesh tomo (could be 3 but I want to work out). I feel motivated because I'm trying to follow the lead followed by a friend who studies a lot (I'd call him a beast but I'm wary of idolising people) and in this case it's like looking up to someone and trying to follow their good example rather than trying to compete with them. It's like constructive/realistic comparisons. And I like that the app is objective about time spent studying rather than self-reported. It's pretty cool.
Also my diet is absolute trash, I think I'm gonna cut out all the processed carbs I started eating unmindfully when lockdown 2.0 started. I don't mind eating at a surplus but as long as it's not empty calories like it is now. Dunno how though
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Hey!! I've been reading your journal and I wanted to pop in and say that your journal has been a great read, and you're very very inspiring not just for prospecting med students but also people who are too afraid to reach out for help when they need it ;D
In regards to changing your diet, check out Poet's amazing article: https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=180555.0
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Short post this week, I swear.
This week was a revision week so we basically had no classes or lectures -- we did have one on bacterial pathogenesis (how bacterial cause disease/damage) and epidemiology but apart from that none.
Study-wise I continued using Flora. I noticed that I was only clocking in 1-2 hours per day but that's alright because I'm not behind on lecture notes and tutes. Plus my friends in cohort also felt the same way so I don't feel like I'm dragging behind too much. On Saturday I had a pretty good day where I clocked in 3.5 hours and retired early but that was because I was synchronising my pomodoros with a friend -- I hope to replicate this
time (record is 6 hours but IDK if that's feasible) to the point where it's at least every 2 days. Today I've only done about 1 hour but I also spent 2 hours working out with friends over video call which was neat. I aim to do a further 1 hour or so after I've written this and cooked dinner.
In terms of how I've revised I've used "timelines" which link together all the content I've learnt into one page. eg. for Pharmacokinetics (from last week) I wrote a timeline summarising the process of drugs from administration to excretion. Also what's helped for taking written lecture notes is "blocking", graphically organising "chunks" of info into "blocks" with clear lines eg. Piaget's Cognitive Development theory is one block, Carey's theory is another block. With the summary pages I've made I've also tried to have a "block" for key words (I adapted this from Cornell notes, which are seriously worth the time trying) that make it easy to judge my knowledge. This works for every subject I have except anatomy which I haven't tried it with (I haven't really spent too much time on anatomy apart from quizzes and practising examinations on self/parents).
Mental health has also been good, idk how, but I just made myself stop comparing myself to others. It's weird to explain but I feel better and know better than to "indulge" in unproductive, self-deprecating thought. Diet is a lot better, just by paying attention to what I eat and avoiding eating out of boredom I cut out processed sugars almost entirely (no more chips, cookies, ice cream) and have returned to eating fruit/chugging water. I guess it's just being aware of what you're doing and avoiding "indulging" in things you know are bad for you. It's likely not as simple as that, there are probably other confounding factors though.
Sub-100 new cases daily for Victoria is also really good news, I hope people don't immediately rush out and start a 3rd wave once this Stage 4 is over.
Take care everyone, have a good week.
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(record is 6 hours but IDK if that's feasible)
It's feasible!
Managed 5 hours 45 minutes of concentrated studying today, treating time spent studying like weightlifting (progressive overload) (also having Flora to record my progress) really pushed me to keep doing more. That being said a lot of it wasn't spent "studying" per say but just going through mandatory content so maybe my triumph is baseless. That being said, I feel like I learnt a lot, and that's the key objective.
Anatomy of lower limb is quite tough because we got hit with a ton of lectures/content day 1, but I pre-answered some of tomorrow's tute questions/learnt the relevant muscles and I feel like I've gained a lot of progress (I tried to take it as a chunk-by-chunk process rather than "all at once"). I used a "Key Terms/Key Facts/Key regions" split for studying muscles of lower limb which helped *a ton* because I can chunk it down into "compartments" and then individual muscles and also keep track of stuff like which muscle attaches where. Also having a "tl;dr" section on Notion for the main compartments of the limb & what each compartment does is a nice way to take notes and make sure I get the big picture.
I feel like this is how Week 1 should have gone, treating it rationally and making sure to rely on the textbook whilst watching lectures and understanding that the knowledge will come eventually (rather than going "Oh shit I don't know anything!"). I think I can cope with anatomy slightly better, but it's a process and I'll never have learnt enough in anything.
Also drank a ton of water.
Tomorow's a long day with like 3 lectures & 4 hours of tutes so gonna retire to bed now.
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It's feasible!
Managed 5 hours 45 minutes of concentrated studying today, treating time spent studying like weightlifting (progressive overload) (also having Flora to record my progress) really pushed me to keep doing more. That being said a lot of it wasn't spent "studying" per say but just going through mandatory content so maybe my triumph is baseless. That being said, I feel like I learnt a lot, and that's the key objective.
Anatomy of lower limb is quite tough because we got hit with a ton of lectures/content day 1, but I pre-answered some of tomorrow's tute questions/learnt the relevant muscles and I feel like I've gained a lot of progress (I tried to take it as a chunk-by-chunk process rather than "all at once"). I used a "Key Terms/Key Facts/Key regions" split for studying muscles of lower limb which helped *a ton* because I can chunk it down into "compartments" and then individual muscles and also keep track of stuff like which muscle attaches where. Also having a "tl;dr" section on Notion for the main compartments of the limb & what each compartment does is a nice way to take notes and make sure I get the big picture.
I feel like this is how Week 1 should have gone, treating it rationally and making sure to rely on the textbook whilst watching lectures and understanding that the knowledge will come eventually (rather than going "Oh shit I don't know anything!"). I think I can cope with anatomy slightly better, but it's a process and I'll never have learnt enough in anything.
Also drank a ton of water.
Tomorow's a long day with like 3 lectures & 4 hours of tutes so gonna retire to bed now.
It's good to see that you feel better adjusted to your subjects homie :0
Also nice to hear how long other ppl study per day! I average around 4-5 omg
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Really short update inbetween studying blocks. ("Short" because it took me 17 minutes instead of like 30-50)
Anatomy of the lower limb started this week. Initially quite intimidating with all the muscles and stuff but again, compartmentalising makes it fine. Spent Saturday going through Moore & Dalley blue boxes, learnt about what muscles are the hamstring muscles, learnt that there are bursa in the hip joint (it's like an "oh shit, what, they exist" moment, but then again, they should be there...). Apart from that, there was physiology and pharmacology. I love pharmacology, learning about how the drugs work is interesting and using it as applied physiology (eg. we learn about receptors in physiology, then study the relevant drugs targeting said receptors). But it's unfortunately taking a backseat to anatomy.
Mental health is still alright, not as good as the start of the week mainly because I had a day doubting myself because I thought I was answering questions too much. I don't want to be seen as a gunner lol, it's like a weird variant of Impostor Syndrome. But I bounced back pretty well I reckon and even though I'm not as ecstatic as I was on Monday I think I'm in a good space.
Also averaging like 3 hours' study a day which is good by my standards (others are probably studying more though), I never beat my 5h on Monday, but doing 3x1h study seshes seems to work. Having a friendly competition with a 4th year mate is what really pushes me, also the satisfaction of seeing the hours go up on Flora.
I'm feeling pretty confident with anatomy, but I probably need to write a timeline/summary sheet about neurophysiology which everyone seems to dislike (ran a poll about most disliked subjects in the gc, it was pretty tied between anatomy and phys).
The assignments are starting to flow in, two out of three have been released (one had a Q&A session without being released lol). One of them is a group assignment and our group is pretty good I reckon. I'm probably the weakest link because I'm the resident dropkick med student. I did some research on chronic kidney disease for our assignment today which is pretty interesting, but also tough because kidneys are Year 2 content. The other assignment is on epidemiology and I haven't planned that out yet. I found out it's basically identical to a Year 1 BMed assignment which was pretty interesting.
That's it for the week (or maybe today). Take care, stay safe.
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Mid-week update, I reckon I'll post biweekly so each post is longer. Also doing this while waiting for a friend to get on to study. Happy R U OK day by the way, it's at least good that there's an event that puts the spotlight on mental health.
Content this week has been manageable. No anatomy lectures, just online, asynchronous activities that were a slog to get through but oh-so-satisfying to finish. A fair amount of physiology & pharmacology -- I love pharmacology by the way. It makes physiology feel rewarding to learn. We studied NSAIDs, SAIDs -- basically anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce pain like paracetamol. Had a good time today drawing a nice mindmap that incorporated drugs, inflammation in with how pain gets transmitted -- from the stimulus itself via the nerves to the cortex where it actually gets perceived. Maybe I should have put Pharmacy as my other-non-med option instead of Physiotherapy lol.
With the help of my mentor I've been able to improve my studying. She suggested taking down the 3 key ideas as dotpoints for each lecture, which complements my Cornell notes well. It makes the content easier to digest instead of noting every individual detail. I've been reverting back to logging notes physically, then summarising them as "factoids" (or 3 dotpoints) on Notion, which makes it so much easier to go back through (and nicer to look at!). That being said I've been noticing I haven't reviewed past weeks' content and I haven't been using Guyton & Hall enough to revise Physiology. That's midsem break stuff I guess.
Been clocking in average 3/4 hours everyday -- it's good compared to last semester. But my friend in a similar course has been clocking in 6 hours' daily study and I've been thinking that what I'm doing isn't enough. A friend of a friend apparently treats her study like a full-time job, clocking in 8-10h and although a friend and I discussed how that could be inefficient I think that's God-tier for medicine. (I feel like Patrick Bateman talking about study like this)
Mental health has been questionable. I've flip-flopped between feeling incredibly unstable and restless and feeling on top of my studies and confident about my progress with the content. Trying to hold out until my psych appointment next week -- looking very forward to it.
R U OK day hasn't really helped either -- I read an article by a guy opining that the day is more of a novelty than a real catalyst for change. I agree somewhat. One conversation can be what it takes to start further dialogue but a lot of the time you don't want to expose yourself like that especially to people you don't know especially well. I love my friends in med but I can't bring myself to be honest so it's yet another year of "Yeah I'm alright, wbu?". That's my hot take as someone who's been dealing with depression for the past 4 years or even more.
Anyway, enough pity-partying from your local dropkick medical student (that's my new title I suppose). Looking forward to tonight's study and to tomorrow's ICL tute (our tutor shows us interesting cases he's found in clinical practice which I think are the highlight of the day).
That's it. Take care and make sure you're staying mentally healthy. :) And if you're ever experiencing any mental difficulties, just know it's OK and treat it like a regular sickness and talk to someone about it. As a friend said, if you had an acute fever, you'd probably see the doctor right?
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End of week update, very short this time.
Continued studying examinations and trying to revise the branches of the brachial plexus. Had a lovely ICL session on Friday where we went through shingles and falls in the elderly -- there's really so much you have to consider when treating an elderly patient who had an injury/fall, like drug usage (might be on sedatives), brain disease (maybe Parkinson's), cardiovascular disease (eg. they could have a heart attack), history of fractures. List goes on. It's fun learning differential diagnoses. Also our tutor is a really cool guy so that makes sessions a lot smoother (people don't like how he calls out people to answer questions but I don't mind, it's a learning opportunity and it's low-stakes). Our group work assignment is heading swimmingly, everyone puts in the work and our meetings are efficient.
Continued the same studying techniques I used throughout this week. Drawing diagrams for nerve networks & muscles is helping a ton, I'm glad, and it makes studying easier. Also identified that a major flaw of my studying is that I spend 20 mins chatting with friends inbetween 1hour study blocks which severely dampens my momentum, so I take 5-10 minute breaks now.
I feel stupid for celebrating working 3h a day because apparently everyone else does 8-10h a day, not just other people in med but in BMed & Science as well. Apparently 3h is really low lol. I studied 6 hours today so far in response but it feels like the last hour I spent was spent in a daze not really learning anything. At least I got some stuff done .. it feels like the longer I study the less efficient I become with my time. But I need to do as much as my classmates.
That's it, take care.
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...because apparently everyone else does 8-10h a day, not just other people in med but in BMed & Science as well.
Lol, no. Quite frankly, a small amount of people have a self-serving obsession with the idea of a med student being someone who works all day/doesn't have a life/whatever. It's the most bizarre of a flex, really. These are the types that spread silly rumours about how you need to spend x hours in a day studying.
To be very blunt, if someone is spending 8-10 hours a day studying in first year, they either are going all out on learning a massive amount of irrelevant content or are working shockingly inefficiently.
Within my group of friends, some of who scored highly in first year (not that it matters), absolutely no one works those kinds of hours. I'm sure it gets a bit more hectic in clinical years and especially beyond, but please don't feel you need to be spending that much time studying haha.
I can only comment on preclin, but medicine really isn't that much of a demanding course so far. From insight with my non-med friends, biomedicine or science students seem to need to work significantly harder.
Remember - P's get degrees.
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Lol, no. Quite frankly, a small amount of people have a self-serving obsession with the idea of a med student being someone who works all day/doesn't have a life/whatever. It's the most bizarre of a flex, really. These are the types that spread silly rumours about how you need to spend x hours in a day studying.
To be very blunt, if someone is spending 8-10 hours a day studying in first year, they either are going all out on learning a massive amount of irrelevant content or are working shockingly inefficiently.
Within my group of friends, some of who scored highly in first year (not that it matters), absolutely no one works those kinds of hours. I'm sure it gets a bit more hectic in clinical years and especially beyond, but please don't feel you need to be spending that much time studying haha.
I can only comment on preclin, but medicine really isn't that much of a demanding course so far. From insight with my non-med friends, biomedicine or science students seem to need to work significantly harder.
Remember - P's get degrees.
Great to see fellow pre-clins on here :)
8-10h of studying on top of classes? That's... the definition of masochism. Coming from a biomed background I'd have to say that Year A has been a definite step-up in terms of sheer volume of content. It seems that unlike in biomed, you can't leave things till SWOTVAC hahah :')
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As a 3rd year med student, can confirm 1000 times over that studying 8-10 hrs a day is not realistic or helpful (assuming this must include the time taken attending classes because otherwise that's quite insane).
In pre-clin the aim is to hang on to key concepts which will serve you well in clinical years - but know enough of everything else to pass/do well on exams. You don't want to burn out so early on, and some people like myself also fit in a few hours of work on some days.
As a 3rd yr I usually can't study past about 7pm at night because my brain switches off and there was a time where I didn't study on weekends (now I do a little bit on Sat mornings and sometimes Sun depending on how behind I am!) I also don't like just sitting at a screen and typing for most things (Except anki flashcards) so I do this routine with handwriting the bulk of my notes (if you can't draw something out simply why bother with the complexities?)
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Damn, didn't expect so many med students to comment on my humble dropkick thread. Glad to see that 8-10h ISN'T the normal. And I think he meant on a day with no classes, not sure.
This week was more of the normal -- foot revision in anatomy which I found pretty easy, smashed out an anatomy Kahoot (I love those lol, guess I'm that guy) and robbed my mate of first place :P. I ignored the intrinsic muscles of the foot pretty heavily though, but apparently that's not that big of a deal according to the specimen tutors. Apart from that, there were some Microbiology lectures that I haven't watched yet which were uploaded late lol. I love Microbio, only problem is that they're 2 hours each and I had little time today. Also went through more leg exams on Tuesday, there was a pretty cool 2nd year who kept quizzing us on conditions & pathologies relating to the tests we were doing which helped me snap out of my post-anatomy daze. But everyone was dead basically during that tute.
Took the advice and decided to wind down this week. Been averaging 3 or so hours every day and I feel more confident about the content now. More exposure seems to equal more retention -- I joked to a friend that if you took a shot for every time they mention foot drop (due to dorsiflexor muscles being palsied from common fibular/deep fibular nerve damaged) in a tute, you'd drop dead. But the exposure thing works. Also salvaged an old whiteboard, gave it a clean with some WD40 and now I use it to sketch out things. I drew out the walking cycle and it proved effective in visualising things, also good way to practice my sketching anatomy lol. Just not sure if it's high-yield stuff, but it sure is vital for revising leg muscles' functions (finally got it through to my head that the iliacus flexes the hip).
(if you can't draw something out simply why bother with the complexities?)
Lol, this is my life. Doodling arms & legs on my notebook has carried me through anatomy
Finally had my appointment with my psych. I think things will get better. I admitted that I got anxious over hours studied and she told me I'm a king for doing 3-4hours a day on top of classes. I feel like a bit of an impostor/fake still, since today I literally only did some pre-reading. But still, I think in that 40 minutes we managed to elucidate the underlying causes of my distress.
More detail on Sunday. I'll outline my goals for the holidays on that post. Everyone's telling me to take a break on the holidays but I feel if I lose my momentum/habit I'll have to pick it up again once semester resumes.
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Midsem's here and I couldn't be happier.
Spent the last 3 days having a break, went for a walk with an old friend which was a great opportunity to have a convo, had some games nights with friends. There was also a trivia night which was a bit of a disaster (iykyk) but still fun with friends. Now I feel a lot less strung-up and a lot more relaxed.
I have two assignments to do, 3 lectures to catch up on and examinations to study.
Not going to note down all my midsem goals specifically but they're just involving finishing one assignment and starting the other. I have two weeks so if I study lightly (2h? 3h?) on the first week then ramp it up the second week it should be fine. Also need to really brush up on clinical skills because I've neglected that in favour of anatomy for a while. Perhaps some practice exam questions might be in order as well.
That's it. Probably won't be posting for the next 2 weeks because there won't be much to write about. Till then, stay safe, enjoy the break (VCE & Monash people that is aha)
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Alas, midsem draws to an end (it already has). So far this week we've gone through infectious diseases epidemiology and opioids, which is an area I've been mildly interested in since high school.
The ability to have a break and just take care of myself was much appreciated. I didn't study as much, but I did get an assignment submitted and did get the chance to revise a lot of anatomy, fill out some quizzes for this week and go on a good walk with a friend.
I highly regret not paying attention during statistics in Methods in Year 12 because this stuff about CI's, normal distribution and p-values really bit me in the ass during my Population Health assignment -- but now I'm a lot better at reading through scientific journals (and I am sick of reading the phrase colon cancer). I kind of want to make journal-reading a habit just so I spend more time learning rather than surfing or using my time unproductively.
Looking forward, I'm completing a mental health first-aid course, which is about identifying certain behaviours and illnesses in people you know and knowing how to help them. As someone highly interested in learning about managing mental health I'm looking forward to it! Hopefully it'll offer a lot of new knowledge and practical skills for future. And for uni, we'll be covering the spine and thorax for anatomy as well as the heart -- going to read up on how to interpret ECGs if I have time so I arrive at class prepared.
That's it. Have a good week, take care.
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One and a bit weeks into second half of semester 2 (almost wrote term 2 there. it's a bad habit).
Last week was surprisingly calm. We had no live classes except for one live lecture on opioids, our Friday morning ICL (probably our "hardest" yet -- we were learning spina bifida which seemed like it came out of nowhere) and a Friday revision session. Which meant lots of time for self-learning, which was fine, but also writing: I managed to churn out an unfinished piece on Impostor Syndrome and submit a pitch to Medicguild for an article/piece. Also continued working on my assignment -- it's given me the opportunity to read When Breath Becomes Air again. If you're interested in medicine, it's a fantastic read -- Kalanithi's writing is highly eloquent.
Highlights included a revision on Friday which felt like the Eureka moment of Semester 2 -- it was a case-study consolidation that tested our knowledge. It's so rewarding to have all the individual sciences like pharmacology, clinical and anatomy come together and definitely makes the studying worth it. I live for the application -- I was studying heart valves today and the concept of a "clicking" valve came up, read the other medical student thread on here and a fact about clicking on auscultation & mitral valve clots made sense.
Also been doing a Mental Health First Aid course, although a lot of stuff is refreshing existing knowledge, it's great to learn a systematic way of helping people and a more nuanced way of approaching people and getting them to open up about how they're feeling. Also good training for helping others having mental health crises -- I know I've been in those scenarios and had no idea what to do. However I haven't made as much progress as I've liked :( but I'll get there. I've also spent some time playing Minecraft -- God that game has changed, shields are super janky
From now on the content's going to ramp up -- starting the heart/Cardiovascular system this week and so far, I've loved it, it feels intuitive and like an extension of what we've already learnt. I'm sure my attitude will do a 180 in one week though: I'm expecting the usual barrage of content in Specimens (and the inevitable "Flag race!" and "Hmm, not quite"). Furthermore, exams are coming in 5 weeks -- I haven't done any actual exams, so I should create a planner of what exams to do when. That being said, I've talked to my mentor, and from what I can gather it's less definitive and more of a test of knowledge of concepts. I guess I have to get myself out of that VCE mindset?
That's it. Take care.
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Changing from "trying to catch you out with specific definitions and if you misplace even one word you won't get the marks" to "we're just seeing if you know the principles and if you can convey that you know it we don't care how you do it!" was one of the biggest changes moving to uni from high school. Exams are just so different and now so much less stressful!
Have only read When Breath Becomes Air once a few years ago, but now I want to re-read it!
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Quick weekly update time..
This week was relatively good. Synchronous week for anatomy, so our tutorials were live -- I honestly prefer live tutorials because it's easier to concentrate and better to interact with other people. There was no flag race in specimens, but the content was nevertheless difficult to get through. Imaging was chill and relaxed as always, and PACA was great. Love it. The tutors make it so much better -- they're so understanding. Our group simps for them lol
Population health this week was a bit of a drag -- really just covering -- and most people (myself included lol) slept through it, probably because it's a 2 hour tute after 2 hours of intensive anatomy. Finally, ICL this week was another step up in difficulty -- considering differentials for cardiovascular disease & learning about CVD is really new, but I'm sure it'll be rewarding given its prevalence in the population.
Mental health has been alright. Saw a faculty member about getting mental health in check and we went through possible options for getting help. The number of students she said she was seeing daily shocked me -- I didn't think that many students were getting help. I was told that what I'm experiencing is "normal" so I'm quite concerned that a lot of medical students/18 year olds are in the same spot that I am lol. Also had a bit of a breakdown in the middle of a tute -- probably the result of a lot of intersecting thoughts that sprung up at the time -- so that's a catalyst for me to get things in check.
The Mental Health First Aid Course has also stalled in the progress -- only completed 2 modules at the time of writing -- probably because of the amount of classes this week. Hopefully I can complete 2 more modules this week since Friday is a free day and classes are asynchronous.
I've continued to write a few unfinished reflective pieces which has really been great, I've slowed down for now but hopefully I can pick up the pace once this next wave of content is over. I'm still concerned about to improve my writing though, since it never feels like I'm making progress with my writing skill. It's currently just simply producing content because it's intrinsically calming/stimulating to turn your abstract thoughts into words rather than to improve. Perhaps I need some sort of outside judge/criticism of my writing to improve.
next week: A ton of cardiovascular anatomy/physiology, but that's fine, I try to read up the weekend before. Trying to figure out ECGs is making me a bit crazy. But it's all good -- the heart is really so intuitive in how it works AND it's super rewarding because it meshes all the past concepts like the autonomic nervous system, action potentials etc. together..
That's it. Take care and, to the VCE students out there -- you got this! It's been such a tough year and you've persevered super well. Good luck!!
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Weekly update. I cannot believe there are two weeks left of the first year of university; the sun's staying out for longer, the end-of-year fatigue is settling in, there's talk of exam revision all over the place. Summer is looming near and hopefully with it, eased restrictions and a bit more freedom.
Decent week this week.
I had a chat with a faculty member, who ensured me my mental health was fine and advised me to review some past exam questions just to make sure I'm able to study with a direction (she suspected that I'm studying more than I need to, which I agree but also disagree with). Funny that -- in VCE I had a very good idea of what to revise, maybe because of the study design system and ubiquity of past exams/commercial exams, but now I'm completely thrown off. That's just the HS-Uni transition at work, I suppose.
I've gone through one past exam for Semester 2 and one for Sem 1 without having revised first, just to check my knowledge. Semester 2's past exam was fine -- I was surprised that I could get almost all the answers correct. Sem 1, not so much -- I went through it in a call with other classmates and we had an extreme amount of difficulty with immunology, which happened to be 90% of the paper, literally. At least it's good that I know to spend time on immunology (never understood the MHCs, I forgot the complement system components anyway) University exams are so much simpler than high school, really...
In terms of content, the past week was asynchronous and focused on the heart; I've learnt a lot, like how to read ECGs, the coronary arteries, atherosclerosis, hypertension, reading arrhythmias, heart attacks, taking the cardiovascular history.. phew. Anatomy's also thrown at us a myriad of lectures (I htink easily >3 hours?) which were a pain to get through, but more tedious than difficult -- the embryology of the heart, the thoracic cage and diaphragm and the adult heart's anatomy. But at the end of the day, it's still satisfying to get closer to viewing the body as an intricate, interwoven "whole" rather than isolated systems and areas; compartment syndrome makes more sense when you can understand how fluid can get to the place where it starts compressing stuff.
Thank goodness for textbooks; Katzung's pharmacology and Hampton's The ECG Made Easy have been really great for learning about alpha/beta blockers (for this week anyway, it's always been a stalwart source of info) and learning how to read ECGs. In fact, The ECG Made Easy was better at explaining some other stuff than the faculty notes.
Take care, and good luck with your exam revision!
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Short update
We are almost at the end. Half of pre-clin is about to be over. All the tutes are over -- there's just one last goodbye tomorrow morning.
Continued studying the cardiovascular system. We've gone through so much -- there's a myriad of drugs to combat hypertension, high cholesterol, arrhythmias ... and I actually learnt how to spell rhythm for the first time in my life. Some fun things I learnt about this week included spontaneous coronary artery dissection, where your heart arteries basically burst without predisposing risk factors and it imitates a heart attack.
Studying for exams has been a bit tough. I've attempted about 4 so far as a diagnostic tool and have gotten passing marks, but have still been beating myself up over it just because I feel like I'm really behind in a lot of aspects. That's one of the constants of med school -- you think you're on top of things but you really aren't. You know nothing. You can score an 80% on one quiz and barely pass a practice exam. And that's immensely frightening yet awe-inspiring -- there's just so much to learn. I suppose it's made me more humble too -- I'm not anyone in particular, just someone trying to grow and learn.
I've also been heading down to uni to salvage what little of the first-year experience lockdown took away from us this year. It's been good -- splashing my money on coffee (uh oh), seeing friends in the flesh, studying together. Although I usually only spend an hour or two actually focused on studying at uni, those hours feel a lot more focused and well-directed.
Moving forward, my main areas of attack will be biochemistry, revising clinical examinations of the lower leg and population health, which in particular I cannot remember the formulas to. Very grim -- I hope that I can scrape by and make it past the 50% mark. But those are the main areas I've failed to recall for my practice exams, alongside HLSD, HEP and neuroanatomy. I'll also write a email thanking my clinical tutor for the support she's given me when I reached out for help.
Medicine truly is the intersection between science, the humanities and simple interpersonal communication. I'm glad that I'm learning what I am. Good luck with your exams
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First year's done.
Exams were over a few days ago but I've been awash in the freedom (that somehow only first-year medical students contrary to stereotyping) of no class. Perhaps I should be happy; our tutor told us to enjoy our break because it'd be one of few we'd get in medical school. How ominous.
The exams themselves were alright -- the first (sem1) was definitely a bit 'out-there' with the questions asked, but then again I definitely neglected that content for sem 2. Speaking of which, semester 2's exam was definitely better -- a lot of very accessible content (I've read about the Trendelenberg test in practice exams so much that I've essentially memorised the positive sign) but also a few obscure questions I was puzzled by. Nevertheless, I'm just satisfied/relieved by the fact they're over. And the faculty has been overwhelmingly kind to us with our assessments -- it's almost concerning given that we're probably being coddled too much before future years.
In the past few weeks I've been going to university to study with friends, meet people, even just see people physically and trees and the sky (oh, what staying indoors for three months does to a man). How crazy it is, that one year ago I was and only now I'm getting a taste of the university life that I was told so much about. A pre-exam detox from social media served me well and gave me the chance to read The Death of Ivan Ilych -- an absolute BANGER of a read (lol), highly relevant to medical school (the concepts of illness and suffering, life and death, the coldness of medical professionals) and probably my gateway drug into Tolstoy.
In terms of my goals for the year, I've at least met 3 -- got a negative COVID-19 test, have gone for kebabs with friends (not exactly -- I was peer-pressured into getting a HSP to share) and I have maintained a 70% average (a bit above that actually but hey, Ps get MDs).
I'll write a full review of the whole year soon.
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Okay I'm going to chunk this reflection up into parts because I don't think I could write it all in one go.
Reflection on the year pt. 1
When the Monash medical faculty moved all of our classes online, before the other faculties did, I was quite saddened; many plans for the year such as joining clubs, having nights out and simply just meeting new people seemed to completely disappear. It felt quite unfair but, at the same time, I was still quite awestruck by everything – the online portal, the new way of doing things, the initial novelty of online classes – so the idea of losing out on the “jaffy experience” wasn’t completely occupying my mind. Even the first week’s content itself seemed so mystifying although looking back, it was VCE Bio 3&4 (and it sucked).
Now, I can confidently say that although this year was certainly unprecedented and uniquely challenging (I’ve gotten to the point where I resort to buzzwords), I’ve still had the jaffy experience. Although I have yet to push a revolving door or even attend a single O-week event, I’ve still managed to grow as a person.
Firstly and perhaps most importantly, this year has really highlighted the importance of mental health. Perhaps it’s been all the time alone, or maybe it’s being around students who have had similar experiences to be able to openly talk about and reflect on mental health issues.
Impostor Syndrome - the elephant in the room
Keep in mind this is all anecdotal.
It’s highly relieving and yet concerning to realise that there are indeed so many other people that suffer from constantly comparing themselves to others. There's a prevalent problem where one idolises someone who they’ve only seen one facet of; just because someone can come up an impressive differential diagnosis in a tutorial with doesn’t mean that they have their own weaknesses and insecurities.
I say this because I’ve been in both situations and it's not ideal: to be held up higher than you are makes you feel like a fraud or put excessive pressure on you to perform, and to hold up others based on small interactions unnecessarily hurts yourself. It's also quite isolating; you might not want to approach someone who seems intimidating or "too good" for you, which only results in a potential friendship being cut short.
When meeting a high school acquaintance again as a friend (our only interactions together were in an English club), we both admitted that we each thought ourselves “too nerdy” or “too dumb” to be each others’ friends, even though the two of us have so much to appreciate about each other. It’s interactions like these that make me realise that first impressions often lie.
To talk about this stuff is definitely sobering, and usually takes a silent, calm night somewhere and the implicit consent of the other people you’re with. But whenever people have been able to share their experiences such as those of impostor syndrome, I feel like all listening do benefit from knowing that it’s more of a disease of perception rather than reality. After this year, I’ve realised that it’s not about whether someone is better or worse than you in an absolute way; someone may know more about one topic than you, but you might have better studying technique for example. There’s always things in certain fields or areas to learn from someone and vice-versa.
That being said, I must say that this is not meant to belittle people, it’s about being realistic and realising that others are often not omnipotent.
Another note:
I also appreciate the university’s acknowledgement that medical students do suffer from a lot of issues. I know that personally, the staff I have talked to have been extremely supportive of mental health issues and insecurities, even being able to take time out to talk to students (not just me) and counsel them and encourage seeking help.
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What happened?
I forgot this existed. Summer holidays came and went and I got sucked up into the typical self-destructive flurry of outings and drinks and poor sleep schedules and in the process this journal was obviously neglected.
So what's second year like?
Actually it's ... pretty good. It definitely feels a lot more "doctor-y", with a lot more emphasis on clinical case studies, clinical reasoning, learning diseases and their presentations, investigations and test results etc.. Everything feels a lot more intertwined which gives a sense of purpose to learning.
Apart from the Zoom fatigue, going to real-life classes (a privilege, admittedly) is also fantastic. We've gotten to interact with cadavers and specimens and those classes are an absolute blast -- getting to see and feel organs as they exist (the smell isn't that bad either imo). The last time we had specimens we got to interact with a full body, which was both a haunting and exciting experience.
In terms of systems, we've covered resp, GIT and are moving on to renal. It's going by so much faster than one year ago. What a far cry from the musculoskeletal content we started with! Cardio still remains my favourite though -- I love how intuitive cardiac physiology is, and learning to interpret ECGs is quite fun actually. That being said, there is some apprehension remaining about clinical exams -- I haven't practised those much, so my actual technique is probably terrible.
Looking forward (for real)
Although I'm not particularly active in the AN community I hope I can keep regularly posting here. It's a great opportunity for some self-reflection and more importantly, to have a detailed journey of med school (cue the typical "it's about the journey, not the destination").
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The past two weeks
We were supposed to have placement (in Mildura I think) and an 'urban week' . Unfortunately it didn't happen and was postponed to next semester, most likely due to the disparity between domestic and international students (who have to live with Zoom tutorials). It's just another aspect of "post-COVID" (a bit wary about using this term -- it's an extreme privilege) life I suppose -- we've been able to have labs (with cadavers!), live workshops and tutes.
In place of placement we've had a relatively light two weeks -- no lectures, no new content, even labs for revising year one content! It's a privilege -- whilst friends in other faculties are drowning in assignments our faculty pulls the brakes on new content. It's also a nice time to do some pre-reading for the next week's tutes and iron out any topics that haven't been understood.
In terms of content revised over these past few weeks, it's been all over the place. Some notables included an ECG workshop -- I love ECGs -- and a workshop on the breast examination (completely out of the blue). There was also some limb revision (year 1 content) which I'm totally grateful for. It was the ECG workshop that stood out to me the most though. Once you get the hang of the process by which you interpret it, it grows a lot less intimidating. That's the same with a lot of stuff I guess.
It's also always piqued my interest how subject to change everything is: there are multiple different methods for examining breasts for lumps (and different attitudes towards breast examination, one paper included responses ranging from "covering my arse from legal action" to "it's educational and empowering"), different definitions of hypertension (the US recently set the bar 10mmHg lower than Aus apparently). It goes to show the importance of keeping up to date with things. It's exciting in a way -- change is happening before our very eyes.
Over the next few days I'm probably going to take a study break. It's a bit strange to be doing it but I think I've earned it. It's definitely going to be a bit disconcerting getting back into the groove of new content, watching lectures, but it'll be good getting back to learning new content.
That's it, take care .
EDIT 22/07/2022
Hi. I don't want to make a new post as it will necro the thread -- I don't want that -- but here's a little update on things since it's Friday night, I'm sleepy and I have nothing else to do.
I've been on clinical placement for the last 6 months -- currently in my second semester. It's an incredible experience and highlights why medicine is really wonderful. There are many highs and many lows. You learn a lot of things about everything, even just simple things like culture and geography and even by just observing you get to appreciate the full gamut of human emotion and thought. I love it, even though it's probably an unhealthy relationship.
I still love ECGs.
I advise that anyone considering medicine really strongly consider the costs and benefits. Find a young doctor or medical student and talk to them (older doctors are, admittedly, somewhat out of touch). Also please don't be like me and just blindly go for a spot in Bonded medicine -- specialty training is such a huge part of it and having to serve 3 years in a regional/rural area can really impact your "pathway" (yes, it doesn't end with VCE/uni I'm afraid) to training.