 What is up guys karma medic here and welcome back to another dose if you're new to the channel then hi My name is Nasser and I am now officially a final year medical student studying at King's College London I literally just got the email telling me about my grades for my end of year exams in fourth year Everything went well one more year of medical school to go since I'm now a final year I thought it would be a great idea to reflect on what it was like for me to be a first and second-year medical student and tell Myself what I wish I would have known way back then The first thing I want to talk about is that medical school is not as hard as everybody makes it out to be I know when we're in high school and before you start med school is just sort of this like huge mountain enigma Obstacle where everyone thinks you're just gonna be studying 24 seven in the library You're not gonna have any time to do anything else in your life. I promise you it's not like that Hopefully my channel and others here on YouTube like Faye Bates channel have shown you that you can be in medical school And still have all of your hobbies go out and socialize and still live life and have a good time Don't get me wrong, of course There's gonna be periods where you just need to sit down and study work your ass off and really put in a ton of work and effort in order to achieve what you want to in terms of grades or you know Your own knowledge and ability as a future doctor, but for the most part medical school is like any other degree You're still gonna have your free time your ability to do pretty much all the things that you still want One thing that I wish I would have recognized earlier on when I was in medical school Is the fact that not everybody studies in the exact same way I would often look at other students who are using things like Anki or doing tons of past paper questions or Only looking at lecture slides or using a textbook or this this and that and I would question myself about my own studying techniques And how it was that I was learning the material But honestly it turns out that everyone studies really really differently and over the years I've sort of been able to refine what it is that works best for me What I personally find to be the most important and what I can do with my studying for longer periods of time And that's not necessarily gonna be the same as everybody else So my advice for any first or second year students is to try lots of different studying techniques You might find that you like something else something new that your friend is doing or you might say You know what? I like what I'm currently doing if you're highlighting and reading notes Which is what I did for most of my first and second year If that's what you're comfortable with and if that's what's working for you then just stick to it I never realized just how much time you would have to spend Organizing your own timetable and your own studying schedule as an independent learner in medical school as much as medical school Timetables for us things like lectures tutorials time in the anatomy lab, etc There's actually a bunch of studying that needs to be done outside of that Independently on your own and sometimes especially in earlier years It's hard to sort of find the motivation and the drive to do that extra bit of reading that extra bit of studying or practice questions by Yourself, but it turns out that it can be quite important, especially as the years go by The next thing that I think it's important to understand is that failing an exam or failing an assignment is Okay, now I'm not saying this so that you can slack off and just have lots of fun not study for your exams, etc I'm just saying this because it's not as much of a life-ending scenario or a life-ending event as a lot of people make it out To be if you've studied as much as you can and done your best and then don't do so well on an exam Then it's okay The important thing to take away from that is to reflect on what happened What could have gone better and how can I change my strategies and my techniques moving forward so that this doesn't happen again? And a lot of people think that if you fail exams then you're gonna have to redo the whole year or you get kicked out of medical school And you know, this is totally not true if you fail an exam There's always opportunities to reset those exams so other chances to pass them and do well And even if you were to fail those reset exams at least here in KCL, you know, they really look at each student's position Individually, you don't just immediately fail or have to redo the year or anything like that There is a lot of help and support to make sure that students pass and make sure that students do stay in medical school The next one is that time management and learning how to manage your time is just so Important if you just get your time management down then pretty much everything else is going to fall into place You want to build a system that works for you Something that you can continue to do on a daily basis for a long period of time and helps organize your life and keep you on top of Everything time management is the key to sort of adulting or being an adult at university Learning when to say no to different events and social things and opportunities and whatever and learning when to sit down and study or do Certain things figure out how you're gonna slot them into your day That really is the key to sort of succeeding in medical school in my opinion This isn't something that you need to already have had figured out on day one I certainly did not have this figured out in my day one of medical school But as you sort of go through the years as you experience more and more Assignments stress things in your life that you need to balance and organize This is a skill that you're gonna build over time So speaking of good time management skills something that I really want to hit home for any first or second year Watching this is that it's just really easy to fall behind Please please please don't leave things till the last minute Don't let weeks worth of work carry on to the next weeks because they will very quickly pile up over time And once you fall behind it becomes exponentially harder to sort of recover yourself and get back to the point where you're kind of just Neutral and on top of things for that day or for that week The problem with medical school is that especially in the earlier years There are just so many lectures being thrown at you so many tutorials so much time for activities scheduled on campus like being in The Caterveric Dissection Lab and so as soon as you start to fall behind it becomes really hard to catch up again Now this isn't to say that you can't sit down on the weekend Let's say Saturday and Sunday for a whole bunch of hours and just catch up and get back to where you were before My main advice would be to try and stay on schedule for your work every week And if you're falling behind during the week then use the weekend as an opportunity to catch up So you have a clean slate starting again on Monday The next thing that I want to say is that if you're struggling and if you're having a hard time in medical school Then chances are there's a whole bunch of other people who are too You know despite what people are posting on their Instagram stories despite what they're saying to you in person of how much they've studied or what Grades they got on their exams or whatever everyone has very different commitments outside of medical school Everyone has very different learning techniques studying paces etc etc And so we all go through these periods of struggling more or struggling less in our life of being in better places and worst places Whether that's academically or at home and outside of medical school And so we don't all need to be on top of our game at all times during the year if you are struggling with the academic side of things You know talk to your personal tutors talk to your TAs or dorm representatives or whoever it is that you have It is literally these people's jobs to make sure that you are okay and to help you if you are in a difficult situation So take advantage of that. Please don't be shy to reach out for help It is completely normal and we all go through these ups and downs of feeling better and feeling worse and having more Or less motivation to do certain things It's completely normal to struggle and there are checks and balances in place to make sure that the students are okay So do take advantage of those Building a group of friends or students to study with and share information is probably one of the best things you can do for your time in Medical school not only does this have an incredible Impact on your social life and your ability to meet new people and do activities and things like that But regarding academics as well pushing each other to work hard and study hard and learn everything that you're supposed to And then also just sharing information on studying techniques on things that have worked for them in and out of the hospital Passpaper exams resources for studying etc. Etc. I mean there's just so many benefits to this If you can form a close-knit group of friends in university that you trust and that you help them and they help you It's like the best relationship you can possibly have and this doesn't need to be a big group of people like I don't know eight or ten people this can be one friend two friends three friends Whatever it is just a group that you feel comfortable with and that you guys all help each other out Have your best interests at heart. I've definitely try and form this relationship as early on as possible in medical school Something else that I think can really help is making friends with the people who are in the years above you These students are an invaluable source of information when it comes to your studying to your exams And how to make the most out of your hospital experiences and your university experience in general They've literally gone through the thing that you're going through right now just one year ago And so they're the best people to ask for advice and to seek help from if you're not directly friends with anyone in the Upper years then make friends with someone who is friends with the upper years They are usually more than happy to pass down their studying resources any information and tips and advice that they have trust me It's just invaluable to do Oh, this one is good as well Which is to not underestimate multiple choice questions or single best answer exams So a lot of students might be new to this form of testing and you might think to yourself You know the answer is there on the page somewhere All I have to do is choose it like how hard could that possibly be but it turns out They can make them very very hard and one of the reasons that they can be so hard is that most of our exams aren't well They are multiple choice questions, but they are what's called single best answer And so within this format you can have two answers that are both technically correct But one of them is the better or best answer on top of that It turns out no matter how much you study having five answer options really is a lot and there's a lot to be confused by There's a lot to mix up. I mean they can really make your life very very difficult Also multiple choice questions do have their own sort of exam technique or studying techniques So don't sleep on learning that make sure you put in enough time and effort to understand how to get the best out of MCQs by Eliminating questions or using other questions to help you answer previous questions, etc Just put in enough time to make sure you learn those techniques Please please please for the most part do not buy any textbooks First of all, you could probably find an online version of any textbook that you want And then second of all there are just so many good free online resources for medical students that textbooks are kind of just an outdated way of learning in today's day and age I do own a couple of textbooks and I have used them to study throughout medical school But really it's just made up such a small percentage of my time studying and in fact I don't think I've received as much value from my textbooks nearly as much as I have from other online resources If you're gonna buy one textbook, this is this is the one that I would recommend Actually one of these two if you really want to buy a textbook one of these two is is probably the best ones you can buy They're small. They're short easy to understand digestible And they have the vast majority of information that you will need as a medical student generally speaking I found that textbooks just have way too much information for what you actually need to know in order to be in the hospital And practice clinical medicine and truth be told you're probably never gonna read them You're gonna have so much information coming at you from your lectures and your tutorials and everything else that you just won't have time To supplement all of that with additional information from the textbook that probably won't come up on your exams anyway Because it's just in way too much detail You simply cannot cram for medical school. There's just there's too much info and You can't possibly condense it into a couple of weeks right before an exam the key to medical school and the key to learning in Medical school is being consistent over time and doing a little bit each and every single day There's probably some of you who'll tell me nah I've crammed for all of my exams and I can definitely do well in medical school by cramming and if that's the case then fair enough And good for you, but I think for the vast majority of people There's just way too much information on top of that each year of medical school is built upon the previous year of medical school It's not like you finish renal physiology and you move on to cardio and you suddenly need to forget everything you learn for renal You kind of have to carry on a lot of that information because all the systems of the human body are connected and your basic foundations Just keep getting built upon each and every single year And so if you're cramming that information right before an exam every single time then you're probably not learning it that well You're probably not understanding it that well and so next year when you start building on top of those foundations It's gonna be a lot more difficult to fully understand what's going on and learn the material for real I would highly highly highly recommend not leaving all of your studying for the last minute There's just way too much to cram in in order to actually learn what you need to learn and do well on an exam Just a little bit of work every single day is definitely the way to go You've really got to pace yourself in medical school burnout is a very real thing It's something that I have experienced most recently now sort of at the beginning of my fourth year after studying for the US Only step one exam over the summer period a lot of my friends have gone through burnout or are going to burnout right now It is very very real and because medical school can be so intense from the very beginning and require large amounts of studying a large Amount of time dedication to the course, you know by the time you get to your fourth year or to your fifth year or for me I've already done a degree before this this is my ninth year in education and in studying, you know, like I'm just done I feel like I cannot possibly study anymore. I just want to finish all these exams and get to work on the wards Now I'm not saying all of this to scare you The reason that I'm saying this is because I want you guys to pace yourselves throughout medical school If you start year one and year two just spending all day every day in the library studying as hard as you can Putting in all the hours reading textbooks doing all of your exercises, etc Then you know by the time you get to third fourth and fiftieth year You're probably gonna be super burned out from sitting down reading and studying make sure you enjoy yourself Especially in your earlier years make sure you keep up with your hobbies get involved in extracurriculars and societies There's definitely enough time to do both at the same time and it'll prevent you from burning out in the future when things get even more Tough and there's more on your plate, etc, etc Social life in medical school is booming. There's honestly so much to do with events, you know nights out Societies clubs, etc There's just so much going on that you can do for your social life And I hope channels like my own and others here on YouTube like Faye Bates have shown you that you know You can do all these things and have a ton of fun while still being a medical student Please don't feel like you need to give up your passions your hobbies and stuff outside of medical school In fact, this is such a great time to do them while you're in medical school It's gonna help you be a better communicator network or doctor everything in the future. So do keep up all of those activities Trying not to compare yourself to others in medical school can be really difficult at times The problem is that you are constantly quite literally graded against everyone else and standardized against everyone else And that's how they figure out how you've performed on an exam and with medical students being medical students a lot of people tend To be quite competitive quite academically oriented and you know people can get all up in your face about how you're performing Academically I genuinely believe one of the best things that you can do for yourself throughout University is to have this mindset that you know, you're here for yourself You're here to learn for yourself and gain all the knowledge that you want to gain to become as best of a doctor as you Can be in the future how everyone else around you performs and how much they study or how much they party and go out and all those things They do not directly or necessarily affect you at the end of the day How I end up performing on an exam is only a direct result of how much work I put in before that exam And so if I know that I studied as much as I could and I put in the work if I do well Then that's great And if I don't do well then I can reflect on what happened and how I can move forward in the future the things that I Focus on and what I want to know is how did I perform compared to how I performed on my last exam? Compared to how I performed last year and you know why did I perform better or why did I perform worse? And that's what I take with me moving forward Trying new things especially in the earlier years of medical school is one of the best ways you can get out there and just make Yourself a better and more well-rounded person sitting in the library and studying all day is not going to make you a Fantastic doctor it is going to give you a ton of theory and a lot of knowledge that you can apply to your clinical medicine But it's not gonna make you a better holistic doctor Whereas joining different societies going out with friends keeping up your hobbies and your passions and your extracurriculars and stuff That's gonna develop a bunch of skills that will make you a fantastic doctor things like communication Networking presentation empathy, you know all these things are gonna better equip you to talk to and manage and deal with people From all over the world from all kinds of different backgrounds, you know That's something that is actually really really important to understand So make sure you give yourself time to explore all these different avenues in your life to really branch out and try new Things and have new experiences that you might not necessarily have time for when you reach the later years of medical school like in your fourth and fifth year Something that I wish I'd realized earlier on is just how patient-focused and patient-centered medicine really is you need to be able to talk to And communicate with people who are just vastly different from you, you know different backgrounds different ethnicities different Temperaments different abilities to communicate some people might have physical disabilities hearing impairments visual disabilities or impairments And some people might just dislike you simply because you're a doctor or because you're a doctor of X or Y ethnicity and all kinds of things like that Before medical school, I sort of had this impression that every doctor-patient interaction would be hey, how are you? What's brought you in today? Oh, yeah, I've got some really bad neck pain over here. Oh, okay Let me fix that for you blah blah blah But it turns out, you know very few conversations are really as simple and straightforward as that and you need to be able To talk to and manage and care for all kinds of different scenarios Especially everything that doesn't stray from that very simple straight line from before and this is why in a lot of my earlier videos When I was talking about the MMI interviews and personal statements and things like that I think if you can emphasize that you're someone who is capable of talking to and interacting with all kinds of different people from various different backgrounds cultures ethnicities Etc then that is such a huge plus because that is what medicine is really about It's not about having the same type of or the same conversation over and over again It's that each person you meet is going to be probably completely different and the dynamics of the conversation are going to be completely different as well And the last thing that I want to mention is that back pain and neck pain are a very real thing You know in medical school You're gonna spend tons of time sitting down at your desk looking down at your papers or your iPad or your computer Just studying studying studying for endless hours at a time You're gonna spend loads of time standing up on the wards or in surgeries or in theaters So, you know back pain and neck pain is a very very real thing So I would encourage you from as early on as possible to pay attention to your posture both when you're sitting down at a desk And when you're standing for long periods of time and also to invest in things like a comfortable pair of shoes So that you know when you're standing up for long periods of time, you're not really hurting your back Just take care of your posture and keep an eye out for neck pain and back pain So that you can tackle them early on before they get gradually gradually worse over time All right, and that is it for me That's pretty much everything that I wish I had known in my first or second year of medical school I really hope you enjoyed watching this video And if you did don't forget to leave a like on it and also subscribe to my channel to more content from me in the future And I'll catch you in the next one. Peace