10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Med School

If I could rewind three years and have a sit-down conversation with young and innocent Sydney, here are the top ten things I would tell her:

1. It's not that deep... it's never that deep

This is something I really learnt in my first run of clinical placement. I was put on a rehab ward in the geriatrics department, where I met the most incredible team of doctors ever. My housies (house officers - junior doctors), my reg (registrar - senior doctors), and consultant (big boss doctor) were so helpful, kind, and understanding that I wish I could take them with me for the rest of my career. During one discussion with them, my housie told us that the biggest thing he had wished someone had told him before he graduated was exactly the above, it's not that deep and it's never that deep. This evolved into a conversation about all the times we had all fucked up in our careers, and yet it still worked out in the end. One of my housies failed an attachment in her fifth year but just repeated in the summer - she's still a doctor. My reg failed and had to repeat his third year of med school - he's still a doctor. My other housie failed a progress test (more on prog tests later), and yet, he's still a doctor. This can apply to so many situations, and now that I reflect on it, I can apply it to my own life as well. In my third year of med school I stayed up util 4:30am working on a presentation for my medical humanities paper because I was so incredibly terrified of public speaking that I was trying to use every waking second to prepare. I barely even remember what the subject was now. I have stayed up on countless nights stressing about assignments I no longer remember the title of, I have ruminated over being told off for things I'm sure the senior won't even be able to recall happening. If you are at the beginning of your medical school journey, one of the most valuable pieces of advice I can offer you is to learn to shake things off. If someone yells at you, take it as them having a bad day and flip it in your brain to be an embarrassing moment for them, because imagine a fully qualified doctor getting angry at a student? Whatever happens there is always a solution, and trust me, it's never that deep.

2. Nothing is worth losing sleep over

I suppose this one somewhat ties in with the first point, but I wanted to highlight the importance of getting enough sleep. Maybe if you're on the younger side you can still survive after pulling an all nighter, but for those of us who are 24 an over, it's time to leave that habit behind. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that is actually worth losing sleep over. No assignment, no exam, no practical test, NOTHING. Chances are, you'll end up performing worse and then you'll be tired and grumpy the whole day. Don't do it. If you don't know it the night before the exam, chances are you won't know it the morning of either. It's not worth it. Go to sleep.

3. Prepare to be average

Boy oh boy was this a big learning curve. Considering medicine only takes the top percentage of its applicants, everyone there is smart. Maybe you are used to sailing through school, prize giving at high school was a clean sweep for you, no one even came close to your grades? That all changes in med school. EVERYONE was the top of their class/cohort/grade. You are no longer special. Prepare to get some grades that sit around the median mark, or maybe even below it, and learn to be okay with not coming out on top. It's going to happen. You can't all always be the best.

4. Your high school study habits might not work

As a run on from point 3, studying in medicine is very, and I mean VERY, different to studying in high school. Granted, it has been a long time since I was in high school, but still - your study technique will have to adapt to the amount of content that will be thrown at you starting day 1. This is not the type of stuff you can cram the night before the exam, you will have to study every night to ensure everything sticks. If you are the type to be able to cram such huge amounts of content, I still wouldn't recommend doing it. This is coming from a fourth year on clinical placement who wishes she remembered more from pre clinical years. Try to put the knowledge in your long term memory, even though its so easy to short-term that shit and then forget it the day after the exam. I have been asked questions by doctors and consultants this year regarding content I learnt in 2nd and 3rd year that I have not even been able to TRY to answer. Medicine is not crammable. I will do a separate post on study techniques to try if you're interested in that. Just know for now that you might have to make some adjustments from high school.

5. Everyone in your class will have different priorities

Unlike high school where everyone is in a similar age bracket and experience level, medical school is an absolute melting pot of differences. Some students will be in their forties still working to support their families, others will be late twenties or thirties with young kids who can't stay late or hang out on weekends. Many will have under- or postgraduate degrees in the medical field and will be miles ahead of everyone else in a particular subject. Some will be fully qualified nurses, dentists, podiatrists, massage therapists, or paramedics and will need to run off at 2pm every tuesday and thursday to go to work. Others will work part time in retail, and some won't work at all. Some will live at home, some won't have spoken to their parents in ten years. My point is you won't know what anyone has going on in their life or their past, and everyones priorities will be different to yours. Parents will prioritise picking up their kids from soccer practise over staying for your 5pm lecture. Nurses will prioritise already being the backbone of the hospital over sitting through lectures on content they already know. Maybe your priority is getting A's in every exam you sit, but I am happy with B's so that I can go on climbing trips with my friends. You don't get to judge someone else's priorities.

6. A balanced life is more important than good grades

Although I've just told you not to judge someone else's priorities, I am going to suggest what you should prioritise - which is a balanced lifestyle. Medicine can be all-consuming if you let it. Don't give up your hobbies, seeing your friends, spending time with family, working out, your part time job, going away, and everything else that makes you, you for your grades. Find a balance between things that are good for your academic progress and things that are good for your soul. Sometimes I feel so consumed stress and feeling like a complete failure and then I'll go climbing with my close friends or have coffee with my boyfriend and realise wow, there's so much more to life than this one grade. Balance is the best way to stay happy and motivated while in med school.

7. Do not trust how you feel about your life after 9pm

This is a big one. As I keep saying, medicine can consume your life if you let it. Your stress levels combined with tiredness and overwhelm at nighttime will have you threatening to drop out entirely. As soon as it hits 9pm I don't trust a single thing my brain says to me about uni or about my life in general. Chances are I'll feel completely different by the morning.

8. Celebrate your wins - no one else knows what it took you to get there

The medical curriculum gives you very, very little time off. On the walk out of an exam they'll hand you the course material for the next block that starts at 8am the next morning. There's no allocated time for rest, even your holidays will have assignments or progress tests in the middle, or you'll have an exam on the first monday back, so you really don't get a break. You have to take them for yourself. After exams I would treat myself to dinner and often my boyfriend and I would do something to celebrate. Now, at the end of each run my friends and I go out for a drink. It doesn't have to be huge, but I find that assigning treats after each milestone helps break up the year a bit better and makes everything seem more manageable, and gives you something to look forward to. While I encourage doing something with your med school friends, make sure you also take the time to celebrate alone. You all sat the same exam, but only you know how hard it was in your situation. I had a really difficult second year, so passing all those exams was far, far bigger an achievement than for those who didn't go through what I went through. Take the time to celebrate yourself.

9. Don't leave your portfolio to the last minute

This is more relevant for third year and up but wow will it help you. In second year you just have to make a portfolio plan where you write down what you think you will write about the following year, pretty easy. In third year you actually have to write it, illustrate it, proof read it, and submit it. It's a deceptively large amount of work, and leaving it to the last minute will certainly get you a bad grade. Work on it throughout the year as much as you can. Every time something happened that I thought I might like to write about, I created a voice memo on my phone where I would ramble about the topic and the outline of what I wanted to write - I did this while I was driving or cooking or getting ready for something - just get some ideas down so you aren't left floundering at the end of the year. Semester 2 in third year is busy, so don't let it be another thing to stress you out.

10. The days are long but the years are short

Believe me when I say the time is going to FLY by. It doesn't feel like two years ago that I was starting my first preclinical year, and even now it's insane that we are already a quarter through 2024. I wish I had started this blog earlier to remember everything and everyone - good times and bad times, things to learn from and so on. This picture was so long ago, and now one of us lives hours away. It goes so, so fast, and soon enough you'll be slogging as a junior doctor wondering where the time went. Keep a journal, take pictures, make videos, start a blog - but don't spend every day wishing for 6pm, wishing for the weekend, wishing for summer break. You'll wish your whole life away that way. Enjoy med school while it lasts - the days are long but the years are so, so short.

Those are ten things I would explain to 24 year old Sydney if I could go back in time. Take care of yourself, take care of others, and the rest will fall into place.

Ciao for now,

Sydney xx