Interviews, Christmas and New Year!

It only feels like 5 seconds ago we were back on the 24^thof September nervously walking up the hill to our first day of lectures. I now think reality has hit us all. After the MOSCES most of us went home but I stuck around on campus to help with the medical school interviews. It was weird walking around with no one around on campus but it’s nice not having High School Musical songs sung outside your window at 12 in the morning because the undergrads have finished for Christmas!

The interview days felt a bit surreal. It had only been 11 months since our own and now we were on the other side calming the candidates in the very same room we had all be nervously sat in this January. We know a little more about the interview process and I know it was the common joke amongst us during the day trying to figure out how we ever got in ourselves! My main advice to candidates on the day was to breathe and be a nice person before the interviews, to forget about the interviews afterwards and to stay off The Student Room! It’s a great place if you want to see what is happening with regards to what’s being sent out, but it can easily spark a frenzy of panicked students so it’s best to keep off it!

It was an incredible thing to be allowed to help on the day and I like the fact Warwick does it. You get to talk to actual students before your interview and it gives you a better gauge of what it is like here. It also shows how we are valued at the med school as students and how our perspectives do matter. I also think we are better at calming everyone down because we only went through it 11 months before!

I eventually got back for Christmas and even though I had planned to do work up to the 24^th, I can safely say that did not happen! I managed to complete the final lecture notes I had hanging off the back of the last term and sort out all the paperwork I had acquired over the term, but I had originally planned to get more done. However, I needed the break and I now feel like a different person compared to the stress head I was before Christmas.

It’s currently the 30^thof December and I’ve been doing a couple of hours of work here and there. However, if there is something I want to do, I will just go out and enjoy myself as I won’t be able to drop everything as easily back on campus. Currently, I am working on my pharmacology notes and amusing myself by writing questions with case studies using characters such as “Albus Dumbledore” who has stomach problems and “Sherlock Holmes” who has heart problems. It’s the little things in life that keep me going!

I am really looking forward to getting back in January as I miss having my own space and weirdly the lectures. I think it’s the routine that I miss, and I am looking forward to clinical skills this term. Having the OSCES before Christmas puts into context why we are learning these exams every week and I know how to better structure learning in the sessions. I also got my results back from the MOSCES and I passed 3 out of the 4 stations only missing out on ONE mark. ONE MARK. I was honestly surprised at my scores and I was happy for the rest of the day! I’m not too fussed about failing the fourth station (one mark!) as I know what you need to look for. I think my problem was the timing and nerves. I kept pausing for 10 seconds trying to remember what came next despite having practised it up to 10 times. We get written feedback in January which I am looking forward to as it provides us with more details than just the marks alone (that one mark will haunt me forever).

I am also looking forward to getting into the hospitals and having our first bedside teaching sessions! It is going to be incredible to finally meet patients and apply our knowledge in a clinical setting rather than just cramming it into our heads for the summer exam. I am hoping it will help me to remember the material as I can apply it to real patients with real problems. I am also thankful for the fact I am in the afternoons for my sessions as it means I only have to get the 6:20am bus once a week instead of twice.

Bring on 2019!

Happy new year

Abbie

Charlie Gallan : 03 Jan 2019 13:40 |  Tags: Abbie Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem