Week in the life of a biomed student

For anyone stumbling across this blog who actually wants to do Biomed, or for medics thinking of accepting a reserve offer, here is a week in my life (well Monday til Wednesday anyways).

We don't have a set timetable (very annoyingly) so this is by no means representative.

Monday

Morning: The usual 9am start with a presentation tutorial - 4 hours sitting through everyone nervously giving presentations on lab techniques such as immunofluorescence, PCR and electrophoresis. Very boring - I think the more technical side of this degree is the worst aspect for a wannabe doctor.

Afternoon: An essay is due at 2pm, this means fighting for a computer in the med school / harassing your medic friends for their computers as all the biomed students bumble about trying to print their essays last minute.

Evening: 5pm finish after some cardiovascular lectures. I cannot work at all back in halls because of all the distractions so I (in a weird moment of keenness) stayed at med school til 7:30pm working. A lot of people do this, especially students in their clinical years.

Go back to halls and eat / socialise / spend too long on the internet.

Tuesday

Morning: 9am start (as per) this is term has been really bad for them, I can count the number of later starts on one hand. Lectures on an infection module we're doing at the moment - it's pretty interesting stuff and I'm enjoying it. But once you're getting to the third lecture in a row it's pretty hard to keep your eyes open, this is where pod-casts come in. Us students love pod-casts.

Afternoon: A few periods free, because we're at med school 9-4 most days, everyone on the course is really good friends, or at least amicable, so frees tend to be spent socialising. Had a 2 hour practical - I strongly dislike practicals, it's like a slap in the face that you are doing a course designed to make you a researcher. But this isn't just me, no-one seems to like practicals? Maybe we're all too lazy / don't understand what's going enough to appreciate them.

Evening: Food, kayaking training, socialise in the bar underneath my halls, SLEEEEEEPPPPPP. I promise you that despite all the 9am starts, you do not learn to go to bed before 3am like all your Humanities friends, most people solve this problem with the wonderful concept of afternoon naps. University campus' are actually pretty dead places 4-6pm.

Wednesday

Morning: Lectures on gene mutations - kind of like A-Level but a bit harder, and highlighting how many lies they told you :) You experience this feeling a lot.
Afternoon: 9-1 lectures on a Wednesday and then FREE AFTERNOON YAY. I spend my time training for sports and then volunteering at an elderly peoples home. It was an open day today so there was lots of negotiating between crowds of fresh faced school children and anxious parents.

Evening: Was once again super kee-heen and spent a few slow hours in med school working; I sometimes don't know why I bother when it's so likely I'll be leaving, but I guess it will give me a head start next year. Then back to halls, food, and pre-drinking / getting ready for SPORTS NIGHT. I'm pretty sure this is universal around UK universities - Wednesday is sports night, everyone who does any kind of sport, gets dressed up and goes out.

Cool beans! Have fun weeks everyone and good luck for applicants

The battle field that is Medicine

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well

As I'm sure all medical applicants know first hand, this year has been exceptionally competitive. Many of my friends have just one offer, and some (unfortunately) have none. I only know a handful of people with more than one, so if you are one of these lucky few, give yourself a pat on the back!

I won't go into the politics of it but I think there are numerous reasons why Medicine has been so competitive this year, and if you have not managed to get a place this year, do not be dis-heartened. It is not a reflection of you, academically or personally, it's just one of the worst years yet.

Some figures to cheer you up / show how well you've done if you have a place:

• Less than 1% of medical applicants get all 4 offers
• Over 70% of medical applicants will not get a place this year
• 200,000 people will not get a place at University this year

So do not beat yourself up too much if you didn't do as well as expected! With rising fees, an unstable economy, and cuts to the public sector, "safe" vocations such as Medicine will always get an increased number of applicants, and most people intending to go on a gap year will have instead applied in this cycle, all resulting in increased competition.

I was fortunate enough to get an offer from a University I wanted to go to (YAY) so am pretty ecstatic right now :D

I can't believe I'm actually going to be a Doctor eeeee!!!! :D :D

I started this blog wayyy back before I'd even got my GCSE results, and to actually see this all come to fruition, is just well, really nice haha.

I've changed so much in these past two years and I can't quite grasp yet that I'm living the dream :) All the hard work and stress has paid off and I'm really grateful!

Good luck to everyone whose still waiting to hear! I really hope everyone has got a place