So I'm back from my winter holiday and have had a week of lectures which was an introduction to Specialties and Acute and Critical Care Medicine. Essentially how this year works is that I will go through 4 core rotations: Acute and Critical Care Medicine, Specialties, Community and Palliative Care, and General Care Medicine. Each core is about 8 weeks each. Within each core there will be sub-attachments/sub-specialties. Anyways I'm starting with Acute and Critical Care Medicine and my first 4 weeks will be in Critical Care so I will be getting to know the anaesthetists! Then my next 4 weeks will be in A&E/ED (emergency department). I am quite excited about this year as this year is quite focussed on specialties and I will have plenty of opportunities to be in theatre this year. Yay!
To give you an idea what sort of lectures we had this week - we went through topics in Urology, Opthamology, Haematology, Anaesthetics, Dermatology, Trauma, Oncology, Infectious Diseases, and ENT. To be fair, covering all of that in 5 days was ambitious and tiring. It just stresses the importance for you to go home and do some extra reading before you go into that specialty placement as a 1 hour lecture is not going to cover enough for you to get through the placement. Because of this, I spent my weekend reading up on Anaesthetics and Critical Care. In a way I am really excited for this attachment as I am placed in the main hospital and it is quite busy so I know I will be able to get a lot of hands-on experience instead of swivelling in my chair. I also spent the weekend trying to get as much sleep as I can (12 hours today!) as I'm starting at 8 am every day. I felt a bit of me cry, but at the same time if it's a good attachment I don't see waking up being an issue.
Hmmm....to be honest there isn't much to talk about from this week as it was really dull and I won't bore you with the details. Hopefully next week will be action-packed and hopefully can give you all a more exciting read!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Saturday, December 29, 2012
A Memorable Year.
1 year ago today, I was thankful and nervous at the same time. Last year's exam was probably the largest hurdle of my degree. I didn't do as well as I had hoped in my exam, but still managed to pass. I was incredibly thankful to be able to pass as many of my friends had failed the exam. Some of which had to repeat the year. I made a promise to myself that the year 2012 will be my comeback year. I was determined to start on the right foot and to never make the same mistakes again.
This year zoomed by. I believe I made leaps and bounds in terms of knowledge and self-confidence whilst on the wards and in clinics. I still got to give lots of credit to my placement in Orthopaedics. I cannot be more thankful to my supervisor. Even my friends have noticed that after my Orthopaedics placement, I was a different medical student. I was no longer afraid to speak up. I was no longer afraid to participate and be proactive. I realized that if you don't ask, you will never know what will happen. The worst answer you can get when asking something is "No". What is there to lose...other than a hurt ego. So one tip for all of you is to be confident. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Again, the worst someone can say is "No". If the answer is "no", just shrug and move on and don't take it personally.
As you move through the degree, Medicine slowly dominates your life and you really got to make an effort to have a social life. As the months pass and you have some free time to reflect, you realize your friends start to drift away and it may get a bit lonely at times. Medicine needs a lot of dedication, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to relax and take some time out. Giving yourself a break does not necessarily mean you have to go take a vacation. Taking a break is different for everyone. It may involve going to do something you enjoy or meeting up with friends, or even just spending some time at home to relax and watch TV. I didn't realize how important it is to take a break until this year when I have finally experienced a whole year of clinical placements, one after another. Work - Life balance. I know many people in my year who are taking a year out to do a BMedSci next year, not because they want to do research, but because they have burnt out.
To top off my memorable year, just earlier today I received confirmation that I have been accepted to present a my research poster at a national conference. Really unexpected as it's quite competitive, so I'm absolutely chuffed. What a way to finish up the year!
In general, I have made many new friends, matured as a person, and gained valuable skills for the future - I think this has probably been one of my most memorable year of my medical degree. Despite the many ups and downs throughout the year, looking back - overall it has been a very good year.
Got to thank those who have made my year so memorable and those who made my experiences so much better. Cheers to 2012, bring on 2013!
This year zoomed by. I believe I made leaps and bounds in terms of knowledge and self-confidence whilst on the wards and in clinics. I still got to give lots of credit to my placement in Orthopaedics. I cannot be more thankful to my supervisor. Even my friends have noticed that after my Orthopaedics placement, I was a different medical student. I was no longer afraid to speak up. I was no longer afraid to participate and be proactive. I realized that if you don't ask, you will never know what will happen. The worst answer you can get when asking something is "No". What is there to lose...other than a hurt ego. So one tip for all of you is to be confident. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Again, the worst someone can say is "No". If the answer is "no", just shrug and move on and don't take it personally.
As you move through the degree, Medicine slowly dominates your life and you really got to make an effort to have a social life. As the months pass and you have some free time to reflect, you realize your friends start to drift away and it may get a bit lonely at times. Medicine needs a lot of dedication, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to relax and take some time out. Giving yourself a break does not necessarily mean you have to go take a vacation. Taking a break is different for everyone. It may involve going to do something you enjoy or meeting up with friends, or even just spending some time at home to relax and watch TV. I didn't realize how important it is to take a break until this year when I have finally experienced a whole year of clinical placements, one after another. Work - Life balance. I know many people in my year who are taking a year out to do a BMedSci next year, not because they want to do research, but because they have burnt out.
To top off my memorable year, just earlier today I received confirmation that I have been accepted to present a my research poster at a national conference. Really unexpected as it's quite competitive, so I'm absolutely chuffed. What a way to finish up the year!
In general, I have made many new friends, matured as a person, and gained valuable skills for the future - I think this has probably been one of my most memorable year of my medical degree. Despite the many ups and downs throughout the year, looking back - overall it has been a very good year.
Got to thank those who have made my year so memorable and those who made my experiences so much better. Cheers to 2012, bring on 2013!
Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Request: Tips for Revising for Exams.
So I had a request to do a post on tips for revising for your year-end medical exam. To be honest, every person will have a different way of revising. The most ideal way to revise for exams is to start from day 1 of the course. After every lecture/day, gather all your notes together and make sure your notes have enough info for you. If not, look at your recommended reading and add info to your notes. Or after end of each day is to consolidate all the things you have learned and to go over it. Some people like to consolidate their knowledge on weekends as most lecture days go from 9-5pm and by the time you finish your day, your brain will be fried. If you stay on top of your notes, when it comes to exam time, you should know your material quite well and just need to commit things to memory and you will not be needing to learn anything "new".
What I just described is the ideal way...but realistically, the chances of that happening is quite slim, unless you're quire organized and on top of everything. For me, that method got tossed out 2 weeks into my course. What actually happens is that you take notes during your lectures/print out your lecture slides. If you're having a good week and have some spare time, your notes will go into a binder so your room stays relatively neat and that you will be able to find your notes. If your university only does 1 year-end exam, like mine, on average, medics begin studying between 4-6 weeks prior to exams. You would think that's ridiculously too far in advance, but the sheer amount of material you learn in one year...it just as ridiculous. I personally need 6 weeks to go through a whole year worth of material, but do keep in mind...I don't really look at my notes again until my 6 week revision period. So here I will list some tips on how to get on top of your revision period:
1) Make a revision schedule. Try and figure out how many days/weeks you will need to go over a topic (eg. 1 week for Paediatrics, 5 days for O&G). How much time to dedicate to each topic will depend on how well you know a topic/how confident you are with the topic. Always leave 1 week prior to exams for leeway/time to go over sample/past papers/revise stuff you don't know very well/last minute cram. I usually start thinking about making my revision schedule well in advance or else if you do one too late, you'll realize you have too little weeks left and too many topics. To avoid that, maybe think about your revision schedule when you come back from your last holiday before exams.
2) Find a study buddy! If you live with other medics, then that's sorted. If you don't, try finding a study buddy who has the same sort of revising method as you. It's a great way to make sure you don't miss out any topics and also a great way to test each other's knowledge. Make sure this study buddy won't be a distraction though or else you won't accomplish much!
3) Rest! I cannot stress enough how important it is to get enough rest during your revision weeks. No point of pulling all-nighters when your brain can't even function anymore. Nothing will get absorbed. Your body will tell you when it is time to take a break (usually when you find yourself reading the same page over and over again and nothing is going in). Try and get a good nights sleep every day. Pretty basic stuff, but it is so easy to forget to just rest.
4) Use cue cards for memorizing things. Some people don't like cue cards, which is fair enough. In medicine we have to learn a lot of names that aren't even related to the condition such as drug names/some medical syndromes. Once you write it down, you can put it to the side. Also great for the last minute cram a day or two before exams.
5) Start early. At the same time I'm not saying start revising 10 weeks before exams. Obviously this is down to personal preference. I think I started too early for this year's exam, but it's not something I regret. It was extremely tiring and boring though. At the same time, last year I started too late and regretted it and it was extremely stressful. Because I started a bit too early (or maybe even perfect timing), I could sacrifice a day or two to take a break or to spend a few extra days on a topic such as Paediatrics. I originally allocated 10 days for Paediatrics, but actually ended up taking 2 weeks to go through all of Paediatrics, but because I started revising early, I was able to give up a few days and shift my other dates around for my other topics.
6) Use revision books to AID knowledge, not gain knowledge. There are some books called Crash Course or At a Glance, which are really good books which gives you a quick glance at a topic. These are good books to help you look up stuff quickly or to double check info, but these are books you should not base your revision around as it misses out fundamental/basic knowledge that you will get from a proper textbook/lectures.
To be honest, I think the key things for revision is to be organized, good time management, rest lots, and try not to stress out too much. Exams are extremely stressful and your anxiety levels go through the roof. Everyone will be feeling the same so don't think you're the odd one out. On top of revising, you might still have to go into placement as some unis only give you 1 week of revision (where nothing is timetabled), so you'll need to be able to balance going to placement and revising. If you aren't organized, your revision will get quite messy. At the same time, don't start skiving placements so you can revise because at the same time, you can learn/revise while on placement. Sometimes really useful tutorial sessions will be held and you can learn/revise during those sessions. To be honest, this whole revision business sounds a lot harder than it really is. You'll know what to do when it comes to revision.
Hope this helps!
What I just described is the ideal way...but realistically, the chances of that happening is quite slim, unless you're quire organized and on top of everything. For me, that method got tossed out 2 weeks into my course. What actually happens is that you take notes during your lectures/print out your lecture slides. If you're having a good week and have some spare time, your notes will go into a binder so your room stays relatively neat and that you will be able to find your notes. If your university only does 1 year-end exam, like mine, on average, medics begin studying between 4-6 weeks prior to exams. You would think that's ridiculously too far in advance, but the sheer amount of material you learn in one year...it just as ridiculous. I personally need 6 weeks to go through a whole year worth of material, but do keep in mind...I don't really look at my notes again until my 6 week revision period. So here I will list some tips on how to get on top of your revision period:
1) Make a revision schedule. Try and figure out how many days/weeks you will need to go over a topic (eg. 1 week for Paediatrics, 5 days for O&G). How much time to dedicate to each topic will depend on how well you know a topic/how confident you are with the topic. Always leave 1 week prior to exams for leeway/time to go over sample/past papers/revise stuff you don't know very well/last minute cram. I usually start thinking about making my revision schedule well in advance or else if you do one too late, you'll realize you have too little weeks left and too many topics. To avoid that, maybe think about your revision schedule when you come back from your last holiday before exams.
2) Find a study buddy! If you live with other medics, then that's sorted. If you don't, try finding a study buddy who has the same sort of revising method as you. It's a great way to make sure you don't miss out any topics and also a great way to test each other's knowledge. Make sure this study buddy won't be a distraction though or else you won't accomplish much!
3) Rest! I cannot stress enough how important it is to get enough rest during your revision weeks. No point of pulling all-nighters when your brain can't even function anymore. Nothing will get absorbed. Your body will tell you when it is time to take a break (usually when you find yourself reading the same page over and over again and nothing is going in). Try and get a good nights sleep every day. Pretty basic stuff, but it is so easy to forget to just rest.
4) Use cue cards for memorizing things. Some people don't like cue cards, which is fair enough. In medicine we have to learn a lot of names that aren't even related to the condition such as drug names/some medical syndromes. Once you write it down, you can put it to the side. Also great for the last minute cram a day or two before exams.
5) Start early. At the same time I'm not saying start revising 10 weeks before exams. Obviously this is down to personal preference. I think I started too early for this year's exam, but it's not something I regret. It was extremely tiring and boring though. At the same time, last year I started too late and regretted it and it was extremely stressful. Because I started a bit too early (or maybe even perfect timing), I could sacrifice a day or two to take a break or to spend a few extra days on a topic such as Paediatrics. I originally allocated 10 days for Paediatrics, but actually ended up taking 2 weeks to go through all of Paediatrics, but because I started revising early, I was able to give up a few days and shift my other dates around for my other topics.
6) Use revision books to AID knowledge, not gain knowledge. There are some books called Crash Course or At a Glance, which are really good books which gives you a quick glance at a topic. These are good books to help you look up stuff quickly or to double check info, but these are books you should not base your revision around as it misses out fundamental/basic knowledge that you will get from a proper textbook/lectures.
To be honest, I think the key things for revision is to be organized, good time management, rest lots, and try not to stress out too much. Exams are extremely stressful and your anxiety levels go through the roof. Everyone will be feeling the same so don't think you're the odd one out. On top of revising, you might still have to go into placement as some unis only give you 1 week of revision (where nothing is timetabled), so you'll need to be able to balance going to placement and revising. If you aren't organized, your revision will get quite messy. At the same time, don't start skiving placements so you can revise because at the same time, you can learn/revise while on placement. Sometimes really useful tutorial sessions will be held and you can learn/revise during those sessions. To be honest, this whole revision business sounds a lot harder than it really is. You'll know what to do when it comes to revision.
Hope this helps!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
I'm baaaaack!
Well it's certainly been awhile since my last post. Apologies. I've been revising for my exams. Finished exams so I suddenly have a lot of free time. Quite weird. I've technically been studying for over 6 weeks for this exam which felt a lot longer as it just kept dragging on and on. It didn't help that the other years have already taken their exams/have left for winter holiday already. It's gutting when people are away back at home or on vacation and you're stuck in your room/library revising all day, every day.
Today I got my results from my exam and good news: PASSED! Managed to jump over another hurdle. Next hurdle: Finals. Scary! To be honest these exams meant a lot to me. I wasn't very happy with my performance in last year's exams and promised myself that I will never make the same mistake and study harder and work harder. I pretty much declared this year as a "comeback" year. I promised myself to go into placements and actively learn. So today when I went to get my results, I was very nervous. I was confident I had passed, but there's always that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind. The relief when I saw my results. Phew. I think I can officially say that this has been a successful comeback year. I have regained my motivation for Medicine and during the 2nd half of this year, I have regained a lot of confidence. I got to say - it's been a good year (despite the highs and lows).
Along with my results, I have received my schedule and placements for next year. Starting off in A&E, so it will be a very quick and hectic start! Should be very interesting though. Now that exams are over and that I've gotten my results - I can finally relax. Get back to normality. Do what I enjoy and meet up with friends. It was a tough exam period and I cannot wait to go back home. See my school friends. See my parents. Celebrating Christmas and New Year with the family. It will be nice. It will probably be my last proper winter holiday as next year I will be revising for finals as my final exams are after winter holidays. I will definitely have to make use and enjoy this winter holiday as much as I can this year. It's been a very tough road. Scarier thought: after next year's winter holiday, I will be working as a proper doctor in a hospital somewhere during winter holidays! Wow. It's getting close!
One step closer to being a doctor!
Anyways Merry Christmas to everyone and good luck with interviews!
Today I got my results from my exam and good news: PASSED! Managed to jump over another hurdle. Next hurdle: Finals. Scary! To be honest these exams meant a lot to me. I wasn't very happy with my performance in last year's exams and promised myself that I will never make the same mistake and study harder and work harder. I pretty much declared this year as a "comeback" year. I promised myself to go into placements and actively learn. So today when I went to get my results, I was very nervous. I was confident I had passed, but there's always that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind. The relief when I saw my results. Phew. I think I can officially say that this has been a successful comeback year. I have regained my motivation for Medicine and during the 2nd half of this year, I have regained a lot of confidence. I got to say - it's been a good year (despite the highs and lows).
Along with my results, I have received my schedule and placements for next year. Starting off in A&E, so it will be a very quick and hectic start! Should be very interesting though. Now that exams are over and that I've gotten my results - I can finally relax. Get back to normality. Do what I enjoy and meet up with friends. It was a tough exam period and I cannot wait to go back home. See my school friends. See my parents. Celebrating Christmas and New Year with the family. It will be nice. It will probably be my last proper winter holiday as next year I will be revising for finals as my final exams are after winter holidays. I will definitely have to make use and enjoy this winter holiday as much as I can this year. It's been a very tough road. Scarier thought: after next year's winter holiday, I will be working as a proper doctor in a hospital somewhere during winter holidays! Wow. It's getting close!
One step closer to being a doctor!
Anyways Merry Christmas to everyone and good luck with interviews!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Something for you to think about...
To make up for my last short post - I'll give you guys something to think/reflect about.
So you meet a 55 year old male patient on the neurology ward who was admitted with severe unilateral headaches in the front which radiates to the back of the head with no associated neck stiffness. As you talk to the patient you notice he's fairly relaxed and quite talkative. He tells you how he first presented to his GP 4 weeks ago who didn't explain much and sent him for a CT/MRI scan on his head, then proceeded to send him for Chest X-rays...eventually getting a pelvic MRI scan. The patient says: "I have no idea why I had to go through all these scans. Bit pointless in my opinion. It's just a headache...any ideas doc?" You know all these events had happened over the last 4 weeks and this patient has seen several doctors and you start to wonder why no one has told this man why all these investigations were done. Eventually you find out that the patient is aware that there is a "lump" in the back of his brain and that he's being scheduled to get a biopsy. After saying this, the patient still seems very relaxed and seemingly unaware of what is going on...actually he ends up telling you that he actually doesn't have a clue what's going on.
After the nice conversation you've had with the patient, you go look in his medical notes. You read the report from the scans which clearly says: "Query metastasis to the brain". You know that the GP/other doctors had sent this patient for several different investigations is to locate the primary cancer - which the patient is completely unaware of. Next imaging report: "Primary glioma". All brain tumours are technically malignant. Then you think: does this patient know he's possibly got brain cancer? No one knows how severe it is as a biopsy hasn't been done.
So here's something for you to think about. As a medic or soon to be medic: would you rather know about everything? Know exactly WHY the scans are being done and what are the results. Reasons behind all the investigations. All the plans from the doctors and suspicions/differentials. Then you look at it from another point. If this patient knew about all of the reasons and all the prior suspicions that the doctors had, would he still be as relaxed and calm about his "headache"? So is it actually better to not know that much?
Personally I think there's a fine line between knowing too much and knowing too little. As a patient, I would want as much info as I can as I'm a medic - I want to know things. If I didn't have any medical background, I think I wouldn't want to know anything. Live life in denial and in the unknown I guess? At least I won't be busy stressing myself out. These things can be emotionally difficult and cancer is such a sensitive topic. I would think the general population wouldn't want to know all the reasoning. It's tough. I think every person has a different view on this. Something for you to think about/reflect about.
So you meet a 55 year old male patient on the neurology ward who was admitted with severe unilateral headaches in the front which radiates to the back of the head with no associated neck stiffness. As you talk to the patient you notice he's fairly relaxed and quite talkative. He tells you how he first presented to his GP 4 weeks ago who didn't explain much and sent him for a CT/MRI scan on his head, then proceeded to send him for Chest X-rays...eventually getting a pelvic MRI scan. The patient says: "I have no idea why I had to go through all these scans. Bit pointless in my opinion. It's just a headache...any ideas doc?" You know all these events had happened over the last 4 weeks and this patient has seen several doctors and you start to wonder why no one has told this man why all these investigations were done. Eventually you find out that the patient is aware that there is a "lump" in the back of his brain and that he's being scheduled to get a biopsy. After saying this, the patient still seems very relaxed and seemingly unaware of what is going on...actually he ends up telling you that he actually doesn't have a clue what's going on.
After the nice conversation you've had with the patient, you go look in his medical notes. You read the report from the scans which clearly says: "Query metastasis to the brain". You know that the GP/other doctors had sent this patient for several different investigations is to locate the primary cancer - which the patient is completely unaware of. Next imaging report: "Primary glioma". All brain tumours are technically malignant. Then you think: does this patient know he's possibly got brain cancer? No one knows how severe it is as a biopsy hasn't been done.
So here's something for you to think about. As a medic or soon to be medic: would you rather know about everything? Know exactly WHY the scans are being done and what are the results. Reasons behind all the investigations. All the plans from the doctors and suspicions/differentials. Then you look at it from another point. If this patient knew about all of the reasons and all the prior suspicions that the doctors had, would he still be as relaxed and calm about his "headache"? So is it actually better to not know that much?
Personally I think there's a fine line between knowing too much and knowing too little. As a patient, I would want as much info as I can as I'm a medic - I want to know things. If I didn't have any medical background, I think I wouldn't want to know anything. Live life in denial and in the unknown I guess? At least I won't be busy stressing myself out. These things can be emotionally difficult and cancer is such a sensitive topic. I would think the general population wouldn't want to know all the reasoning. It's tough. I think every person has a different view on this. Something for you to think about/reflect about.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Revision Time Again.
So exams are in 3 weeks. Truthfully, I'm not as nervous about these exams as I was last year. Last year was a disaster. It was horrible. Actually those exams last year could be deemed scarring. Worst experience ever. I have been constantly telling myself that nothing can be worse than last year's exam. This year, it is fairly obvious what we need to know for our exams and it has been clearly laid out for us. I think what's making revision difficult is that we still need to go to placements. We only get 1 week of revision. Consultants expect us to be on the wards 9am - 5pm and by the time you get home, you're exhausted. On average, you're looking at around about 3 hours of revision time. I am finding it quite difficult to juggle and obviously have to adapt my revision style to my placement schedule. I am quite used to staying up quite late to revise as I work best at night. On top of that, I am on my Neurology placement, which is an examinable topic for our exams, so I'm trying to learn and revise while on placement. Swear my brain feels like it can explode as I'm trying to do so much all at the same time.
The neurology ward in general has been interesting. We have got various different cases ranging from stroke to epilepsy to multiple sclerosis. If I had this placement at any other time in the year, I would enjoy it a lot as there are so many examination signs to see and the patient histories are really educational. As I've mentioned above, the brain is focused on revising so any time I catch a break, I am heading to the library or a quiet room to revise instead of spending time on the wards. Because we don't have OSCEs this year, I'm not too bothered about seeing signs, but it is certainly affecting the experience I am having on the placement. It is quite annoying as I find neurology quite fascinating...and challenging, but certainly something that does not bore me. It makes you think and it makes you think laterally as well. Anyways I'm going to keep this post short as I have to hit the books. Exam season is tough. I cannot wait for this to be over and bring on the new year.
Work hard. Play harder.
The neurology ward in general has been interesting. We have got various different cases ranging from stroke to epilepsy to multiple sclerosis. If I had this placement at any other time in the year, I would enjoy it a lot as there are so many examination signs to see and the patient histories are really educational. As I've mentioned above, the brain is focused on revising so any time I catch a break, I am heading to the library or a quiet room to revise instead of spending time on the wards. Because we don't have OSCEs this year, I'm not too bothered about seeing signs, but it is certainly affecting the experience I am having on the placement. It is quite annoying as I find neurology quite fascinating...and challenging, but certainly something that does not bore me. It makes you think and it makes you think laterally as well. Anyways I'm going to keep this post short as I have to hit the books. Exam season is tough. I cannot wait for this to be over and bring on the new year.
Work hard. Play harder.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Another Step Forward.
I think a bit back I said I was working on an Orthopaedic project (since May). Today I had the chance to present my project in front of a group of orthopaedic surgeons across the region. It's nice to finally present something that you've been working so hard on, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I was fairly confident a week ago when I was preparing my powerpoint though. My run-through with my supervisor went really well, but this was presenting in front of someone who I know. Presenting in front of a group of orthopaedic consultants is a whole other ball game. What I was most worried about were the questions at the end.
One thing about me is that I don't like over-rehearsing/practising my presentations as I like to improvise. I like to give relaxed presentations that can go any direction depending on how I feel as it shows confidence in your presentation/project. I know my project very...very well so this was a route I know I wanted to take, but a risky one as I haven't presented in over 2 years and certainly not in front of a group of consultants. But because I didn't want to make a fool out of myself, I thought it was a good idea to practice a bit more than usual so I rehearsed once a day starting on Monday. The one rule I have for myself is to never use cue cards or notes and this was definitely not going to change for this presentation. When I showed up at the meeting, I think the lead was a bit surprised by the fact all I had was my powerpoint and no notes/cue cards to run through while I wait for my turn. To be fair, I wanted to look like I was confident and at ease about my presentation, but actually I was completely bricking it inside. The night before I was "choking". Was confident until the night before and everything just fell apart. I was stuttering when I was running through and forgetting to talk about certain things as my slides contain very little info as I like to expand on my points.
Anyways it got to my turn and I told myself that one of my strong points are doing presentations and this is not anything different. I introduced my powerpoint and I went through my powerpoint like it was second nature. It was almost like I wasn't even consciously doing it. It felt really good! Then the dreaded part: question time. Surprisingly, the first question wasn't even a question. A consultant took the time to complement me so I was really chuffed about it. It definitely made me feel proud of myself and especially when I was the only medical student presenting amongst a bunch of registrars. At least it was some sort of confirmation that I didn't make myself look like a complete idiot, but the bail out sentence was always ready: "Sorry I am just only a medical student." The questions asked weren't too bad and it actually started a discussion amongst the audience about the thing I studied.
After doing this presentation it gave me an idea to make a post of tips for making presentations:
One thing about me is that I don't like over-rehearsing/practising my presentations as I like to improvise. I like to give relaxed presentations that can go any direction depending on how I feel as it shows confidence in your presentation/project. I know my project very...very well so this was a route I know I wanted to take, but a risky one as I haven't presented in over 2 years and certainly not in front of a group of consultants. But because I didn't want to make a fool out of myself, I thought it was a good idea to practice a bit more than usual so I rehearsed once a day starting on Monday. The one rule I have for myself is to never use cue cards or notes and this was definitely not going to change for this presentation. When I showed up at the meeting, I think the lead was a bit surprised by the fact all I had was my powerpoint and no notes/cue cards to run through while I wait for my turn. To be fair, I wanted to look like I was confident and at ease about my presentation, but actually I was completely bricking it inside. The night before I was "choking". Was confident until the night before and everything just fell apart. I was stuttering when I was running through and forgetting to talk about certain things as my slides contain very little info as I like to expand on my points.
Anyways it got to my turn and I told myself that one of my strong points are doing presentations and this is not anything different. I introduced my powerpoint and I went through my powerpoint like it was second nature. It was almost like I wasn't even consciously doing it. It felt really good! Then the dreaded part: question time. Surprisingly, the first question wasn't even a question. A consultant took the time to complement me so I was really chuffed about it. It definitely made me feel proud of myself and especially when I was the only medical student presenting amongst a bunch of registrars. At least it was some sort of confirmation that I didn't make myself look like a complete idiot, but the bail out sentence was always ready: "Sorry I am just only a medical student." The questions asked weren't too bad and it actually started a discussion amongst the audience about the thing I studied.
After doing this presentation it gave me an idea to make a post of tips for making presentations:
- Keep your powerpoint short and simple - maximum 4-5 points per slide - use these as cues for yourself and expand on these points
- Use images to make your slides/presentation look more interesting
- My personal rule is about 30-60 seconds per slide. 10 minute presentations = 10-15 slides. Any more slides, you could potentially end up speaking too quickly
- Practice your powerpoint without any cue cards or notes from day 1 - if you don't get into the habit of using cue cards...then you'll never need to rely on them
- If you're really unsure about your presentation, find a friend to practice in front of and ask he/she to give you feedback
- If you're nervous at the time of your presentation, pause for a second at the end of each slide to allow yourself to gather your thoughts for the next slide. The audience will think you're giving them time to read your slide so use the opportunity to calm yourself and gather yourself.
- Introduction is key - also an easy way to calm yourself as you'll never forget your own name!
- Always end your presentation with a summary slide as it's a nice way to round off the presentation
- Body language! Be aware of how you stand and what you're doing with your hands. If sitting, don't fidget/swivel in your chair. Standing and don't know what to do with your hands? Clasp them in front of you or try to use your hands to point to relevant images on your slide. Practice makes perfect for this. Avoid closed body positions such as crossing your arms across your chest and leaning against the wall. Don't want to look bored of your own presentation!
- Look around the room when talking. Don't have to make eye contact, but remember there's more than one person there so involve the room by looking around.
- And SMILE! Don't want to look grumpy about your own presentation!
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