Reality.

Yes finally done exams!

If I had to summarize my medicals exams in one word it would be: Reality.

As a medical student we are all used to being top of the class and breezing through exams. It is quite rare to not know how to do something, but wow talk about crashing into the reality wall. I had 3 exams in 3 days: MEQ, Multi-Station, and EMQ. Overall the exams were challenging but it was do-able. It was a good reality check that there will be times where you won't know how to do something and you are going to have to overcome the feeling. First day was definitely tough. I went back to my room and I just felt really dumb and my confidence level was pit bottom. It was definitely hard to pick myself back up but I was pretty determined to make it up by doing well in multi-station and EMQ. All in all I tried my best in all 3 papers and hope I did enough to pass! Results release on June 10 so I guess I'll be camping out at the medical school. I'll probably be a nervous wreck though.

On a lighter note: summer holiday has officially begun! Right after exams I went out with friends and just make up for the last 6ish weeks of complete "hermiting". Then went for a night out with the rest of my medical year - great celebration. Today, I finally got the time to go and play some field hockey in pretty nice weather. Was a bit cold, but it was sunny out and I watched the sunset. Very relaxing. And then in 4 months it'll be the official start of 2nd year of medicine! I'm also planning on going to freshers events as they are so amazing. It is also a chance for me to go to parties with a group of people who I know and have a lot more fun. Also the perfect chance to meet new people and hopefully make some new friends! Looking forward to it.

FRESHERS WEEK - MEDICS FIELD HOCKEY

Well today was also the first day of training for the medics field hockey team! I met at the hockey pitch at 5:00pm which my massive goalkeeping bag. It was quite the hike up to the pitch as it was on the top of a hill and there were several flights of stairs I had to carry my bag up. There was lots of people at the practice, but sadly I only met a few freshers there. I have already met the club captain a month before I started uni to discuss about playing 1stXI team. Met a few people who are on the team when I got to practice so that was really cool. So all the people on the team are medics and most of em are upper years so I asked em a few questions about their thoughts on med school.

The general response that I got from them is that they thoroughly enjoy medical school and that I should try and have as much fun as I can in first year. All of them really loved first year of medical school as it wasn't too hard. The medical school tries really hard to make transition from school to university as easy as possible so a lot of the students really liked the transition and thought it was at a good pace.

Practice was a lot of fun...I haven't really trained with men as well so it was definitely a new experience. I was definitely expecting really hard shots...but wow can men shoot the ball! I thought I was going to get killed tonight. My goalkeeping shorts are not up to standard to start off as they are only suitable for low grade hockey...what a great confidence booster. I didn't really get hit anywhere with little protection which was good. Personally thought I played OKAY...but I was pretty tired.

After practice we went for a big team dinner at the local pub. Had great pub food and played some games such as "Boat Race". It was a lot of fun. We also went around the circle and introduced ourselves to each other. Can't even remember 1/8 of the names (terrible with names). Once dinner was finished I had a good chat with the older medics and asked them about intercalated degrees and what they thought about it. They actually thought that taking an extra degree will help you final application for foundation year placements and it shows interest in whatever specialty you are looking at. However, they did tell me that it is a bit too early to start thinking about it as usually people take an intercalated year. I am keeping the intercalated degree idea at the back of my head for now as I am considering it.

Hockey was really fun tonight and I managed to meet lots of people. Yay!

Tip: Don't be afraid to talk to upper years in your course. They may come in handy when you need help with course work or just have a question about the course. Don't worry they don't bite...although some of them may do look like they bite. :P