Are lectures enough or do you need to go crazy with textbooks?
So each lecture has a set of learning outcomes that ideally, you need to know ( I can tell you for a fact now though that I did not learn the material to every single one of these outcomes). Lectures generally cover everything, but some topics require extra reading outside of lectures. I would say don’t buy any textbooks now. The only one I used the entire way through was greys anatomy (and there is a way to get this free!). You will learn what else you need as you go along and asking the upper years what works well for them is also a good idea. I also used the Eureka book series a lot and a pocket surface anatomy book.
Best resources for a new med student?
The things I commonly used this year were:
- 3D Anatomy App
- Greys Anatomy Textbook
- Eureka Textbooks
- BMA Library
- Teach me anatomy/physiology/ geeky medics websites!
- One Note – I imported all my lectures into here and now I have all my lecture slides and notes that I took during the lecture in one place 😊
Do not buy anything before you get here, you will learn what you need and save yourself some money !
Outside of timetabled sessions, how many hours do you study a day?
I have to put a disclaimer here, I wished I had not spent as many hours working as I did. There were people who actually had a life outside medicine and passed the year as well. However, I generally worked from 6pm – 9pm/10pm most evenings, though there were times where I just went home and slept. It is generally up to you how much you work. I would say to try and keep ontop of work. This doesn’t mean going over all the lectures you have had in one day on the day you have them but don’t try and become over half a block behind! I was 17 lectures behind in Block 2! Most people from what I have heard have had one night a week off and a day at the weekend.
Ipads and Medicine
Personally, its been the best bit of investment for me all year, particularly when it came to anatomy. I could draw the muscles straight on the bones and it meant I didn’t have to waste time drawing everything out. It is also useful for when you have loads of handouts as you can just keep them all digitalised in one place. My friend Sam had his all year and every bit of work he has ever done is on that IPad. However, you definitely do not need one for medical school. Its just a luxury. Pen and paper, laptops and whiteboards also do the job perfectly. We even made our own whiteboards during revision by putting a bit of paper inside a plastic Polly Pocket.
Social Life and Medicine
Ive had a few questions about this but I am not particularly the best person to ask! However, it is relatively easy to do , you just have to make the time. As I have said, there is no timetable about when you have to had learned concepts except for the final exams. It is so important though to have that break, take this from someone who learnt the hard way. Find something you like to do and I would have to say, there are a lot of people in my year who do things completely outside of the medical school such as main campus sports teams and main campus societies. There are also a couple of upper years who play rugby for one of the local clubs. Sometimes you just need a break from other medics. You can’t feel guilty about taking breaks and finding time to get those breaks in is a lot easier than you would think. The first couple of weeks will be hard but do not sacrifice any of the events you want to go to in Freshers week for the sake of doing work. Enjoy everything , you can always catch up later 😊
Accommodation
Generally, people have found it easy to find accommodation groups. I went through the uni, but people have organised housing groups through the Facebook group or through meeting people at the open day. As for finding a house, I can’t say too much on the topic as I didn’t have to do through it all having lived on campus this year.
My favourite thing about Warwick
The campus. Especially the Tocil lake area, bit beautiful and perfect to get away from the course. In spring we have the arrival of the baby geese which is always a cute sight to see!
Best piece of advice?
Take the time to put the textbooks down and go and do something that has nothing to do with the course whatsoever.
