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Good things to do in preparation for Medical School?

After being turned down by all the unis I applied for last year, I am now relieved to hold an unconditional offer and to be able to say I am definitely studying Medicine in September.

During my gap year I haven't really been keeping up-to-scratch with everything I was taught at college, focusing more on my voluntary work, my job and other interests. So I guess my first step would be to revisit my A level notes, especially the more relevant parts.

But then what? Should I try getting to grips with early parts of the curriculum? Any good books or resources I should use?

I know a lot of the advice will be university specific, but do you have any general tips? The course is PBL heavy (and I am still waiting to hear back from some unis). I am not sure if 'naming names' will have any adverse effect on my applications, so for now I don't really want to mention the unis involved. Sorry about that.

Thanks in advance! :smile:
Honestly, just enjoy your time before you start. Didn't go over any old notes myself and I'm doing just fine! Would actively discourage looking at the curriculum before you start, out of context, and timing it won't help much at all, and could confuse.

You'll have plenty of time to learn it when you get there, and everyone should be up to speed in the first term, plus, you've got atleast 5 years of this to come, and that's just as an undergrad.

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Reply 2
Sorry to go off topic, but I want to ask you something. I fear not getting any offers this year, I was wondering how you went about your gap year and if you have any tips for me in case I need one? And congratulations on your offer by the way!
Reply 3
IMO I would learn stuff! Why not be ahead and take some strain off! Not saying this is what I did, I certainly did nothing before I started and am also doing fine but I would certainly like to be knowing things before I arrived!
Reply 4
Original post by Mushi_master
Honestly, just enjoy your time before you start. Didn't go over any old notes myself and I'm doing just fine! Would actively discourage looking at the curriculum before you start, out of context, and timing it won't help much at all, and could confuse.

You'll have plenty of time to learn it when you get there, and everyone should be up to speed in the first term, plus, you've got atleast 5 years of this to come, and that's just as an undergrad.

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That's very true! In the summer holidays between school and college I tried to 'get ahead' and everything seemed 1000x harder than it did when I was being taught it at college. Probably best to wait. Thanks.


Original post by Lazy-
Sorry to go off topic, but I want to ask you something. I fear not getting any offers this year, I was wondering how you went about your gap year and if you have any tips for me in case I need one? And congratulations on your offer by the way!


No worries. If you don't get any offers the most immediate thing you should realise is that you need to get your grades - so don't let it demotivate you from revising and doing well. Even if you have plenty of experience, I would definitely organise some more. Don't leave it to the last minute, because you have to apply again in October and you really need to mention (in your personal statement) what you plan on doing over the gap year. Enjoy it too! Have a break and do all the things that you wanted to do this year but didn't have time to. Don't make your life harder by applying to too many 'top' unis either. I applied to 3 top 10 unis last year.

Original post by KA125
IMO I would learn stuff! Why not be ahead and take some strain off! Not saying this is what I did, I certainly did nothing before I started and am also doing fine but I would certainly like to be knowing things before I arrived!


That was my reasoning behind it! I might try learning a bit, but as someone else said I might end up making things worse for myself. Cheers :smile:
Nah, there's no need to read ahead or anything, just work when you actually start :tongue:
Do absolutely no work. Go travelling, take up a hobby, play video games all summer, work and save up money to blow on booze in first year, just don't start reading textbooks and working through the course material. You've already got 5-6 years of that ahead of you. Take this time to have fun.
Reply 7
The best prep in my opinion is to maximise your energy, excitement, enthusiasm and motivation because it's gonna be a long and demanding journey ahead!
And the best way to achieve that is to really relax and enjoy yourself! Enjoy doing your hobbies~ go on that holiday/try out that challenge that you've always wanted to do and get yourself out of your room! :biggrin:
Reply 8
Original post by Hype en Ecosse
Do absolutely no work. Go travelling, take up a hobby, play video games all summer, work and save up money to blow on booze in first year, just don't start reading textbooks and working through the course material. You've already got 5-6 years of that ahead of you. Take this time to have fun.


Thanks :smile:


Original post by Nimbus
The best prep in my opinion is to maximise your energy, excitement, enthusiasm and motivation because it's gonna be a long and demanding journey ahead!
And the best way to achieve that is to really relax and enjoy yourself! Enjoy doing your hobbies~ go on that holiday/try out that challenge that you've always wanted to do and get yourself out of your room! :biggrin:


Loving the alliteration there! I will try, thanks :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by tania<3
Nah, there's no need to read ahead or anything, just work when you actually start :tongue:


Thank you :smile:
Reply 10
Agree with the others.

Don't do anything. Unless you've done a previous bio-related previous degree, there's no point doing any work as you'll simply just either
a) read something into too much depth for no good reason
b) read something to so little depth to be effectively useless
c) revise A-Level stuff, which won't help you very much anyways

Enjoy your break!
Do as little as possible.

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