Is it normal to re-sit first year?

To preface: I had an awful time my freshers year: death of a loved one in my FIRST WEEK, lots of interpersonal conflict (which, as I'm a lil 'tistic, is difficult and draining for me), and SO MANY housing groups fell through, I genuinely though I would be squatting in my parents house in a while.

I can't lie, I'm so psyched to do 2nd year med, but I struggle a little with both anatomy and creating friendships with my 18y/o tutorial group. I think they're truly brilliant, but it's hard to not feel like an absolute old loser? I'm 2 years older than them???

I was wondering if anyone had resat 1st year Med at UoBris and could give me some advice?

Many thanks x

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 1

TSR Hippocrates

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Reply 2

Democracy

Original post by utternonsense

A whole two years older than them? Sounds like you're positively ancient :wink:

It's not uncommon for a few people in each cohort to resit a year but also, we're barely half way through the academic year. Isn't it a bit early to be resigning yourself to resitting?

Reply 3

TheMedicOwl

Do you mean you're in the middle of resitting your first year and you're feeling self-conscious about it, or you're worried about potentially having to resit?

If it's the second one, it's definitely too early to decide your chickens aren't going to hatch! Feeling like you've failed when you haven't seems to be an ubiquitous part of the med school experience. I know it's tricky, but try not to borrow trouble before it arrives. There are so many exams at med school that if you're always "what if"-ing about potential resits you'll never have a peaceful minute.

If it's the first one, then yes, it's quite common for people to need to retake or restart a year. From what I've seen, the students who get most worried about doing this are usually school leaver entrants rather than career changers/mature students. After all, at school most people do everything according to a timeframe that they know is being followed by almost everyone their age in the country: secondary school at 11, GCSEs at 16, A-levels at 18. Any deviation from that feels like failure, so it can be daunting to run out of rungs on the ladder and realise that the near-universal timeframe no longer exists. But as you progress through medical training you'll feel much more comfortable and relaxed about taking a detour. People will decide to go LTFT for health reasons, for childcare, or simply because they have other things they want to prioritise. They might not get into their preferred specialty training on the first go and need to search for a locum job or a clinical fellowship (increasingly common). No one would think of anything of it to hear that a colleague had redone a year at med school or taken time out, and soon it won't matter to you either.