How much do I need to know about medical conditions before applying to medicine?

I often attend conferences and events which I try gaining valuable insight from and then I find that during some tasks ,to help you get an idea of things, your often asked questions related to medical scenarios. I understand you need to know about medical ethics but my question is do you need to know about things like arythmias, what they can cause and how they can be treated with beta blockers because a lot of my peers seem to already be well versed in their knowledge of medical diseases and treatments and I can’t help but feel like an dumb student. SO DO I NEED TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL DISEASES TO APPLY TO MEDICAL SCHOOL?

You do not need to know anything medical. Any undergraduate medical degree will include a small amount of remedial biology content in the first year because not every applicant will have started with a biology A level. The average medical school entrant probably has zero medical knowledge, in fact, many people I know had never set foot inside a hospital or GP surgery on day 1 of the course.

The reason all the Universities insist on a chemistry A level is because in chemistry you learn knowledge and then have to apply that knowledge to find solutions to problems. Medicine is often a very similar thought process.

You will be taught all the relevant medical knowledge needed to pass the UKMLA. In some ways trying to learn things ahead of time is not optimal. Yes, knowing that propranolol is a beta-blocker may well be correct but it is far more important to know how it works, what receptors it works on and when and why it might be used and why it might not be used.

Medical school curriculums are usually designed to lay down knowledge in layers so that later content builds on your foundational knowledge which means, actually, your first year content is important because you will rely on your understanding of physiology (and anatomy) a great deal in some specialties.

Your journey through medical school is your own unique perspective and experience that can't be compared to anyone else's. If you were on an all expenses paid around the world cruise, would you really want to take shortcuts like the Suez canal?