2nd year med student at the University of Leeds: Ask me anything!

Hello all!

This post is intended for incoming students to the Medicine A100 course who would like some advice about how to start the year off right! I know that this year will be a little different, thanks to COVID, but I really want to help make sure that your transition is as smooth as possible!

I'm happy to answer questions ranging from how to get along with roommates to budgeting and how to maintain a work-life balance in medical school. I hope this will be of as much help to you as possible!

Congratulations on your offers and I hope to hear from you soon!

how difficult was to enter the university?

What GCSE grades did you get?

Hello all!

This post is intended for incoming students to the Medicine A100 course who would like some advice about how to start the year off right! I know that this year will be a little different, thanks to COVID, but I really want to help make sure that your transition is as smooth as possible!

I'm happy to answer questions ranging from how to get along with roommates to budgeting and how to maintain a work-life balance in medical school. I hope this will be of as much help to you as possible!

Congratulations on your offers and I hope to hear from you soon!

Would you be happy to take questions from prospective applicants too? I run the general 'I am a current student at the University of Leeds' AMA and I do get questions about medicine which I'm not best placed to answer (as a law student!). I just wondered if you'd be fine for me to send those people your way.

Yeah, definitely! I also tagged this post under medicine, so I'll be looking at the UoL forum and the Medicine forum for questions!

How are you finding second year and what is different from the first?
Is there anything you'd do differently for first year?
Advice on work-life balance?

Hii! I’ll be going directly into 2nd year medicine at Leeds (I’m a transfer student) and I’m worried I won’t fit in because I’m quite shy and have a hard time making friends - I believe it would be even harder since most people will have their friendship groups already. What advice would you give me for engaging with others in my year? Thank you

Hii thank you very much for this response! I’ll definitely try to hang out in the library a bit to meet new people and I’ll find some societies that look interesting, the tennis one sounds amazing (do the medics and dentists get very competitive with each-other haha? 😂). I’d love to join the Facebook group too but I don’t have Facebook maybe I can find some on other social media sites though! I’ll be living in a studio so hopefully that won’t hinder my socialising experience too much

The year hasn't started yet, so I wouldn't really know!
I highly recommend asking 2nd years and higher for study material! Your free time in med school is already very limited, so it's really important to spend as much of that time productively! It may be a bit daunting at first, but please ask around! Everyone's really nice and generally more than happy to spend time studying with you/ giving you notes!

A lot of medical schools make the connection between 1st and 2nd year students easier by hosting a 'MUMs' programme, like Leeds. You're assigned a family, based off of your interests, and you spend time grabbing lunch and doing activities together. So take advantage of this and get familiar with your upperclassmen!

My main regret in 1st year is spending too much time worrying about non-academic things. As a fresher it's very easy to get pulled into events, some that you wouldn't go to otherwise, out of FOMO. Please just stick to doing things you're comfortable with and partake in activities that you find fun! There's no point going to a billion parties if you're not a party person. Or being part of a society just because your friends are there. University is what you make of it, and it's much better spent when you stay true to yourself!

I've found my work-life balance by scheduling in hobbies before assigning myself study hours. The rookie mistake is to plan your free time around your study. If you do this, you're likely to decide to skip a session at the gym, or miss basketball because you 'don't have enough time'. Treat time scheduled for yourself and your happiness as equally important as those study blocks, and you'll get on fine. Also, please reach out to your tutors if you're struggling! They're there to support you!

Thanks for the sensible advice! I can see how one might get drawn into too many things, the FOMO is a real danger haha

Apologies, I erroneously thought you were second year going on third!

The family programme sounds fun and is a good idea. Are these additional study materials, in addition to standard resources that would be recommended in classes etc.?

Thanks for the sensible advice! I can see how one might get drawn into too many things, the FOMO is a real danger haha

Apologies, I erroneously thought you were second year going on third!

The family programme sounds fun and is a good idea. Are these additional study materials, in addition to standard resources that would be recommended in classes etc.?

No apologies needed!

Yup! So, we're already given lecture slides and written resources from the school itself. There are the standard recommended textbooks and resources recommended by individual lecturers. I highly recommend asking lecturers after class if there are any books that you should pick up on the subject matter. Almost all of them are doctors in specialised fields, so they have really good insight into what helped them through medical school.

The study materials I'm referring to are the ones that have been prepared by the second/third years themselves for personal study. It's no secret that a good portion of the medical school uses Anki (a flashcard app), because it utilises the concept of spaced repetition to develop longterm memory. I've found that using other people's flashcards on top of my own helps to increase this bank of knowledge in a much quicker fashion. You only have so much time in the day, and if most of that is spent re-reading lectures, you're going to be pressed for time.

Of course, flashcards aren't the only way to do it, but I think it's helpful to stray away from written notes; too time-consuming and the act of writing isn't equivalent to study (which is a crutch many people fall on).

Hi, what accommodation did you applied too? Has Leeds given any updates as to how many rooms are available/type of rooms ie en-suite? Have certain accommodations been closed due to Covid? Which ones are still available to book/apply for? Thank you.

I had Leeds as my insurance but now is my firm so am unaware of this info.