What is life REALLY like for a med student in the UK?

Ive been able to talk to small number of people about this and most of their information is secondhand knowledge.

So.. to all those med students out there. How is it as a med student in the UK? I know that the work load is crazy but ive been reassured that as long as i stay organised its good and that ill be well prepared for it because im doing the IB.

I suppose this differs depending on the university but for youself, how much practical work is there compared to the theory/essay work?
Do you guys have time to continue with the sports you enjoy doing? do you continue doing sports?
Do you have time to go out partying?
I dont know if its because my friend "advisor" is just being dramatic but is it true that in med school many of the students have alot of problems because they are ashamed to ask for help because thay are afraid of looking incompetent?
Relationships?
do you enjoy it or regret it?
and other general talk about it would be great :smile:

many thanks

Reply 1

TomInce6666

Speaking from first hand here, ill address all of your points separately.

Firstly.. Workload wise, we do by far have the highest workload in terms of teaching compared to all other subjects. Dentists and Lawyers might get annoyed at me here, but haters gon hate :smile:

I have 9-5 most days, do a placement once a week and id say i work about 2 hours every night unless theres a project/assignment due in like the next week. Its a lot of work, but yes, you can have a life.

Practical work wise, we have one DR session a week, for 3 hours, we have a 3 hour placement in Wakefield on a tuesday, and rest is either research projects or just lectures/tutorials.

I havent got into uni sports, but we have medsoc sports, residential hall sports, uni sports and loads and loads of societies. Two of the girls i go to placement with on tuesday do sports regularly, and manage to do that fine, so its easily accomodated.

We have plenty of time to party :smile:

You've probably heard the cliché somewhere before that medics work hard, and party hard. Sounds so cheesy, but in my first term ive largely found that to be true. Most lads do a tuesday-thursday and come into lectures with shades and a protein shake nursing a hangover, not gonna lie, been there myself too many times.

We are quite proud of what we do, but we have a strong support network, so nobody should have a problem in asking for help in anything, be it work or whatever. Tutors (at least here) are extremely helpful, and you can email them anything and expect a reply by at least the evening.

Im currently in an LDR, but yeah, medic relationships happen, so do others... Its not like being a medic completely dominates your entire life. You will have time for a relationship if you're interested.

As for whether i enjoy medicine? Id never consider another course, as far as im concerned, this is my career from hereonin. I absolutely love every aspect of what i do, and cant imagine doing anything else.

Hope this helps (remember im only in my second term!!!! so if you're looking for a more experienced opinion :P )

Reply 2

lekky

-- I don't play university sports but recreational team for 2 sports & also medics have their own teams so I play in those and go to SNIMS etc
-- haha yes there is time to go partying... this has seemed to decrease this term for me, finance related though, and other people are still going out 3 times a week.. I normally go out 1-2x a week, last term it was maybe 3x a week, but this term I'm poor :frown:

as the above poster said work hard party hard is pretty accurate
-- I met a boy and I have plenty of time to see him :smile:

lots of medic relationships popping up and everyone seems to be sleeping with each other :rolleyes:

apparently medics are an incestuous bunch and this is true from what I see lol!
-- I enjoy it for the most part. not every part. I hate statistics and public health and some labs and some lectures and some topics but this is to be expected, you won't love everything about medicine. I have no regrets. Sometimes I have doubts, not really about medicine, but whether I want to spend 5 years working hard (and first year is NOTHING in comparison to other years, we're told this continuously..) to start at the bottom of the ladder, it's a long time to wait for 'real life' to start. But these aren't serious doubts just a 'sighhh I can't wait for real life to start' kind of thing. Then other times I'm bloody grateful to be in my student bubble that protects me from all real life related issues :p:

I have friends who have no doubts at all and can't see themselves doing any other career or being good at any other career. This isn't true for me, I'm good at lots of things and would be good at lots of other careers & enjoy them too. but medicine is what I want to do and what I believe I'll enjoy most. I wouldn't want to study anything else.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 3

Onychophagia

-Plenty of time for sport. I'm at the gym/playing hockey most days. It gets a bit more difficult in clinics though.
-Yeah, plenty of time for going out too. I go out a minimum of 3 times week and so do plenty others.
- I think it's true that medics get some problems, whether they be personal, academic, in trouble with the police or whatever. The support system here, at least, is great; you'll never be short of people who can help you out.
-Plenty of medic relationships and otherwise. Everyone seems to have slept with someone else in the year.
-Early days, but I do enjoy the course. To echo Lekky, I enjoy some parts more than others.

Overall, you'll find you have a lot more freedom when you come to university. How you choose to use your time is largely up to you. There's plenty of time to do the things you want, you just have to managed your time appropriately.