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Best Year of Medical School?

I can't comment on this myself, until I'm in at least Year 4. But at my medical school, it's commonly accepted that Year 3 is the best year. It's a clinical year, with lots of patient contact, but none of the stress of Year 4- which is when we have ISCE's and finals. Year 2 is the second hardest year, with ISCE's. Year 5 is supposed to be a great year, but it's stressful with foundation applications, and the SJT and Prescribing Exams. Year 1 is just the year you get used to things.

I'm really looking forward to Year 3.

Which has been your best year so far?

Reply 1

manic_fuzz

I'm currently a 3rd year and intercalating which is meant to be really really easy at my medical school - although I literally did no work last term other than attending 5 lectures a week so I'm not quite looking forward to this term where I'll be trying to make up for that...

I really enjoyed the end of 2nd year because our exams are really early so loads of free time afterwards but the rest of the year was awful - one week I even had 5 essays :K:

So I'd probably say that 1st year was the most enjoyable. Although, I start clinical school next year and I have a feeling that 4th year will top that :tongue:

Reply 2

*pitseleh*

For me, every year has been better than the last. Year 3/4 (since our clinical years run January to January instead of September to September) is widely thought to be the best - 6 rotations consisting of neuro/geriatrics, psychiatry, obs and gynae, paediatrics, GP and a module of your choosing (I did another psych placement for mine). This year is more GP, general medicine, a variety of specialties, and acute and critical care, along with an elective in the middle. I also only have one exam this year, which is the SJT. So yeah.. this year might carry on the tradition of year-by-year improvements. :smile:

Reply 3

Medicine Man

Socially: A toss between my intercalation year and 3rd year. I intercalated after 2nd year so in essence, I had two pretty awesome years back to back.
Academically: I really enjoyed 4th year (surprisingly). The placements were fun, people trusted you a little bit more in the hospital but didn't expect too much because you still had final year to look forward to, and I felt like things started to make a little bit more sense.

Loads of people say final year is the most exciting year because the end is in sight, and bar finals, its more so a year of paperwork. I've found it OK so far. Nothing too exciting just yet. Finals are 2 months away so I don't anticipate it'll get that much more exciting any time soon tbh. In fact, once the novelty of being able to say you'd passed the hardest year of medical school (4th year) and you're a final year medical student wore off (sometime in Week 1 of final year), the year has been otherwise meh.

Reply 4

Mushi_master

3rd year for sure. It's a bit long - but long placements meant for getting to know your group very well, and having plenty of time to take it all in without the same kind of time pressures as other years. Lots of exciting things that you see and do for the first time also, and much less pressure when it comes to exams.

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Reply 5

Kinkerz

Not done final year yet, but second year has been my favourite year. Everything's still pretty chilled out, most people have a decent hub of friends, things are less 'try hard' than freshers' year, you feel like you know what you're doing, et c., et c. Third year comes in as second best.

Reply 6

panda1093

I'm in my 3rd year and it's been the most enjoyable year so far, certainly the most interesting in terms of exams/things studied with lots of patient contact etc..

Reply 7

seaholme

First year of clinics (year 3 or 4, depending where you are) was my favourite. It was really intense, but that's when I first felt like I was actually learning medicine. All the pre-clin stuff felt like such a drag, I hated endless lectures and the material didn't feel that relevant because it wasn't applied at all.

Intercalating was quite fun to do something different, but it was also actually surprisingly hard work.

Final year is really nice and I'd put it as my favourite year except that's mitigated by the stress of finals, the fact it's super short and being at a DGH I really miss all of my non-medic friends.

Reply 8

lazytomato

Definitely the BSc year...I actually had a life...was doing things I really enjoyed...had so much time to do nothing...had so much holiday to go traveling...had so much essays to write and articles to read that I eventually got fed up with it, and this really motivated me to go back to medicine! Exactly what I needed to combat 4th year (hardest year for us)!