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How Difficult is Medicine?

This may seem a really stupid question but too be honest you get so many people telling you so many things and i just wanted the opinions of some med students on what its really like as a medic. thanks :smile:

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Reply 1

Saffie

it's not difficult concepts it's just such a large volume.
totally doable.

Reply 2

aapl

It's relative to your ability.

Reply 3

Renal

Yer but it's not the massive slog that outsiders often imagine it is.

Reply 4

bright star

it depends how thick you are how hard you find it!! i know some total dough brains and they still pass, they have to spend their lives in the library though. i wouldn't say it was that difficult overall. other things are hard though, like the fact that my year started at the end of august and i still have 5 weeks of it left!! i'm ready to collapse.

Reply 5

burninginme

It doesn't take any super-human intelligence to be successful, just a lot of hard work and determination. It could be said that most people with average intelligence could pass with a very high amount of determination. Debateable, the hardest part of Medicine, is actually getting on the course. You have to have a virtually flawless academic record and have a shedload of work experience in a related field to make your application competative.

Reply 6

Profesh

How are you at memorising textbooks?

Reply 7

*tink*

yep, just tonnes of it although nothing is actually very difficult. so bloody hard work for a few weeks of the year, the rest of the time, meh its not that bad.

Reply 8

Collins

ok thanks guys. was just interested :smile:

Reply 9

martin101

yep basically its a case of having a ****ing good memory (something alcohol doesnt help with). I have produced more notes in 1 year than I did in 2 years of doing 4 A level subjects if thats any guide. It is one hell of a lot of information, but so long as you dont get behind most people tend to cope. I agree that the hardest part is getting in, once youre there then staying there is not quite so hard (but not easy!!)

Reply 10

Philosoraptor

I'm better at understanding things to a very high level of detail so I sometimes dislike the massive volumes of work - but unfortunately , knowing a lot about certain topics give off an impression of seeming like I know what I'm talking about! Oops.
But yes - if I've managed this year, you can probably do it! :biggrin:

Reply 11

Future Doc

Do you find your study habits are better developed? You can identify what's irrelevant and what's useful?

Reply 12

Saffie

yeah i am rather good at passing exams now. when i'm a doctor i'm going to have to ask my patients to give me multiple choices though :wink:

Reply 13

AEH

Yeah, that's very true. For the first two or three months, you'll often get freshers asking about how much depth you go into with a PBL, with some people writing an essay on encephalitis because the word "Head" was in the scenario and others not getting barndoor clues like "A 58-yo smoker presenting with cough and haemoptysis" are code for carcinoma of the lung (It could be other things, but for exam purposes it never ever is). You just develop a bit of a sixth sense for it really, learn to get all those common things. Or you turn into the kind of person who talks about chromosome number abnormalities on emergency admission ward rounds.