Should i be worried/quit medicine?

So I'm currently in y1 of med. I completed a foundation year and successfully passed it and proceeded onto y1. Its been about 10 weeks since I've started y1 and i honestly cant keep up with the pace of the lectures. I feel the fy did not prepare us for this. I'm now only up to date with weeks 1-4 of the medicine content (after going through so many flashcards). i was hoping to catch up with the rest of the content (from weeks 5-10) in the December holidays but unfortunately we have our mock due before the holidays in December. its put so much unnecessary stress on me and i know for a fact that I will fail this mock exam regardless of how much i study because of the way its set before the holidays. usually for the previous year and with alevels/gcse's we would typically have mocks after holidays, giving us time to catch up and study but that doesn't seem to be the case for medicine. anyways I feel drained out and I regret wasting my time making notes and not spending the time actually studying them and going over them as flashcards sooner. Is it okay if I end up failing the mock, if I catch up in the holidays - so that im prepared for the actual summative in May? I feel like things are going to harder from here which is also putting me off from medicine. I honestly cant see myself dealing with this much stress for the next 5+ years. But I know I will be more stressed out/unhappy if I quit medicine as I know personally (from experience) that I will struggle to find any job besides a role as a bank HCA :/

No you definitely should not quit this early on in the game. It is perfectly normal to feel behind and no keeping up- this is medicine and you are barely weeks into the first year of the course. It's a lot to learn and take in. You will not be alone in this respect, I can assure you.

You have the festive holidays to catch up. Don't sweat it. Just keep doing the lectures and keep hammering out those flashcards. It is a big shift in the pace and method of learning. You might as well give the formative December exam a go and see how you do. Some people score well, others less so. This is AOK and this is precisely why there is a formative exam in the first place.

It is perfectly normal to not feel that enamoured with the course content in year 1. For some people they will have already studied much of once or twice already. It passes though, I can promise you.

Thank you! I found your reply really reassuring. Thanks!

So I'm currently in y1 of med. I completed a foundation year and successfully passed it and proceeded onto y1. Its been about 10 weeks since I've started y1 and i honestly cant keep up with the pace of the lectures. I feel the fy did not prepare us for this. I'm now only up to date with weeks 1-4 of the medicine content (after going through so many flashcards). i was hoping to catch up with the rest of the content (from weeks 5-10) in the December holidays but unfortunately we have our mock due before the holidays in December. its put so much unnecessary stress on me and i know for a fact that I will fail this mock exam regardless of how much i study because of the way its set before the holidays. usually for the previous year and with alevels/gcse's we would typically have mocks after holidays, giving us time to catch up and study but that doesn't seem to be the case for medicine. anyways I feel drained out and I regret wasting my time making notes and not spending the time actually studying them and going over them as flashcards sooner. Is it okay if I end up failing the mock, if I catch up in the holidays - so that im prepared for the actual summative in May? I feel like things are going to harder from here which is also putting me off from medicine. I honestly cant see myself dealing with this much stress for the next 5+ years. But I know I will be more stressed out/unhappy if I quit medicine as I know personally (from experience) that I will struggle to find any job besides a role as a bank HCA :/

Imposter syndrome is quite common and perhaps is even to be expected when studying for any professional qualification. For some it might crop up a number of times, maybe throughout their Uni course, maybe not. Maybe it will crop up during your foundation years, maybe not. However, this is perfectly normal and is no reason for alarm. The more you learn about medicine and the more experience you have of it, the greater insight you will have into things that could could go wrong and the number of 'known unknowns' will increase. This will actually benefit you in the long run because you'll likely adopt a very conscientious way of working and that enhances patient safety.

I have worked with a wide range of professionals in my life and have also worked in healthcare long enough to tell you that what is not so good is an overly confident or even cavalier attitude. Firstly, because in an understandably risk averse environment no one is going to gravitate toward someone with that attitude which means it will have negative consequences for team productivity and secondly, it has obvious potential to erode patient safety.

There will undoubtedly be people working in many professional roles today who get pangs of imposter syndrome even now despite the fact they have been qualified for many years. Think of it as a professional conscience and take it as a sure sign you are professionally invested in your work.

Just remember, thousands of other people are in exactly the same boat and you are going to grow and develop over time and be a very different person by the completion of your training.

So I'm currently in y1 of med. I completed a foundation year and successfully passed it and proceeded onto y1. Its been about 10 weeks since I've started y1 and i honestly cant keep up with the pace of the lectures. I feel the fy did not prepare us for this. I'm now only up to date with weeks 1-4 of the medicine content (after going through so many flashcards). i was hoping to catch up with the rest of the content (from weeks 5-10) in the December holidays but unfortunately we have our mock due before the holidays in December. its put so much unnecessary stress on me and i know for a fact that I will fail this mock exam regardless of how much i study because of the way its set before the holidays. usually for the previous year and with alevels/gcse's we would typically have mocks after holidays, giving us time to catch up and study but that doesn't seem to be the case for medicine. anyways I feel drained out and I regret wasting my time making notes and not spending the time actually studying them and going over them as flashcards sooner. Is it okay if I end up failing the mock, if I catch up in the holidays - so that im prepared for the actual summative in May? I feel like things are going to harder from here which is also putting me off from medicine. I honestly cant see myself dealing with this much stress for the next 5+ years. But I know I will be more stressed out/unhappy if I quit medicine as I know personally (from experience) that I will struggle to find any job besides a role as a bank HCA :/