Uni Blog - studying BSc Medical Sciences as a homebody 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅
Hi! I'm writing this blog to:
a) Motivate me to study
b) Share my experiences as a homebody and a not-so-social person - I feel like in freshers week, there is a lot of pressure to join lots of societies and events but I wanted to let introverts know that there's no need to rush
c) I haven't seen many university blogs as much as there is Grow-your-grades on TSR so thought I would add to uni blogs instead.
d) I'll also try my best to share the small things I'll be doing such as cooking my own meals and the k-dramas/variety shows I watch!
e) Maybe give some advice to anyone sharing a similar academic journey!
So, a bit about me: I am currently a first-year doing BSc Medical Sciences at Exeter and am currently considering getting into medical research. I used to want to do medical illustration/art but quickly realised that wasn't something I had the money for at this time. I am currently in badminton and my course's society.
The Ultimate Goal: Settle in & maybe get a 1:1 (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)
About Me
(૭ ｡•̀ ᵕ •́｡ )૭
Reply 1
Freshers for me wasn't too bad. I got to meet lots of people and most importantly, my flatmates! I had lots of homesickness at first but I slowly got used to it. I went out once or twice but didn't really enjoy it tbh - I ended up watching a youtube channel called Pingyegyo as well as k/c-dramas and variety shows for comfort everyday. I did a taster session for badminton and had a lovely time so I joined badminton society! The inductions were in the first half of the week so I went home until the day before my first lecture. In my 3/4th week I went to the careers fair which was a bit too early but I got to know the names of some medical research companies!
The Studying: ˙✧˖°🎓 ༘⋆｡ ° (GYG-style)
So, I have 4 modules this term: Biochemistry, Genetics, Fundamental Skills and Integrated Human Physiology and 2~4 + hours of labs per week - which the content is fun although the teaching itself has its ups and downs.
For lectures:
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Annotate the lecture slides during lectures
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Create anki cards ASAP making sure to summarise and tag each card
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Condense info into written down neat notes and add additional sticky notes from textbook research
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attend everything timetabled
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do some pre-reading - skimming over
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indepth reading - making sure to summarise info and complete assignments along the way
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khan academy if stuck
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create a word doc with info combining lecture, textbook etc
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rewrite neatly onto paper and draw diagrams for further understanding & use colouring book as reference!
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(might also make A3 mindmap/summaries/posters at some point..)
I actually really enjoyed cooking and have gotten better at it too! There's lots of oriental shops in Exeter so would definitely recommend it if you like asian food as much as I do. I brought a rice cooker with me, which was lovely as I got to make congee (super cheap and meal-prepable meal!), rice with steamed veg & egg-fried rice. I also had lots of noodles as they are only a 3-5 min cook: shrimp-egg, vermicelli, udon, ramen, jajangmyeon... My weekly shop has also been narrowed down to ~£20 by meal prepping fresh veg and freezing it. I haven't really gone out much as if I had the time I would go home via a 2.5-3 hour train ride. As of now, still very much attached to my family and have been video calling them every day (,,¬﹏¬,,)
Reply 2
A week's grocery shop at Tesco = ~£25, This doesn't account for noodles (bought monthly ~£10 although I haven't ran out yet) and rice (5kg bought before uni started).
Meal prep:
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Cut, cook and freeze veg - carrots, brocolli, baby corn, onion, spring onion etc
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Marinate and cut meat, cook and freeze as well = I chose pork loin medallions and chicken thighs (deboning this is hard so don't really recommend it)
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Portion into reusable freezer bags
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Ramen - have at the start of the week and leave half of the seasoning packet to be used as soup base for rest of the noodles
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Soup noodles - use the seasoning from ramen/chicken powder, a teaspoon splash of soy sauce, little bit of sesame oil and oyster sauce. Cook your choice of noodles for 3 mins in the soup and its done!
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Tomato pasta - just use store bought pasta sauce & pasta + cheese - This is my fav for bringing onto campus and microwaving
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Chicken soup pasta - add chicken soup as sauce + cheese
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Rice - I just put it in the rice cooker and in the last 2 mins steam the meal prep also add soy sauce, chicken powder and oyster sauce for flavour
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Congee - 1/4 cup of rice to 4 cups of water. Could also use leftover rice and add water for congee. This is super cheap especially if you buy rice in bulk!
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Stir-fry noodles - I use udon for this or cook ramen noodles for 1 min. Add a bit oil and stir fry while adding soy sauce, oyster sauce and chicken powder.
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Toast - Cut a square in the centre and place on stove. Add a mixed egg and place cut-out bread back in once cooked. Add cheese and flip - very yummy and filling breakfast!
Reply 3
(imo the best free digital flashcards)
Anki-addons:
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Ankimon by unlucky-life
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Image Occlusion Enhanced
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Review Heatmap
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Add Table
Timings 『⩇⩇:⩇⩇』: For 30 minute intervals - try everyday
Playlist 𝄞: As of now
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Tiramisu Cake - We are the night
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LOVE, MONEY, FAME - Seventeen
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Good Night - D.O
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Ordinary Days - D.O
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Somebody - D.O
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Life Is Still Going On - NCT Dream
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Icarus - Dino (Seventeen)
Reply 4
Tasks To Do:
» Complete Anki cards up to date with all of my lectures
» Skim over recommended reading
» Add to written notes and highlight important info
» Write signalling and endocrine notes
» Have a chill time
» Complete endocrine assignment and finish reading all recommended reading on it and signalling
» Watchlist: "Earth Arcade" , "The Judge From Hell"
૮꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱ა ♡ xx
Reply 5
I haven't actually talked that much about my course in terms of how it's actually run are so this is how I've been in terms of assignments, lectures and assessments:
Lectures: mainly for genetics and biochemistry so far. Honestly, the slides are pretty useful so annotating them saves a lot of time. The rec. reading is easy to understand and the content builds on A-level biology knowledge. As someone who hasn't done chemistry at A-level, biochemistry module is designed in a very easy to understand way!
Labs: Outside of A-levels and a short tour around a lab at a hospital, I have never been in a lab for more than 1 hour. I also got to do many practicals I never thought I'd do before such as gel electrophoresis and PCR-ing my own DNA! Personally, this was quite scary as on the timetable practicals are ~3hrs long and sometimes I have two per week but typically you can leave once you are done. Before and after each practical there are quizzes, instructions, smart worksheets, interactives and videos available - but personally, I wish there was a more comprehensive guide! Smart worksheets make you enter your own data and make calculations, which is sometimes annoying as they don't always tell you the amount of significant figures you need!!! Genetics and Biochem practicals work in groups and there are a set of practical problems to complete in these groups for genetics.
Statistics workshops: We use origin pro whilst following a workbook. I actually found this software quite intuitive to use but I do have to say that it is not as pretty as Excel. There is lots of peers and assistants ready to help. We do have to watch videos in advance but this is not too much of a hassle.
Integrated Human Physiology: Everyone is divided into groups of 8 and each session in the timetable is in this order: group session making questions based on a trigger, 1 single lecture, group session sharing answers, workshop, and sometimes dissections. This slightly annoys me as we have to make questions based on very little pre-existing knowledge of the topic and each topic is an entire body system that we then have to self-direct our learning. The good thing is that the exams are open-book so I'm focusing more upon understanding and researching textbooks.
Campus: This is something quite small, but my course is spread upon two campuses, so there is quite a long walk to each (30 mins between). I would recommend to anyone considering this course to get an accomodation in the middle like I have such as James Owen Court.
TLDR; I would have to say as someone who was looking forward to studing medical sciences, my expectations were met in terms of how much I would enjoy this course. Btw, imo this course mainly aims towards students going into industrial and academic research/further study! Despite being very broad in terms of modules and the new name change, if you want to become a biomedical scientist for NHS definitely go into an accreditted degree!
Reply 6
Tasks To Do:
» Complete Anki cards up to date with all of my lectures
» Write signalling and endocrine notes
So, just need to finish my anki cards and notes then should be good! I have started binge-watching 9-1-1 which is fun and finally feel settled into uni. Having a hot chocolate station and a good few days just laying down in bed watching TV shows helped me feel right at home (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
Blogging is quite fun too!
Optional tasks:
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Do a bit of extra reading
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Work on answering genetics assignment
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Pre-write some notes
Reply 7
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Finish Anki cards for Biochemistry
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Complete statistics revision and formative test
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Finish Nervous system assignment
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Complete Part 1 of Biochemistry Smart Worksheet
Reminders for myself: ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
Research on Genetics Group practical work at some point
Bring calculator to get approved for exams on tuesday
Assignment for Nervous system due on Thursday
Must complete revision for first uni exam on monday!!
Life:
Honestly, in a very great place. Made a few friends and am settled in quite nicely. My complaints about my course still stands but honestly I'm so overwhelmed by managing all the tasks I need to do to think about how much I dislike it. The practicals are also getting much more easier now - a lot of it just involves pipetting. The content isn't very difficult - I just need to remember how to organise my time more effectively, so I have decided to try managing uni life like a 9-5 job in terms of assignments. And am absolutely obsessed with watching the TV show 9-1-1, which is funny as my accomodation keeps on getting fire alarms ( ._. )""!!
Reply 8
Just finished my first exam and am not going to lie - I don't think I did that well.
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I didn't manage to cover all the content that was in the exam - I could not make notes on all 3 textbooks that were recommended in time
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It was online and timed but you couldn't go back between the questions so I sort of panic-guessed some of them
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I definitely did not manage to cover all the content in the depth that was necessary!
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I also made a weird decision to attempt a new note-taking software "Obsidian" in 2 days, which was clearly not enough time to get used to it!
The New Study Workflow (adjusted thanks to this absolute mess I was in this exam and may need improvement)
For all lectures:
1.
Attend all timetabled lectures, making sure to annotate each slide
2.
Create anki cards ASAP for lecture notes
3.
Condense and organise info into written down neat notes and add additional sticky notes from textbook research
4.
Add multiple-choice questions from slides and hand-outs/worksheets to Anki
5.
Condense info from practical work into Anki cards as well
1.
For Lectures, see above
2.
Finish the assignment by the deadline!!! = estimated ~8 hours
3.
Starting with one of the textbooks that is as condensed yet indepth as possible, make Obsidian notes starting with a linear document and making headings, sub-headings and linking them together and use a plug-in to add to Anki simultaneously
4.
For each system make a canvas - basically a mindmap forming links between all the content
5.
Go through other resources and add any missing information
6.
Resources for anatomy to go through when stuck:
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Costanzo textbook has link to website that can create exams as well as videos although these are way too hard for me
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Ken Hub - extremely detailed diagrams and a how-to guide on learning anatomy
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Crashcourse videos
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Osmosis videos & has notes
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Khan Academy
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Copilot (AI) - use to generate multiple-choice exams with feedback although treat with caution and is definitely way too easy
Reply 9
So, I got a 61% which is a 2:1! Honestly, given how panicked I was, I'll give that a win. I personally really wanted to get a first in my first year of uni, so I'll definitely try doing some more indepth revision in prep for my exams in January.
. *🎄*. • Studymas - Revising for January Exams . *🎄*. •
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Finish all of my anki cards adding lecture notes, practical info and past exam papers/mcq
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Anki every morning and night
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Some mindmaps and lecture notes summarising certain topics
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Reading and organising Obsidian notes for human physiology
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Have a nice christmas!
Reply 10
Honestly, it's been rough. The exams were extremely nerve-wrecking and out of my Studymas checklist, I only managed to complete my anki cards and cram them in. The results haven't come out yet for those, but I managed to achieve a high 2:1 in my group project, which is a surprise. I do want to try prioritising working out a balance between my studies and my hobbies - especially as I haven't had much time to do badminton recently. To review my first term, I would say it was hectic but I managed to get a 2:1 in everything so far so that is comforting.
I recently realised I find it extremely difficult to mentally cope being away from home and given the state of our economy, I would like to work close enough to live home with my parents.. So, I have also been looking for job/graduate opportunities in the South West but there is a severe lack of opportunities closer to home, which has been giving me stress recently.
I need to complete a literature review for this term, so hoping I do well in that. And I have 2 new modules of Cells and Microbiology, which seems fun. I am attempting to balance all of this with looking at work experience and learning and developing other skills. I have been looking back at what I wanted to do in the past and have decided to give medical art a go as a back-up plan, so I am going to try making a timetable to fit that in as well! And given the lack of comments on these posts, I am also planning on moving this blog elsewhere but I will finish this year first!
Midweek Study Update (22/01/25) - Grow Your Grades Style (｡>﹏<)
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Complete Renal System assignment
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Read research papers on Impact of Housing on Health in preparation for group learning
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Make Anki cards and write up lecture notes on Microbiology and Cells
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Read background for Cells practical
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K-drama Love Scout
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Rookies Season 7
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J-drama dele
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Completed J-drama MIU 404
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Completed K-drama Recipe for Farewell
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Would highly recommend the above!
Reply 11
I managed to pass all of my modules! At least so far..
Honestly, I did better than I thought I would in the biochemistry exams (1:1) than I would in my genetics (2:2) - like a 20% difference. My theory is that I either made a lot of silly mistakes or simply didn't revise enough near the end of the exam period, which is odd as I felt like I did quite well... - Also, there was not as much past papers for genetics, so maybe I should have done more there?
Honestly, am just glad I passed all of them. This is a grow your grades style blog so at least I have a goal to work up towards rather than trying to maintain..
Mid-Term 2 - thoughts and feelings (,,>﹏<,,)
I feel like this term content-wise is more enjoyable as I prefer cells and microbiology but I also feel like the slides are getting harder to make notes from. There are so many images in the slides and I am constantly unsure of what I will need to know for the exams so I am just writing everything they say... But I definitelu am getting more used to independently figuring this kind of stuff out!
I have an exam coming up and lots of deadlines for other mid-term quizzes. I also have a literature review to do so am also working on that. I have found out that I am spectacularly good at procrastinating and am horrible at managing my time as I did in A-levels (I guess I regressed), but I have gotten back into the swing of things so am genuinely not doing too bad. I think the thing that really hurts is trying to plan every week as my workshops are not at the same time every week so I have to consistently plan a new week out... I will try to post more but trying to revise more so we'll see.
Also another note to myself to have a better sleep schedule so I have more time to study and chill.
Midweek Study Update (12/02/25) - Grow Your Grades Style (｡>﹏<)
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Submit a Literature Review Plan - add all of my references to EndNote as well
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Finish Anki cards for this week's lectures
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Prepare for Physiology exam through mindmapping each system
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Try to plan upcoming week
Life ♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ﾟ.
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Watching the new season of Rookies
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Reading webnovels/webtoons
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Asian Dramas: Study Group, Red Blue, Newtopia
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Fav Song: CBZ by BSS
Reply 12
Thanks to all of the people who gave me reps, making me feel very not alone. Blogging my journey has felt very rewarding but I'll now focus my time on finding a job/internship and the work-life balance of my final exams in my last term. I might continue blogging but perhaps not on this platform. And I'll continue watching this thread to answer any questions but this will be the last official post.
Final Easter Grow Your Grades
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Finish Lecture Anki Cards
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Answer all of the past papers and add to Anki
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Make summaries and mindmaps of broader concepts
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Put all the content of statistics into one doc
Final notes/review/tips
So, using the website GradeGuide, it has calculated my average to be 73.9% which I am very happy with. I have successfully submitted all of my coursework on time, passed all of my exams and have also managed to establish my LinkedIn profile, so I feel quite accomplished academically and career-plannning wise. My course is actually being completely revamped so not sure if a review will help for next year cohort but generally, enjoy the practicals and talk with your lab techs as they are very nice and will help with anything you need.
As a homebody and introvert, I have managed to gain more confidence and friends since the beginning of the academic year. I have also gotten more comfortable travelling alone to local bookstores, the library and cafes. I have gotten back into sketching which is very fun and a bit of light-hearted social media-ing. Currently working on building two websites: one for my family-business and one for blogging.
Last tips from me are to be more relaxed yet more confident. There is no rush in making friends - just be nice, friendly and hard-working when it matters. And have fun, whether that is clubbing, partying or chilling at home, gaming and watching dramas. Speaking of, would recommend watching When Life Gives You Tangerines and Misaeng, my current favourite K-dramas. With studying, plan your weeks either with Google or Outlook Calendar and make to-do-lists. Schedule your meals and chill time, it is ok if it doesn't go to plan as you can move it and adapt. Annotating the lecture slides is so much quicker as notes and making flashcards should be done as you finish the lectures not on holiday such as Christmas, trust me!
Have a nice night to anyone who is reading this or day! ૮꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱ა ♡
/)/)
( . .)
( づ♡
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