Medicine?

It's Tuesday, so it's clinical attachment day! Yay.......
Hey, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my time at my GP Surgery but yeah, it's the second day of class after a long break. No one's really in the mood quite yet, or at least I'm not. Haha

So, lately I've been getting a lot of questions from my juniors, my friends' juniors, and acquaintances about Medicine. What it's like. How do you get in. How smart do you have to be. etc.
How do it even answer all those questions?

Firstly let me tell you this, whatever I've said to you or what I will say is based purely on my own experiences and opinions. So please don't make your decisions solely on what I said. Disclaimer. Hahaha

Medicine is not an easy course, which I'm sure everybody knows.
To get in, it takes a lot of work and once you're in, it takes even more work. You should know that no two medical schools are alike so pleaseeeee don't ask me things like "which university should I pick?" or "university mana yang best?" because I've only been in one. And the only reason I know some things about University College Dublin is because my bf's there. So as to the question which university you should pick, that's entirely up to you and your own research. Make sure you know the medical school's system because like Queen's we have lectures, tutorials, dissection, clinical attachment on a weekly rotation (5 days a week). Some universities in India have classes for 6 days a week. Some universities have more tutorials than lectures. Some universities do not start clinical training as early as first years unlike Queen's. So you get what I'm trying to say?

So what goes on in medical school?

For us in Queen's our classes are mostly from 9am to 5pm with the exception of Wednesdays where our class ends at 1pm to give space for us to pursue other things (sports, societies, volunteering, etc.)
Yes, long hours. There will never be a day where we don't have classes.

In Queen's the gap between our lectures and our tutorials is quite big. For example, our cardiovascular pharmacology lectures would be today and its accompanying tutorial would be 2 weeks later. So a lot of reading is required to ensure you're always on top of things and you don't forget the things you've learnt during the lecture once the tutorial comes around.

Fortunately for us in Queen's, our exam papers do not contain any negative marking (getting marks when you get a question right and losing marks when you get a question wrong) but do remember that many medical schools practice this. And also fortunately for us, if we fail a subject or a paper, we have the opportunity to retake the paper in August. I've heard that some universities do not allow this (but don't take my word for it!).

So basically what am I trying to say?
Medicine takes passion, hard work, and of course intelligence (in no way am I claiming to possess any of these qualities haha). Please remember that I'm only in first year and I'm already yapping about the work. Hahaha. It takes a lot of hard work and it consumes a lot of time to a point where you realise that your joy in life is being able to memorise every bone and blood vessel in the human body. Take it from me, someone who has a skeleton in her room to stare at everyday so that I don't feel guilty for not studying. Hahaha

All in all, we only plan but Allah is the real planner. If it's meant for you, He will guide you towards it. To my lovely juniors who have already decided on medicine, I wish you all the best. Heheh. No really, I mean it :P