As many of us approach the half way mark at medical school, I thought I would throw it back to the start of this journey with this question. What were your initial thoughts about medical school? Did you have any pre expectations of how it was going to be? Have those expectations changed over time?

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I thought it was gonna be really competitive but in actual fact everyone is super nice and willing to help each other! (Most ppl hehe)
I definitely thought the same thing about med school being super competitive but other than that I don't think I went in with many preconceptions! I had to do a lot of figuring out in the 1st semester, particularly concerning learning styles - I found my usual style I'd used throughout high school wasn't really compatible with the course so it took a while to work out a new one! Now I'm a couple years in I'm a lot more efficient than in 1st year bc you do get into a groove with studying and making notes! :)
100% figuring out how you best work is a big part of sem 1! It’s such a change from being spoon fed in sixth form
I thought it was going to be very intense. Thought I was gonna have to be in the library all the time. Having reading weeks frequently, especially in 1st year, really gave me a chance to acclimatise to medical school
I agree with you Sharan! The reading weeks were quite frequent in first year, particularly in the first semester so I actually had more free time than anticipated
Yeah same, I thought it was going to be very full on all the time, and that I wouldn't be able to do anything else, but that wasn't the case at all, we definitely had free time during the week to do other things.
uno that first scene from greys anatomy where they get told that most of them aren’t gonna make it to the end bc it’s so hard? yh I thought med school was gonna be incredibly intense. but tbh it’s been quite relaxed (apart from the sem 3 exam season my god that was horrible) + i also thought that by now i was gonna know everything and be super confident but I’m not (yet) and that’s okay :)
Hahahaa it’s so funny to think about how I thought I was gonna be on the wards vs how I acc am 🤡