A Week in the Life

Monday
6:20am. Land at London Heathrow after an 8 hour flight from Heathrow. Feeling surprisingly refreshed.
12.30pm. Arrive at Newcastle University. Scoff down some scampi and sprint off to lectures.
7pm. Emergency Medicine event on Gynaceology and Obstetrics emergencies. Feeling tired after munching two Mayo Chickens on the way home.

Tuesday
9am. Peer Mentoring training session in preparation of being a Peer Mentor for second year. Engaging and exciting session. Not feeling tired.

Wednesday
12pm. Lecture on Pharmacological Intervention of Gastric and Oesophageal Disease. Rarity this year where I actually felt prepared after pre-reading but also linking aspects of previous lectures together. Still on feeling balanced.

Thursday
10am. Meeting with a Writing Tutor to assess my writing style but more simplifying my writing approach. Writing as a student that is being challenged by ensuring I demonstrate an understanding of the subject before applying, analysing, evaluating and synthesising. Realising that the World is built around models and taxonomies.

Friday
1pm. Team-based Learning. Team fared very well and ended up ranking as the highest achieving team. Frustrated at my performance individually. Had a broad skim over case lecture notes but failed to pick out individual details. Also failed to schematically prepare for the types of questions i.e. differential diagnoses and questions that are likely SBA questions.
7pm. London 2012 on PS3 with flatmates. Helped to put my mind at ease after earlier's disappointment.

Saturday
9am. Newcastle Academic Medicine Society Conference. Enjoyable day. Setting up, helping run stands and attending the odd lecture. Great to meet the full committee and looking forward to committing myself more.

Sunday
11pm. Feeling refreshed after an easy day of Case-embedded and End of Case questions with some simple GI blood anatomy. Not feeling overworked but inspired to return to work.

And that's a week. How quickly fortunes and events change throughout the week. Important to move onto the next day with a mindset of always looking to improve.

Across the Table

As I revised over Easter, across the table from me is my sister. Received numerous academic awards, 10 A*s at GCSE, 4 A*s at A-Level and a Natural Sciences graduate at Cambridge University. She had goals and visions and she has accomplished them - first time, without fault and usually before me. She passed her driving test, attained a publication and got into Cambridge - all before I did.

She is currently the 2nd ranked student in her first year of her accelerated dental degree.

And thus, as a sibling, you always wish to be recognised for yourself. For your achievements, for what you did and how you did it. She has set the bar and continued to do so to this very day. Continually I have challenged myself to meet it but it has been just that.

The only way you can be remembered is by being the best. For that is my goal, to one day, be remembered as the one who led, the one that set the standard and the one who was the best.

Middle of the Pack

This is unofficially the middle of the first year of my Medical Degree at Newcastle University. We have 13 different cases and we are currently halfway through the sixth. October and January exams have come and been passed. I am currently the 223rd ranked student out of 454 medical students across both Newcastle and Malaysia campuses. That places me roughly in the middle of the pack.

This is also the middle point of my projected nine year university voyage and a convenient time to reflect on what has happened previously and what is to come now.

Certainly the first four years have proved that I can be great, galvanise opinion, become an effective team leader and understand critical situations.

But of course, a few failures remain including the lack of a publication, becoming president of a society and never finishing at the top of my degree class.

Those still linger as I am currently at the halfway point but I feel very clear about the end-goal at this point in my medical school career. All that needs doing now is to put in the work.

OFFER

May have taken four years but yesterday Newcastle offered me a place to study Medicine on their five year course for 2017 Entry! Just sheer euphoria. I was actually on my second shift as a healthcare assitant in A&E when I noticed a notification. After seeing the preview 'Further to your interview,' I was honestly bracing myself for a rejection but...

'Further to your recent interview for a place on the A100 MBBS programme at Newcastle University, I am pleased to inform you that we would like to make you an unconditional offer for 2017 entry. Please find the offer letter attached here.'

Just so fulfilling to know that all this work was worth it. All the lectures, essays and dissertations have all come resulted in a dream being fulfilled. Just so grateful to all my close friends, family members and lecturers over the past year for all their support.

The best days are still ahead!

Rejection, Interview, _ #1

Two days ago, I received an invitation to an interview for 2017 Entry from Newcastle. This is for the five year programme having originally applied to them earlier this year.

The interview was today and this was actually a phone-based panel interview with two selectors. So I've been trying to cover as much ground for the interview and particularl panel-based topics whilst also addressing some of the areas in which I did not perform so well in at the panel-based Plymouth interview.

The interview was scheduled for 20 minutes and it went by extremely quickly. The questions were very generic and open-ended. On reflection, I felt that the themes of my responses addressed the questions well but I think I could have delivered the content a bit more succinctly. I felt quite nervous initially when questions were asked based on the content of my responses. The interviewers were very straight-faced and professional so it was hard to tell if these questions were answered properly with strong conviction. Collectively, I felt that I had improved from the Plymouth interview but will this improvement lead to a medical school place?

Ultimately, there are areas in which I know I need to improve in. Particularly around preparing myself for questions ensuring that I answer questions concisely. Current work as a healthcare assistant is proving to be particularly useful in understanding a variety of hospital-based protocols but also understanding how to interact and communicate with medical professionals and patients. I feel confident that increased clinical exposure will particularly help in improving communication skills.

And Rejection #4.

Southampton rejection pre-interview.

And that wraps up my 2017 Entry Cycle application. Unfortunately, it seems that a low admissions score was the culprit this cycle. But my scores have improved from last year and I don't particularly feel any less determined to get in. If anything, I know I'm close. Just need to get myself in as many interview rooms as I can next year. And so, preparation for 2018 Entry shall begin soon. Armed with fresh ambition, a renewed personal statement and hopefully better a better admissisions test score, we'll have another crack at trying to get in. 

Just one more teaching week, two more essays and a 10,000 word dissertation left in my Cambridge Masters degree. My dissertation deadline is on the 31st July. I will find out my startdate for healthcare assistant work soon but I hope to start, at the very least, before submitting my next UCAS application.

The immediate outlook is up. More experience through hospitals, clinical practice and being around medical personnel will help me adopt a more clinical mindset that should help me through interviews. After one interview this year, I know I am close.

But one day I will get in and that day will be a special day.

Healthcare Assistant News!

After three medical school rejections (yet to hear from Southampton), I've decided to apply for full-time healthcare assistant work. I've applied to four different posts (Orthopaedics at one Hospital, two community based clinics and Emergency Department at another Hospital).

News from today is that I have a conditional offer of appointment to be a Healthcare Assistant in the Emergency Department!

Had an interview last week and the nurses were extremely kind and warming. Along with a few standard questions on your past and what you plan to do, I also had questions on ethical scenarios and thankfully, I could think more coherently and articulate myself better than I did at my medical school interview and fortunately, I got a job offer.

Sheer relief that ethics and interview practice has paid off and I'm extremely excited to now proudly become an NHS employee.

 And so hopefully this begins a long career in hospital-based healthcare. Medical school applications await in upcoming months but healthcare assistant work is something new to look forward to.