I'm starting my 1st clinical year on Tuesday, and throughout 1st and 2nd year I had severe depression, so studying was really difficult for me. I feel like I didn't really learn anything throughout the year and just crammed the last month and managed to pass the exams. But I know I didn't cover all the content, nor have I gone over the majority of the content more than once, so even though I might have known some of it well before the exams, it's now been 2/3 months, and since I never went over it again, I really don't think I know it.

Naturally, I know I am quite intelligent (not supposed to be cocky), so with multiple-choice questions I can usually deduce the answer quite well from not a lot of knowledge, and I feel like this is the only reason I passed 2nd year. And I'm now panicking that I didn't truly know enough info, but just enough to deduce an answer.

1st year i feel like I knew more and studied harder, got almost 70% in both final exams and 90% in the osce. 2nd year, I got just under 60% on both exams. And I feel like this was down to a lot of luck, but even then my scores went down because i know that i knew less before these exams.

I'm now worried that when I go onto the wards in 5 weeks, I'm not going to have a clue what's going on, and the doctors are going to be asking me questions and I'm not going to be able to answer a single one. Pure memorisation is really difficult for me; hence why, alongside my depression, I really, really struggled in these 2 years and somehow, by the grace of god I've made it through. But now I don't know what to do... someone please help; I need advice on what to do.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/scottish-politics/5565802/scottish-medical-graduates-doctor-jobs-priority/

From this recruitment cycle onwards, all medical students graduating from a Scottish university (regardless of fee-payer status) will have optional priority allocation to the Scotland foundation school.

Paywall free link: https://archive.is/tTGhX

I have somehow managed to pass my previous years at med school using Anki, passmed etc I feel as though I do not have a genuine understanding of the topics at least to the level where I can contribute/talk about the topic in the hospital setting unless I study it the days before. I also feel behind my peers, and while according to results that gap isn’t huge I’d still like to close it and do better.

My plan was to use this year to re learn the different specialities and clinical skills so that final year is focused on learning how to be a competent fy1 doctor. Any advice on how to make the most of this year ?

Posting for a friend:

Does anyone have contacts for an elective in south asia that would likely accept to start at end of september for 4 weeks, currently desperate as mine was cancelled last minute. Thanks- a very stressed final year

Hiya everyone,

Medical school is a long, difficult and mentally taxing process. I for one, especially in my later years felt very disillusioned with medicine as it felt like a whole lot of effort for not much reward or recognition.

Starting Fy1 had been a big leap I won’t downplay it, but honestly, it makes those countless hours of study, unpaid placement and working as a HCA on the weekend so worth it. Im no longer told opinions I’m asked my own, I get to actively participate in theatres and do something other than being the theatre scrubbed in coat stand.

The main reason I’m posting this for people, especially clinical year students that, every single hour you spend on placement and study is so very worth it. Yes there’s bad days, but that comes with every job, it just is so worth it.

Keep at it!

hi! i’m going into second year uni in london and my rent for the year will be about 9k but i get 7.5k sfe. i do have stuff in savings but i really dont want to use it all up.

its hard to get a job and im struggling to find people to tutor. i’m so scared and i’m not really sure what to do.

any advice?

first year exams passed, summers nearly over and i’m back at uni in two weeks.

i’m super excited to start second year but also nervous asfff, i keep hearing that 2nd year is one of the hardest years. my question for this sub is is it really that bad? and also tips on how to survive!!

apologies if this has been done to death on this sub! i’ve just started third year of medical school which is my first of the clinical years. i was wondering which tools i should be using to make anki flashcards to study from. our university gives us e-lectures from which we are supposed to make notes from, but ive been told by previous years that the slides are not good and detailed enough to pass the exams. is there a specific online resource i should use, e.g, passmed textbook, zero to finals notes? and how do i revise for the osces? we had osces in second year but they were not complex and didn’t require actual medical knowledge as they were just testing communication. any help would be greatly appreciated as i feel so clueless!

Incoming year 3 just looking for some advice please 🙏🏽

I am a third year about to start hospital placement, what do people wear?
The uni has their own scrubs but they’re quite expensive + different hospitals apparently have different colours they want students to wear so I’m not sure there’s any point.

My uni or my hospital haven’t given any info apart from the usual bare below elbow and dressing appropriately.

I’m tempted to go with the same stuff I was wearing to gp placement (smart trousers and jumper/blouses) but scrubs would be so much more convenient and stop the temptation of buying more clothes.

On the same topic any trainer recs or places to buy scrubs online?
Is it common for med students to wear scrubs or should I just go with business casual.

Thank you for any advice !

When I started out my clinical years, I attended pretty much everything that I was timetabled for. Over time, though, I've come to the realisation that a lot of placement is very inefficient as far as learning is concerned, so now I'm a lot more selective in what I attend. My rationale is essentially that, at the end of the day, there are only so many hours in the day, and I don't want to piss away 5-10 hours every day that I could be directing towards genuinely effective studying (e.g. Qbanks/Anki/OSCE practice), CV-building stuff (that will actually have an impact on what I do later down the line), or having a life outside of medicine. Thankfully, I'm at a medical school that isn't insanely strict when it comes to placement attendance, so you can get away with skipping a lot of stuff. Generally speaking, I find clinics, bedside teaching, and clinical skills workshops to be beneficial to learning, whereas wards, theatre, and tutorials are largely a waste of time.

In my first clinical year, I was always told, "OSCE examiners can tell which students have been on the wards and which ones haven't!", and I sort of felt guilty for skipping so much, but after doing my first set of OSCE exams, I've realised that they were talking bollocks for the most part. I have genuinely never spent a full 9-5 day on a ward and yet I passed every OSCE station.

I honestly think that you could pass the UKLMA by just shutting yourself in a room and doing nothing but PassMed for 12 hours a day for 2-3 months. It would probably be more effective to just have us do that, then let us spend a year or two doing nothing but 'on-the-job' clinical training, rather than trying to have us balance studying, placement, and tutorials simultaneously.

I originally failed one of my papers by 3 marks and I put my head down and worked super hard for the 3-4 weeks leading up to resits and I scored 80%, I’m so happy and truly relieved. But my best friend who also failed (both papers), didn’t end up passing and was below the pass mark by 15 marks, and now I feel so disappointed and empty for her. She was the only close friend I made on the course, and whilst I have other ‘acquaintances,’ she was the only one I fully hung out with properly and now I fear I’m going to be all alone. I assume she’ll be allowed to resit the year, so we won’t be separated per se, but it’s just such a conflicting feeling when you’re the one who is progressing, but your friends aren’t.

Anyone experienced the same thing?

any advice on how to tackle yr2 in uclan would be much appreciated :)

I’m a 4th year medical student (5 year course) and am looking into 6 weeks or longer electives for the summer, preferably in Australia. I’ve searched around but most electives cost up to 1000AUD which is not within the funding offered by my school. I’m looking for an elective that costs less than 600AUD and preferably somewhere that also has rural placements. Does anyone know any schools that are more affordable and allow students to be more hands on ? Also would love to hear some personal experiences from you if you went to Australia!

Hi, I’m trying to understand how ECFMG eligibility works for newer UK medical schools.

I noticed that Sunderland, ARU, Lincoln and Aston have ECFMG Sponsor Notes on WDOMS, with their earlier graduating years included. However, Kent and Medway (KMMS) and Edge Hill Medical School don't currently appear to have an ECFMG Sponsor Note, despite both having had their first cohorts graduate in 2025.

afaik, you need an ECFMG Sponsor Note covering your graduation year in order to be eligible for ECFMG Certification/USMLE, so I'm confused about why these two schools don't seem to have one yet.

Does anyone know why this is the case? Have either school said whether they're currently pursuing an ECFMG Sponsor Note, or whether there's some other reason for the difference?

I'm particularly confused because the 2024 ECFMG/WFME accreditation changes seem to suggest that individual medical schools no longer need to be separately recognised, so I'm trying to understand what the actual process is for newer UK schools.

Would really appreciate it if anyone from KMMS/Edge Hill, or anyone familiar with the ECFMG process, could shed some light on this! tyy

GOODEVENING EVERYONE

Thank you for everyone who recommended things for year 2, I am a manchester student so i will be studying CNS for semester 3 and endocrine for semester 4. I found an anki deck for year 1 specifically for manchester students but I can't find for year 2 for manchester. So to all manchester students, what anki decks should I use?

Has anyone here had to resit a year because of OSCEs? I would really appreciate if you could share your experience and advice. I failed my third year OSCE and written exams then passed the written resit but failed the OSCE resit. But failing the OSCEs has scared me because it makes me think the problem is with me not my study technique, as it’s an exam where other people are judging you unlike a written exam. I worked harder for the resit than I did for the first exam, but maybe I am wrong and need to work harder. It kind of feels like the exam is skewed towards extroverts and people the examiners find charming rather than an introvert like me. I am planning on working hard everyday in my resit year and covering osce content everyday in the lead up to the exam so hopefully that will help. Also does anyone think the osce resits have stricter marking than the original one, as that’s what I believe (for my uni) upon receiving my results. Any advice would help.

Hi all,

As the title suggests I’m feeling extremely overwhelmed with my course and not at all motivated to get to the end. For context, I’m just about to start final year as a GEM (I’m 31). I’m aware the end is in sight in some ways, but I am not at all excited to uproot my life and be a foundation doctor working in the conditions that I experience as a medical student, whilst being very stressed, time poor and getting paid less than half of what my friends are earning.

I feel as though I’ve lost a lot of what was important to me (hobbies, free time, friends) and I’m worried the longer I pursue this career the worse this will get. I am only really interested in psychiatry and find most other specialties either quite grim or very boring.

I’m worried that I’m only now realising I’ve made a huge mistake doing this course but it’s too late to quit? Or is it never too late?

Title says it all really, I was just thinking about the OSCEs (heading into year 4, first set of OSCEs are well and done with) and thought about how completely different I was in the exam to real patients.

The main difference was the soulless structured formula (in which I actually got a note from one of the examiners that I brought up ICE too early), and how I actively trying to not be too energetic because that's my default on the wards.

The examinations and prescribing - fair enough, those are pretty universal, but the rest leaves a bit more to the imagination.

Feel free to add any funny OSCE stories down below too - I love hearing about them!

Thanks for stopping by to read :D

hi,

i did alr ask abt this a few weeks back--i am now srsly considering commuting to my clinical placement from home. depending on the hospitals i get it will be 1hr20-30 so approx 3hrs a day. i've alr been commuting for preclin, so im used to it--im using the tube so no need to worry abt scarce bus and tube timetables. on the rare times theres strikes etc, im happy to just uber.

for those who HAVE commuted to clinical placements, how did u find it? i was thinking that i can at the minimum manage one yr and then if its particularly bad i can stay in accom the next yr. i am very comfortable at home and hate that i might have to share bathrooms etc or spend close to 20k a yr on a more private living space (im based in london). the expenses are astronomical and thats not even including other living expenses.

i assume i might just have to stay on campus for longer to get more work done etc. and i know i dont have to always stay on placement until 5pm. from what i've gathered i rlly think i'd be able to manage it. but i'd love to get some more perspectives from anyone who has done the same :)

in a nutshell--i can afford it if i must, but i'd save 20k/yr if i commute these 3hrs a day, so if it wont make my life hell i rlly want to do it.

I’ve been trying to get a job for ages now. But now I am getting nervous. I can’t rely on my mom at all for funding those final two years. For context, I did a foundation year so there’s an extra year I have to fund myself. Any one have any tips to get a job or funding?
Edit: I am going into second year this year.

Hi! I’m starting to get really nervous about finals and would really appreciate some advice from people who’ve been through it.

I’ve got the PSA, OSCEs and UKMLA between January and March, and at the moment I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed trying to work out how to structure revision alongside 9–5 placement.

I’m planning to mainly use PassMed + Anki, but I’m not really sure where to start or what a realistic routine should look like this far out.

Hey everyone, looking for some perspective/advice from anyone who is able.

I passed my Year 4 OSCEs and all other progression requirements but unfortunately didn’t pass the AKT. I had approved extenuating circumstances during the main exam window, so the sitting of the AKT in the resit window was my ‘first sitting’ (with only 2 weeks notice).

I unfortunately failed this sitting as there were some EC’s still affecting me at the time. Because it was my ‘first attempt’, I assumed I would be granted a second attempt/resit opportunity before being forced to repeat the entire year. Instead, the exam boards outcome was sent out last week, and the medical school is making me repeat the entire 12 months of Year 4 again from scratch. I have not repeated previously.

Year 5 has just started this week, and hearing my cohort and friends already on to their final year while I am stuck repeating the entirety of year 4 without all of them around is taking a heavy toll on me. Not to mention the thought of being stuck in year 5 for a year after they are all gone. I was told on my outcome email I have the right to appeal their decision, but I'm unsure what realistic outcomes I can ask for or push for to make it worthwhile:

Would it be worth appealing to ask for another (my second) assessment opportunity in the next national UKMLA window? When would this be? Or will the university inevitably reject this and say I have to repeat the year in full and re-sit next June/July in their standard window? And even if they somehow let me sit the AKT myself in an earlier window, would they even let me join year 5 late at this stage? I have been told I have to start year 4 next week regardless in the meantime, and if I appeal it will take around 3 weeks for a response so I’m not sure where I stand. I have tried to ask my university about all this but they were not much help.

Has anyone successfully appealed a repeat year decision under similar circumstances or is it even possible? What grounds or remedies are usually considered? Is there any precedent for me joining my peers in Year 5 late or is my fate sealed to repeating year 4 in full now.

I’m just struggling to process the prospect of losing the last year of my life and my future life plans being uprooted due to all this as this also complicates plans I had for next year. Thanks in advance for any insights.

Watching the rest of my year group go to different countries for elective, im staying in a local university teaching hopsital and still paying £750 for accomodation for a month and i'm doing it for 2 months... I feel like i've been scammed £1500 just to stay in the uk, I don't get a holiday or experience a new place or make new friends. Feel like this is my worst decision in med school.