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All come in. Yeah. Ok. So, hi guys. Um I'm Vin. Um I'm one of the earlier coordinators for me this year and along with Simmy. So Simmy, do you wanna give us a wave go? So this is your intro to first year talk. Um And it's gonna be hosted by Param and N um and they're prize winners. So you're gonna get the best advi advice basically. Um Just a bit about mid obviously, we run these lecture series and we know you have acsi coming up, so you'll have your CSI one as well. So make sure you tune into that. Um And make sure you join the group chat as well, cos we'll put a lot of our updates on there. Um And just a bit about this. Um Make sure if you have questions, I think there's a poll or like no pole option, sorry AQ and a option. So make sure you type in the chat and put the questions in cos no, DMAR will be answering them at the end, but further they'll do, I'll hand over to them. Ok? Thanks for that introduction. Um So welcome to first year guys. Hope everything is going well so far. Um So in this lecture, we're just gonna give you a brief intro to first year. We'll talk about the timeline of phase one. A then some key tips for each of the modules. Um before going on to some resources that we particularly liked to use some general advice and key takeaways. And then as Vin said, AQ and A at the end, right. So welcome everyone to first year. I think you've already been exposed to some of the modules and you know, the life of being a medical student in Imperial. And here's just a very rough timeline of how it's gonna be in phase one A we have PM which you already know, which is just biochemistry and lots of other things. BRS, which is really just, you know, human physiology. LM A which is more on public health than CAS that's not really that relevant, you know, to us at this point, but still it's there CSI which is scattered throughout the entire year and PC H which is just your hospital placement. And these kind of come in order, if you could just go to the next slide, you'll see that each exam, each module will have their own marks. So these are really your opportunity to kind of see how the final exam will be and you know, it's good to take it seriously. So speaking of the things we don't wanna talk about, you know, the summer exam form. That's the thing. Most people dread. Uh, the exams are pretty long but if we look at the grand scheme of things, it's actually quite short to, you know, relative to what you are going to be learning because you're gonna be learning, say 1000 things and they're gonna test like 10 things, but that's how it's gonna work. And for each exam it's like 1 to 3 hours for pal BRS and spotter, they have like the same, very similar format in the sense that if it's an SBA, it's going to be just, you know, a single, multiple choice answer. So that's very simple. That's the kind of thing you've all been exposed to, I'm sure of in a levels or O levels, whatever you've been taking, uh PSA, which is just very short answer questions. These are a bit more tricky. These are questions that allow you to answer with only up to four words, right. I think forwards. Yeah. So up to forwards and it's also worth the same amount as the SBA. And then lastly the essay, Qs, these ones are the toughest ones. They are the ones where you're supposed to write a longer answer. But at the same time, you're not supposed to write a paragraph, like you're not supposed to write an essay on it. You can write a paragraph but not an essay. You gotta get to the point. And, you know, it's the kind of exam that tests your ability to bring out specific concepts, ideas just to get to that answer, you know, and that's pretty much it for the summer exams. I don't want to go into too much details because I know you'll have access to all this information. But what I'm gonna just say is that the exams have a very specific format and knowing the formats before the exam, knowing what SB ASV, SA Qs or SA Qs are, would be really important because once you go in there, you gotta make sure that you stick to the rules that they give you if you get a V SAC and you, I don't know if it's called V SAC, but I call it V SAC. If you get A VSA Q and you answer five words, even if your answer is correct, they're not gonna mark it because it's over four words. So that's one of the advice I would give like, you know, the format well and play by the rules. Yeah. Other assessments are LM acsi and PC H for LM A in year one, you're gonna be tested just purely on your podcast and the podcast is a relatively new installment of their assessments. So what's gonna happen is you're gonna be working in your groups, group of 5 to 6 people, I think, to create a podcast on a public health issue. And in the end, you're gonna be awarded most of the marks based on the quality of your podcast. Now, the other 20% that you see there is based on the live Q and A which is basically your response to questions by the examiner at the very end. Now, that's an individual mark in a particular group, everyone will get the same 80% portion. So if your group scores say, you know, seven out of 10 for that particular 80% then you'll get seven out of 10 for that. But the live Q and A is like your own portion, you got an answer. Well, for that, uh CSI is basically just, you know, a bunch of EFA stuff together except this time, it's summative and I think parm will be going into more detail on the CSI S and how it's different from BRS or P. However, I think you've also had the opportunity to see the first CSI case. I think more Abebe and who again, the freshest flu. And I think you kind of know what to expect already, but it's basically bringing some of your knowledge from POM, from BRS and then just mashing it all together and looking at it from a clinical point of view. In the end. I think it's not that tough compared to PBRS. So don't sweat it that much. Yeah. Take it easy and then PC H is a pass or fail module. You're supposed to go into hospitals, go into GP placements and then, you know, get those sign offs based on the things you need to be doing. Sometimes they'll make you do some practical skills and get that signed off by a doctor. But that's pretty simple. So, no worries on that. Ok. So I'm just gonna go through each of the modules that I know, talked about and give some tips on how to succeed in each of them. So you right now, you guys are in the middle of pom. Um And pom can be quite daunting and difficult at first. Um because it's quite a big step up from school and people don't like it tend to, people tend to not like it because it doesn't feel like medicine or at least that's how I felt. Um And it won't make sense at first, but that is completely normal now, like first time is the time to just experiment with different techniques in lectures and also when you're revising the lectures afterwards, so just try out loads of things and see what works. So annotating lecture slides or making Anki in the lecture or doing mind maps or editing older year notes during the lectures or even just listening. Just like, for example, you might wanna do one thing in one lecture and then move to another thing in another lecture and see which lecture you understood more from. Um for example, for me, I know that I am really bad at multitasking. So if I try and make notes and also listen to the lecture I won't understand anything. So in the lecture, I won't do anything, I'll just listen. Um and maybe make a very few notes um in the notes section of the powerpoint or something. Um And then after the lecture, I'll convert notion from the note bank into an key cards. Um But you have to find out what works for you because we all learn very differently and now is the time to figure that out. Um I'd also say for now, focus on understanding rather than rote learning. Um For example, in Cel Met, understand what's happening in a group transfer reaction or in a hydrolysis reaction rather than learning or memorizing all 10 steps of glycolysis. Um Because you have time for that later, you can memorize that when in your Christmas break, when you're arising for the POM mok. Um But I'd say now, like there's so much content right now, just try and get to grips with what's actually going on. Um And then when you come to revise, you'll have an understanding and you just have to memorize. Um So yes, that's what I'd say for Pom. Um Also make the most of TVL S poms nice because you get a lot of uh team based learning things which are completely formative. Um And they can really help you understand the topic, like even if you haven't done the goal that you were supposed to do and you know, absolutely nothing just by attending the TBL, you'll learn so much. Um, so don't not go because you're scared that you don't know any of the content. Um, they're really, really useful. Same with tutorials. They, your chance to ask questions about anything. Um, we get really good teaching. So make sure to make the most of those, um, and labs as well. They do labs come up in exams, so make sure that you go to them, um, then don't leave it until Easter, so revise properly for the POM mark, I'd say. Um, because what you don't want is to be learning POM for the first time in Easter because you'll have so much to go over for BRS already. So make life a little bit easier for yourself. Um, by revising POM properly in Christmas and then it will just be revision the second time and that will take a lot less time than learning it for the first. Um And ideally keep revising PM throughout term two after the mock. Uh, I said I was going to do that but I didn't actually do that. Um But it would have been ideal. Um, and don't neglect research skills and P VB, I'd also say, um because those will come up and they're really easy marks to get. So even if you just do like a couple of hours the day before the exam, that's plenty. Um, but it is worth doing that because that can help you pick up a lot of easy marks. Ok. So then you've made it past PM and onto BRS, you'll start BRS towards the end of this term. Um And it's a lot more exciting, it feels a bit more like medicine. Um But it is having an understanding of PM really helps like Pom set does set the foundation, that's why they do it. Um So if you understand Pom BRS will come so much easier. Um So again, that's another reason to just really revise properly for the Pom mock. Um, the volume of content is a lot, there's a lot to learn in BRS. So I'd say the best way to try and tackle that is just doing little and often. So for example, if you're twen doing 20 an cards a day in time two, that will help you so much, um, and that will help you lighten your load. So you have less to learn and Easter, um, you won't be able to learn everything. This is something that's like really different from school and I find it really hard to like to come to terms with this. Um, I think the big mystery of medicine is what you need to know and what you don't need to know. Um, and I think the older editorials can be really helpful in that. Um, they, they tend to point out the high yield stuff and what's the, what's more likely to come up. So I'd really try and focus on that. Um, but also, generally, I think it's better to know a little about a lot than a lot, about a little. So, I'd say spread your knowledge wide. Like, it's better to know 75% of 10 lectures than 100% of five lectures if that makes sense. Um, but, yeah, don't stress too much about learning absolutely every slide from every lecture because it's just not feasible. Um, and, yeah, that's, that's ok. You can still do really well without knowing everything. I'd also focus on, um, certain certain topics in BRS are way more likely to come up. Like for example, neuro and endo, you spend a lot more time learning them. So they're gonna be much more marks for neuro and endo than psychiatry, which you have only a few lectures on. So make sure to split your time like that. Um, tutorials definitely don't neglect these BRS tutorials. How they basically work is they're always based around a case. Um So even if you don't go to them, I mean, obviously try and go to them. But even if you don't make sure you look after the, uh you look at the slides after, after, um, because they will be likely to ask you case based questions in exams. So knowing, um, being sort of familiar with that is really useful and again, research skills and P VB is also needed uh for BRS as well. So don't neglect that. Ok, so moving on to anatomy and clinical skills. This is, can be quite challenging. At first I remember like the first uh dissection room section, I was just like, I don't know what I'm looking at. I don't actually know what the hell is going on and that's completely ok. Um So for anatomy, it's split up into four parts, right? You have, I don't think you guys have had it yet, but um it, you have the part one goal guided online session, then your clinical skills, then dissection room and then the post session goal, I would say the part one goal is absolutely crucial. Um It will make your dissection room session so infinitely more useful if you have a vague idea of what's going on. Um There can be really long like they're scheduled to take an hour, but they always take more. Um But I'd really say like do do try your best to do them before because it will just, you know, obviously, when you're in the dr if you have no idea what anything is, then you're not really getting the most out of that. Um And following on from that, the dissection room is not to be missed. Um You can't watch that online obviously. And Lydia and Fanny, the two main ladies in the dissection room are really, really helpful and they can give you so many tips and tricks or for the exam, like, especially like Lydia, like if you speak to her for five minutes, you've just gained so much and she'll teach you all these like mnemonics and things to learn. Um for anatomy and she obviously writes the exam. So it's useful to go and speak to her and follow her around. Um Yeah, listen to absolutely everything they say. Um And similarly, any revision sessions by Lydia, they'll be really good. So attend those as well. Um And then when it comes to revising anatomy, what I'd say is so it's a two step process first, you wanna uh learn. So I for learning, I'd use illustrations. So pictures like um Grey's anatomy which will be in your goals. Uh or Netters is another source and complete anatomy, which is like the 3D moving screens that you can have. And that's sort of like a pictorial representation which can make things, it, it's sort of exactly how things are supposed to look like and it will help you learn where things are in relation to another. But when you're actually revising for the exam, you want to be using Cadaveric images only because your exam is just cadaver uh images and um some radiological images as well, but mostly Cadaver. Um And so for that, I'd use rowin flash cards. I'm sure you've uh many people have told you about this, but um you can either get the physical flash cards or you can get a PDF online. I'm sure as well. Um But yes, I definitely reme recommend using those for revising um Anki. So an fight everything. I'm like such a huge advocate for Anki. I really, really like it. Um And anatomy is like just a memorization game. So Anki is your best friend there. Um Another thing which I didn't really realize until a bit later on in anatomy is that it's not just questions like uh what is this structure? What is that structure? There's also a lot of high order questions they like to call it. So what is the function of the structure? What nerve supplies that structure? What's the, what blood vessel? And if it's a muscle origins and insertions as well? Um So don't forget about that and make sure to cover those where relevant and they'll be pointed out sort of in the goals, what um origins, insertions, blood supplies you need to know and what you don't. Um Which again, that leads to the point, don't learn too much detail. There's so much detail in anatomy and I think a mistake I made in first year is like learning way too much. And then I actually found that they tend to not really ask about the obscure structures that you'll have barely heard of. It's mostly the the main structures. So really focus on the high yield stuff. I'd say you don't need to learn every single angle and every single, you know, detail uh minus tiny blood vessel that's not necessary. Uh OK. So CSI um as not said CSI is quite chill. Don't worry too much about it. Um It is tested throughout the year. You could do really well with just a little bit of focused revision, I think. Um So obviously attend the sessions and then my sort of formula for SCSI every single time was I just the night before or maybe two nights before. Um If I was feeling extra productive, just rewatch the session on pan Opto on two times speed and then I'd watch the Med Utor on two times speed. Um And then I'd also make sure to do the post reading because it can and will come up. So the part three goal that you'll have like, they might link like a, something like an NHS website. Um and they will be really sneaky and put in a couple of questions on that. So that's something to keep in mind. But yeah, not too much stress for CSI. Um LM A, I'll just touch on this briefly because there's no LM A exam in phase one A, you just have the podcast. Um as we talked about, um you will have like LMP goals and tutorials throughout the year and they do say that they can technically come up in the year two exam. So just be mindful of that because you do have an LM A paper in year two. Um But yeah, in your podcast, you have that in the summer term. So that's quite a while away, it's super chill. It's nothing to worry about. Um I'd say part of your mark is a peer evaluation though. So make sure you do turn up to the sessions and you contribute. Um And then you'll also have, so you basically have um five teaching sessions on an aspect of public health. So sleep, mental health, like nutrition, things like that. And in those teaching sessions, that's when you can sort of get ideas for what to do your podcast on and what papers you wanna be looking at. So make sure to go to those sessions. Um, and that will give you advice on sort of what to include. Um And then, yeah, we talked about the fact that there's AQ and A, so your podcast is played in front of a few examiners and then there's AQ and A, it's a little bit daunting, but, um, it's nothing to worry about if you know what your podcast is about. Um It's nothing to, they're not gonna ask you anything crazy. Um OK, so PC H, this is your placement. So you'll have GP every other week. Um I'm not sure if you guys have had it already, but if not, you'll start soon. Um in GP placement, you're basically doing pa patient conversations. You also have a survey project to do. Um I'd say for the survey, make sure a mistake I made, which I would have done differently is uh send your survey out really early. So you can get more responses and then you'll get more data to work with because we literally got like 10 responses for our survey cos we sent it out really late. Um But yeah, in placement, just ask lots of questions. You can feel really like useless in first year on placement. Like you're just standing there, you're just a decoration. But if you like, if your GP said something in a con con consultation and you didn't really know why, ask afterwards. Once the patients leaves, you'll gain so much more that way or like ask to do things, ask if there's anything you can do. Um And hospital placement is the same. Sometimes you literally feel so useless. Um But you ask like, can I see this? Is there anything I can see? Like can I can I speak to patients? That's really key because speak, speaking to as many patients as possible is so important. It's such an important skill to develop. Um And you don't get that many opportunities to speak to real patients. So take them while you can. Um And also something from hospital placement is if you're hanging around doing nothing, this is a long while away. Um But just something to think about is if you've got nothing to do um like sometimes my uh consultant will just be like, yeah, there's nothing for you to do. Like go home or go to the library. You can always go to another ward and ask to see something. Um, and the doctors will be more than happy to have you watch procedures. Like I remember we would go and like watch, go to the endoscopy ward and watch like colonoscopies and things just to get something different and see something. Um, and that's completely fine. So that is what I mean by placement is what you make of it. Um So no, it's gonna talk about some resources that we liked using at last year. Yeah. So a lot of these are my preferences for what to use in terms of, you know, external resources. But um you know, I think they're mainly before we even think about resources. There are two goals you want to like, think about achieving if you're trying to score well on the exam itself, you know, you can scrap this entire page and just stick to the lecture slides because that will be more than sufficient to get you, you know, a good score in the exam. But, you know, if you're curious about things, if you want to like, you know, dig deeper, go read about other things. Sometimes you find a concept that you want to read more about a concept that was not well explained in class or did not go as deep as you want, you go for the other external resources. And what I like about textbooks is that, you know, textbooks will offer you like a bunch of information. A lot of them irrelevant to your course, but some of them really useful. So, the way I do it is I base my revision on the electric sites themselves. But if I just wanna, like, skim about a topic, if I just wanna read deeper about a topic, I go for the textbooks. Now, the textbooks I'd recommend for BRS, uh, I would say Constanza is pretty good because Guy 10 and ho just too long, you know, honestly, it's like double the size of Constanza. And from what I've read, Constanza aligns pretty well to whatever's being taught in BRS. So kind of matches up now for anatomy, I think paras already mentioned to you all the different resources, but I'll just repeat them again here. Rohan's a really good one, very important one for your exams because pretty much all the pictures are going to be cadaveric images from Rohan's. So the fact that they use only a single textbook to make that exam kind of already tells you which book you should be revising from. But it's very good in the sense that if you go read Rohan's and if you're able to identify all the structures that Rohan has annotated, then pretty much you're good to go, you will not, you will definitely not fail your exam because that will create quite a lot of marks already. Now, Netters Atlas of Anatomy, Grey's Anatomy teach me anatomy. These are in my opinion, for different purposes for Netters Atlas of Anatomy. It's better than Rohan's in terms of visibility. You know, because Rohan's a Cadaveric image Atlas. So what you're gonna see are real images and lots of the times they're very obscure structures can be very obscure. They're not really clear in terms of where they're inserting into what kind of innovations. Um and the spatial orientation are better, that's better appreciated in Netters Atlas because the colors are going to be different. And it's better if you just, you know, get the concepts the spatial orientation from Urs first, then apply it in Rohan's, you know, kind of imagining it in Rohan's Cric Images. Gray's Anatomy is a totally different book. Honestly, it's not an Atlas anymore. Now, it's a total textbook. So what you're getting from Grays are the concepts, the nitty gritty details behind each structure you're gonna be reading. For example, if you go and read, well, say about the pterion, you know, I think you've learned that in head, neck and spine, one that might say that that particular point is called the pterion. It's the connection between these sutures. OK, fine. But if you go into gray, you might get like a clinical significance box where they start talking about oh if you get hit in this area, then you get what kind of hemorrhage you get extradural hemorrhage, blah, blah blah. Then it goes on to explain why that's the case in relationship to blood vessels. And so on. So if you want the concepts down, go for gray, if you want the spatial orientation, go for netters. If you want exam strategy kind of preparation, go for rodents. Now teach me anatomy is really kind of like crash course. You know, it's like if you want to bite size thing, say what I would do normally is if I didn't have the chance to read part one of an anatomy series, I would just look up structures from teach me anatomy and be like, oh OK. That's called that OK. Some ideas about innovations, then I'd go, go into the actual dissection room, not knowing everything about the goal. But, you know, at least I have some names in mind, you know, teach me anatomy, does that job for you. And if you're curious about a certain structure, it's innervation, it's uh blood supply, blah, blah. It's very easy to just look up online and teach me anatomy on the side and it'll pop up quite reliable. I would say so very good resource to use. And for pom, the only book I would recommend you, you know, even touching would be hematology. Barbara Jane Bain uh aligns very much with our course structure because I think Barbara Jane Payne probably is from Imperial, right? So it's kind of like connected, but I wouldn't say go read the entire book, read the relevant sections like in hematology, you're going to be dumped with a lot of uh clinically relevant terms, findings c clinical symptoms. And you know, it's just quite interesting if you just go and read that book to further your knowledge. But for PM, the lecture slides will do it, wouldn't be worth it to go into an immunology textbook or go read like research reviews just to figure out a particular concept. I think it's best to just stick to the lecture slides because they have already compiled all those information for you. So that would be all the resources in terms of the textbooks, for the other resources. I would say osmosis is quite a useful uh set of videos you can go in there look up a particular concept that you don't understand and because it's geared towards usm le some resources they give might be slightly different but it's not, you know, wrong, all of it is correct, like, you know, it's pretty reliable. So osmosis is really good, especially for BRS. When you're looking at uh physiology, pathophysiology, it's very relevant for palm. Sometimes it might go beyond your syllabus. Sometimes it might not mention everything that is in your syllabus. So you've got to tailor it to your own like slides, you know, finding out relevant bits of information from that. But osmosis is not the only external resource like videos I would recommend you can always just search up youtube, youtube has so much these days. Like I think Ninja Nerd, right? Or all those crash course videos, those also work. But I wouldn't say, you know, rely on those solely because ultimately those are external resources, they're not gonna match with your uh syllabus 100%. So it's best to just refer to what you have. Alright, next slide, please. All right. So this was what I thought about when, you know, I had the question how to study. I think a lot of people have asked me how to study and the answer I give to people is just a lot because if you keep thinking about how to study, developing, you know, new techniques to study or trying out new things, these are fine at the start. But if you keep doing that for the entire year and then the second year and then the third year, then you are wasting a lot of time just, you know, trying out new things. So what I'd say is if you have found a method of studying that works for you, then stick to it and do it a lot because ultimately changing your study techniques is not going to improve your productivity by say, 200 or 300%. What's going to do that is you actually putting in the work 200 or 300% more of what you are currently doing. So I think a lot of people like to say it's about the quality, not the quantity, but I'd say it's both, you know, if, if you have the quality and the quantity you're gonna beat quality any time. Now, the picture I put on the left, that one's a stock image doesn't matter, but on the right, I think that one's a pretty good representation of what you're going to be facing in medicine. You're gonna have this whole island of things you don't know and things that you're ignorant about, you know, concepts, names, ideas in medicine. And your entire goal in studying medicine is to increase that small green box, that small green area of being aware. And I think what said was really good that medicine is about the breadth, sometimes not about the depth of it. So the more you expand, you know, what you're aware of and what, you know, well, the more likely you're gonna perform well in medicine. But again, like para said, it's pretty much impossible for you to know every single thing and cover every single, you know, bit of knowledge on your electrolytes or even in textbooks, you can try reading them, you know, retaining them is another thing altogether. So I think the goal shouldn't be to have a complete knowledge of every single thing. But again, to strive towards knowing as much as you can and covering all the bits that you might not know or maybe ignorant about next slide, please. Oh, I think that kinda, that picture kind of covered it for a PDF. Oh, you made it into a PDF. So it behind that brain image, I had this diagram of rote learning. And the thing about rote learning is that it gets a lot of bad rep from, you know, medical education, lots of people hate it. But, you know, I think that I've just been doing it. The thing is different, people function differently and, you know, some methods might work for you, some methods might not rote learning. In my definition would be, you know, just studying, studying, studying, you know, brute forcing through it without using much resources. If the lecture slides are given to you, use the LEC lecture slides, you know, and then revise from it, repeat, repeat, then do the exam that's rote learning. Now, the thing about rote learning is I think it gets a bad rep because people do it insufficiently. If you just wrote, learn once and then forget about it after that one exam, then you know, that's not gonna work for you. And that leads me to my next slide, which is very well annotated a stock image of a person running, supposed to link you to the analogy that a lot of medical educators like to use that medicine is a marathon and not a sprint. But I think that analogy is a bit flawed because if you think about it, I personally, I think medicines more of multiple sprints, you know, added together because in the marathon, you just keep running at probably the same pace, you pace yourself throughout. But in reality, in medicine, you're gonna be faced with a bunch of exams. You're not gonna be reading 24 7 for the entire 3, 65 days a year. What you're gonna be more likely doing is, you know, an exams approaching. Ok, I'll start ramping up my revision schedule. I'll start studying more that becomes a sprint. And so add up all those smaller exams together, you know, you get multiple sprints and then to the end there's a big sprint, which is your big exam. So the point I'm trying to make here is that consistency? Sure. It is key. But at which level that depends on you, that depends on who you are, how you like to manage your schedule. If you're someone who can consistently do flash cards every single day, then good for you. But a lot of people I know don't exactly do that and they're still doing fine and I think a lot of the time making it a marathon is kind of a wrong analogy. So that's my take on it, you know, how to study, just do whatever's going to work for you. My method is just using the resources that have been given to me, you know, making the most out of those resources, reading, rereading and then doing it long term. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I agree with everything that I said there. Um So just some general advice and key takeaways. Um We've been through a lot and I'm sure you've gotten loads and loads of advice from many people over the past month. Um, and everyone will tell you just slightly different things, um, and try not to get overwhelmed. You will figure things out. It just takes time. Um, as note said, there's no one size fits all way to pass first year. Um, yeah, spend the first time maybe trying different things out and then see what works for you. Um But I'd say whatever method you use personally, I think that you should try and implement active active recall and space repetition. Um Because I feel like that's really important to keeping things in your brain. Um So for me, I did, all I did was Anki, like I literally didn't make or look at any notes. Um Because for me, AKI implements active recall and space repetition for me. Um So that's sort of my one stop shop for version. But for other people that might not work. Um But I'd say whatever you do try and do it like you don't want to look at a resource once and then never look at it again. Um That's not gonna help it stick in your brain long term unless you have some sort of photographic memory. Um I'd say the Note bank is really helpful. So the I CSM, ICS, MSU Note Bank um because I find that making your own notes takes a lot way too much valuable time. There's way too much to learn. Um, I mean, I think it's quite, it's quite difficult to adjust cos a lot of us in school would like, like making our own notes exactly how we like them. Um, but I think some things have to give in medicine. Uh, you kind of have to give up that perfectionist attitude in some respects. Um, because you know how long, if you're gonna spend three hours making, like perfectly formatted notes, that's three hours that you could have been spent doing after your recall. Um So yeah, my favorite is a Rs notion personally from the note bank. Um And I would just convert those into flashcards, like I didn't even make my own flashcards because again, that's all the same thing. You're spending time creating resources rather than actually studying. And I think a lot of people fall into that trap of they spend like days and days making flash cards and they never actually do them. Um or, you know, you like, you know, you'll look at, you'll do the flashcard once, but then you don't actually do the reviews and that sort of defeats the whole purpose of AKI you're supposed to do the cards like so often that by the time you, you, you're at the day before the exam, you know, that you can do the answers in your sleep. Um So I'd say don't waste time creating resources. Um Lecture slides as Noda already mentioned. So they can technically ask you on anything that they've said in the lecture. But the stuff that's on the actual slides is what's realistically gonna come up most of the time. Um So they'll give you the, there's a lot of extra details that lecturers will put in for interest. And obviously that's interesting um like for your own learning, but don't stress too much about all the little details. Every word that the lecturer said when you're going to revise, mainly focus on the information that's on the slides. Um But the absolute main thing is just enjoy it, like take time off, spend time with your friends, go to societies, events, whatever it is you like doing. Um first year is such a fun time. So don't spend all your time stressing about medicine. Yeah, for I's totally right there. First year is about enjoying life for it. Exactly. Um You don't wanna, you know, get to the end and just look back on all you did was study. Um Yeah, and just to add to that, like, you know, uh the thing about active recall, space repetition and using external resources like ac and was it notion like, no, uh I personally don't use them myself, but I've seen many people use it and, you know, they've gone to be very successful at it. But the thing I have the issue I have with it with most of the people is like, what Parham said, if you simply make the flash cards and leave it alone. You know, what's the point of that? Because all the way I justify not using those resources is that when you're going into an exam room, you're not taking your flash cards with you, what you're taking with you is the thing that is in your hip. And if you're not, you know, transferring the information from the flash cards into your memory stick, whatever that's called, then, you know, you're not gonna be able to do anything in the exam. So that's what I have the issue I have with most flash cards, you know, if you just make them and don't use them, what's the point and on enjoying it, you know, the way I normally just try to make revision a bit more enjoyable is that I like to quiz my friends. And the thing about it is that, you know, sometimes with, with some people, it might come across as if, like, you know, you're just, you know, messing around but, you know, do it with the right people and, you know, they'll quiz you back and with that kind of back and forth, you're kind of like reinforcing what you're learning. It's active recall. It's based repetition. I don't know which one it is. But yes, it is one of those. And I think it's really useful because sometimes we would bring up the most obscure thing in the slide and then test each other and then we'd be surprised how one of us, you know, some of us could remember it and it would be, it, it's quite funny, but at the same time it's also reinforcing, you know, tiny bits of memories and making it easier in the long run. So, you know, some things to note. But again, please enjoy your first year. I mean, it's the easiest one. Is it, is it the easiest one? Pearl. Hm. Maybe still it is still difficult but I mean, you guys can definitely do it. It just takes, I think. Um But yeah, exactly like what notes said, testing people um doing revision with your friends, it makes it more fun and it, it helps you pick out like your gaps in your knowledge and gaps in other people's knowledge. Um You know, like if you're just using your resources over and over again, you won't, you won't be exposed to sort of other, other things that you might have missed. Um So that's really good and helpful. But yeah, just good luck. I'm sure you guys will do. Uh amazingly well, uh you've still got lots of time to enjoy. So yeah, I think now we're gonna move on to the Q and A, we've written our emails there as well if you, if you have any questions after the fact, you can also email us. Um But yeah, did you guys have any questions? Ok. Thank you so much. Um um So I'm gonna read the questions that people have asked so far and OK, and there's more coming in which is good. So um yeah, both of you can jump in with whatever. Um So the first question is in lectures, would you recommend making notes or annotations or do you just recommend listening? I think you mentioned this and also what techniques to be used to process and retain the lecture info, for example, flash cars making notes. I think you've touched on this. But if you could just give me a brief summary, um Yeah, so like I said, I just listened in the lecture, but you have to know what works for you. Like I literally like if I'm writing something, I won't un hear what the lecturer is saying. So I like to just listen, absorb and then go and look at flashcards after the fact. Um So that's what I did personally. And in terms of what was the second part like uh techniques to use to process and retain. Uh Yeah. AKI literally, I'd go convert the notion uh a Rs notion to AKI and then just do the AKI like whenever I got a chance basically, and someone said, can you share your ki with them? So uh I think it's we can sort that out. But yeah. Um OK. And the next question was, how do you identify what is high yield from the lecture slides? Mm uh Should I take that uh finding what's high yield in the electro slide is very easy for BRS. Uh remembering it's the tough, tough, tough part. Uh The high yield part in your BR slides will be highlighted in blue. You know, that's like pretty much most of it. But like, you know, it's that one's high yield. So anything in blue, anything that's bolded, that one's high yd, they can test you on that. We once had last year while we were doing our be be exam, a question on the most obscure part in gastrointestinal. I think P remembers this is smiling already, you know, the bifido bacteria thing, you know, like what they can do is as long as they have highlighted that word or that, you know, paragraph whatever in blue, they can test you on it. So what happened last year was we had a whole lecture on how the small intestine, the intestine, how they were blah, blah, blah. And towards the end, there was one slide on the gut bacteria and its name. Do we think it's going to be relevant as you know, us practicing doctors in the future? Probably not, but they decided that one's important. So what's the lesson from all this? As long as they highlighted it? It's possible that it's gonna be tested. So that's what I would say for BRS Palm is slightly more difficult because it's, they don't exactly highlight the things in their slides all the time. Do they? Pyra? Well, I can't really remember. I think they did put like, I think there would be like certain and more important concepts in like yellow boxes. It's been a while since I've looked at a home lecture. Um So I think maybe that's the way but like the main thing I'd say for identifying high yield, like I said, is the early editorials. Like they'll literally say, like, cos the thing is they like to recycle um questions from previous years and concepts as well. They recycle concepts. So like in a like for example, Med Ed Muslim medics societies, they all do tutorials and the old who have done the exam. So they'll say, oh yeah, this came up on the, this came up on our exam. So make sure to remember this. Um And like sometimes there's like things that you would thought that are actually not that important and you didn't think were high yield. But then an old said it came up on their exam. Um And then like, like it's quite a highly likely that it could come up again on your exam. So that's another way that I would pick up high yield concepts. Mm Yeah. But one thing I would say for people trying to identify only high yield information from electric sites is that if you try to do that, sometimes you might miss out on like, you know, the tiny, tiny things. And I think yes, it's good to first identify high yield information from the slides. But don't just ignore the parts where you think is not high yield. Um, with, for example, I think you've already covered cholesterol, uh, cholesterol biosynthesis and so on. Thing about it is there are only going to be a few really important things in there, blah, blah. But what I used to do is I would just go back and, you know, read, I try to remember memorized names that I thought, well, this is totally obscure. I don't think it's ever gonna come out, but I'm just gonna memorize it just so that, you know, I know it because it's fun, something like that. So I was just joking with my friend not so long ago about memorizing the entire cholesterol biosynthesis pathway. Do I think it's high? You definitely not. But do I think it's fun to just spout it out to my friends? Absolutely. So, you know, try to remember high you things. But best thing is to just know everything right in po II, remember a quote by James Peas. I don't think a lot of people remember that. He said this, but it was one in one of our lectures. He said, yes, the names are important. Wait, no, no, the concepts are important but the names are also important. So what I took from that is as long as it's on a slide in palm, you know, a name can be tested. Sure. They say they're going to test you on concepts. But in the end, there are going to be questions where they're just going to pinpoint. Oh, what's the name of this thing? What's the name of that thing? So why not just, you know, remember it? Yeah, thank you so much. OK. So, um the next question is I think you kind of touched on this as well, but is it worth using academic societies for arising different models in our course? I'm, I'm guessing they mean, like, as opposed to using just me, me, me kind of things. Could you use specific academic societies as well? Oh, I see. Like, like immunologist society or something? Yeah. Um, I can't say that I personally did that. I mean, I'm, I just use like Med Muslim Medics and that's pretty much it. Um, yeah. II don't know. I'm sure they do give good tutorials but I never, I don't have personal experience. No, me neither. Um, I've only used med ed for CSI specifically. I think the good thing about med Ed CSI notes and tutorials are that they're compiled by your seniors and they've already gone through the same CSI test I ta ta s so they know what generally are going to come up and the, they provide multiple choice questions at the end just to test your understanding. I think that's like a good gauge of whether you understand the topic or not. But in the end, I think personally it's best to revise from the original resources, the more resource gets transferred to another set of resources. You know, there are lots of things that can go wrong in that process, right? You know, people might forget adding this word, people might misspell this thing. Concepts might be diluted, things might, you know, go wrong. So what I say to most people is, you know, use what's provided to you first and stick to that and if you want further understanding, use external resources, but at your own discretion, because you know, in the end, it's other people making the notes, it might not be the most comprehensive. I don't even trust my own notes. That's why the way like, like the way I think about it is if I make my own notes, if I start writing paragraphs on end or drawing diagrams and come back to it, you know, I'll start questioning whether I actually did it, right? Did I put in all the information? And so that kind of reasoning got me to just read from the slides directly. And you know, I think there was some question on, you know, would you annotate slides and blah, blah, blah, I think annotating slides is pretty good if you're listening and lecture, like it's it allows you to add external additional information on to things, things that might not be in the syllabus, things that could be relevant in the syllabus, but not well written on the slide itself. And So that's fine. But I don't personally make notes and I don't really think I have not had experience in external society's resources except for me, Cynos, which I would recommend. Yeah. And also just to add uh quickly is that things can change year on year. They do change. Like I remember like uh even the notes that I use from the note bank, like sometimes they just don't align. Like for that's why for when I said for CSI revision, I always make sure to rewatch the actual session first on pan Opto because there'll be things that like have slightly changed. And like if you know, like I watch, if I read someone's notes, they might be slightly different. Um So always make sure to, yeah, be careful of that cos you can add things, take away things year on year. Yeah. And I mean, there's two questions which I think you basically just covered but someone said, can you solely rely on the Note Bank? I think you've basically just said the answer is no. Um And then do you recommend watching the lecture recordings for revision? Yes. So that's kind of got those two questions answered. And then for somebody else, can we access CSI me notes some beforehand somewhere now? Yes, you can. And they are gonna be coming out because basically everything's moved to meal and not um teams. So they're gonna be put out really soon like all of the notes. Um do they cover everything we need to know? I mean, you could an answer that, I guess, um, CSI me notes. Yeah, they, they pretty much do. Um, like, yeah, that I'd still say, yeah, I can watch the actual session but the meta notes are pretty good. And also just to say about the thing about watching the lecture recordings for revision. I wouldn't, like, like, let's say you've just had a lecture. I wouldn't, I would never, like, rewatch a lecture after hand. I would only really watch, like, stuff for CSI, but for P and B RSI would never rewatch the lecture recordings because I just found that a waste of time. But maybe if you found it really difficult to understand the concept then that's useful. But for me, I would just, if I didn't understand it, I'd just try and understand it when I would do my flash cards if that makes sense. Yeah, I agree. I think watching the lecture, like, I, I'd only watch a lecture if I wasn't there or if it was particularly difficult, but you shouldn't just watch every lecture again because that's kind of a waste of time. But, yeah. Um, but I think actually on that, uh, or rewatching lectures, uh, the way I did it kind of went against what you guys both did. But at the same time, you know, it, what works for one person might not work for another. So you gotta find out what works for you for me. Uh My day to day studying strategy is sometimes II would go into a lecture not having done a prereading. Sometimes I would go in there not knowing anything and then I'd just listen and try to at least get a grounding of what the lecture is going on about, you know, but the real studying for me really starts when I sit down, got a lecture recording on top there and I start listening to what the lecturers say. And sometimes they will add like really important bits as they go along. But it's the, these are kind of difficult to pick out during the lecture itself because there are so many variables people start talking to you. Uh The lecturer starts speaking softly, you can't really hear them. So what I do is I come back, rewatch them. You know, if I found out that they mentioned, if they name dropped, for example, a drug, I would just, you know, note that name down, go search it up and start, you know, maybe annotate like, you know, a slight box on my uh slide. Maybe, you know, say the lecturer name dropped octreotide. I would just be like, oh what is it? Go search it up? Oh It's a SOMA with Statin analog. I just dump it into the slide and that's how I just create my resource. That's pretty much my resource annotating based on what the lecturer said. And then coming back to it. I wouldn't rewatch the, uh, rewatch the lecture anymore. I would just read from what I've got. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely think both ways are valid. Like, I feel like it's just about finding what's best for you either. Like, I remember in last year I did, like, um, watching the med, like, during revision season, revision season, exam season, I was watching the med editorials, like, as opposed to watching the lectures, but some people would watch the lectures instead. So it really is what works for you, I feel. Um But yeah, I think that is the end of all the questions we have, but thank you so much. I'm gonna hand over to them just to wrap up. Yeah, so thanks Simmy. And then thanks N and P. Um Obviously their emails are on there. So if you wanna hit them up with questions, you can email them. But obviously me and Simmy are here as well. So you can always whatsapp us on the trial, email us with any questions that you have throughout the year, whether that's med, how you revise or anything like that. Um And I think Simmy already mentioned that everything we do will be on med all instead of teams. I know like you might have heard us speak about teens or like older years, but it will all be on metal. Um And you'll actually have your first CSI tomorrow. So it'll be from, I think 7 to 9. I'll send it in the group chat after this. Uh But again, just click the link, join through metal and the resources will be all be on medal as well. Um But I think that's all we have for today. Um Anything else you guys want to add at all? No, thank you. Well, just, you know, enjoy your one. You know, don't think too much about it. Yeah, guys honestly don't stress like it's a new thing for everyone and if during first term or even second term, you don't know what you're doing, that's completely normal. Um I think I only figured out how to rise pretty much during second term I would say. Um So don't worry if you're stressed and you don't know what you're doing, it'll all come to you and this video is obviously recorded so you can always come back to this as well. Um But we're all here to support you, so always ask. Um But yeah, um I think that's it. So thank you everyone for joining um and see you at the CSI then. Thank you so much. Thank you guys.