What I Would Have Done?
Summary
This on-demand teaching session is perfect for medical professionals looking to get the most out of their preclinical years. Our panel of experts will explore the best strategies on how to make the most out of your studies, such as prioritization and content learning, taking advantage of other experienced medical personnel, joining societies, doing active revision with questions and more. Come and join us and learn everything you need to do to best prepare yourself for medical exams!
Learning objectives
Objectives:
- To discuss how to prioritize and manage preclinical work.
- To emphasize the importance of connecting with peers, mentors and upper-year students for guidance and knowledge.
- To understand different learning styles and discuss how to use those to revise effectively.
- To explain how to best utilise online tools and quizs to aid understanding of the material.
- To highlight the advantage of keeping concepts simple and creating visual representations to make learning stick.
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Computer generated transcript
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The following transcript was generated automatically from the content and has not been checked or corrected manually.
Hi guys. Um Oh, sorry, could I everyone for the moment? Just details if that's ok. Thanks guys. Hi guys. Uh My name's Anushka and I'm the preclinical lead this year. If you guys can hear us, can you just put a thumbs up or just say yes in the chat, please? Just to make sure it's all running smoothly. Get you guys here, rest. Ok. I'm really, really hoping you guys can hear us. Um But we'll get started anyway. So as I said, hi, my name is Anushka and I'm the Preclinical lead this year. Um I'm 1/5 year at Imperial College London and today we're going to have a talk on what I would have done, which is a talk aimed at you guys in your pre clem years just to kind of find out what we would have done differently and help you guys do it right or better. So, um we've got a nice panel of different people here today to talk to you guys. So if I can just get everyone to introduce themselves, that would be great. So we'll kick Hi Ron. Uh My name's uh Rohan. Um I'm one of the uh preclinical uh officers at uh be I'm a third year medical student at uh UCR in, in cardiovascular science. Um And I hope you find the talk today useful. Great. And then Shalom me. Hi, everyone. I'm also a preclinical office that I've been here this year. Um I'm a third year medical student studying at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Um I am a graduate, so I've done a degree before I will probably come to that a little bit later. But I hope you have a great time today and I hope he is useful. Great and last but not least everyone. So my name is Jake Arthr or for short, and I'm an fy two doctor working in Scotland at the moment and I am also the final pre officer. Great. So let's get started also for you guys, if you have any questions that you'd like us to answer, please uh put them in the chart and we will answer them. OK? And just a reminder guys to fill out the f feedback form at the end. That would be great. Um So let's start with the first question. So if you could go back in time, how would you redo your preclinical years? What would you do differently? So maybe we can just go in the same order as in Yeah. So for me, uh I would say the biggest thing that I would uh change if I could go back would be just not learning everything. So they don't all the lectures and all the material that they teach you. Uh they don't expect you to learn everything. I think when I first started, um U cli was I from coming from school? You expect you to learn everything that your teacher tells you? I think they making that transition. I think that was, it took me a while to realize that you're not expected to learn everything. So I think prioritization and content, I think that would probably be my, the biggest thing I would change in terms of other things. I would say that it's important, especially in your previous four years to make sure that obviously you need to work hard, but also play hard as well, make sure you're making the most of your time at university. And so you want to get that back as, as, as you go through the years, the work rate just increases. Um And finally, I would say that what I would change is going back. I would try and make my revision more active, more active. So that means rather than just like watching lectures, uh I'd say doing questions. Um I would definitely, if I could go back to first year, use something like passed but pass med is free for preclinical um er students. So I definitely start using that earlier just doing a few questions here and there just to test your knowledge. And also I'd also recommend something called ques, which is also quite helpful as well for consolidating your knowledge. Great. Thanks uh Charlo. If you wanna continue, um mine kind of following on from what Rohan said to be honest, but it's really important to use the people who have gone through the system before you use them, ask them questions, pester them for notes. Um It will really help you in the future when you're going through your exams and you've got much better grip and understanding of what is expected of you. Um It's not about learning all the content and they'll be able to tell you what the high yield topics are, how questions come and what's really important to know and what's not because it's really difficult when you're looking at a lecture to actually ascertain what might come up, how it might come up and they're the best people to tell you that because they know. Um So definitely make use of the people above you. Make use of all the knowledge that's surrounding you, whether that be other societies that are offering it, help sessions definitely go definitely pester people. It's definitely worth it. And lo right, it's been a bit of a while since I've been to Preclinical in Fy two. But I guess if I had to think all the way back, the one thing that I think was something to really try and change is joining societies, especially a lot of what, what Rohan and Shalini have said, getting it to know, uh, the senior is getting to know what the patterns uh of what's expected of you will be in terms of what, uh what the weightage of questions will be on your papers in terms of a practice as well. There's a lot of different things that you can just get in and get into the know and to get a better understanding of by joining societies specifically, if they're tailored to your interests, bit early to say if you want to go be a surgeon, would be a cardio, a cardiologist or be whichever, but just joining the societies will give you a better idea of what each specialty can offer. You give you more opportunities to just get in touch with the different doctors, registrars as well, can be tied in with societies as well. So just gaining those connections will be very invaluable as well just later down the line and you're trying to get uh those things to add to your portfolio on top of that as well. Yeah, just balancing that out with uh doing a good amount of revision. Making sure to just again enjoy life while uh and enjoy the university life as well is also an important thing to do. Amazing. Thank you so much guys. Um So, oh sorry, we skipped a couple of questions. So what is the best way to revise in your guys' opinion? So we'll just go um I would say for me what I did do 1st and 2nd year was um just uh obviously II mentioned about actual revision. So I think that was something that I did. For example, if I watched a lecture, I'd take a piece of paper and write down everything I know, test myself. OK. Um Maybe using um something called an C which is quite popular amongst medical students, um which just using flash cards to help me just absorb all the content. I think that was what uh that my family used for in 1st and 2nd year. Um And also I think doing questions like um S pa S OK. Um Your medical, the medical school might provide um some sample ones to you, maybe from older years, just doing those questions just to try and consolidate knowledge. And that was um a really good way for me. I think also um revising with friends can be also a very um a good uh a good way to help with your revision. Uh Especially if you um if your medical school um gives you um like a an oscopy. So a clinical exam like a, a basic clinical exam that can be really useful. So I did that in second year with different friends, we tested each other, asked each other questions. Um So definitely working with friends can also work as well. Thank you. And she um I might go against the grain here and be a little bit different flashcards. Didn't really work for me personally. And that's only because I found that I was memorizing just words and I wasn't really gaining concepts. And the way I learned through my preclinical was actually, I invested in a very big white board and lots of marker pens and I would draw out monkey concepts in a way that is so simplified that, you know, you could teach it to a high school student at the end of the day. And when you get to that stage, you really know your concept, I think, and I would work through the questions conceptually rather than actually memorizing loads of things because my memory is really poor. So rather than actually knowing what happened in what scenario, I would sit in the exam and work through it. And actually, I think that was more helpful to me just because of my style of learning. But big whiteboard, lots of marker pens and keep writing it out, keep explaining it, flow charts, diagrams, crazy, weird cartoon pictures. They really help me because I'm more of a visual learner. Um So that's for me, what the best way to revise was I think. Yeah, completely agreed. I think that's one thing that's really important for everyone to take away is the fact that everyone's going to have different revision techniques. So it's not wrong at all to try a few out and then, you know, find out what works best for you. So I jumped on the a past med bandwagon just a little bit later. I only found, I found out about that in about say 3rd, 4th year. But as Rohan said, it's incredibly invaluable. It's gives you, it gives a good explanation for every question even and just breaks it down as well when you do get it wrong. So it's incredibly useful to just revise and learn from. And on top of that, it just sort of gets you used to the wording some common tricks and that can come up in terms of what questions can ask you on. It won't be 1 to 1 what you'll see on your exam. But you will see a lot of common uh tricks and wording, which will, which you'll be looking out for, especially when you get attuned to post. But along with that as well, my other way of learning was I would try and gather separate ba uh notes. So from upper years, they would just have their own notes summarized from their uh from when they were in this specific year for. And they would just make their own lecture notes. And then sometimes I would just cross-reference that between the Oxford handbook or other useful resources. Essentially, what I would do is just take what key bits were similar between all those le uh all those notes and then just write out very, very straightforward, very simplified information. And then once I did that, I even tried to just break it down and simplify it even more and then just kept simplifying until it just sort of fit into my head. Cause yeah, my memory is not the greatest either. We just had to try. And uh uh so that was my best way to try and just learn through the content needed for the exam. OK. So you guys have got some very different techniques to revise them, but hopefully that will help you guys. OK. Next question we've already answered a little bit about it but kind of moving on from the education point of view. Um and maybe more to do with the education but also the extra curricular. How do you actually make the most of? Oh I'm not sure if is it just me? Who can't hear? Remind me up is your m I can't hear you. Yes. Oh no. There are a couple of questions that came through as well just in the chat from both and Drew and Dylan put down the uni cumulative topics from previous years, appear in the end of the year paper with topics like sociology, ethics law, ie nonclinical topics. How do you cover these topics? Feels like it's an infinite amount of questions that they could ask? Oh, that is a tough one if, cause I think my University Saint George's had something similar as well, which we just called PPD. It's a personal professional development but essentially exactly that we just summarize different laws and they will just bring that up as a time, a portion of your grade as well. I'd say the best way is again to just ask the senior years as well, just for help and advice for that because it can be just very dependent based off. You need to uni for my uni specifically, there was a set of notes that specifically covered for PPD. We call it the PPD Bible. It would just save your neck. When, if you just read through that you'd be fine. I don't know if that would be the same for you, your unique, but everyone has had to adapt to that same problem. So there would be something that's there to help out with that. I think the best thing to do is just try and ask and we try to work through that. Yeah, completely agreed. I thing is that I had like in my, my uni works exactly the same. So we have a lot of ethics and law and um it, it was definitely hard because it's not just the critical things that you have to learn. And for me, especially the ethics didn't always, er, click with me. I found it harder to learn, but I, there are loads of resources out there where you can do things on a case by case basis and you kind of tend to learn the trends and patterns. So yeah, learn the basics if you can but honestly questions, questions questions. Um Things like ques meed definitely have an ethics session uh section on there. Uh I think past medicine does as well. Uh So definitely use resources like that. I don't know if anyone else has got input. They'd like to. Oh, mic's still not working Rohan. Do you wanna maybe try uh disconnecting and reconnecting at my work? Yeah. Ok. Um Yeah. Shall you? Um, my university isn't cumulative and I'm very grateful for all that. Um But what I would say is keeping your old questions going. Don't let yourself forget old knowledge. Um And I think that's with a lot of things, not just ethics or laws, I think with everything, try and once you've learned it, try and keep it there, um it's a lot harder to keep going back and relearning things. So once you've got it just every, every so often flick through, make sure that it all looks familiar. Um And it'll just make things a little bit easier for you. The other question put through by Drew is, does vi a have a platform where members can access notes and premade Anki? So, OK, I think to be very honest with this one. So we are actually right now setting up a note bank for you guys which will have all of the conditions and condition summaries on it. Um So definitely make sure that you do get your membership because then you'll get access to things like that on that we can definitely add an keys as well if that's helpful for you guys, for sure. Yeah, I wrote. You want to try your bike? Yeah. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Yes. Um, yeah, just going back to the question about, um, you know, ethics and law and sociology, I'd say usually, I think usually your medical school will provide some sort of list. Like for us we had an ethics and law er module and I was like, we had to know a few different topics. Um and those are what our exam was based on. So I definitely recommend just using that your medical school where you just looking at your lectures that they give you look at the content and they teach you and use that as a basis for what you're gonna revise um for the exam and just looking at the key points so that some of the key like landmark cases, some of the um acts of Parliament, things like that, things that they, they would like you to test. That's great. Thank you. Actually, Dylan, one thing to add for you as well is one thing that we're all doing is that we're part of a teaching scheme where we're teaching younger years and to be very honest in medicine, it's all like the CC one do one teach, one method is the best way to keep the knowledge in your head. So, you know, maybe get a group of young who you can teach and do tutorials for a lot of the old years, especially me in my fifth year. I do that and it makes me make sure that I keep my third year knowledge refreshed. So it is definitely a good way to do it and if you can teach it then you can definitely understand it. So, moving on to, oh, how do I make the most of medical school or do so? Yeah, so making the most medical schools. So I'd say um usual. Well, you probably all had the little fresher event. So hopefully, um in UCR at least we had like a freshly sort of fair for all the medical school societies. So I'd say, um obviously it's important to be involved in that the academic side, but also the extra I feel is where that you can really um excel and you can really make those um friends which are gonna last you for um the time in medical school. So I'd say definitely the, the medical school societies um that your medical school has, I'd say that's a really good way to make the most of medical school. Um And of all the most by joining medical school societies, they're gonna be tailored to um your timetable and you'll have within those um within those societies, you'll have maybe an academic science that run tutorials and you um have socials. I think those are some of the good, good ways to make the most time medical school I'd say. Yeah, completely. And so, and then Waggie. Um, yeah, I think I agree with Rohan to be honest society, society, societies. Um, it's really good to get involved, not just attending them but sign up for loads of stuff. Um, your first year is where you're going to explore everything. When I was in first year, I think I signed up to almost every society that mildly took my interest. And as you go through the year, you, you figure out where you inclinations are and what you're actually interested in. Um And you develop those over the next couple of years. Um So it is really good to get involved with those. It's a good networking opportunity. If you're struggling to meet senior students, you'll find them in societies and socials and things like that. Um And also join the committees, don't shy away from doing extra like curricular where you might need to put in a, a little bit of extra work because what you put in, you'll get out, you'll build connections, you'll get to know people really well. Um You'll get a great experience, it looks great on your C VS as well. Um But it's actually a lot of fun to build more close connections, people in the years above in the years below as you get higher up, it's just a nice change of people and the kind of things that you do day to day. So don't shy away from being your first year reps and signing up for extra things just because you might as well give it a shot. Agreed. And, yeah, I think, uh, both and Rohan summarized exactly what, what I think is important as well. Society is a great place to meet people, great place to make long lasting friendships. You'll learn a lot of skills as well. If you get involved in just the management of a society that no med school could really teach you no textbooks gonna teach you how to use Excel, for example, or just how to manage social events. It's really helpful to just go through that and put yourself there in those situations to learn more from those from the experiences as well. I'd say there's one thing as well that I look back on hindsight is placements. I don't think you guys get clinical placements yet, but coming up in future, they're definitely very important in just helping you get used to the day to day work of just doctors as well, just helping ease into that role. So just making the most of those opportunities and the and the people there as well will help you in a lot in the long run. Completely agreed. One thing that I think everyone's also highlighted is that joining societies will help you in terms of making friends. But also um you know, most societies do lectures and things like that. So it's a really good one. Also, if you don't want to just join ones which are to do with your university, there are many, many national um societies such as be r which um are also very, very good societies to meet different people and to get some help with, with whatever you need as well. OK. Moving on to slightly more of the specific questions uh for certain of, er, for some of our members of the panel. So this one is for, and how is studying medicine different to s to studying in your previous degree? And if you wanna give us some background as well, that would be. Uh, yeah, so I went to University of Leicester, um, to do a BSE in biochemistry, um, and graduated 2021. Um, I think the biggest difference between medicine and kind of a BSE degree in general is your time. Um, you don't understand where your time disappears at med school. Um, when I was in Leicester, I had about four hours of lectures a day. It was chilling. You know, I had plenty of time to complete all my coursework. My assignments, sleep, eat, have a good time and have time to spare as well. Um, whereas med school is, I don't know about every university from us. Definitely. It was very kind of 9 to 5. Um, and then you come home and you're kind of tired and you don't know, you don't really want to work Um And I think in those situations, time management is really important. You have to get your time management skills on point and prioritize and multitask, you probably need to have a couple of things going at the same time. Um And prioritize where you need to give more time where you need to maybe do some last minute. And that's OK. Um You're not always going to be as organized and you have to just come to terms with that. You're dealing with a lot of work volume. Um Personally what I did in about a term at med school was probably the same volume of work I did in a whole year of my BSE and that's really overwhelming and just give yourself a bit of space to get used to it, adjust to it. Um I used like to do lists and I know there's plenty of different Softwares out there that help you. I'm a bit old school and I just have like a list on pen and paper, post it notes and cross things off as you go along to keep track of where you are, what you're doing. Um Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing and we've obviously touched on the more social sides of things because when you're studying a different degree, you are very much integrated in all the other courses happening at the university. Um Whereas medical school can sometimes feel a little bit isolating the only people you really interact with properly will be medical students. So don't be scared to go out of the comfort zone and meet people from different degrees. It's a good change. It's a different conversation away from. How's your study going? I'm really behind you. Get a different kind of perspective to things. So don't shy away from that just because you're meeting medical students doesn't mean you have to just meet medical students. We are interesting people, but there are plenty more interesting people in the world as well. Apart from us, I loved that answer. Thank you very much. Um Also guys, for those of you who are doing undergraduates, there are chances for you guys to do BSE S as well. So just keep that in mind. OK, moving on to our next two questions, which to be honest, everyone can answer but mainly are um aims for raggy. So how best should I prepare my? Right? So initially, I came in here with like solid page worth of like just notes on all this. But I think we just, we can just bullet point this to keep it right and it short and to the point, a lot of the things that uh portfolios look into, especially when you're applying into your specialties. So much later down the line from you guys, you if you want to or maybe, you know, right at this moment, I'm gonna be a cardiologist. I'm gonna be a surgeon. I'm going to be a radiologist, you know that with definitive certainty, then these uh points will probably be the most important things to keep in mind. The application will always look for evidence of teaching, evidence of doing qis or audit projects and presenting those at conferences, additional degrees, leadership prizes and research. So teaching can be at different levels. And the main thing to just try and get that is find, finding the opportunities your universities can have teaching programs for anatomy, for clinical skills. Va is also a national teaching program as well. And getting involved in those will help boost your CV. And also if you get evidence from that for by collecting feedback forms in every teaching session, it just helps to show that you've managed to grow, improve and grow from that feedback as well. Audits are again, really important as well. If you speak to a registrar, if you speak and then they're, they're required to do an audit as part of just their sign offs as well, like you have your own. And if you get involved in that from the date and do the data collection or get involved, just it essentially means that they can have a bit of an easier uh a breather time and you can do the audit, get your name on the audit as well and make sure that you complete a second cycle. Because that is another thing that they do look for where you make a uh you evaluate the data, make a change, evaluate the data again, then that's, then that's a closed loop audit. And that is another bonus points presenting that at conferences as well is again something that a lot of World Colleges or just specialties do look for and prizes as well. There are a lot be depending on specialties. For example, ophthalmology does have or neurology has specific prizes and separate exams that are held for that. So just it's hard, it, it's one of the things where it's a bit difficult undertaking to take is like because med school is already very busy and we're already having to do so, so much at once. So, but so this is one thing that you can get involved in if you feel like you just want to give it a try, dip your toes into uh into the pool and see what it's like and you got nothing to lose from trying at the end of the day. And if you feel like this is something you want to do, then you can of course, just build on that knowledge and try and aim for the prizes as well. And those also include essays from say, audits or any research you do degrees are also not the easiest thing for everyone to obtain. For example, I don't have a BSE degree. I was an international student and our fees were really high and A BSE is something it's still to aim for though. Which is worth a lot of additional points. And using that to just find consultants or other senior uh registrars as well who are into research would also just help boost the CV. Specifically, if you're a first author as well, leadership is a bit more difficult to obtain. But joining societies as well, working your way through the positions to the committee members and organizing events is again, not only invaluable just for personal skills, but also invaluable for what I interview a uh interviewers will look for as well. It's a lot to put at once. You're trying to just balance. Like, so I've thrown so much on the T uh plates and I've told you that this is everything that I'll look for. But the main thing is just take it step by step and just start where wherever you are, whether it's first year or fifth year. If you start now, it will certainly make a difference and, you know, definitely replay electrolytes and I'll put the bullet points in the chat as well. OK. Amazing. Thank you so much for that comprehensive answer. That was amazing. Um Just to add on with that guys the best way to actually get a lot of these opportunities. It is very scary. Um And I know I'm in my fifth year now and I'm having to think about um applications for next year and it all gets very nerve wracking. The best thing honestly, I could say is start early. There's no harm in starting early, make sure you're not rushed out by the end. And also just ask, there is no harm in asking a doctor or a consultant that you're on placement with. Do you have any projects go right now? Because the worst they can say is no, so just definitely keep that in mind. Um I don't know if Rohan you have anything to add, just say um Yeah, just to just keep the, like, for example, in your 1st and 2nd year, I think just doing small things like for example, if you want to like be on in a society that you really enjoy in medical school, being on committee, things like that, maybe getting involved with er, teaching medical students, those, those things you do, those small things you do in your er time medical school, they can all help as you progress through. Yeah, definitely completely agreed to show you everything to add or I don't know if you can hear the para behind me or not, but I don't need to go anywhere. Um but I'll ask the question um in terms of the portfolio work, I would go and find opportunities. That would be my only advice really is um opportunities don't come to you. You're gonna go looking for them, ask people sign up for everything that comes up and see what takes your fancy, blessed fire love. And um that's definitely good advice for sure. And last question, uh which we have prepared is again, I think really aimed for raggy guys. If you have any other questions, please put them in the chat now. So yeah, go ahead. So should I prepare for F Right. That's a whole topic in itself. But if I was to look back on Fy one sitting where I am as Fy two, then the best thing that you can do is just get as involved into your clinical placement as possible. That'll start up in third year, fourth year, fifth year, the more you get involved in that, the more it will definitely get you used to the day to day of the working as a doctor, the more it will benefit you when you start as Fy one. And again, it is always going to be a jump. I think when, when I started Fy one and I was struggling, the senior I was with as well, just explained that if you can survive from the jump from final year to Fy one, then you're basically set for the rest of your medical career. There's no uh again, me giving you all this advice isn't going to magically make it if suddenly a cake walk. I hope it does make it a bit easier, but it will be a difficult process to just get used to the day to day. But once you do s but you are uh slowly get used to it and then you slowly start to learn things just one day at a time, you'll find yourself improving. So that's the first thing to always keep in mind when starting for fy one, starting your work as a doctor, then I'd say as well. Just getting into what I'd recommend is there is one resource that I do look back on which is the Oxford handbook for Foundation Doctors that gives a very good breakdown of what you need to know. For certain specialties, it gives you a breakdown of day to day working in hospitals, tips for night shifts, late shift. It was definitely written by found by, by a lot of foundation doctors who look back on it and like me as well, just wanted to make sure this knowledge was there. It even has uh just tips for what happens if you drop your bleed in the toilet. There are a lot of common things that will be there that you didn't think you'd need to know. But then sometimes it happens, then it's also important to have a good understanding of just basic medicine. Your A two E assessment is also just going to be really important. Make sure you have that as your bedrock and then build off that with other clinical skills and say you're applying into your fi uh uh to hematology. You want to, you're here, you're uh you're with us right now. You want to be the guy who cures cancer or the the girl who cures cancer. You, it it is and you want to go into oncology. It's good to have a lot of knowledge into that specialty, but make sure to have a good baseline understanding of just an at e just common situations that that can happen from just, just general medical wards as well. And then just to a and when you get used to that, then you can learn more about just the nuances of specific specialties as well. And other things is just using things like the B NF Med CALC. Then there's also a lot of apps, different hospitals recommend. So just speaking to seniors as well who have been through the foundation program in that hospital as well. Again, same as what we're saying. Now for med school, just asking your seniors of how they managed, it will help you get a lot more specifics on how you're able to get through it as well. I just just give one last piece of advice as well is don't hesitate to just look things up the no doc. I mean, II will just say I'm working in GP sometimes I just see patients and I just see what their presenting complaint is and I'm just googling a couple of things on the nice guidelines for what the specific management is because no one is going to remember everything and that's completely uh fine, that's completely human. Making sure to just look up things on r uh reliable websites and trusted resources means you're a better doctor and means you're a safer doctor as well. And, yeah, I guess the last bit, uh, tip if I had to think of one is just if you're really worried about something and just any situation that's going on in the clinical environment, don't hesitate to ask for help. If you're really worried about something. Don't hesitate to put out a double two, double two, which is an emergency. It's at the end of the day, it's so if you're really worried about the situation, trust your gut, that there is some uh and it's better to have help than to not have help at the end of the day. That is brilliant advice. Thank you so much. Um OK, guys, last chance to put any questions in the chart, but while you guys do that, if you do want to, then maybe we can have everyone's final remarks. So guys, if there's one take home piece of advi of advice that you want to give everyone, what would it be? So I would say the biggest thing would be just to uh just to enjoy sort of the process. It can be hard at times, especially when you've got like you're trying to learn the lectures. Um and you've got loads of things to balance, but just enjoy your time. Medical school, try and strike that balance between your work and also uh going out and societies and then you'll get the most out of medical school if you do that rather than just doing one or the other trying to strike a balance. So sorry about my, but um I would say you've worked really hard to get to where you are and you should be really proud of being where you are right now. Um When it gets tough, just remember why you chose to be here and you will get through it. Exam seasons aren't the nicest thing to do, but you're all more than capable of pulling through. So, yeah, just, just keep it in perspective as to you really love this and you're gonna get through it. Yeah, if I had to think one thing that's definitely is a take home message as well similar to what you guys have said. It's just making sure to have people who you can trust and rely on everyone's going through the same process as you as well. Not just they're in medicine, but they're also just going through uni as well. They're figuring everything out. Just having people you can talk to as well is more invaluable than you can imagine. And just having a group of friends who just trust and whether that's through societies, whether that's through just shared interests that is going to help you get through a lot. And there, there's a couple of questions that have come through already. Uh aside from exams, what should our focuses be for first year that will be a good start for our portfolio, et cetera. OK. Um So uh first year Rachel is definitely something you can def uh I'm sorry on your portfolio, but the you'd have to also just uh think portfolio as a whole is something that should be guided towards certain specialties. Of course, there are things that can match to just general specialties as well, but the main thing to just get you on a good start for your portfolio is building on what Shalini said, just joining multiple societies, getting involved in just the opportunities they present and then just learning what you're interested in from that and then just sort of slowly building on from there as well. And the best and again, societies as well can help you get in touch with the resources to get a uh improvements on your portfolio. For example, things like teaching projects, research and those are all things that you'd get, you have to ask. And as also Anisha said, there's no harm in asking anyone for those things as well. And alongside that as well, prizes conferences and those things you'd have to find specifically on Royal College websites. If there's a specialty you're into specifically, you're say you're the most avid radiology fan, you'd go to the Royal College of Radiology, see what prizes are available and some of them are specifically tailored to medical students as well. And then you start you and then you'd look into the dates of when they're open and then try applying for those as well. Really is just opening an another tab. It's typing into Google and then just trying to figure out what the next steps are. The good thing is you're thinking about it now. So it's definitely a really good portfolio if you get started now as well. And the other question was any. Oh, sorry, do you guys have anything to say as well? Sorry, honest. I think you've covered it for my, I don't know if anyone else has a you had here, we can move on to the next question. Which was any advice on getting resources from? I'd say um through the society, I think that's a, that's a really good way to try and meet some of the older years. So at least for me, um I involved in the medical school cricket team and through going to socials, going to training um just that's how you meet all the old years and through that, through that manage to get resources from old years, get advice. Um And as I've gone on as well, helping um first years and second years. Yeah, to be honest, I would echo that as well. Um Societies are a great place and talk to people, use the friends that you've got in your first years or second years to network with their friends. Um It's never a bad thing to get to know people if I think the important thing to remember is that your older years were also in the same position as you as well. So someone handed them the wisdom to get them to where they are now. So you have to, uh, so from their perspective, they've been through this, they also know exactly where your, the shoes that you're standing in as well. So just if you, if so if someone just came around and asked me for notes, I just wouldn't really uh bother. I just e email them every uh everything because that's the same generosity that was given to me as well. So there's really nothing you lose from just asking at the end of the day. Completely agreed on all of the first of, of the advice given. Thank you so much guys, firstly for your questions and thank you so much for the panel for answering your questions. Very, very well guys, uh for the viewers here, uh please do fill in the feedback. It's really helpful for us, but it also means that you will get access to the recording, meaning you can watch it back over whenever you want. Ok. Um Thank you so much. And guys just a reminder, we actually have our first neuro talk given by Chalabi in literally 15 minutes on um cells or to do with the nervous system and let er neurotransmitters as well. So make sure you click the link for meal for that and we will see you guys in 15 minutes, hopefully. Thank you guys. See you later. Thank you for having us. Thank you.