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Life of a Medic

My journey through Medical School and beyond…

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Medical School
- Year 1
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Year 2 is definitely a lot more intense than year 1 - there’s so much more work, I’ve been finding myself falling behind every week! It is also more interesting as well: a lot of neurology, brain stuff and we’ve started covering some mental health illnesses too! 🧠 I can’t lie, I’m a little worried about how I’m going to be able to retain the masses of info we are covering every week, especially for Anatomy...but hopefully everything will come together in the end. _ Check out my pathology summaries on my online shop - link in bio! 😊

I’ve started keeping an Arabic journal in an attempt to widen my vocab. The thing with language learning is that having gaps in it, really does leave your vocab very rusty! _ I’m not going to force myself to write in it everyday, because I know that’s not going to happen...so I’m setting myself a realistic goal of a couple of times a week. I’ll let you know how it goes! _ (Before anyone points it out: my notebook isn’t the wrong way. In Arabic we write from right to left instead of left to right, so I have to start from the back of the notebook) 😅

The session I enjoy the most during the week is probably our practical PhysPharm sessions. Last week we injected local anaesthetic into each other and this week we are going to be doing various different eye tests. _ It's really cool because you can get into more of the practical elements of the course and experience the direct impacts of drugs and certain tests on each other and yourself! It definitely helps to really see the direct application of things you've been learning about on yourself, plus it's super interesting to literally learn about your own body! _ You can get yourself the weekly planner above by visiting my shop - link is in the bio!

I never bought myself a stethoscope when I started medical school. I know some people buy it at the beginning just for all the excitement of it all and perhaps for it to even serve as motivation to get through the 5 years, but I didn’t. I thought I’d wait until clinical years when you really need one since there’s plenty spare in the medical school that you can always use to practise. _ Not in my clinical years yet, but here I am with my first 2 stethoscopes from @erkakallmeyer - aren’t the colours so pretty! 💕😍 What colour stethoscope do you have (or want to get)? _ These @erkakallmeyer stethoscopes are sooo comfortable - they are literally the first stethoscopes I’ve worn that don’t hurt my ears! Every time I get them out my sister grabs the pink one and my brother takes the blue! 😅

Following my last post on the UKCAT, I’ve been receiving numerous questions about which universities a certain UKCAT score would be appropriate for. Swipe right for some guidelines to help you all out. Bear in mind you shouldn’t base your choices solely on this post, but if you are looking to apply to your strengths you can use some of these unis as a guideline to research into further. _ These boundaries were derived from TMP, so if you’re interested in reading up on them further, check out their website!

Into the first couple of days of second year. We’ve had a couple of introductory lectures and our opening PBL session where we met our new group. We haven’t done enough yet for me to judge the rumours of this semester being the hardest, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. _ On my timetable I have Wednesdays free so I’ll probably be spending that time working on my PBL case every week. I made a start on this week’s case (on spina bifida) this morning, which I’ve been finding really interesting! _ Yesterday I also had my first Arabic session of the year which I really enjoyed. It was fairly relaxed and I feel as though it’ll be a nice breather every week! ☺️ _ How’s uni/school going for everyone else so far?

Planning for next week. I’m using the weekly planner to create different things to focus on at different points throughout the day and the to-do list to keep track of miscellaneous things that need doing at some point during the week. _ This year our PBL cases run from Tuesday to the following Monday (instead of Monday to Friday), so I’m not sure what I’ll need to spend the weekend doing so I’ve left that blank for now. _ Visit the link in my bio to get your own planner set! I ship worldwide and you can use the code PLANNERLOVE for a little discount! 🌎

There’s loads of pathology notes up on my shop (and hopefully many more to come). I’ve summarised different conditions within 2 sides of A4 , because let’s be honest, there’s too much info to fit it all on to one side! _ Link in the bio for everyone who wants to check them out! 😊

Slowly working through my little list...been feeling very unproductive and lazy recently. I’ve also got 1 week to sort out my sleeping schedule, which probably still won’t happen. Thankfully, I hardly have any early starts in my new timetable for this year!

I was tagged by @zenstudy_ to share 10 fun facts about myself, so here goes... _ 1️⃣ I’m 19 years old, but regularly get told I look about 14 🤷‍♀️ 2️⃣ I’ve always been fascinated by astronomy and before choosing Medicine, my first career ambition was to be an astronaut 🌌 3️⃣ I can’t survive a day without my morning tea ☕️ tea over coffee any day! 4️⃣ I have been blogging for about 3 and a half years now - when I first started I was just doing it to keep track of my own reflections but now it’s grown to be read by over 100,000 people in over 150 different countries! 5️⃣ I’m really into photography, I even have a separate photography account: @innocentparadise 📷 6️⃣ In my Liverpool Medicine interview, I slipped and fell into one of the stations 😂 very embarrassing, but I still got an offer there though... 🤷‍♀️ 7️⃣ I started wearing a headscarf in year 3...because long story short, a new girl started in my school wearing one and I didn’t want her to feel left out. 😅 I’ve been wearing one ever since 🧕🏼 8️⃣ I’m very much into skincare and have a 6-step daily routine which I try to stick to as much as possible (yet I still can’t get my skin to glow & look flawless) 9️⃣ I write in a diary everyday and have been keeping a handwritten one ever since I was in year 4! 📝 1️⃣0️⃣ I always wanted to learn how to drive before I turned 18 - I passed my test the day before my 18th birthday! 🚗 _ Challenging everyone I’ve tagged to share 10 fun facts about themselves too!

Only got a week left before second year of med school commences, and the daily grind begins again. When do you go back to school/uni? 📖 _ I’m currently making a list of all the things I need to do before I start: paying fees, filling out forms, buying essentials...all those routine tasks. ✏️ _ Pictured above is my Vintage Flowers to-do-list planner. You can get one by visiting my shop (link in bio). I ship worldwide! 🌸

About half a year ago, I collaborated with @nourkaco, a scarf brand to design a new scarf for their signature expressive collection. The collection is supposed to exemplify the message and struggle of feminism and equality. _ To create this design I decided to turn to my favourite tool - the brush pen - and create a design with all the words I felt were central to equality and represented shared love between humanity...and that’s how this design, Love Wave, was born! 💫 _ Though I’m really happy I was able to collaborate with such a huge brand and create an item of clothing that represents loads of amazing moral values that I stand for, one that many people around the world will be wearing; unfortunately the brand did not inform me my design was published, did not even communicate with me at all about my design so by the time I discovered it myself it was all completely sold out - I couldn’t even get a copy of my own work. 😔 _ By looking at my feed you’ll all know that calligraphy is one of my major hobbies, so it’s just something I wanted to share with you all 🖋 just would have been really amazing if I could have taken and shared my own photographs of my own work with you all! (None of the girls modelling the scarf are me btw 😅) _ What words can you read off the scarf, comment down below 👇

An old picture, because I have not done any Arabic in so long. I was hoping to spend the Summer reviewing all Arabic I know, but did that happen? - nope. 😐 How have you been with your Summer goals? Have you managed to achieve any targets you’d set yourself? 🌴 _ Learning without a teacher is quite difficult because you have nobody to answer any of your questions. I tend to write things I’m confused about or need clarifying on a post-it note and when I eventually get round to it, I send them to a friend who lives in the Middle East and she helps me out a little with them - I’m so lucky to have her. 🤗

“How do you use your iPad to study?” - here’s a question I’ve been asked numerous times. And the answer is...I don’t really. I haven’t at all ventured into digital note-taking and I tend to just use my iPad for leisure, editing pictures and I quite often manage my blog from there too! 💫 • • One thing I have done though is scanned & saved all my notes on my iPad incase I don’t want to carry my laptop around with me, the iPad is a lot lighter and I can still access all my notes (plus it serves as an additional backup) 💻 • • The above picture is of my A-level Biology notes which I hand wrote and saved on to there - I did not actually make the notes on my iPad which seems to be a fairly common presumption amongst a lot of people. 📝 • • You can get of all my A-level notes (Biology + Chemistry) if you head over to my online shop, which is always linked in my bio! ☺️ • • What do you prefer to use for studying/work: iPad or laptop?

What’s the weather like where you are today? ☀️🌧 • • We’re back to grey gloominess here in the North of England ☁️

Is it too early for me to be starting to plan next week? I’m just desperate to put pen to paper on this new planner! 😅 • • I’ve already posted out a lovely batch of these to a lot of you that ordered on the launch date. I’m going to be posting out the next batch this weekend, so put your order in now to have yours processed now! The link is in my bio (as always)! I ship worldwide! 🌸🌿

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the UKCAT, whether a specific score is “good enough”, “too low” or “will get me interviews”. I thought it might be helpful if I wrote a quick summary on here so you can all read the same information from me... • • First of all, it’s important that you all remember that there is no defined threshold for a ”good” or “bad” UKCAT score. The UKCAT is not a pass/fail test, so whatever score you’ve got, you can work with it and use it as a tool to selectively apply to places that will maximise your chances of getting to the interview stage. Your UKCAT score may be amazing for Cardiff (for example), but not so good if you’re applying to Edinburgh (for example)...it all depends on how your chosen unis use the score. Don’t consider your score as a limitation upon you in anyway, but consider is at as a tool to help you decide on your choices. • • I know all this might be slightly vague and when you’ve got your score you just want an objective definition of where you sit. Don’t put all your hopes and dreams into this because it’s not specific to any med school, but here’s a very generalised categorisation I’ve set up, based on what unis look for across the spectrum... • • - 600-650 tends to be about average - 650-700 is a good score. You’ll usually meet the cut off scores for unis that use them, but be wary of those that rank you based on your score. - 700-800 is excellent. Go for those that rank you, because you’ll ace that part of it! - 800+ = wow - and same as above, go for ranked application processes! • • Once again, whatever your score is, don’t get hung over about it, just focus on trying to use it strategically! Definitely don’t give up hope, a UKCAT score lower than what you were hoping for should not put you off applying, and if you read in to the application processes carefully you’ll definitely secure yourself some interviews. ☺️ My UKCAT score wasn’t amazing, it fell within the “good” category and I managed to get all 4 interviews - there is a way whatever your score is! ❤️

The past few months I’ve been working endlessly on a new project – hours of brainstorming, late nights and so much effort – now it’s finally time to share it with you all! I am so excited to finally announce the launch of my new stationery line! I wanted to create something that would help students like me, in what we all need to get better at doing…studying! 📝 • • So here I am, sharing 2 sets of matching desk planners and to-do list pads which I have designed: Vintage Flowers & Spring Leaves! 🌸🌿 The designs have been specifically curated to match the aesthetics of a luxury brand; printed on premium, thick, smooth paper and are all 100% eco friendly – all that under a very student friendly price! • • Treat yourself to a matching set to start off this new academic year and don’t forget to use the exclusive launch discount code PLANNERLOVE for free delivery to any UK address! 🎀 I SHIP WORLDWIDE!

Today was the last day of my 5 consecutive days of ice skating! I loved it so much and I loved being being to see my progress (and everybody else’s) which came with about 4-5 hours of practise each day! I’ve been trying to get my sister to teach me a couple of tricks too, which obviously meant I’ve had a lot of falls! 😆 • • Have you ever been ice-skating? How did you find it?

I’m loving these pencils...they colour really nicely! What’s your favourite colour? • • Mine is purple 💜

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