end of year two medical school
Table of contents
end of year two medical school.
sponsored by red stripe
so what did you learn this year eh?
- evolution not revolution
- love is mystic
- big money big grants big money big meetings
- leaving the society magic
evolution not revolution
how to build a car by adrian newey. this guy’s an aerodynamicist working in formula one with a background in extensive race and mechanical engineering. basically, he’s an inventor of high-speed cars. and one of his themes with car building - evolution of a concept works much better than coming up with a brand new concept. this is an inventor sorta saying brand new ain’t shit. i loved it.
so in january - i sat in the bottom decile (or close to it) and a big reason was a complete switch to flashcards in my revision. still got ’em but more as an experiment alongside my usual stuff. in a game of marginal gains - which is what academic performance really is - just keep evolving dude.
love is mystic
so the flatmates have given me a nickname ‘sadgradlad.’ its cut-throat. but give and take and all that. a few years later - i tell one of the girls about this - that my nickname was ‘sadgradlad,’ (albeit very briefly) and she’s like ‘so now just sadgrad.’ hannah’s now left on read.
anyway whatever you do - just don’t call your girlfriend mbbs. that story is for another day.
big money big grants big money big meetings
so our society - the Newcastle Academic Medicine Society was given £10,000 to spend on undergraduate research activities. i co-authored the grant with the academic office and was given rein to spend the money accordingly. coming up with essay prizes, travel grant bursaries and having the opportunity to gloat about all the cool things we’ve done this year at faculty meetings.
and at the end of the year, attending the annual INSPIRE meeting. talking with big academics and their undergraduate leads on the varied academic-type activities going on around the country. talking about self-germinating ideas throughout the year, collating feedback on what people want - the types of events people want early in the year, finding incentives to get people to attend events and match-making mentors to mentees more appropriately. i feel like in academia, like in other fields, when you do get opportunities, you have to make the most, otherwise you will be forgotten very quickly. there’s so many talented people - you just gotta have fun.
leaving the society magic
big commitments this year with the high-powered Newcastle Emergency Medicine Society (Charity and Social Secretary) and the big-money Academic Medicine Society (President). i’m formally leaving both. i cheekily made myself a position on the Academic Medicine Society committee for next year but they’ve got a great new president lined-up and the academic office know it too.
next year i’m actually in durham and moving to durham. looking forward to clinical medicine (finally!)!