5 Things Only Medical Students Will Understand

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I absolutely have no idea about the things that medical students have to go through in their life until… I become one of them. Getting into a medical school itself is probably difficult enough, let alone surviving through those five to six ordeal years in order to obtain the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree. (much longer for those reading medicine in graduate-entry universities). 

Being a second year medical student, I am proud to say that I am still sane at this point. There are definitely a lot of things that only medical students will experience, where one of it being the enormous tuition fees if you have not already figured out. Do not even let me start mentioning about ‘professionalism’ issues. Below are the five things that only medical students will understand. 

1. You Are Sleep Deprived.

With all the never-ending assignments and stacks of lecture notes to read, sleeping is undoubtedly the last thing you have in mind. 24 hours just does not seem to be sufficient for you. Right after handing in the assignments on date, you will be half dead already and just lie on bed the whole day, trying to compensate for the sleeping debt. 

2. You Are Always Busier Than Your Non-Med Flatmates.  

You get annoyed to find out that while you are having at least three lectures every single day, your friends who are taking different courses (non-medical field) have only five to seven lectures per week. In addition, you often go to university earlier than them and by the time you reach hostel with stacks of books, they are already back watching movies or sitcoms. 

3. You Have Plethora Of Things To Memorise.

All the medical terms sound Greek to you and you are expected to know them by the time you graduate from the university. Getting to pronounce them correctly is one difficult task, and making sure they are stuck in your brain is another. Sometimes you feel like your brain is about to explode after cramming in all those points in the lecture notes.

4. Your Social Life Is Practically Over. 

You can only choose two out of three options: sleep, study or social. These three things can never go hand in hand. You will have to sacrifice one thing to get the other two. When you are invited for a gathering during your breaks, you have no other choice but to reject them because you have to study for the exam which is right after your breaks end. 

5. You Wonder If You Have Made The Right Choice.

You have spent so long trying to get into medicine and once you got in you wonder if it was a mistake at all. You wonder if it was all worth it after taking all those challenging entrance examinations and multiple interviews. Being bombarded with tons of knowledge, constantly tired and lack of sleep, and god knows what else demotivate you to chase after your dreams of becoming a doctor. Bear in mind that medicine is a marathon and not merely a sprint. Stay strong and just keep going. Eventually, you will get there in the end.