Been here a month already!

So time really does fly!  We've been here a month already, we're still absolutely in love with it all, sofa arrived and we have new bookcases being delivered in the morning (after a 3 week wait grr!).  It really feels like home now and we can't believe we didn't move years ago! 

So what have I been up to?  Mainly trying to figure out the UKCAT, I'm not too bad at it, but unfortunately I'm just not quite speedy enough which is very frustrating but I'm a lot calmer about it than last year.  I'm concerned that its going to be the QR and AR which will be my stumbling blocks, but I'm trying to get my head around them!  Time will tell.  

  I'm taking the GAMSAT next week, however I haven't prepared enough for section 3 for it to be a successful attempt, I'm hoping it will give me a good idea of where I'm lacking in knowledge ready for March though (for 2015 entry if I'm unsuccessful this year).  Just started redrafting my personal statement too which shouldn't take too long at least.  

I'll be happy once my GAMSAT is over and my UKCAT the following week too!  I'm rather dreading them both if I'm honest, I don't have a lot of confidence in them but we shall see!  In the interim, I'm trying to enjoy what is left of the summer, I have a feeling the next 12 months are going to be very busy indeed! 

More to life

So I've been revising (almost) constantly lately.  We've had a few lovely "date nights" as we call them, we have another tonight, a mid-week one to break up the stress of work/essays/revision etc which will be lovely.  However, I was procrastinating earlier and came across a blog that I once read from start to finish (and sobbed, literally sobbed) the whole way through.  In a nutshell, the blog was written by someone who married a young lady who battled with cancer for 5 years, but sadly lost her fight in 2011.  It is about their life together during their fight and there is another blog attached describing life as a widow.  It breaks my heard as the age gap is the same as the gap between my other half and I.  We always feel so lucky to have met each other when we're still young, but this blog serves as a cruel reminder that youth does not mean longevity.  

It got me thinking about how I would cope if I was to become a medic and I was faced with a young couple in a similar situation to the couple in the blog.  I concluded that I would probably go home and cry, lots and lots.  I can't imagine that I'm the kind of person where death would not affect me over time, I think no matter how long I was lucky enough to practice medicine I would still hurt every time, I would probably just become more experienced in processing the emotions.

This young couple went through so much together, I would be beyond devastated if that happened to me and my other half.  It is not just what they have already shared that is lost, but also the loss of the promise of forever.  (Did I forget to mention that I'm a hopeless romantic).  I think that when we get caught up in the whole revision and work malarky, we forget what is most important in life, the little things that may not change the world, but will always stay with you.  So when I'm sitting here in meltdown mode over my exams, I think I'll try my hardest (and it will be hard) to remember that there really is so much more to life than a perfect grade.  

Little deep for a Wednesday perhaps, but I thought I'd share what I've been thinking.  Now I'm going back to revising about the joys of thrombosis in pregnancy.  Have a lovely day everyone, make the most of it.  

Stress...essay...revision....stress....revision....

Sorry I've been AWOL.  I had an essay to finish last week which was handed in on Monday (not the best essay I've ever done but probably not the worst either).  I have also been frantically going through all my lecture notes and making revision notes as my first exam is in 15 days....15 DAYS!!!!  I found out I had a 2:1 for my lab report which is great as it is worth 50% of the module, so I'm pleased with that.  

So, 2 months of hell starts here really, I have 2 weeks until my first exam, and then 4 weeks of exams, followed by another 2 weeks (I think) off for revision before one more final exam for the year.  I have to do an assessment in the summer as I had to miss it earlier in the year, and after that (resits pending obviously) I'm finished.  Then it will be a long summer of GAMSAT revision (oh my dear god I have no idea how to begin), volunteering and dissertation reading (I'm at the point when I'm thinking of my dissertation already, oh my goodness!!!!) I'll be a 3rd year....already....this degree has flown by! 

I've loved this degree, and I'm sure that if I end up doing postgraduate I'll love it too, but I can't help but hope and wish that I'll get into GEM for 2013.  I know I'm one of the thousands who have the same dream, I'm just hopeful I'll get an interview.  Anyway, enough wishing, time to relax for the evening as I'm absolutely shattered.  Think I'm going to watch some trashy TV with my other half and then off to bed nice and early. 

 

Medical School Panic

So, in one month I'll be finishing my 2nd year.  Excellent and I'm finally healthy enough and my ankle seems stable enough (touch wood!) to begin my volunteering, which is amazing.  I also have the shadowing sorted for the summer, alongside the project I've been working on which has been amazing, but I can't help feeling my application isn't going to be strong enough for this year.  I did a practice UKCAT test yesterday for the first time (I didn't even know what was involved) and it was ok I suppose for a first attempt, aside from the numerical section which was absolutely appalling, which does not bode well for me at all.  I really didn't want to rely on the GAMSAT too much as it is such a beast I wanted 2 UKCAT Unis and 2 GAMSAT Unis and now I'm worried that I'm going to have to go for 4 GAMSAT unis.  

I have absolutely no idea how this is all going to pan out, I had everything planned to the nth degree and then I messed it all up by getting injured.  Completely my fault, but it isn't going to make me feel great when I have to take yet another year to apply again if I don't get in this time.  I'm a mature student (I'm still the right side of 30 but still!) and I just feel frustrated. I'm seeing on forums that people who are quite honestly fantastic candidates getting rejected from all 4 choices, even with high scores, high academic grades etc. 

If people who are:
a) Younger than me
b) Have better academic credentials than me
c) Have higher GAMSAT/UKCAT scores than I can ever hope for
d) Have more voluntary work experience than me
Aren't getting offers, what am I supposed to do?  I just hope that I get one offer, I don't mind where, I really truly don't, I'll be happy with any of the 6 places I want to apply to (I haven't narrowed it down yet, open day season is upon us!) were kind enough to offer me a place I'd be over the moon.  I can't quite get my head around people being offered places and then saying that they're not sure they're going to take them as it wasn't their "first choice"... *DON'T APPLY TO A UNI UNLESS YOU'RE HAPPY TO TAKE THE PLACE*. 

Anyway, I'm going to stop ranting, just having a moment of complete and utter blind panic! I'm going to go and revise, because one thing is for sure, I'm not going anywhere unless I pass my degree!  Thanks for reading.  

Exams are looming

So, we're reaching the end of March, at the end of May the bulk of my exams will be over, with only one left to sit at the end of June and one presentation which had to be delayed from earlier in the year due to my poor health.  I have less than two months to go and I still have written work to complete including a lab report and an essay.  I am starting to get stressed as there are a lot of topics to cover.  Even more worryingly, this will mark the end of my 2nd year. 

When I return in October I will have completed my personal statement, ready to send off my UCAS form, I will have been to all of the open days I want to go to, chosen my prospective medical schools, I will have taken my GAMSAT and UKCAT exams and I will be INCREDIBLY nervous in case I don't get any interviews at all.  In half a year I will be keeping my fingers crossed to achieve all of the things I want, yet right now it seems so close and yet so far away.  

I'm so excited about my 3rd year, looking forward to my dissertation, getting the GAMSAT out of the way, and hopefully getting a relatively good mark (eesh!) and doing my work experience over the summer alongside my voluntary work!  

But first, my lab report and revision timetables!