#elirluna

i'm actually lactose intolerant, so i don't eat ice cream that much. but my favourite is definitely vanilla (ben&jerry's cookie dough, specifically), and least favourite is probably strawberry.

Pink in the Night by Mitski with added From Another Room effect

Hello! First of all, welcome to the insanity XD I wish I had a better greeting, but that’s the most appropriate one I could find. 

I had three subjects in my first year : anatomy, physiology and biochem. (I dunno how the system is where you’re from, so I’ll stick to some general points I found super helpful) 

 I’ll confess first off, that I don’t do well with schedules / routines, I’m more of a study whenever you can manage. My study schedule varies widely, some days it could be 10 hours or more when I’m feeling extra motivated / intrigued by any topic / it’s exam season crunch time, and some days aren’t so good, where I’ll end up skimming through barely two pages of my textbook. Those days will be there, and that’s totally okay. 

 1. For anatomy (or any other topic which involves a lot of visual learning / understanding) : draw your own diagrams! It is the one thing that got me through a majority of my first year. Your diagrams don’t have to be super neat / artistic, just pencil scribbled lines with proper labeling is okay too, just do it in a way you can understand. I still refer to many of my old diagrams when I’m stuck. 

 2. Same thing goes for biochem / physiology flowcharts - study them from your books / lecture slides, then draw them on your own as practice! I also referred to a lot of YouTube channels for understanding stuff : AnatomyZone , KhanAcademyMedicine , ArmandoHasudungan , Embryology are some of the channels that had helped me a lot! 

 3. Try to befriend people in your class / lab groups! Having a good network of people to fall back on will help you a lot on days when you’re sick / having any real life crisis etc. And you’ll see that your friends will end up teaching you a lot of concepts / clear up a lot of your doubts on a daily basis! Just, don’t be afraid to ask. 

 4. That brings me to the next point : Do not be shy / afraid to ask for help. Can’t stress this enough! Be it your professors, the nurses, attendings in the wards, your peers, your seniors, whoever it is, ask for help, clear up your questions. All of them will be happy to help you out! In my first year, we didn’t have much clinical exposure, mostly the theoretical parts were focused on. But if you do have that opportunity, do take advantage of it! 

 5. Practice review questions! That’s an oft repeated advice, time tested and true XD Review questions ( we had University Question Banks, basically assorted collections of previous years papers ) will help you focus on the areas which are most important for you to remember, and filter out the things most relevant to the area where you’ll need to work on more! 

 6. Another practical advice that I personally adhere to : having pdfs / digital versions of your textbooks on your phone. I have to spend a lot of time in transit from my home to college, so I spend that time skimming through topics on my phone! 

 7. Your point about mental health is something I relate to quite a lot. I had my bad days, and still do. Terrible days, in fact. We used to have weekly tests all year round, where the professors conducted a viva examination after finishing each topic. So, almost every week, one or more subjects would overlap, like on some weeks we had tests on both anatomy + physiology / or sometimes all three on the same day. And man, believe me, a lot of those tests went terrible XD The professors minced no words and told us off for not ‘studying enough’ Like, I used to come home sometimes and cry my eyes out, and felt like I’m wasting away my time there, like I wasn’t even good enough. But then, most of my peers were in the same boat, and eventually, we adjusted to the standards our teachers expected, and it was still a learning curve all year round ;D 

 8. Find time to relax and take a breather. Don’t always compare yourself to your peers and stress about the fact that they are probably learning so much more than you or whatever… Please do remember, we all have our own ways of learning things, and no particular way is the correct one or the best one!

Find the time to unwind and clear your head. Talk to your family / go out for a walk / spend time with your friends / or if you’re an introvert like me and large groups of people stress you out, then simply spend a quiet hour listening to music or drawing ( my go to way for stress relief :D ) or whichever activity that relaxes you!