University: The University of Western Australia

Undergraduate Degree: Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Integrated Medical Sciences and Clinical Practice (IMSCP), Minor in Spanish Studies | Assured Pathway to Doctor of Medicine

School Subjects: Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics Methods, Mathematics Specialist, Literature, Italian

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Introduction

I’m currently in my third year of my undergrad degree, which, for students on the Assured Pathway to Medicine, is also the first year of postgrad Medicine (MD1). For as long as I can remember, wanting to study Medicine has always sat at the back of my mind, and if I’m honest, it mostly stemmed from a desire to pursue the hardest yet most rewarding career in my eyes. Therefore, when it came to Year 12, it was a simple decision to apply to Medicine.

Initially, I was studying IMSCP under the Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours), but I transferred to the Bachelor of Biomedical Science after sem 1 of 1st year. I chose BPhil because I thought I would be interested in doing a dedicated honours research year and also because it seemed harder than “just doing Medicine under the Bachelor of Biomed” (I know, what was I thinking?). However, I realised that doing so would cause me to start med school a year behind my peers since the honours year is completed before MD1. Additionally, as medical students, we would have an opportunity later in the degree to conduct research anyway.

The UCAT & Interviews

I started preparing for the UCAT in the summer before Year 12 using a paid UCAT preparation program. I chose a paid program because I thought having a structured program run by people who have years of experience with the UCAT would be really helpful in the frenzy of Year 12. The decision to use free UCAT resources or paid UCAT courses is ultimately dependent on your own level of discipline and time management. To have external accountability, structure, and to maximise my chances of performing well in the UCAT, I decided to invest in a course. There is a recommended preparation timeline, which I didn’t follow due to the workload of ATAR and procrastination. Hence, I personally learned Verbal Reasoning over the summer and did minimal UCAT preparation over Terms 1 and 2 until the three weeks before my UCAT. Due to the stress of balancing UCAT and ATAR preparation in Year 12, I would recommend starting UCAT preparation earlier than I did—perhaps halfway through Year 11.

For the medical interviews, I also used a paid interview preparation course from the same UCAT prep company, and I found it really useful for understanding how to perform well in the interviews. Knowing exactly how the medical schools were assessing me and how to meet their criteria streamlined the otherwise difficult task of preparing for the unknown. Medical schools are generally assessing you to see if you possess key traits they’re looking for in future doctors and if you can articulate your decision-making and reasoning well. I started preparing for interviews after the ATAR exams, which, from memory, gave me a couple of weeks to prepare before my first interview. I would advise interview candidates to keep in mind that many interviews will happen around Leavers, some even during it, so making sure you don’t get sick during that time is important.

First Two Years of Undergrad

The first two years of the undergrad degree comprise laying down the foundational biomedical sciences needed to study Medicine. We studied units in anatomy and physiology, biochemistry, cell communication and metabolism, population health, immunology and microbiology, pharmacology and haematology, research, and genetics. Assessment types vary a little depending on the unit, but it was mostly online quizzes, in-person tests covering half a semester’s content, and some assignments for the units involving labs and research. Classes included lectures, labs, and workshops. If you don’t attend lectures in person, the actual mandatory weekly contact hours are quite low, and only counting my IMED units, I would have only needed to go in one or two days. Because of this, and including Year 12 burnout and knowing that med school is on the horizon, a lot of people take these first two years easier. In my opinion, this is doable, considering that you only need to maintain a 70 WAM to keep your Assured Pathway and that if you got into the Assured Pathway, you likely have a good ability to cope well with studying. Having said that, don’t take it too easy because the stress of thinking you’re going to lose your Assured Pathway is not worth it.

Since I didn’t study Human Biology ATAR, I struggled to adjust my learning and studying style for these content-heavy, rote-learning-type subjects. Every discipline has some component of conceptual understanding required, but I found that a good portion of these units was just about knowing the name of a particular enzyme, the list of pathological and clinical features of anaemias and blood cancers, or the names of key muscles and their movements. For some people, that’s pretty easy, but coming from ATAR subjects with more application-type assessments where you learn through doing practice problems, I found it tricky. Previous study methods didn’t work anymore, so I had to use different ones. For me, a mixture of typed and handwritten notes and spaced repetition did the trick. I wouldn’t necessarily say that means I’d recommend people interested in Medicine to do Human Biology ATAR because you’ve got time to become familiar with memorisation-based study methods in this two-year liminal period before actual med school, but it may be helpful for some people to do so.

Spanish and Electives in Italian

Since we only had two core units of IMSCP each semester, I had eight elective spaces over the first two years of undergrad. I chose to do a minor in Spanish and two units of Italian (Italian Studies 3 – ITAL1403 and Italian Studies 4 – ITAL1404) to fill up most of these spaces. Given that I did Italian ATAR, I found the Italian units relatively easy. In most aspects, the early university language units (up to about Level 4) are easier than ATAR languages because there’s great overlap with the content studied, and there’s less teacher-to-student accountability for your language progress. However, I found my Spanish units harder because of the confusing similarities with Italian and the fact that I couldn’t ride on previous ATAR understandings.

Assessments for language majors comprised online listening, reading, and grammar quizzes; group projects/presentations with an oral component; and, in the higher-level units, we had in-person written tests and an oral exam/presentation. Contact hours were usually two classes a week, one of which were one hour long and the other two hours long. I really enjoyed having the balance of studying languages alongside the biomedical sciences, and I found that language classes facilitated more conversations with classmates than my other labs and workshops.

Starting Third Year of Undergrad/MD1

Before starting MD1, I was told that the first six months of MD1 were essentially the first two years of the undergrad major condensed. Now, being three weeks in when writing this blog, this seems to be true. This foundations block covers all the health and biomedical sciences we’ve just studied for the past two years, with Pathology, Behavioural Science, and Clinical Skills being added now. Having this background knowledge definitely helps with keeping up with the pace of content for this first block, but that’ll taper off when we start our systems blocks, which will be new information. Due to the reduced frequency of assessments compared to the past two years, studying now is more of a marathon than short sprints, and being focused on keeping up with each week’s content by the end of the week is key.

General Advice

Attend lectures in person when you can. As someone who didn’t attend lectures in person for 90% of my first two years and who has been attending nearly all the lectures in person this year, I can attest that it’s significantly easier to stay on top of lectures by physically going to them. Not only is it good accountability, but it also enables you to connect with your peers more and ‘feel’ like you’re at uni.