And so we have arrived at the end of the pre-clinical course at Monash University. A very short two years ago, we were babies in an adult worlds. Today, Christmas Day 2022, I am still but a child, still oblivious to the complexities of life, to the best ways to learn medicine and to what growing up is really about.

This post, however, will mostly be about my academic journey this year, my study techniques and whether I feel like I want to replicate them in the coming, clinical, years.

On campus teaching This year, the Monash faculty of medicine returned to on campus teaching. Last year, Melbourne was plagued by 4 lockdowns, which resulted in much of our teaching moving to the interweb. Thankfully, we got to experience in-person teaching this year – these included workshops, tutorials (including in-person Clinical Skills tutorials), alongside extra-curricular activities on campus.

Academic content The year, similar to Semester 2 of 2021 (Year 1 Medicine), was split into systems. In semester 1, we looked at the respiratory, gastrointestinal and endocrine systems. In semester 2, we looked at the reproductive, haematological, neurological and head and neck systems. We also had subjects relating to EBM (Evidence Based Medicine), HEP, HP (Health Promotion – such as immunisations, global health and health systems), Medical Law (negligence) and ethics. Subjects were also similar – and consisted of the core tenets of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology and clinical skills.

Academic teaching structure Our week consisted of: Clinical Skills was, personally, not a very useful session for me. We spent much of the two hours discussing the understanding behind the examination or history-taking required of each system of the body. We had imaging / specimens and tutorials which I didn’t find very useful, at least not for exams, but the content was interesting none-the-less. Tuesdays were our day off, Wednesdays we had a workshop and Fridays we continued having ICLs.

Study techniques This year, I utilised a range of study techniques.

  • In semester 1, I began using Notion to take notes. I made a very nice page, sorted everything nicely and created a ‘share to website link’ bought Pro, and tried to table notes from all my classes. Unfortunately, I stopped using it very quickly. I think part of this is because not all the content from every class was important, and finding the most important information from each lecture was also a drain – there was usually very little we really needed to know from each lecture.
  • I continued using handwritten notes throughout the year, especially the first half of semester 2, but this waned towards the end of the year.
  • Succinct summary notes was a technique I tried in Year 1. I would write in Word the main points or learning objectives and study this document. I failed to do thi
  • I also made a Mistakes made document. There was a thought of compiling this into my general notes, but if I already knew my general notes really well, what was the point of this?
  • After Rural Week in semester 2, after being inspired by a friend, I began using Anki to learn the content. I was a little stressed about the content from the earlier part of the semester – namely the reproductive and haematological systems. I grinded Anki, doing 500 reviews and/or new cards over a couple of weeks, before I felt confident with those systems again. I also used Anki to learn the content of HEENT in the last two weeks of the semester rather than watch the lecture. I stopped during Anki during SWOTVAC, focussing on past exams.

Attendance There was an 80% attendance hurdle on tutorials, but not on workshops – anyone could not show up to workshops and be fine (except you couldn’t go to the workshop of the opposite group. I didn’t attend most workshops because of the travel time to university, which I felt like was a waste of time if I didn’t get much out of the workshop academically anyway.

Exam Preparation Exam Preparation consisted of doing past exams, which the faculty provided. They had provided official answers (which there were mistakes to) to two years of exams, which meant Also, exams were previously held mid-semester and end-of-semester, but the exams in our year were both end of semester. There were also EMQs and extended response questions which weren’t present in our exams – which were purely 100 multiple choice questions x2.

OSCE Preparation OSCEs were the aspect of examination that everyone was scared about. We hadn’t had the opportunity to do in-person OSCEs in Year 1 due to covid – instead it was just a history taking station over zoom. However, in the end, most people I know passed all six OSCE stations – even though we had 20 OSCE stations to do and most people a month out felt quite unprepared for them. There wasn’t any peripheral signs that I was most worried about – instead most of the exam techniques focussed on central examination.

Placement Preparation We had a week of rural placement which was more like a fun experience than anything. However, most people had already begun thinking about Year 3 – about how it would be great to experience hospitals, about how learning would be even more self directed and how lines between groups would naturally occur due to the fact that people were allocated to a different hospital – we would never be on Clayton campus, together, ever again, as a single group.

Resources This year, and especially the second semester, I spent more money than I have ever done in my life. I bought genuine printer cartridge for the first time – but because the printer no longer accepted ‘equivalent’ but ‘cheaper’ versions of the cartridge, I decided to use less paper. At one point in 2021, I would print off all my lectures notes and read them instead of watching them – perhaps fixing poor attention span is the alternative solution. I also bought a stethoscope, a stethoscope case and a sphygmomanometer, all before the OSCE exams at the end of the year so that I could practise.

Linugistics Finally, linguistics-wise, I feel like I’ve made solid progress to my journey. I still need to sit down one day and plan out everything I want to learn and understand, and write these down as well, and also hopefully to share it with others, especially the aspects of it which are medically or life related. I ramped up @medetymology posting towards the end of the year and it has been a joy to understand medical language a little more! Merry Christmas!