Year 4: Day 1 of "The Hardest Year"

Introductory Week

So it was a pretty mix of excitement and fear today, probably more of the latter.

Excitement - well, it's the penultimate year! 3 years ago, around this time I had left my HCA job, received my Barts welcome pack, and was eagerly awaiting  the start of medical school.

And today? Well, i'm a tad over half way through, and approximately 1 Year and 8 Months from the finishing line (according to the informative lecture this morning, and with fingers crossed for all things going smoothly). I'm not quite sure how the last 3 years manage to pass so quickly, and now there's just the two left.

This sort of leads on to the Fear part. 

It's pretty scary for a few reasons. 

1. I've been told it's going to be the "HARDEST YEAR!" .. and looking at the timetable.. i believe that.
   There's a lot to cover this year, with less time to cover it all... and I will have to start from scratch, as a lot of these subjects i haven't touched since year 2.
2. It's the last year to work on the rankings (we're getting a talk on Friday for this), and if the weighting works how i currently think it does.. then this year's exams count for a meaty chunk, and more or less dictate how many points i will be getting for my Foundation Programme application.
3. It's my last year to get anything impressive down on my CV... and it was drummed in this morning, that leaving it till 5th year is simply too late.
   At this moment in time I honestly don't think I have anything for my CV, and don't really know where to start.

On a less serious note, we had a really funny talk today by a 5th year medic, who pretty much gave us the do's and don't for 4th year. I was also inspired by her to try and predict the modules i'll enjoy this year, and those i won't, and at the end of the year i'll see if i was correct... so here goes:

Obstetrics and Gynaecology - Like

Paediatrics - Like

Neurology - Like 

Psychiatry - Like

Opthalmology - Dislike
Orthopaedics - Dislike

Rheumatology - Dislike

Care of the Elderly - Like *

Dermatology - Dislike

GP - Dislike *

*When asked by doctors or others which speciality i'd like to pursue, I tend to either say care of the elderly, or GP... which is surprising, seeing as i don't think i will enjoy the GP component of 4th year.Only time will tell if these change by the end of the year ^^

However, for now.. it's a 9am lecture tomorrow, and time to sleep.