I was studying health sciences, and for those of you who don't know, this is kind of a prep year for medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, and other health related careers.
It's also known as one of the hardest first year courses available and has its own sub culture, some of which is good and some that isn't.... So this is just a post about how I found it, some of the things I learned about studying and some tips to anyone else who will do this in the future.
I originally found it really difficult learning how to study and be still for long periods of time, especially after last year where I lived at camp and taught Outdoor Education and played in the woods all day long. Sitting down and studying for a few hours at a time without moving was a huge challenge for the first few weeks.
This was the only negative repercussion of having a gap year though... Because of taking the year off and travelling and working, I found it so much easier to make friends, get involved, see life beyond the perspective of coming straight from high school.
There is this negative attitude toward health science students among Otago students taking other degrees. We're see as a pack, all conforming to eachother, all studying all the time and not having a life, being stressed and worried all year. We move as one, think as one, feed as one....
This was a part of the year I didn't enjoy at all, and I found myself leaving a few mins early to lectures so I wouldn't be walking with everyone else, or studying at the Polytech library or intentionally playing rap music really loud just to be obnoxious when people were studying.
I would find myself not wanting to tell people what I was studying because the answer would always be "oh. cool. and how are you finding that?" And I always felt the need to explain that I had taken a gap year and done fun things...
Some of these things were just to be different, but looking back I have to ask myself, why did I care so much about what people thought? Why do I hate the health sci stereotype so much? Why am I so bothered when people identify me as a health sci student when I already know that my identity is found in Jesus alone?
There were some really good things about the year too!
I got to be lectured by people who are professionals in their fields, I got to learn things that most people will never know about the human body.
I got to dissect body parts and take my own blood and give electric shocks just to see what happens.
I made good friends. I learned how to work hard, how to say no when I need to study (okay, that didn't always happen) and how to balance work and church and life and friends a bit better.
For anyone who is thinking about doing this course in the near future, here are some things you should know...
- Write good notes right from the start. It's the worst thing ever trying to remember a lecture 40 weeks later!
- Don't panic when you get behind on lectures or notes or exit tests... You'll catch up. Everyone else is behind too.
- If you read through your labs and do the lab prep before actually getting to the lab you will get SO much more out of it! Unfortunately I only learned this half way through second semester
- Make sure you have friends that aren't doing health science. There is other things that are important.
- If you live in a hall of residence that is majority health sci (Carrington, St Marg, Arana) make sure you don't undermine the work that other degrees have to do. Sure, health sci is hard, but mostly just at the end of the semesters. They work hard all year long with assignments and reports.
- You CAN take a few evenings off a week and do things with your friends AND still do well, perhaps even better than if you studied all the time.
- Go to tutorials. I never learned this.
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| This is St David, the lecture theatre where most of my classes were held |
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