What can Aspiring Medics do to Prepare for Medical School during the Lockdown?

Currently, we all find ourselves in the comfort of our homes, twiddling our thumbs thinking about what we can do with our time. While the temptation for spending hours binging through the latest Netflix series may be high, it’s also crucial to utilise this time to ensure we are continuing to drive closer towards our goals, and during this lockdown, we can do both!

While we may be stuck indoors, the healthcare professionals of this country (and around the world) don’t have this luxury. Instead they are working tirelessly, day and night to ensure they can deliver healthcare to each and every person who needs it; this will be you in a few years! I think the most important thing to keep in mind is your ultimate goal, and the heroism of our NHS staff should motivate you further! Although the goal of getting into medical school may seem a big one, it’s incredibly important to break it down into smaller, more feasible goals. Dividing your goals into manageable chunks allows you to really focus on each task, and make sure you’ve got the most out it.

There are multiple hurdles you will need to overcome in order to get secure your place in medical school including, preparing for UCAT/BMAT, writing your personal statement/filling out UCAS forms, preparing for your interviews etc, and the best way to tackle these are to set smaller targets, and make a timetable. I have always been a big advocate of organisation and time management. Making a solid timetable is fundamental to being on top of things. Once you’ve laid out your tasks, and have divided them into smaller goals the next task is to devise a plan of action. This will require some prioritization; aspects like the UCAT are more urgent than preparing for your interviews, which will come later down the line. Hence, creating a timetable, monthly, weekly, and daily will help you to visualise how much time you would like to spend on each specific goal, giving you an idea of your timeline coming up to exam season next year. Some things you may wish to start now are writing your personal statement, and getting your hear round the UCAS website. Or you may wish to begin preparing for your UCAT/BMAT examination. Either way, having a timetable where you can plan to allocate a certain amount of time per day/week devoted to your medical school preparation will not only make you more organised, it’ll help you pass the time too!

While it is important to make the most of this time, it’s also important to take time out to relax. Having some sort of routine is so valuable, and especially more so during this lockdown. Ensuring that you aren’t studying around the clock (or netflixing either!), and finding a work-life balance is an invaluable skill you can develop, during this lockdown.

I hope this advice was beneficial for you, work hard, play hard and best of luck for your applications!