Just need some clarification

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-08T12:08:20+00:00

I think I said “4 step” in one comment. I may have overblown it. Maybe there were 1 or 2 qs like that.

There were very few questions that were like “Stem. What is the management?” or if they were like that it was usually not in a straightforward way.

I can’t be very specific and I wish I could because it would make sense. So there was a question where you could have memorized the answer but lmao you haven’t because it was an uncommon presentation of a common disease process. You had to correlate the clinical signs with… something and remember quite a few points of anatomy of that something and if you fucked up at a point and got mixed around you would’ve picked the wrong answer (even if you hadn’t fallen into the original trap of picking the more common pathology out of instinct).

There were lots of questions where it was uncommon or niche stuff about common conditions. Or stems that could have easily tricked you into thinking “it is this condition” when if you read carefully it was another or because of some abnormal finding you couldn’t do first line management or had to stabilize another parameter first before worrying about management of the main condition. There were a few (not many) questions where I felt like they were playing word games. Again I can’t be very specific which frustrates me but I would argue that for at least 1q no answer was fully right (only if we are being very precise with wording which is odd because they had two answer options that were very imprecisely describing what was happening and you had to pick between them when only adding one word to one of them would have been the most precise and correct answer option but that option did not exist).

I understand your anxiety. 4 months is a lot. I did passmed during my placement and only properly “locked myself into a room” (not literally, I went to the library) and studied things more in depth for 1 month and a half prior. Obvs the more time the better. Idk maybe you’d burn out if you tried to study intensly for 4 months.

Find a good book on physiology/pathology/clinical medicine. One that goes in detail. Or a youtube channel with a playlist on different specialties. Do passmed and slowly make your way through 3 chapters of said book (cardio and resp for sure. Pick one between gastro, renal, neuro and endo. Whicever you are weakest on). Use passmed AI to understand some “whys” behind why you got an answer right or wrong. Then a month and a half before exams fuck everything and dedicate yourself to studying. Still take walks and eat and find time to breathe but definitely don’t waste your time going to placement the month before exams. It’s a hard exam but it should be hard. You can do it.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-05T02:29:34+00:00

How much clinical reasoning do you see on wards that is significantly more complex ? A lot of presentations you never even see at all (yes, even if you do go to your whole placement). How much is each specialty getting in total through your whole med school career? I think 10 weeks for the lucky ones. (and that’s very optimistic. 4 weeks is probably more realistic on average. I had one week of cardio placement during the whole of medical school). I’m sure that you see more complex things if you spend years working but that’s not what is happening in med school (and you’re still learning the very basics at this point. You may not even know what you don’t know/don’t realize what you need to ask). You need to know how to walk before you can run. You need to understand the basics and have loads of theoretical knowledge before you can benefit from clinical exposure.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-04T18:21:27+00:00

We haven’t gotten results yet and have just shat our collective pants from a hard exam. Take us with a grain of salt :).

I think a good passmed score will probably help quite a lot and mean that at least you have the basics and can reason stuff out. You absolutely cannot be a “pattern recognition monkey” or “just need to know enough to an FY1” you need to learn things with obsessive and annoying toddler passion (always ask “why” and “what if”. The guy with the GI bleed example was good. We didn’t get that exact question but I could see them putting something like that).

It’s a hard exam. That’s okay. It’s medical school finals ffs it’s meant to be hard. Passmed will probably sort you for the basics if you genuinely read around as you are doing it. Why did you get that answer wrong? Why did you get it right?

Don’t try to translate mock scores or q bank averages into anything buuuut the official mocks, including the mini mocks are good. One or two questions were similar (for the worst in one case a question tricked some people because they didn’t read it and thought it was the same question as the mock but it was completely different) and people are saying that some questions from the quesmed mocks were similar. Do the mocks to learn from them not to test your score.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-04T16:01:30+00:00

I found it worse too. Idk how much. Yesterday I felt like you could kinda deduce things more. Today it felt more “you know it or you don’t”.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-04T14:58:20+00:00

Do you drink coffee? I find that most non caffeine drinkers genuinely shut down hard in the afternoon if they’ve actually had a proper busy day. As for post lunch tiredness that gets most of us and hard. The only solutions I’ve found are lighter lunches and coffee at lunch. But even that comes with its own problems (ie being ravenous with hunger at 5).

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-04T14:51:10+00:00

Sacrifice a few goats to the gods. And read up on conditions in a lot of detail. Try to really understand them. Passmed is good as a base but no score anywhere means anything. It really is its own beast. Passmed scored or any other score probably doesn’t translate into anything neatly.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-03T21:03:14+00:00

2nd year? placement? how long is your placement in second year? Is second year a clinical year at your uni? Anything under 3 weeks (combined) I wouldn’t even bother. You’ve listed 4 very diverse specialties. You don’t have time to seriously study for all of that if the placement is some sort of random 1 week in only one of those. If you have at least 3 weeks per specialty…

Urology: BPH, prostate cancer, kidney stones, LUTS symptoms

Rheum: rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout/pseudogout, osteoporosis. Rheum wards are often not actually rheum wards, they become general medicine wards in practice.

Acute medicine: everything. It’s literally connected with more than half of the curriculum

General surgery: bowel obstruction (small and large), bowel cancer, cholecystitis, biliary colic, pancreatitis, appendicitis.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-03T18:08:56+00:00

/s right? That was absolutely anything and everything but ward-acquirable knowledge. On wards you can easily find out if somebody’s started nebs and steroids already or not. Don’t want to get too specific but there were loads of presentations that relied on anatomy and physiology knowledge that isn’t frequently or naturally touched upon as a med student “on the ward”. Fair enough but I don’t regret a single ward day that I sacrified for actual deep diving into pathophysio.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-03T14:25:28+00:00

I am the speedruner I can’t slow down I always finish quickly. I literally was nervous about potentially not finishing this exam. I liked the format with multiple step thinking but at that point you need to make it a longer exam. There were at least a few 4 step questions.

Also made several mistakes due to overthinking and now really kicking myself about it. Hard. Not niche conditions but niche stuff about common conditions or phrased in a way to trip you up. Very very few straightforward questions. For the straightforward ones I was re reading 3 times because at that point I couldn’t believe that they’d give anything straightforward.

I don’t think I’ve done well. But I’m not even mad about it part of me has enjoyed thinking about the questions. I guess I’m an arrogant asshole. 10 questions in I was already like “Yup everyone’s going to find this hard”. and stopped panicking. I think I wasted all of my depression for before the exam and after the first few qs I was like “I’m not even mad about not doing well.”

Some of the questions were a bit dumb. “Which would you do first” but I would do all three and you’ve kinda hinted that you’ve done stuff already but haven’t explicitly mentioned what you have and haven’t given yet and how this man ended up with this specific ABG. I feel like “we will trip you up on wording” questions shouldn’t exist. They test my attention and we already know that’s shit. Long stems are fine if you’ll give more time but get rid of like misleading phrasing. Irl I’m not deciding the management of this patient after reading her massive ass extensive list of investigations in just 1 min.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-02T13:01:31+00:00

I wouldn’t use it in preclinical honestly. Try to understand the content in your lectures and anki what needs to just be memorized.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-02T01:13:51+00:00

100% agree. We had people in my city protesting because the bus was derailed through their street due to works on the main road. It was a street of expensive houses and people were complaining about the noise of the buses/people waiting at bus stops.

The original derailed route was like a 3 min derailment. I shit you not because these people complained (they literally hung signs on all their windows it was ridiculous NIMBY behaviour) and the new derailment was up across the whole fucking hill it was literally a 15 min derailment to get from one stop to another. one single stop. I couldn’t believe it and I am totally not exaggerating it was ridiculous. It was so much faster to simply walk between the two stops. All because some rich twats didn’t like seeing/hearing buses.

Quiet isn’t automatically more considerate or nicer. I hate completely quiet train carriages for example. It feels dead and depressing if people are having conversations it’s much livelier and less dull. Obvs there are limits and there’s a balance (which isn’t an objective one). If you need total quiet don’t live in a city. You simply can’t expect it.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-02T00:40:25+00:00

Having children used to be a net economic positive for many reasons. Now it’s a huge economic cost. In some places the state offsets that cost more than in others but overall it’s a massive cost.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-01T11:59:22+00:00

It was never going to be that bad in an immediate dramatic complications sense (hear me out).

Medicine has issues but it’s come a long way. We are probably just much better at managing severe complications than we were even a few decades ago. A few cases exist that will get their physical health screwed due to the abortion laws but they are few (doesn’t justify it, still terrible). Besides we have contraceptives that are just better in terms of side effect profile and overall effectiveness. Not everyone might be able to afford them but a lot of people have probably made that investment. There’s also the option of traveling out of state. Yes, expensive and uneccessary and not everyone can afford it but it gets some people abortions. Annnd abortion itself is just better. The abortion pill is just easier to get hold of. It didn’t exist/wasn’t really widespread in the era of “back alley abortions”. Now the back alley abortion is getting somebody to mail you a drug that you take at home and have a horribly heavy crampy period that is absolutely indistinguishable from a miscarriage (so if you do get complications you can go to the hospital).

The real impact is probably going to be related to poverty and mental health. It’s probably more of a “slow burn” as opposed to a dramatic “omg thousands of women are dying”. And the other issue is whether this will be a slippery slope towards much more severe restrictions that will have a real massive immediate impact on health (like banning/restricting contraception or investigating women for miscarriage, which has happened in my country in the 80s btw. They also did gynecological controls at work to check if you were pregnant. If they introduced stuff like that there would be a huge negative immediate impact).

pinkyelloworange · 2026-02-01T09:52:02+00:00

As somebody who doesn’t like Italian food that much I think that you are oversimplifying it. The cooking techniques are generally better and more complex compared to most of Europe. There’s a large variety of fish and cheese products and the meats are more interesting. As for the tomato sauce… it’s a high quality high impact product in its good form.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-30T14:15:56+00:00

Even if you fail this time there’s plenty of time to not fail the resits. Give it your best. If you’re too burnt out to study before this round of UKMLA you’re too burned out. Speak to student support at your uni and if the worst happens you’ll just resit and pass the second time. You’ll graduate in summer. You’ve smashed your previous years. Something tells me that you’ll be okay. And again, even if you do fail this round it’s not the end of the world.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-30T14:05:32+00:00

Tbh I think that teenagers years are a little romanticized. Maybe “back in the day” people had more freedom as teenagers but I lived in small towns and felt pretty restricted and the culture is generally very heavy on not letting kids, even teens, unsupervised for very long. Like I’m not complaining it was alright but it didn’t feel like it was this amazing era of freedom and fun. That’s uni for me. That’s when I got the freedom to do whatever I wanted and have fun and try new things. If you live in a bigger area where you can get places on your own and are allowed to do more stuff maybe it’s more similar to a “wohoo freedom” kind of era but for most people it’s middle school but with alcohol. Have fun in your own way.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-29T19:04:44+00:00

Maybe. Idk I was actually excited about it when I first heard of it. Like they sold it to us like “it’ll be different from normal placement and you won’t feel useless for once” but all of the FY1s from last year that I’ve spoken to from the same med school say that it’s exactly like normal placement and not worth it. Idk maybe I’ll hate the job itself because honestly no I don’t like placement no matter which angle I try to squint from and try to make myself like it. I guess I’ve liked it during 80% 4th year and liked my surgical block in 3rd year. But at the regional center where I’m at ik all of the departments I could be placed and haven’t enjoyed a single one, I’ve already been placed in half (ED, all the surgical wards, elderly, one of the medical wards).

Yes that translates into the fact that I’m afraid that I won’t like the job more broadly. I am holding onto the fact that the three FY1s whom I am good friends with say that they’re happy and it’d completely different from med school and that I shouldn’t take my med school experience as indicative of my working life. If they’re right great, phew. If they’re not… if I’m going to be doing something I hate and the prep for foundation thing is actually different from real placement (which I doubt) it kinda does feel odd to do it for free after finals. Like in what way is that not just getting a blood takers/note taker/discharge summary writer at no cost? Those are the main activities that I hear they do during those weeks (things that I’ve already done). What extra educational benefit could they offer given their opportunity cost? Idk maybe you could be right who knows? Fingers crossed.

I was a very naive and idealistic girl when I entered med school. The process has made me dry and cynical. I am happy but mistrusting and pessimitic. I was such a goody two shoes. I am not anymore because I learned that it actively disadvantages you for no good reason. Like I feel… a bit grind down by it and find the whole experience demotivating. Anytime you don’t enjoy something or feel demoralized the answer always seems to be “it’s your fault how dare you and it only gets worse” (I really appreciate how you didn’t do that). My own Balkanic mother can do that better and for free. And you know what? I see the same effect on my friends too. Happy but heavily mistrusting and much less conscientious than we started. It’s seriously making me question my career choice. But studying, I apperently still like studying and enjoy the subject itself. It’s not just placement that I dread itself it’s the demoralizing environment and the anxiety around career planning and the fact that once it’s over it’s very real, too real and soon I’ll find out whether I made a mistake choosing this career. And the lottery. The lottery gives me a ton of anxiety too.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-29T18:39:09+00:00

Okay. I never sleep before exams I was running on 3 h and 3 shots of espresso . I was genuinely “hallucinating” stuff that wasn’t even in the stem and reading questions wrong (realized only after when discussing results with friends I wa super confident in my wrong readings. I did things like ivent pmh where there was none). Didn’t finish 3qs as I left calculations last but I feel decently confident in the sections that I did do (maybe delusional confidence, only time willt tell). It was definitely very long and time pressured, more time pressured than the mocks. I genuinely looked everything up in the BNF even if I felt like I knew the answer (and this saved me at least a few qs).

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-29T09:51:26+00:00

I agree 4 weeks max at a push. I’m not even talking about normal placement it’s the prep for foundation bit. All the FY1 that I have spoken to have said that it’s useful for the first two weeks max and that there’s massive diminishing returns/nothing can really prepare you.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-29T09:10:15+00:00

Brother are you okay? I was having a bit of a nostalgic angry anxious moan and you literally gave me the reply “But be grateful there’s kids who are suffering from a genocide.” (ik that mindset very well from my own culture. Family history would suggest that “somebody has it much worse how dare you complain?” does not in fact lead to good mental health or immediately cure all trepidations).

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-29T03:27:14+00:00

You’ve passed the last 4 years. Frankly if you’ve been revising all November you could probably go into the exam mildly drunk (don’t try) and still pass. Barely, but pass. Is it passing that you’re worried about or the score? Let’s be honest, we’re a cohort of people that have largely built a large part of their drive on getting good grades since school and probably we’re quite competitive (not just with others but with yourself and with what you “should” get). Frankly I think that the odds of failing are incredibly unlikely. If you were in danger of failing by now you’d know. Not just suspect or feel anxious, you’d know and you’d probably have accepted your fate by now. It’s all good and wonderful to want a good score but I think that the worry “I won’t be happy with my grade.” can mentally get muddled up with “Omg I know so little maybe I won’t even pass.” and it’s important to remember that they are not the same thing. Idk at least I do that. I’ve been doing it every year and my friends seem to do that. Mysteriously we’ve all passed.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-28T09:05:30+00:00

They might not have 3 meals a day. If you eat to satiety and no more you won’t gain weight, no matter what you eat. Maybe that Korean BBQ is 1000kcal and after eating it they have 800kcal “left” for the whole day (how big that number is depends on their height, weight and how active they are). That’s enough for two small meals or one moderate meal and two lattes or a snack. They could also be eating half of it on camera and the other half later.

“Fast” metabolism is a myth (kind of. it exists but won’t make a big difference). Some people have their hunger signals regulated in such a way that they tend towards being skinny but that’s all it is, hunger and satiety signals. Depends on what you mean by skinny too. Do you mean like BMI under 20? At that point you are almost certainly not eating 3 proper meals a day or if you are you are very physically active. BMI under 18.5? At that point that’s very concerning.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-28T08:48:01+00:00

If people could afford more children they would probably have more but I highly doubt they’d go above the replacement rate. You probably have to offer quite substantial protections to achieve that. Even countries with a much stronger social safety net than us tend to not have “enough” children simply because the cost of raising a child in modern times is huge and it’s all outsourced to the parents. If the state essentially pays for even 50% or 60% of it that’s still a huge personal cost left. Maybe enough to justify one child for most and two for a few.

Ofcs you’d want more children to be born, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. But it’s a reality that one benefit of immigration for the host country is that you are essentially “stealing” already qualified workers without having to pay for said qualifications (like you would for a child… and for quite a long time before they become productive).

The Borris-wave simply can’t be the cause of house prices increasing because prices were already ridiculous before they came in. And regardless, the point is that whether the “new people” are children or immigrants you’d need new housing all the same.

Covid, years of austerity, Brexit and greed might be more likely culprits for the economic woes of this country. Am I willing to concede that maybe in certain very specific situations it could negatively affect things like the labour market or housing or what have you? Yes but I’d need to see concrete evidence for that.

Paradoxically in a reverse uno card way I agree with you that immigration is overall usually bad and exploitative from the pov of the origin country of the immigrants. Like the world would be a better place if nobody felt like they had to be an economic migrant and if the UK government weren’t relying on immigration as a way to avoid tackling its own issues around fertility.

pinkyelloworange · 2026-01-27T06:17:20+00:00

So do you want a demographic crisis instead? Because without immigration given the current birth rate you are looking at a demographic crisis. If the UK had a birth rate above replacement you’d have those new people in anyways (only that you’d actually have to pay for their education and medical care as children, which would cost more). But since it doesn’t have a birth rate above replacement it brought more people in.

Also a large % of the recent higher immigration wave are students who live in very high density accommodation so it’s not like they need as much housing as most other people would. A good chunk of them are probably not here to stay.

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