From failing high school to 3rd year med student: what I’ve learned about succeeding at Uni

[u/Senior_Deer_68]

Growing up in different foster homes for numerous internal and external reasons I am a person who never finished high school. I worked from 18 to 28 in restaurants as a waiter. At 26 I decided to give education another go, a real try. I taught myself mainly from free online resources. Got into Uni, studied 6 to 10 hours per day, completed a 4 year undergrad to then make it into medicine and now I am 3rd of a 5 year program (Australia). At 35 I want to share the following about my experience studying and I hope it can help any prospective students out there.

Three main points I want to get across:

It is lonely. Only you the individual can do the work. This means little time for socialisation in any form. You will have to decline offers of socialisation, even at times explain to people that believe they know how much you need to study, forcing their opinions on you.

There is no substitute for time. You will discover methods of studying, people will tell you about many different ways of success but ultimately time equals higher grades. People will tell you how little they study trying gain some intelligence clout. I have never met a genius, I have only met people that devoted a lot of time towards something.

You do not have to torture yourself. Yes you will likely have to study 6 to 10 hours per day if you want to get into a highly competitive course but you do not have to study the whole time. Take scheduled breaks, I use a well known timekeeping method to study for 25 minutes then a 5 minute break.

What has been most successful for me:

Put your phone out of sight and on do not disturb. Put important people as favourites in your contact list and instruct them to call you to break the do not disturb if communication is urgent.

Have a digital daily planner. Put your classes, due date, work, and everything needed to be remembered and achieved each day in a digitally backed-up daily planner you can easily access. You can lose hard copy planners.

Study in focused environments. I always study at my University's library in the quiet area. A comfortable homely space where you can be interrupted is not ideal.

Flashcards and practice questions. Instead of writing notes that you may later re-read. Make the notes into flashcards. There is a popular and free digital flashcard program, learn how to use it. It will take time to get good at making flashcards but worth the investment in my opinion. If you can get your hands on accurate practice questions then do them too.

Thank you for reading my first Reddit post, sorry if I have repeated what others have already written.

[u/FallenDawn]

How did you manage do that in your mid 20s, didn't you have a job to work/bills to pay. How are you committing to another 7 or so years of study. Generally curious.

[u/Senior_Deer_68 → u/FallenDawn]

Thanks for asking: First year of my first degree I had a small amount of savings plus the support of my Ex-partner. My second year was COVID and in Australia we were able to withdraw 10k twice from our superannuation. For my 3rd and 4th years I got a University job working in student services that was very flexible and paid $42/hour at the time. First year of med I had a very light workload and therefore was able to work a lot to build my savings - the med course of the Uni I study at has a common first year, meaning I had already completed most of the units. From second year to now I became an Australian citizen and therefore get access to $835/fortnight as part of the Australia's Centrelink financial study support. In Australia undergraduate tuition fees are very modest and a helpful government loan covers them. For example, my medicine course is undergraduate and therefore costs approximately $14k/year that goes onto my government student loan.

What has been helpful in my journey, is not having any children. I have close friends that are in my year with children but they all seem to have supporting parents/grandparents and they have a partner who can take on the financial burden.

Also, I fortunately had and have only food, rent, and phone as my main bills. I live on campus and chose not to have a car with all those extra costs. I get a scholarship that helps with campus accommodation.

[u/xD1912]

Lonely part is so real

[u/OutrageousOwls]

Another pro-tip: stop writing notes, and begin writing flashcards with the same testing style (MCQ, long answer...) straight away. The faster you can begin review, the more you can capitalize on study time and effort. :)

Good tips, OP.

[u/OldAd7158]

Thankyou, so much. Your journey is inspiring 💪

[u/PresentationLimp7683]

Thank you for this! 😊😊

[u/bongopinco]

Needed to read this. Thank you.

[u/thompsonlray]

Almost identical origin story. 22 just did my first 10K month. All comes down to what you wanted to do when young. Can't wait to see you saving lives and taking names!

Stay rad.

[u/Senior_Deer_68 → u/thompsonlray]

Thank you, stay rad back at ya.

[u/Hefty-Pomelo-4188]

💯

[u/YakKnown3296]

That's sounds great 😃 👍 which country are you from?

[u/Senior_Deer_68 → u/YakKnown3296]

New Zealand, moved to Australia when I was 21.

[u/Odd_Narwhal_7466]

26 and trying for exams again to get a scholarship from a state uni in my country and be a philosophy major (trust me you can make a career out here from that) You inspired me to work harder regardless of limitations because at times I feel like age is going to be a problem and that I will feel out of place among the younger students. Good luck and may you have an easy and stress-free but excellent time during medical residency.

[u/Senior_Deer_68 → u/Odd_Narwhal_7466]

Leetttsss go! You got this. Consistent action, every day.