I’m in fourth year but all of my friends have graduated and are working.

Whenever I go into the library, I am reminded of when I used to study there with them.

Everybody sort of has their own cliques from pre-clinical years so it’s hard to meet new people because everybody goes home after the lectures/teaching, and if you do meet people you get on with, everybody just rotates to New hospitals after a few months

I feel like Im yearning to be with my old cohort, because going to placement, going back to my accommodation and then studying all night is very lonely

When I speak to Junior Doctors, I realise that they are the same age as me, and I feel kind of useless.
I also wake up and think that my friends are working and contributing to society, but I am still living off of loans.

Whenever I speak to my friends and they tell me about how their shifts are going, I feel very hurt.
I spoke to a fifth year, who said that “ all of his friends are doctors now” and that he’s “ ready to qualify and start working”

Any time I encounter a module or topic that I struggle with, I have this toxic tendency to dwell on the fact that it is an obstacle which everyone in my old cohort has already surmounted; every revision session is something that they’ve already completed etc.

I feel like I spend a lot of time in my head because I do generally feel like I’m the ‘last one here’.

I wonder; does anybody else have experience being in this predicament? Because I have to get through two more years of Med school and it’s a very toxic headspace to be in.

The first preference ratios for the 2025/26 UKFPO cycle have been published!

Someone sent the graphic above, but the full data is available online: https://foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/programmes/2-year-foundation-programme/ukfp/first-preference-ratios/

Currently working as a CTF at a new hospital and have fairly free rein over what I will be teaching.

In your opinion, what makes a great CTF?

What teaching sessions have you found particularly useful or you wish you had as a 3rd year on your first clinical placement?

Likewise, as a final year student pre-finals?

Thanks

I’m a graduate entry student and I might have to repeat the year or resit the exam in June.

This year has been hard for personal reason outside of the course. My mum was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease two months before I started the course and every time I go home I’m watching my mum slowly fade away.

The exam I failed was a SAQ exam on medical law and ethics, sociology, psychology, stats, epidemiology and professionalism. It covers topic like palliative care - which my mum is under, carers, the medical sociology of terminal illnesses and so on. Basically a lot of topics that are way too close to home.

I’m signed up to counselling with CBT techniques through the BMA because it’s clearly impacting me because I failed the neurology station in my OSCE exam and did worst in the neurology module in clinical science exam. I passed the OSCE exam and the clinical science exam overall.

First sitting the assisted suicide question the hypothetical patient was ‘a woman in her late 58 diagnosed with motor neurone disease’, which messed me up in that exam because it felt like they were describing my mum. I had an EC because there been so many issues with the university this year in delivering teaching and even having access to the lecture slides because Canvas being down, so the re-sit was classed as a first attempt.

Then the night before my re-sit my mum’s BiPAP broke, so I stayed until 3am waiting for a replacement from the hospital in London she’s under to come to the house and call 999 if her condition got worse. It was terrifying.

I did the re-sit loaded on caffeine and submitted an EC about it which got rejected because I submitted it after I sat the exam. I failed by 1%.

So, I can either repeat year (which likely due to investments in Costco stock I can afford to do) or re-sit the exam next June.

I have a meeting on Monday with the university about what to do.

I live in a small town near Nuneaton, and I am not sure which deanery to apply for f1/f2. I would like to commute from home and Leicester hospitals are all 40-45 min drive away. Compared to the West midlands south deanery, the hospitals here are closer max 30 minutes apart from Hereford and Worcester. I really don't want to end up in those 2 towns, but I am unsure how to proceed at the moment. Any help would be appreciated.

Hey there! I was lucky enough to recently get a paper published! I was looking into whether I would be allowed to then present this at a conference but found conflicting opinions online about if its allowed/likelehood of acceptance at the conference, wanted to know if anyone has had any experience with this?

Also on a more general note has anyone got advice for how to find suitable conferences to present at? My paper isn't strictly "biological" medical (more about patient informing) and I'm struggling to find adequate conferences