Hello hello everyone, I’m Syen, a 2nd Year Medical Student at Cardiff University. I hail from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and spent most of my schooling years there, before I moved to Cambridge, UK for Sixth Form. After that, I got a place to do a BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, before embarking on my next chapter with Medicine here in Cardiff. Happy reading!
Q1) What extracurricular activities are you involved in and why did you choose to do them?
Medicine in Cardiff is my second degree; I’ve had my Fresher (a UK colloquial term to refer to a new undergraduate student) experience 3 years ago in Bristol. I’ve noticed that there is a difference in how I’ve approached societies now and back then, so I might create a table for your convenience:
| Bristol Biochemistry 2017-2020 | Cardiff Medicine 2020-2025 |
Societies |
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Course:Society Time Commitment Ratio |
| The ratios here cannot afford to be 1:1 anymore (which is a good thing seeing the course workload, and the need to stay on top of things!). I would think close to 2-3:1. |
Comments | I took part in a variety of things, but still prioritised Malaysian community/nation building initiatives and table tennis! I did however let it take up a lot of my time in Year 2 – this meant I needed to make that time up with Year 3 (since admittedly my grades did suffer)! | Things look very medicine related, since I’ve already had my “first go” at joining societies and playing sport etc. so I tend to gravitate towards things I can include in a medical CV (probably more on this later by someone a little older) |
Some snippets of my time with extracurriculars in Bristol:
After winning a table tennis match against Southampton!
I teamed up with the United Kingdom and Eire Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC) to bring their mental health wellbeing initiative, Care for All, to Bristol.
I made so many new friends from so many different universities through UKEC – this photo shows the representatives from universities in Southwest England (e.g. UoBristol, UWE, Exeter, Plymouth, and Bath).
My VP stint with the Bristol Malaysian and Singaporean Students’ Association was a long and tiring one, but it taught me a lot about event management, teamwork, and patience. It also opened a lot of doors to other opportunities, like my work with UKEC, and engaging with the UoB SEA Office, to get in contact with incoming/prospective students.
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I was always known to be able to run around and do different things since secondary school and partaking in societies and sport at university helped maintain that reputation. I did learn from my time in Bristol what I like to do and what I think I had enough of, which helps in such an intensive course like Medicine, since I’m now better at prioritising the different things I do.
I don’t plan to stay in the realm of societies as I make my way through medical school though – I would like to put more of my time into more career-focussed endeavours like clinical audits and research opportunities. More on that in the years to come!
Q2) There are so many societies and activities to be involved in. How did you choose which extracurricular activities you want to do?
In the UK especially, it is in true Fresher spirit to attend a Fresher’s Fair, and depending on what kind of person you are, you might want to stick to what you’re used to or try something new. During the Fresher’s Fair, most of the student societies and sports teams that are available at your university will set up little stalls to promote and showcase to new students what they do and what they’re about – to aid with recruitment, these societies or sports teams will also hold Taster Sessions; an opportunity try-before-you-buy. Most clubs would have a paid membership to keep running, usually costing £1-2, but bear in mind that sports teams however are a huge exception. Their membership fees very usually cost more than ~£40 a year. This fee would be used to cover any jerseys equipment you may use, venue bookings for trainings, and even transport to games that are held elsewhere.
Oh also, Fresher’s Fairs are also where local businesses – bars, restaurants, gyms, etc. – promote. Be ready to have your (free) tote bag on hand, to collect (free) merchandise, (free) discount codes, and even (free) food!
Q3) How do these extracurricular activities help you during medical school?
Getting yourself involved with extracurricular activities is almost as – if not more – important as your academic commitments. Other than the obvious point of helping you destress and unwind; I have found that time spent on co-curricular activities have been able to shape my work ethic (which exists!) through honing skills on time management and prioritisation. Depending on the nature of the society and their demands (if any), they may force you to work around your timetable and other social commitments quite a bit. This has sometimes been rather frustrating, but the experience of being told I need to play an away match in Swansea on a Wednesday evening has turned me into someone who is very flexible, adaptable, and most of all, patient. This practice with needing to prioritise and put certain things first has also I find healthy stress rather character building, which is very important to realise as a future clinician.
Through cocurricular activities you would also be able to meet new people outside of the medicine circle, which can be quite refreshing since conversations are not always about dreading the next day’s 9am lecture. Surely you didn’t come all this way to university to just meet medical students, right?
Q4) How do you manage your time around studies and extracurricular activities?
For me personally, I like to gauge my ability to take on extracurricular work based on my energy levels – I have the capacity to burn out quite easily if I’m unaware of how much I’m working, and after years of experience I’ve learned how to recognise when it’s time to hit the brakes. It may take some time and trial and error to learn how to notice this, but when you do, I believe it’ll benefit greatly when you’re in the workplace as well. Some signs I look out for are general fatigue, and feelings of being overwhelmed – feel free to use this as a guide, but bear in mind everyone expresses exhaustion in different ways, just remember not to ignore it!
Medical school itself can be a test of your time management and being involved with ECAs can be quite overbearing when stressful times are around the corner (we’re talking exams, project deadlines, important placements, etc.). Here in Cardiff, we have a lot of medical school-based societies and sports teams (also known as Heath Based) which exist purely to work around the medical school calendar, being mindful of when key exam dates, project deadlines, and other important events are.
Q5) Some say that the best time to be involved in different extracurricular activities is during the first couple of years of medical school when we are not as busy. Do you agree with this statement?
I agree and I also don’t. Some people derive pleasure and relaxation from activities that have nothing to do with medicine, and I think that it’s important to remember that we all cope with stress in very different ways. The first few years will have different hurdles from the latter few, so it’s all about how you’re able to manage that time + what the extracurricular activity you decide to partake in involves. With my example Course:Society time commitment ratio above, it’s quite evident that this can be quite dynamic over the duration of the course, and dependent on the demands of your responsibilities which may change throughout the years. I might add though: going cold turkey on extracurricular activities in Year 3, as well as Year 1 in Cardiff (COVID ☹) did make some dents in my mental wellbeing since I found no purpose outside of my course, hence I made the executive decision to get involved again this year.
This may also change with your preference to spend more time on academic work over extracurricular activities, like with myself.
Q6) What advice would you give to incoming freshers who are looking to be involved in extracurriculars?
Go in with an open mind! If you want to try new things, do it! If you don’t, that’s also fine!
Pace yourself with trying new things in the first few weeks – because you’re also starting afresh academically, it can be quite a bit to juggle if you sign up to 15 taster sessions and plan to go to all of them, while trying to acclimate to the workload. Be wary of how tiring this can be!
Don’t feel left out if you don’t do everything by Year 1 or 2, medical school is 5-6 years long – there is absolutely no rush!
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