RECORDED ON 5 FEBRUARY 2020
This was my first time observing a surgery, and it was every bit as exciting as I could have imagined! Between work and studying, I’ve been slow to edit or record much this year, but I finally got around to this one – hope you enjoy it!
First VLOG of 2020!
The first block of GEMP 2 is neurosciences (split into neurology and psychiatry), and this was the first weekend I really tried to sit and study with exams fast approaching!
These are strange and scary times indeed! Everywhere we look, every social media account, every Instagram post, every news article is centered on one thing and one thing only – Coronavirus. The impact that it is having across the world is mind-boggling to see, and the stories of the effects (and after-effects) it is having on a global scale is sometimes difficult to comprehend in its scope.
I would like to open this blog post up to anyone who reads –
I would love to know your story and how this has affected you and your family? Where in the world are you? How is your country handling the pandemic? How has it affected you personally? What are your daily lives like at the moment? What are your circumstances? What are you most worried about? What has been the hardest thing for you to deal with at this stage? How do you foresee the coming weeks and months?
Feel free to write as much as you’d like! Who knows – maybe we can gain hope or perspective from the life you’re living right now!
It’s the one great thing about the internet – it allows us to connect with people across the world and to hear and share their stories. I’ve certainly shared many of mine over the last couple years, and would love to know yours now!
Keep safe!
Wade
As I write this, we have completed 3 weeks (ALREADY!) of our GEMP 2 / 4th year of medicine at Wits! The year starts off with a Neurosciences block, which in itself is made up of neurology and psychiatry.
One of the questions I get frequently from people trying to get into GEMP is if missing out on dissection (a second year med school component) is a massive set-back for students. For GEMP 1, I’d definitely say there is no disadvantage that I could tell – the anatomy labs are relatively straight-forward, and there are cadavers and specimens for each of the relative systems that you can work with.
For the first 3 weeks of GEMP 2, however, I have strongly felt that absence of knowledge. Understandably, getting the brain to understand exactly how the brain understands is inherently confusing, but it has been the most difficult 3 weeks of medical school for me by a long stretch.
This is a quick review for the 4th block of GEMP, which is the respiratory block. A lot of people underestimate the block because it follows haematology, but it can catch up on you at the end.
The third block in GEMP 1 is Haematology. This was definitely the most challenging block in the year for me, so this video breaks down the tracks you will cover and includes a few tips to help you through it.
As promised, here are some links to videos that helped me a lot during the block with some of the topics:
Hey Everyone!
I’ve received quite a few messages asking about this, so here’s a quick update:
We will DEFINITELY be running more tutorials next year to help with your GEMP and WAPT preparation! We will however only finalize dates in the beginning of the year.. This year we started with the tutorials in June, so we will likely be looking at a similar time-frame for next year. We will keep you updated with everything as it happens. In the meantime, you can join our WAPT Telegram group where all notifications are posted, and where you can ask any questions you may have:
https://t.me/joinchat/JsuQFFZZILP-iLlDFJWIpQ
This week we had our first OSCE’s of medical school! It was a crazy experience, and the nerves definitely got the better of me in our first few stations! The second round of stations were much better and I felt more at ease and comfortable in my ability. In all there were 12 stations we had to do this year:
Respiratory exam; BP (in Zulu); Haem history; General exam; Chest X-Ray; Bioethics; Abdomen exam; ECG; Respiratory history; CVS and JVP exam; IV and fluids; and a CVS history
Now to study for the end of year exams!
POSTED: 9 November 2019
This week marked our 6th and FINAL block exams for GEMP 1! It was a relatively short block, but that only meant that we had to cram a normal block-worth of lectures into half the amount of time! To end off the year, we have our OSCE’s next week and then finally our end-of-year exams in the last week of November!
This is something that has been requested quite a bit on the YouTube channel, and so I finally sat down and did a video on how I study in medical school. Personally, I don’t feel like it’s anything special or unique – these are just the techniques that I have found work best for me at this point in my studies. I hope you enjoy the video! It is quite long as I tried to describe how my studying progresses through each block and for exams, as well as some general tips I think could help with your own studies.
My South African Medical School Journey 