How To Thrive at Med School

We speak to Soham Singh – one of our successful Central Saint Michael’s alumni who is now a medical student at the University of Exeter – all about his experiences and his tips for future med students. From studying consistently to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and playing the drums, Soham shares his new insider knowledge.

First of all Soham are you enjoying your time at uni and is it what you expected?
Medical school is more than I expected. It is absolutely the only thing I would ever do as a career, and I love it. It was worth the hard work to get in.

And what have been your greatest challenges so far?
The hardest things I’ve found about Medicine are two-fold:

Adjusting to university – The jump from sixth form to university should not be underestimated, especially if living away from home. I experienced a drastic change in my responsibilities and learning to coalesce into a diverse community of students was daunting.

Looking after myself – Learning medicine is to ultimately learn to look after others. When you spend so long focusing on others, it can be really easy to slip up and forget to look after yourself. There have been many times in university so far where I have let my own mental health and physical health deteriorate so that I can prioritise others and my degree. Learning to balance this has been a meticulous but enlightening journey.

How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance? What do you do to look after your physical and mental health?
To maintain a healthy work-life balance, I make sure that I study consistently. This way, I don’t waste my time cramming, and can rather enjoy my hobbies. I am captain of the university’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club which helps me stay fit and humble. If I have lots of free time, I like to play music, and use my university’s facilities, and am currently learning the drums.

In my experience, the most important thing I’ve done to look after myself, is journalling. Your mental health really is the foundation to help you thrive and stay healthy, in all aspects.

What are your greatest memories of Central Saint Michael’s?
Running the medical society
Learning chemistry from Mr. Paul Ferguson
Learning maths from Sandeep
Playing card games with my friends in the communal areas

What has been your highlight as a med student so far?
Having a week-long surgical taster week in Orthopaedics over summer was really awesome. I’ve always wanted to be a surgeon, and this reinforced that decision. I learnt from wonderful surgeons, who were very skilled and intelligent. They were also super helpful, and would let me scrub into almost all surgical cases, and taught me how to assist in surgery. This helped me a lot, and I’ve now assisted in over 15 cases, from plastics, to general, to vascular.

So, an amazing start for Soham! If you have ambitions to follow his career path in Medicine, make sure you sign up for our next Talk & Tour Open Day at Central Saint Michael’s on Tuesday March 11!