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I went to China this summer where I spent my time primarily in Guangzhou.  I had so much fun in Guangzhou, am grateful for my kind loving host family and ate a TON of great food. I felt so lucky to wake up every day to this view.  You can guess from lush green vegetation that Guangzhou has a warm humid climate. This picture was taken of part of the walk away along the Pearl River where many citizens enjoy taking an evening stroll or bike along. I think many people have a misconception that China is still undeveloped and Read More

I am excited to share that I will starting medical school next month! When I got the acceptance email at 4 am, I thought I was dreaming. I was pleased that the email was not a dream when I woke up again a few hours later! I am so excited about all that I’m going to learn, and the people that I’ll meet as my classmates and mentors, and the privilege to  positively impact people’s lives in a few more years. I am excited to learn anatomy, to shadow in different fields of medicine, and so much more! It still feels Read More

Would you mind me asking what study strategy did you use for CARS practice? I’m choosing between various prep programs, but they are all so expensive. I don’t want to waste my student loan on something that wouldn’t help me. I would so appreciate you sharing your experience and hearing your recommendations on how to score that high in CARS. – Cam” Scoring high in the CARS section is very important because Canadian medical schools really care about you getting a good score. To be eligible to apply to some schools e.g. OOP to Calgary, you need to achieve a Read More

Realize that you’ve done this before so you can do it again. See the comment from “FeelingTheBern” here : http://forums.premed101.com/topic/99106-semester-burn-out-motivational-inertia-and-procrastination/ Make fun summer vacation plans, which can be travel or learning opportunities that excite you. Try not to beat yourself up for getting distracted sometimes. It’s okay to be imperfect. It’s okay to take a break to relax and do nothing.    Use upbeat study music to put yourself in a good mood!

Classes  Like last time, I’m enjoying my three year-long courses in pharmacology, physiology and neuroscience. This term, I’m taking a course in Darwinian Medicine which involves a ton of reading and thinking about what pressures may have led to the natural selection of some traits.  My project partner and I chose to do our project on evolution and myopia, and I got to read a bunch of interesting research papers. I’m also learning Greek and Latin medical terminology which is SO helpful. Vision Health Volunteers Since the very beginning of the school year, our team has been hard at working Read More

Somewhere far deep in the archives of my UBC Blog Squad blog, I wrote about mentors that I am grateful for. Today, I wanted to started a list of persons I want to look up and want to produce impactful work like they have! This is just a starting list based on some articles and books that I’ve read lately. I’ve been growing an strong interest in ophthalmology for the last few years but there is an especially large proportion of ophthalmologists on this list since I’ve been reading a lot of research articles on myopia this past while.If you’re Read More

Does this sound familiar at you? Each day sprints past you as you go from class to the library to a meeting and so on. Each day is not long enough for all the things you want to accomplish. You start a little sleepy Monday and before you know it’s Wednesday – one of those days so long that as soon as your head hits the pillow, you instantly fall asleep from exhaustion. Then, you’re at another end of the week and you can’t wait to use the weekend to do all the things you wanted to catch up on Read More

I am in the Integrated Sciences program meaning that I designed my own degree.  The concept is similar to pursuing a double major because you integrate 2-3 disciplines (essentially majors).  Integrated Sciences requires a bit more initiative because you have to pick and justify every single course that you plan to take, and find a faculty member to back up your proposal. After creating my Integrated Science proposal, I was pretty excited and happy to be studying exactly what I am passionate about so I also hope that anyone lobbying for a custom design major will also end up with Read More

In Canada, you are allowed to apply to a handful of medical schools while in third year but the number of third years that get in is not very high because you’ve had less time to do extracurriculars, boost your GPA, etc.  I’m not confident that I’m competitive to get in but I’m still going to try because as Wayne Gretsky said “You miss all the shots you don’t take”. If I just give an earnest effort to applying, I still get a better chance than not trying at all right? Most importantly, I’m going to apply this year to get Read More