Demanded by demands

Huh?!

Is that your first reaction as you read the title of this post? To clarify your confusions, it means that I'm currently manipulated and toyed around like a busy bee (hence demanded) by the copious amount of workload of the UNSW medical program (hence demands)...

I'm into my 3rd month here Down Under and I'm already done with my 1st week of my 2nd block (Society & Health 1) after successfully completing my 1st block (Foundations). Already I can feel the burden of the mass studies I have to deal with. The Student Guide for S&H1 alone is already 160 pages! Mind you, this guide only describes the aims, key concepts and key references for all learning activities as well as the list of assignments. Imagine how thick the Science Practical and Clinical & Communication Skills (CCS) manuals are! And all these for just 7 and a half weeks! And we haven't even added in the lecture notes etc.!

In S&H1, I'll be covering 4 scenarios namely, Social Determinants of Health & Overview, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Influenza scenarios. There will be 4 scenario plenaries (2 hours each), 46 lectures (1 hour each), 15 scenario group sessions (2 hours each), 15 science practicals (2 hours each), 8 tutorials (2 hours each), 3 CCS sessions (3 hours each) and 3 hospital sessions (3 hours each). That's an astounding 148 hours of purely classes alone! That works out to an average of 20 hours a week! Plus, we're expected to put in an extra 20 hours for self-study per week. What about at least another 16 hours a week to work on our assignments? That adds up to 56 hours of solid work per week which averages to 8 hours of work every day including weekends. Take 24 hours a day and minus these 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 5 hours for meals and personal care, and 2 hours for transport, chores and miscellaneous and you only end up with a decent 1 hour for personal leisure! No wonder medical students are always labelled as "poor students with no life"...

But don't get me wrong. We do have "our lives" outside of classes and not always bury our noses deep into our books. Of course, we allocate more than just one hour for leisure each day. But then again, that means that a few hours of much-needed sleep or essential studying have to be sacrificed in order to retain our sanity while parading ourselves to students from other faculties as the cool yet smart med people...

Ah well, all these ramblings only stem from one source: ME! After all, it was my decision to read medicine at UNSW. It was my choice to pursue my interest in the medical field and make a career out of it. It was one of my demands.

Looks like I'm demanded by demands of my own demands...