My experience of doing the SSC 3 in UK

The 2nd semester of my 4th year of MBBS at NUMed consists of three Student Selected Components (SSC) and two Electives. The SSC 3, Elective 1 and Elective 2 can be done either in Malaysia or in UK. I chose to do the SSC 3 in UK, but not the Electives. The SSC 3 lasted from 16 April 2018 to 25 April 2018. Here, I would like to share my experience when I was in UK for my SSC 3.

Background information:

- In the past, I had always been hesitant about going to UK for the SSC 3 and Electives. This was because I had never studied overseas before and I felt that it would be difficult for me to adapt to the environment overseas which is quite different from that in Malaysia. However in September 2017, I made the decision to do my SSC 3 in UK.

- Despite living away from my family for more than 3 years since I started studying MBBS at NUMed, I still do not know how to cook, although I am able to prepare instant noodles and operate microwaves and ovens. As such, I had expected that this would be a challenge for me in UK.

- A Short-term Study Visa (STSV) was required in order to do the SSC 3 in UK. I applied for the STSV online on 4 February 2018. Subsequently on 23 February 2018, I went in person to VFS Global at Wisma MCA, Kuala Lumpur to submit my passport and the supporting documents. My passport together with the STSV was then mailed to me on 7 March 2018.

- I originally intended to travel to UK with my friends. However, vast majority of them planned to fly on 30 March 2018, which in my opinion was too rushed, considering that there was an exam just 2 days before that. They also planned to have a tour around Europe before the start of SSC 3, but I had no interest in travelling to anywhere in Europe outside of UK. In the end, I chose to travel to UK with my parents on 13 April 2018.

- For my SSC 3, I chose to do Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. James Cook University Hospital was the only hospital in UK where university-managed accommodation was available, thus avoiding the need to arrange private accommodation.

My diary while in UK:

12 April 2018 (Thursday):

- Checked in my luggage at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

13 April 2018 (Friday):

- Had breakfast at Plaza Premium Lounge, Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

- Boarded flight MH 4 to London. It was a really nice A350 plane.

- Had nasi lemak with chicken rendang as 1st meal.

- Watched All the Money in the World.

- Had chicken sandwich for snack.

- Had chicken satay with rice as 2nd meal.

- Landed at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4.

- Bought a Three SIM card.

- Took a taxi to Ibis Hotel. Stayed a night there.

14 April 2018 (Saturday):

- Had English breakfast at Ibis Hotel.

- Took a taxi to London King's Cross Station.

- Took a train to Eaglescliffe station.

- Took a taxi to Holiday Inn Express, Middlesbrough.

- Had fish and chips for lunch at Orchard Cafe.

- Took a taxi to James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough.

- Moved into Corby House, the university-managed accommodation.

- Met my friends who were also staying there.

- Bought groceries at Tesco Express and bought my dinner at Peking Chef.

15 April 2018 (Sunday):

- Travelled to Middlesbrough town centre with my friend. Met another friend with his landlady who offered us a ride.

- Went shopping at Cleveland.

- Had lunch at Banana Leaf Restaurant.

16 April 2018 (Monday):

- Registered at James Cook University Hospital for the start of SSC 3.

- Attended my 1st occupational health appointment. Underwent blood test for tuberculosis.

17 April 2018 (Tuesday):

- First day of session for SSC 3. My SSC 3 supervisor was away on that day so I met his colleague.

- Observed a case of coronary artery bypass surgery.

18 April 2018 (Wednesday):

- Results of the SSC 1 Oral Presentation, SSC 2 Poster & Abstract and WriSkE were released. Passed all of them successfully.

- Attended a lecture on Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. The lecture was largely about postgraduate topics.

19 April 2018 (Thursday):

- Went to the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit.

20 April 2018 (Friday):

- Had chicken soup for dinner with my friend.

- False trigger of the fire alarm at Corby House due to excessive smoke from cooking.

22 April 2018 (Sunday):

- Had butter chicken for dinner with my friend.

23 April 2018 (Monday):

- Observed cases of thoracic surgeries.

- The really long surgery made me feel very exhausted. I no longer enjoyed my SSC 3 very much.

- Received warning letter from James Cook University Hospital due to the fire alarm incident.

24 April 2018 (Tuesday):

- Met the undergraduate medical education manager due to the fire alarm incident. I and my friends at Corby House had to pay a fine of £12.50 each.

- Attended my 2nd occupational health appointment. Received MMR vaccine.

25 April 2018 (Wednesday):

- Met my SSC 3 supervisor.

- Observed a case of valve replacement surgery.

26 April 2018 (Thursday):

- Took photos with my friend at the operation theatre.

28 April 2018 (Saturday):

- Travelled to Whitby by train with my friends. Met many other friends who were also going to Whitby.

- Visited Whitby Abbey.

- Had fish and chips for lunch at Silver Street Fisheries.

- Visited Whitby beach, Whitby Harbour, casinos, Cinder Track, Pannett Park and Whitby Museum.

- Watched the Whitby swing bridge opening and closing.

- Had a light meal at Humble Pie and Mash.

- Went shopping at Co-op.

- Returned to Middlesbrough by train.

29 April 2018 (Sunday):

- Had pizza for dinner with my friend.

- Watched I, Tonya online.

1 May 2018 (Tuesday):

- Had naan for dinner with my friend.

2 May 2018 (Wednesday):

- Played frisbee with my friends.

5 May 2018 (Saturday):

- Volunteered to be a simulated patient for the Mock MOSLER assessment at James Cook University Hospital.

- Watched Black Panther online.

6 May 2018 (Sunday):

- Watched Avengers: Infinity War at Cineworld, Middlesbrough with my friend.

- Had dinner at Toby Carvery with my friend.

7 May 2018 (Monday):

- Bank holiday in UK.

- Watched Microsoft Build 2018 online.

8 May 2018 (Tuesday):

- Watched Google I/O 2018 online. Android P was announced.

9 May 2018 (Wednesday):

- Took group photos with most NUMed students at James Cook University Hospital.

- Played frisbee with my friends.

- Had pizza for dinner with my friend.

- Followed the 14th Malaysian General Election online. Pakatan Harapan won the election.

12 May 2018 (Saturday):

- Travelled to Durham by train with my friends.

- Visited Durham Cathedral, St Chad’s College and Market Hall.

- Had fish and chips for lunch at Bells.

- Visited Durham Castle, Durham University, Wharton Park and Clayport Library.

- Went shopping in Durham.

- Returned to Middlesbrough by train. Changed trains at Darlington during the journey.

13 May 2018 (Sunday):

- Desserts potluck with NUMed students and a Foundation doctor at Durham House.

14 May 2018 (Monday):

- Pizza and fried chicken party with most NUMed students at Corby House.

16 May 2018 (Wednesday) and 17 May 2018 (Thursday):

- Performed intravenous cannulation on patients at operation theatre.

18 May 2018 (Friday):

- Watched Deadpool 2 at Cineworld, Middlesbrough with my friend.

- Met a man dressed in Deadpool's costume and took photos with him.

- Had dinner at Akbar’s.

19 May 2018 (Saturday):

- Travelled to York by train with my friends.

- Visited Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York Minster and Dean’s Park.

- Joined a tour around York. Visited King’s Manor, York Art Gallery, Bootham Bar, York city wall, Shambles, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall and Clifford’s Tower.

- Had lunch at Wok & Go.

- Visited York's Chocolate Story, Shambles Market and National Railway Museum.

- Returned to Middlesbrough by train.

- Had dinner at Corby House with my friends.

20 May 2018 (Sunday):

- Started feeling unwell. I was very weak and had diarrhoea.

21 May 2018 (Monday):

- Took a day off due to my sickness.

23 May 2018 (Wednesday):

- Completed the SSC 3 ePortfolio.

24 May 2018 (Thursday):

- Recovered from my illness.

- Last day at operation theatre.

25 May 2018 (Friday):

- Went to the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit.

- Sign-off of SSC 3 ePortfolio, in-course assessment form and logbook by my supervisor. Official end of SSC 3.

- Took photos with my SSC 3 supervisor and teammate.

- Watched Solo: A Star Wars Story at Cineworld, Middlesbrough with my friend.

- Had dinner at Manjaros.

- Travelled to London by bus with my friend.

26 May 2018 (Saturday):

- Arrived Victoria Coach Station. Had breakfast at McDonald’s.

- Visited Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Eye and King’s College London.

- Visited Borough Market. Had chocolate doughnut, Ethiopian marinated chicken, duck confit and vanilla ice-cream for lunch.

- Visited London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Chinatown.

- Had dinner at Ruyi Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown.

- Stayed a night at London Backpackers Hostel.

27 May 2018 (Sunday):

- Travelled to Cambridge by train with my friend. Met two other friends on the train.

- Visited Cambridge International Examinations, Emmanuel College and King’s College.

- Joined Cambridge punting tour.

- Had lunch at The Copper Kettle.

- Visited Garret Hostel, King’s College, Clare College, Trinity College and Market Hill.

- Returned to London by train.

- Visited Earl’s Court. Had dinner at Masala Indian Restaurant.

- Took a bus back to Middlesbrough.

28 May 2018 (Monday):

- Arrived Middlesbrough.

29 May 2018 (Tuesday):

- Had lunch at Peri Peri Original Middlesbrough.

- Had dinner at Toby Carvery with my friend.

30 May 2018 (Wednesday):

- Travelled to Newcastle by train with my friends.

- Followed my friends to store their luggage at Safestore.

- Visited Life science centre, Chinatown and Eldon Square.

- Had lunch at KFC.

- Separated with my friends at Eldon Square bus station. They would be travelling to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

- Visited Newcastle University, Newcastle Medical School and Royal Victoria Infirmary myself.

- Took photos of Tyne Bridge.

- Returned to Middlesbrough by train.

- Took selfies at James Cook University Hospital and Roseberry Park Hospital.

31 May 2018 (Thursday):

- Had lunch at McDonald’s, Middlesbrough.

1 June 2018 (Friday):

- Had lunch at Peri Peri Original Middlesbrough.

- A few persons who were not NUMed students moved into Corby House.

- Packed my luggage.

- Had dinner at Akbar’s.

2 June 2018 (Saturday):

- Moved out of Corby House.

- Had English breakfast at James Cook University Hospital.

- Took a train to London King’s Cross Station.

- Took the tube to London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4.

- Had lunch at Oriel restaurant.

- Boarded flight MH 1 back to Kuala Lumpur.

- Had beef kerutup with rice as 1st meal.

3 June 2018 (Sunday):

- Slept for several hours on the flight.

- Had nasi lemak with onion sambal as 2nd meal.

- Landed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Conclusions:

- I did not truly enjoy my SSC 3. Although I chose to do Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, my time throughout the SSC was largely spent on surgery instead of anaesthesia. During a surgery, nothing would be going on in the anaesthetic room, so I could only observe the surgery. As I do not like surgery, I found this rather boring. Worse still, I usually had to be at the operation theatre for long hours every day, which made me feel very tired.

- Despite that, my time in UK had been really enjoyable in overall. I had plenty of opportunities to be together with my friends, and we had a lot of interesting events. I spent time with not just a particular group of friends, but with multiple groups. This was definitely able to make up for the shortcomings of my SSC 3. This also brought me closer to my friends, making me value them even more.

- Adapting to life in UK turned out to be much easier than what I had expected previously. Within walking distance from Corby House, there were 4 restaurants which were open daily. Microwave food and oven food were also readily available at the grocery stores nearby. Therefore, food wasn't a problem for me. I also had no problems getting used to the environment in UK.

- There are certain things that I really like about UK. In particular, most services in UK are very efficient, due to the fact that the workers are truly committed to their jobs. The public transport system is good and reliable. Credit and debit cards are accepted at many places in UK. High-speed, free WiFi is also readily available.

- Of course, there are negative aspects about UK as well. I met some teenagers with terrible behaviour, and alcoholism is a real problem in UK.

- I can say for sure that I made a really good decision by choosing to do the SSC 3 in UK. I feel really regret for not choosing to also do the Elective 1 in UK, as most of my friends continued their Elective 1 in UK and I had to separate with them by returning to Malaysia after SSC 3. I cannot imagine how much more I would regret if I did not do the SSC 3 in UK.

Tips for Newcastle University MBBS Year 3 and Year 4 SBA Examination

LAST UPDATED: 30 September 2025

For Year 3 and Year 4 of the MBBS course at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) and Newcastle University UK, there are Single Best Answer (SBA) examinations. I scored 75.1% (Green) for the Year 3 SBA in 2017, 68.0% (Green) for the Year 4 SBA in 2018, 69.7% (Green) for the Year 5 SBA in 2019 and 75.5% (Green) for the Year 5 SBA in 2020. I was a Teaching Fellow at NUMed.

Here, I would like to share some tips on passing the SBA exam. These tips are intended for all NUMed and Newcastle University UK MBBS students who are taking the Year 3 and Year 4 SBA exam in the 2025/2026 academic year.

I am writing the tips based on how I revised for the exam previously. However, different individuals may have different learning styles, so you should just take this as a guide.

You have to start your revision no less than 2 months before the SBA exam. I recommend studying at least 5 hours per day on weekdays and 7 hours per day on weekends and holidays. If possible, you should revise every day. To pass the exam, you should aim for a score of at least 65%. If you do not understand any topic when doing revision, ask a lecturer or a friend for further clarification.

The subjects covered in the SBA exam are as follows:

Year 3 SBA 1 - EoCP and MACS

Year 3 SBA 2 - EoCP, MACS, MH, CH, RH and CDM

Year 4 SBA 1 - CDM, ACE and ACC

Year 4 SBA 2 - CDM, ACE and ACC

When revising, you should go subject by subject. Finish all topics in a particular subject before moving on to the next subject. Your focus when doing revision should be on risk factors, pathophysiology, diagnosis, investigations, management and complications. You should complete at least 4 full rounds of revision for all topics if possible.

MBBS should be studied mainly through understanding, not memorising. Basically, for every fact you come across in your revision, try to think "Why is this the case?" If there is an explanation, read it and make sure you understand what it says. If there is no explanation, try to come up with your own explanation based on your knowledge. Even if your explanation is wrong, it does not really matter as the exam questions will not ask for the explanation. You can also look up the internet for an explanation. The fact is that, when you actively seek an explanation for a fact, you will end up remembering the fact much better and your revision will also become more interesting. This is so much more effective than simply memorising the facts. However, do note that not everything can be studied this way. Certain facts have no possible explanation at all, so the only way to study them is by memorising.

You do not need to memorise the normal range of values for investigations as it will be provided in the questions during the SBA exam. You also need not memorise the doses of drugs apart from very commonly used ones.

The most important revision resource for the SBA exam is the textbooks. I recommend using the following textbooks and resources for each specialty:

CDM - Resources on the MLE and Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (11th Edition)

Internal Medicine - Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (11th Edition)

Ophthalmology, ENT, Dermatology, Orthopaedics and Trauma - Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties (11th Edition)

Surgery - Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (11th Edition) and Surgical Talk (3rd Edition) 

Psychiatry - Psychiatry by Ten Teachers (2nd Edition), Psychiatry - A Clinical Handbook and ICD-11

Obstetrics and Gynaecology - Obstetrics & Gynaecology by Lawrence Impey & Helen Jefferis (6th Edition)

Paediatrics - Illustrated Textbook of Paediatrics (6th Edition)

These textbooks are not essential for the SBA exam but may be helpful to refer to if you are looking for some specific information:

Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine, Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine, Apley and Solomon's Concise System of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Robbins Basic Pathology, Underwood's Pathology, Rang and Dale's Pharmacology

For Year 3, you should revise topics relevant to the learning outcomes and other topics taught by the lecturers. For Year 4, you should revise all topics in the textbooks.

While Year 1 and Year 2 knowledge can be helpful at times, they are not essential for the Year 3 and Year 4 SBA exams. There is no need for you to specifically revise any Year 1 or Year 2 topics.

Resources on the Medical Learning Environment (MLE) are useful as well. While the textbooks are very good, the MLE resources may contain some additional information. After you have revised the textbooks, you should revise the MLE resources as well. The MLE resources are particularly important for CDM.

You need to know the latest NICE guidelines for the more common conditions. For Obstetrics and Gynaecology, you have to know the latest RCOG Green-top guidelines in addition to the NICE guidelines. Important guidelines are those that can be found in the textbooks, and you should look up the internet for the most up-to-date version of those guidelines. Take note of the publication date of each textbook and focus on guidelines released or updated after the textbook's publication date. However, do not spend too much time on the guidelines, as it is more important that you revise the textbooks and understand the facts.

You should also do practice questions for the SBA exam. Go through all practice questions provided by the lecturers and those on the MLE. PassMedicine and Pastest have a large number of practice questions. They require paid subscription and I recommend that you subscribe to one of them. Some of the practice questions are similar in style to those in the Newcastle University SBA exams while others are not. For Year 3, you can skip the practice questions that are irrelevant to the learning outcomes. After finishing each practice question, check the correct answer and make sure you understand the reasoning behind every correct or wrong answer. Although doing practice questions is important, you should not prioritise it over revising the textbooks.

During the SBA exam, you will have an average of 72 seconds to answer each question, which is quite a short amount of time. Therefore, you should be careful not to run out of time. Always time yourself when doing the practice questions to finish each question within 72 seconds. As you are reading the question, you should already be thinking of the diagnosis so that you can get to the answer faster.

All the best in your revision! I hope you will do well in the exam.

Tips for the WriSkE can be found here:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2018/06/tips-for-numed-mbbs-wriske.html

Tips for the Year 5 SBA (UKMLA AKT) can be found here:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2023/03/tips-for-ukmla-akt.html

Tips for the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) can be found here:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2019/02/tips-for-prescribing-safety-assessment.html

Tips for Newcastle University MBBS Year 3, 4 and 5 WriSkE Examination

LAST UPDATED: 30 September 2025

For Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 of the MBBS course at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) and Newcastle University UK, there are Written Skills (WriSkE) examinations. I scored 73.7% (Green) for the Year 4 WriSkE in 2018, 74.7% (Green) for the Year 5 WriSkE in 2019 and 90.8% (Green) for the Year 5 WriSkE in 2020. I was a Teaching Fellow at NUMed.

Here, I would like to share some tips on passing the WriSkE exam. These tips are intended for all NUMed and Newcastle University UK MBBS students who are taking the Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 WriSkE exam in the 2025/2026 academic year.

I am writing the tips based on how I revised for the exam previously. However, different individuals may have different learning styles, so you should just take this as a guide.

You have to start your revision no less than 2 months before the WriSkE exam. If possible, you should revise every day. To pass the exam, you should aim for a score of at least 65%. If you do not understand any topic when doing revision, ask a lecturer or a friend for further clarification.

The subjects covered in the WriSkE exam are as follows:

Year 3 WriSkE 1 - EoCP and MACS

Year 3 WriSkE 2 - EoCP, MACS, MH, CH, RH and CDM

Year 4 WriSkE 1 - CDM, ACE and ACC

Year 4 WriSkE 2 - CDM, ACE and ACC

Year 5 WriSkE - All subjects from Year 3 to Year 5

The clinical stationeries that may appear in the WriSkE exam are as follows:

- Medical record paper

- Early Warning Score observation chart

- Paediatric Early Warning Score observation chart

- Neurological observations chart

- Peak flow recording chart

- Nutritional assessment form

- Blood test request form

- Blood transfusion request form

- Radiology request form

- Drug prescription cardex

- Fluid prescription form

- Infusion prescription form

- Insulin prescription chart

- FP10 prescription form

- Discharge summary

- Death certificate

- Cremation form

- Incident reporting form

- Adverse drug reaction reporting form (yellow card)

It is important for you to be very familiar with every one of the clinical stationeries. You need to know how to fill them up and what are the information needed. A copy of each clinical stationery is available on the Medical Learning Environment (MLE).

You must be familiar with the paper copy of the BNF. Ensure that you are able to find any information you need in it quickly. For all questions with a paediatric setting, you should use the BNFc instead of the standard BNF.

The most important revision resource for the WriSkE exam is the materials used during the WriSkE sessions at university and other relevant materials provided by the lecturers and on the MLE. They contain useful notes as well as practice questions with sample answers. Go through all those materials and make sure you understand the reasoning behind every answer. Consider doing some of the questions yourself before checking the answers.

Having good clinical knowledge is also important for the WriSkE exam. It reduces the need to refer to the BNF during the WriSkE, which saves time. In addition, not all information is available in the BNF. Fluid management, opioid pain management and insulin management are important topics. Questions on these topics are common in the WriSkE, which many find difficult. As you are revising for the WriSkE, you should also be revising for the SBA exam, since the WriSkE and SBA are held around the same time.

During the WriSkE exam, you will have an average of 10 minutes to answer each question, which is not a plenty amount of time. Therefore, you should be careful not to run out of time. Pay attention to the time during the WriSkE exam to ensure that you do not spend too long on each question.

All your answers should be written in black ink only. Do not use any other colours, including blue ink. With the exception of medical record papers, you should write your answers in capital letters. Capital letters are not needed for medical record papers. When answering each question, you must fill up the patient details correctly if they have not yet been filled up. Do not get the patient details wrong.

All the best in your revision! I hope you will do well in the exam.

Tips for the Year 3 and Year 4 SBA can be found here:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2018/06/tips-for-numed-mbbs-sba.html

Tips for the Year 5 SBA (UKMLA AKT) can be found here:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2023/03/tips-for-ukmla-akt.html

Tips for the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) can be found here:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2019/02/tips-for-prescribing-safety-assessment.html

My regret about Elective 1

The 2nd semester of Stage 4 of my MBBS course at NUMed consists of three Student Selected Components (SSC) and two Electives. The SSC 1 and SSC 2 can be done anywhere in Malaysia, while the SSC 3, Elective 1 and Elective 2 can be done either in UK or in Malaysia.

Doing the Elective 2 in UK has always been an absolute no-no for me, and my position on that remains the same now. The reason is that after Elective 2, there is just 3 weeks of break which is way too short. I want to have more time at home.

To overcome the problem of the short break, some of my friends chose to do SSC 1 and SSC 2 in their hometown instead of Johor, before going to UK for the SSC 3 and Electives. However, I didn't want to do the same, due to various reasons as I had explained in this post:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2018/02/why-i-dont-do-private-ssc.html

On the other hand, doing SSC 3 and Elective 1 in UK followed by Elective 2 in my hometown would have been a good plan for me, as I could be at home for 7 weeks which is reasonably long. However, I eventually decided to go to UK for just the SSC 3 but not Elective 1. Why was that the case?

Before entering Stage 4 of MBBS, I had always thought that there is just a single Elective which lasts for 8 weeks. As such, the thought of doing Elective 1 in UK and Elective 2 in Malaysia never came to my mind.

It was only in October 2017 that I found out there are actually two Electives, each lasting for 4 weeks. At that time, I had already made plans to do 8 weeks of Elective in my hometown, and I didn't see a great need to change that.

Between October 2017 and April 2018, there were several occasions where I seriously considered doing the Elective 1 in UK, but in the end I didn't go ahead with it. There were several reasons for that:

- First, for most Electives in UK, students are required to write and submit a curriculum vitae (CV) to the Elective supervisor. This was a task that I found quite challenging.

- It was quite possible that I wouldn't be offered an Elective at James Cook University Hospital. In that case, university managed accommodation isn't available and I would have to arrange private accommodation, which was something daunting for me.

- Even if I got to do an Elective at James Cook University Hospital, most of my friends probably wouldn't be doing their Elective there. Without friends, the Elective wouldn't be enjoyable.

- I was also quite worried that I would have difficulties adapting to the life in UK, considering the fact that I had never studied overseas before. Therefore, I didn't want to be in UK for too long.

- Doing Elective 1 in UK and Elective 2 in Malaysia would also mean that immediately after Elective 1 ends, I had to fly back to Malaysia and start Elective 2. I found this too rushed.

I travelled to UK on 13 April 2018 and did my SSC 3 at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough from 16 April 2018 until 25 May 2018. On 2 June 2018, I flew back to Malaysia. At that time, I was feeling quite sad about having to leave UK.

Many of my friends didn't leave UK when I left, because unlike me, they would be doing their Electives in UK. In fact, the number of students doing the Electives in UK exceeded those doing SSC 3 in UK.

I was having a lot of fun with my friends in UK throughout SSC 3. This had to come to an end, with me returning to Malaysia while my friends were still in UK, all because of the poor decision I made. If only I had chosen to do the Elective 1 in UK, I could have continued the fun for 1 more month.

Now, I am feeling quite regret for not doing my Elective 1 in UK. Looking back at the reasons above, I feel that none of them are really strong reasons, and the benefits of doing Elective 1 in UK definitely outweigh that.

Studying overseas for the first time

On 13 April 2018, I flew to UK for Student Selected Component 3 (SSC3), which is part of Stage 4 of my MBBS course at NUMed. The SSC3 would last from 16 April until 25 May. This was definitely a new experience for me, as it was my first time studying overseas.

In the past, I disliked the idea of studying overseas. The reason was that the environment overseas is quite different from that in Malaysia and I felt that it would be difficult for me to adapt to the environment overseas.

However, both my parents were graduates from Australian universities. Since young, my family had been planning to let me study in an Australian university. I definitely didn't agree with that, but I dared not voice out my thoughts.

Years later, my family began to realise that studying in Malaysia would be a good idea, as studying overseas is much more expensive. At that point, I finally let them know that I had always preferred to study in Malaysia.

In April 2013, I was offered the JPA scholarship. At that time, my family once again talked about studying overseas. Since the JPA scholarship would sponsor for many top universities in UK and Australia, they wanted me to take advantage of that.

I made it clear to my family that I didn't want to study overseas. Eventually, they agreed to let me make the final decision myself, while I also agreed that I would still apply to overseas universities just in case I change my mind in the future.

Studying A Level at Taylor's College gave me more exposure to the outside world which I didn't have during secondary school previously. As time went on, I became more open to the idea of studying overseas.

In October 2013, I started considering the possibility of studying overseas. However, I was later rejected by all the overseas universities that I applied to, including 4 UK universities and the University of Hong Kong.

I then got offered a place by NUMed. Since all 5 years of the NUMed MBBS course are delivered in Malaysia, it seemed that I no longer had the opportunity to study overseas. However, I later found out that the SSC3 and Elective in Stage 4 of the course can be done in UK.

I didn't let my family know about that, but soon enough, they came across a NUMed advertisement which stated that there is "opportunity for periods of study in UK". Somehow, my family interpreted that as "It is compulsory to go to UK".

My family was very happy that I could still study overseas. Since then, they kept talking about that, as if the entire MBBS course is just about the SSC3 and Elective. That annoyed me, as I felt that there were other more important things to talk about.

I later explained to my family that it is actually not compulsory to do the SSC3 and Elective in UK. However, they still kept saying that I "should go to UK", without giving any good reason. I have always wanted to have the autonomy to decide for myself.

Due to reverse psychology, I became unwilling to do the SSC3 and Elective in UK. Over the years from Stage 1 to Stage 3, I had no plans to go to UK for the Stage 4 SSC3 and Elective, although I didn't rule out that possibility entirely.

Then it happened. On the supposedly first day of Stage 4, NUMed unexpectedly declared the results of the Stage 3 exam invalid due to a "security breach" and required every student in my batch to resit the exam. Worse still, we were given only 10 days to revise for the exam.

This incident had a "butterfly effect" on me. In the incident, I nearly lost my opportunity to be in Stage 4 of MBBS, as it was seemingly impossible to finish the revision in such a short time and anyone who failed the resit exam had to repeat the entire Stage 3.

That made me value Stage 4 a lot after I passed the exam and got into Stage 4. As a result, I wanted to make the most out of the opportunities I had in Stage 4, one of them being the opportunity to study in UK. Therefore, I made the decision to do the SSC3 in UK.

(However, I chose not to do the Elective in UK, due to reasons which I explained in this post:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2018/06/my-regret-about-elective-1.html )

There was definitely a lot of preparation that I had to do before traveling to UK for the SSC3, especially that I had never studied overseas before. They were quite a hassle and the guidance provided by NUMed was limited, which made me feel stressed at times.

I would also have to face the challenges of adapting to the life in UK. Despite all these, I was confident that I made the right decision to go to UK for SSC3, as I knew that the SSC3 in UK would offer a unique experience that I wouldn't get if I were to do the SSC3 in Malaysia.

To read about my experience while doing the SSC3 in UK, go to this post:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2018/07/my-ssc-3-in-uk.html

Horizon Residences - A place I will never forget

The accommodation managed by Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) used to be at Horizon Residences. On 1 April 2018, I moved out of Horizon Residences. This was my 4th and last time moving out, as I will never return to Horizon Residences again.

Looking back, I had been staying at Horizon Residences for 3 years and 6 months. I first moved into Horizon Residences on 20 September 2014, two days before I started Stage 1 of MBBS at NUMed.

During my first few months at Horizon Residences, I was trying to adapt to my life there as I had never lived away from my family before that. Later, I got used to living there, but I started to be very busy with my studies.

That was the case from Stage 1 all the way to the 1st semester of Stage 4. Up until December 2017, I never had the opportunity to really enjoy Horizon Residences. Therefore, I didn't appreciate it and I just took it for granted.

I have once considered moving to ISV, mainly because of ISV's proximity to the NUMed campus. However, I later dismissed that consideration after the management of ISV attempted to impose an unreasonably high parking charge.

Starting from January 2018, I finally could make the most out of my stay at Horizon Residences, since the Student Selected Components (SSC) in the 2nd semester of Stage 4 are quite relaxing. I began to like Horizon Residences very much.

Horizon Residences has a nice swimming pool. Between September 2014 and December 2017, I had used it only once. However, during the 3 months between January and March 2018, I used it 4 times.

Unfortunately, on 6 March 2018, NUMed announced that for the next academic year, the NUMed managed accommodation would no longer be at Horizon Residences, instead it would be moved to EcoNest. This made me feel very sad.

Since about one year ago, I had been hearing rumours that NUMed was planning to change the accommodation. I chose not to believe it as there was no official announcement by NUMed. But now, it turned out that the rumour was true after all.

I wouldn't say Horizon Residences is perfect, it has its problems as well. It is located in Bukit Indah which is a rather overpopulated town, and I just don't like the crowd. It is also quite far away from NUMed, which caused me to be late for class at times.

I also had some bad memories at Horizon Residences. The worst one was the major power outage on 12 December 2017. Coincidentally, I was having an important examination at that time. Without electricity, everything at Horizon Residences felt so useless.

However, the fact is that nothing is perfect in this world. With good facilities, being located close to local amenities and a reasonable rental price, the NUMed accommodation at Horizon Residences is the best that it can be.

Most importantly, I had a lot of memories at Horizon Residences as I had been staying there for more than 3 years. I definitely felt sad about having to leave this place.

My contract for Horizon Residences actually lasted until August 2018. However, due to the fact that I wouldn't be doing my SSC3 and Electives in Johor, I had to move out from Horizon Residences in April 2018.

It was possible for me to continue staying at Horizon Residences by renting a unit privately. However, by doing so I wouldn't be eligible to get the waiver from NUMed for the SSC3 and Electives. As such, my only option was to stay at EcoNest for Stage 5 of MBBS.

Ever since the announcement on 6 March 2018, all that I could do was to treasure every single moment of my stay in Horizon Residences for the 26 days remaining.

I had always been lucky enough to be allocated the same unit and same room at Horizon Residences every year from Stage 1 until Stage 4. After staying in that room for so long, I felt particularly emotional when leaving it on 1 April 2018.

I knew that EcoNest would be a good place to stay as well. In fact, EcoNest has the advantage that it is located quite close to the NUMed campus. However, this didn't change the fact that I couldn't leave Horizon Residences without having strong emotions.

If you liked this story, you may want to read this too:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2019/06/econest-place-i-will-never-forget.html

12 June 2017 incident

Here, I would like to write about an incident that happened on 12 June 2017.

At that time, it was my Child Health rotation for Stage 3 of MBBS. I was in Group B for that rotation. I was initially supposed to be placed in Group C, but I requested to switch to Group B because I didn't want to separate with my group mates after having been in Group B for the past 2 rotations.

UT was the leader of Group B and a very influential person. He and several of my group mates were very close, as they were in the same gang even before Group B came into existence. I and EL were the only members of Group B not part of that gang.

Throughout the 3 rotations, I had been trying to build a good relationship with them. I wasn't quite successful in that as my social skills wasn't good at that time. They were also closer to EL compared to me. EL had good medical knowledge and he often taught them, while I kept struggling with my studies.

On 12 June 2017, my group travelled to Batu Pahat. We would be posted to the Batu Pahat hospital in the following week, and NUMed booked a hotel for us. Another group of students were also going to Batu Pahat at that time.

I, EL and UT were the only guys in Group B. However, there were only double rooms at the Batu Pahat hotel. This meant only two of us could be in the same room, while the other one had to stay with someone from the other group. I was hoping that I could stay in the same room with UT or EL.

However, UT had decided to stay with EL before we began our journey. UT told me he was very sure that the guy from the other group would be my housemate OG. Despite being housemates, I had never been close to OG due to our very different personalities, so I didn't know if OG would be going to Batu Pahat.

UT said that he too wasn't close to OG, and being housemates at least I would have known OG better, so it would be more appropriate for me rather than him to stay with OG. I was fine with that, but I didn't want to agree without getting something in return.

I asked what would be the plan if the guy from the other group turned out to be not OG but someone else. UT said that in the unlikely event where that happens, he would stay with that guy and I could stay with EL. I found that quite reasonable so I agreed.

Later, I, EL and UT travelled to Batu Pahat together. During the journey, UT reminded me of the deal we had agreed upon earlier. I promised to honour it while reminding him about his part of the deal. However, UT now claimed that he never promised anything. He insisted that our deal only had one clause where I was to stay with OG.

UT said that if the guy from the other group is someone other than OG, then "we will see". He added that I should be willing to step out of my comfort zone and stay with anyone, even if it's someone I didn't know. In reality, this wasn't a matter of comfort zone at all. I wasn't actually comfortable about staying with OG, I agreed only for courtesy sake, but UT wasn't showing courtesy in return.

I asked UT why he was unwilling make a commitment when he was so sure that OG would be the guy from the other group, to which he kept repeating that the deal was just about me staying with OG. I complained that it would be very unfair to have a deal where I was the only one committing, but UT insisted that I had agreed to it.

I then told UT bluntly that since he reneged on his promise, the entire deal had fallen apart so I too wouldn't promise to stay with OG. UT simply ignored me, hinting that with or without a deal, he was going to stay with EL anyway. In the end, the guy from the other group turned out to be OG. Not wanting to keep arguing with UT, I relented and stayed with OG.

This incident came down to a simple fact that UT wanted to stay with EL and not with me. UT was just trying to frame this in a nicer way. Even though my social skills and medical knowledge weren't good, I cherished Group B so much to the extent of making a request to stay in Group B. UT should have valued me more, isn't it? That's the problem with the influential guys in the 2014-2019 batch.

The whole incident was a significant wound in my relationship with UT. After I got into Stage 4 of MBBS, the student groups were reshuffled and I was no longer with Group B. UT asked me if I felt sad that we were no longer in the same group, and I told him directly "No, I don't feel sad at all". I don't consider UT to be an important friend anymore.

EL hadn't done anything wrong, he merely agreed when UT wanted to stay with him. Nevertheless, I was really jealous of EL because my group mates valued him more. However, I later overcame the jealousy and formed a long-lasting friendship with EL. Now, EL is one of my closest friends.

Why I don't do private SSC?

The 2nd semester of Stage 4 of MBBS at NUMed consists of three Student Selected Components (SSC). For each SSC, we get to choose a topic to study based on our interests. There are two categories of SSC's, public SSC and private SSC.

For public SSC's, they are pre-arranged by NUMed and we choose them from a list provided by NUMed. Most public SSC's are based in Johor. For private SSC's, we have to arrange them ourselves by contacting the supervisors. Private SSC's can be done anywhere in Malaysia.

Many students in my batch chose to do private SSC's outside Johor for SSC1 and SSC2. My family also preferred that I do private SSC’s in my hometown. At one point, I did consider doing private SSC’s, but I eventually decided against that. There are several reasons why I think private SSC’s are not for me.

First, I find it too much of a hassle to arrange a private SSC. This is especially true for SSC2 where it has to contain a suitable audit or research project. Also, since private SSC's are not arranged by NUMed, the supervisors are not familiar with the NUMed assessments, so they won’t be able to provide much guidance for the Oral and Poster Presentations.

An advantage NUMed has over the other medical schools is that it is not too far away from the clinical sites, so we get to utilise the NUMed campus throughout all 5 years of MBBS, without the need for a separate "clinical campus". Doing private SSC’s outside Johor negates this advantage. In particular, we have to travel back to the NUMed campus for the Oral Presentation and Written Skills Examination.

I have always wanted to do a non-clinical SSC for either SSC1 or SSC2, as I think having non-clinical knowledge is important for medical students as well. However, it is very difficult to arrange a suitable private non-clinical SSC. If I did private for SSC1 and SSC2, I most probably wouldn’t get to do a non-clinical SSC.

Doing a private SSC also meant that I probably would be on my own for the SSC, as it was unlikely that any of my friends would do their SSC at the same location. I really don’t like doing an SSC alone, because I won't get to really enjoy it without any friends. Considering that the SSC's are relatively stress free, I wanted to have some fun.

The NUMed Ball 2018 was held at Holiday Villa Hotel in Johor Bahru on 9 March, which was during the SSC2 period. If I did private SSC2 outside Johor, I would have to miss out on the NUMed Ball, just like what happened in the previous year. I really wanted to attend the NUMed Ball this year.

Exams and power outage

On 12 and 13 December 2017, I was having exams for the 4th year of my MBBS course at NUMed. Coincidentally, during that time there was a power outage affecting Horizon Residences, the NUMed accommodation. Here, I am writing about the whole incident.

The exams were from 2PM to 5PM on both days. On the first day, I went to NUMed at about 10:30AM. When I left Horizon Residences, the power supply was still on. During my journey to NUMed, I noticed that the traffic lights in Bukit Indah were not functioning. Later, NUMed sent an e-mail which stated that there was a power outage in Bukit Indah including Horizon Residences and they had informed TNB about that. NUMed was not affected by the power outage since it is located in Nusajaya.

At that time, I somehow had the feeling that the power outage might be a major one that would take a long time to repair. Immediately after my exam on that day, I received another e-mail from NUMed which informed us that it was a severe power outage and that the power supply was expected to be restored by midnight. I began to feel worried because I still had to revise for the exam on the next day and the power outage would adversely affect my revision.

I decided to go for dinner at McDonald's in Bukit Indah. However, as the traffic lights weren't functioning, an accident happened at the main crossroad in Bukit Indah, resulting in a very bad traffic congestion. The police diverted the traffic at that crossroad, and as a result I was forced to enter an expressway. Upon entering the expressway, I had two choices, either to go back to NUMed, or to go to Taman Perling. I chose the latter.

On my way to Taman Perling, I was stuck in traffic jam at the Perling toll for about 20 minutes. Taman Perling wasn't affected by the power outage. I was rather unfamiliar with the area in Taman Perling as I had never driven there before. However, I had passed through that area many times previously during my journey to and from Hospital Sultan Ismail, and I knew there was a KFC there. After some tries, I was able to get to the KFC. Since it was raining, I bought my dinner by drive-thru. Initially, I thought of parking there and having my dinner in my car.

However, I was very stressed at that time because of my exams and the power outage. This, in addition to the fact that the place was unfamiliar for me, I felt very uncomfortable being in that place. I wanted to leave that place as soon as possible, so I decided to bring my dinner back to Horizon Residences. On my way back, I was once again stuck in the traffic jam at the Bukit Indah crossroad. It was 7PM when I arrived at Horizon Residences.

The lights in the car park and corridor of Horizon Residences were working at that time. This gave me the false impression that the power supply had been restored. However, it turned out that those lights were powered by generator and there was still no power supply in my unit. After having KFC for dinner, the sky had turned dark. Looking from the window, I could see that some areas of Bukit Indah were bright, while the areas surrounding Horizon Residences were still dark. I thought that the power supply was being restored in stages.

I decided to sleep for a while first, as I usually do after class every day, hoping that the power supply would have been restored by the time I woke up. However, I was unable to fall asleep. With the fan and air-conditioner off, my room was almost completely quiet and I just couldn't stand the quietness. After about 45 minutes, I got up from bed and I telephoned TNB to ask about the power outage. TNB told me that the power outage was still being repaired and they had no idea when the power supply could be restored.

According to TNB, some areas of Bukit Indah were receiving backup power and Horizon Residences would get the same later, and after the power outage had been repaired, the power supply would once again be cut off for some time to switch back to the main power. At that point, I felt that there was no point to keep waiting for the power supply to be restored. My iPad's battery was running low and I couldn't charge it, but I had to use my iPad to do revision for my exam.

I decided to go to the NUMed library and spend a night there, for the first time. About one year ago, NUMed planned to limit the operation hours of the library so that it would be closed from 12AM to 7AM every day. Many students opposed this, and I joined them in opposing it even though I had never used the library after midnight. Eventually, NUMed scrapped that plan and kept the library open for 24 hours every day. In November 2017, I once thought of spending a night in NUMed after hearing strange sounds in my room, but eventually I didn't need to.

I arrived NUMed at about 8:45PM. I met many of my friends who were also there because of the power outage in Horizon Residences. The power sockets in the library were all on the floor and my iPad's charger cable wasn't long enough for me to comfortably use the iPad when charging. Therefore, I connected my iPad to a computer instead, which allowed me to comfortably use the iPad on the table. The computer couldn't actually charge my iPad (which stated "Not charging"), but it managed to keep the battery level from falling.

For a few hours, I did revision for my exam using my iPad in the library. At around 12AM, many of my friends returned to Horizon Residences as they didn't want to spend their night in NUMed, even though the power supply at Horizon Residences was still not restored. I maintained my decision to spend the night in NUMed. At 1AM, it was time for me to sleep. Initially, I planned to sleep in a sitting position with my head on the table. I had done that many times in the past during the free time between classes, usually for 1 to 2 hours each time.

But at a second thought, I realised that sleeping for the whole night is quite different compared to sleeping for just 1 to 2 hours. I was worried that if I slept like that for the whole night, I might end up getting body aches on the next day, which could affect my performance in the exam. Therefore, I decided to sleep on the sleeping bags in the library instead. The sleeping bags were actually quite comfortable. A few other students were also spending their night in the library.

On the next morning, I woke up at about 8:45AM. I did sleep quite well and I didn't experience body aches. One of my friends was surprised to see that I spent my night in the library. He told me that the power supply at Block A of Horizon Residences was eventually restored at around 2AM, while the power supply at Block B was still not yet restored (my unit is in Block A). TNB then sent me an SMS to inform that the power supply in Bukit Indah was being restored gradually. I had breakfast at the NUMed cafeteria and then continued with my revision for the exam.

After the exam on that day, I wanted to have dinner at Nando's in AEON Bukit Indah, but AEON was completely closed as a result of the power outage. At that time, the power supply in Bukit Indah had largely been restored. Bukit Indah felt so much like a dead town that just got revived. I had dinner at McDonald's and then returned to Horizon Residences. I was so glad that the power supply at my unit had been restored and that I could take a good break since my exams were over.

Overall, my experience of spending a night in the NUMed library had been quite good. In the future, I can consider doing that sometimes. On 9 January 2018, the results of the exam was released and I passed it successfully. On that afternoon, I went to the KFC in Taman Perling for lunch, just to relive the memories of the exam day. This time, without the stress, I felt much more comfortable with that place.

Exploding Head Syndrome (EHS)?

I would like to share about an incident that happened to me during the 4th week of November 2017. It all started on 19 November. On that night, I was somehow very tired, so I slept unusually early at 12AM. Then, I woke up at 4:30AM. Out of sudden, I heard a strange high-pitched sound. My first thought was that the sound was from my phone or iPad.

However, when I checked my phone and iPad, neither had any notifications. A few minutes later, I heard the same sound again. At that point, it was clear that the sound didn’t come from my phone or iPad. The sound was definitely from within my room, but I couldn’t determine its direction and I couldn’t think of anything else in my room that could be making the sound.

Every few minutes, I would hear the same sound again and again. I started to feel very scared. Was my room haunted? Or was I having auditory hallucinations? Then, after doing a quick search on Google, I came across a disease known as Exploding Head Syndrome (EHS).

According to Wikipedia, people with EHS would hear an imaginary high-pitched sound when they are falling asleep or waking up from sleep. The cause of EHS is unknown, but it seems to be more common in people who are deprived of sleep. EHS is harmless, but there is currently no treatment proven effective.

I thought that I must be having EHS. This was something I had never experienced before in the past. As I tried to go back to sleep, I continued hearing the sound every few minutes. I noticed that the sound seemed to be coming from a particular direction when I was lying down, but not when I was sitting up.

I was still able to fall asleep, but when I woke up at about 8:30AM, I still heard the sound. However, soon after I got up from bed, the sound stopped completely. After class on that afternoon, I took an afternoon nap as usual. Throughout the nap, I didn’t hear the sound at all. I was a bit relieved, thinking that I was just having a single episode of EHS.

However, at 2AM on that night, when I was still studying, I once again heard the sound. That was strange, as people with EHS usually hear the sound only when falling asleep or waking up. Just like the previous day, the sound would come every few minutes, continuing until the next morning.

Starting from the following day, I would make sure to sleep no later than 1:15AM every night. I was hoping that by getting enough sleep, it would get rid of the EHS. However, nothing changed. The sound would begin some time between 2AM and 3AM every night, waking me up from sleep. Yet, I would not hear the sound whenever I took naps in the afternoon.

I definitely felt quite depressed about this. I was worried that the EHS would be permanent. Worse still, I was already very stressed at that time because I would be having an examination in a few weeks time. I thought of consulting a doctor, but I had read that EHS could not be treated. I also thought of spending a night in the NUMed library to see if there would be any difference.

Then it happened. In the afternoon on 24 November, I somehow decided to turn on the air-conditioner in my room. Usually, I only use the air-conditioner at night, not in the afternoon. Half an hour later, I suddenly heard the same sound again. This was the first time I heard the sound in the afternoon. I was fully awake at that time, and I suddenly began to think, could the sound be from the air-conditioner?

When I looked at the air-conditioner, I noticed the smoke detector located near it. The smoke detector was installed by NUMed quite some time ago and I had almost forgotten about its existence. Then, at the moment when I heard the sound again, the smoke detector emitted a red light at the same time. This meant that the sound was actually from the smoke detector!

I was so relieved that I wasn’t really having EHS. To further confirm that, I recorded the sound using my phone. Then, after looking up the Internet, I finally understood everything. The fact is that, the smoke detector will give out a warning sound every few minutes if its battery is low. However, the battery of the smoke detector in my room is at the borderline level.

Most of the time, its battery level is still sufficient so it does not give the sound. However, when my room is very cold after the air-conditioner has been on for some time, the low temperature decreases the rate of chemical reaction in the battery, causing the battery level to fall below the borderline, so the smoke detector gives the warning sound.

I had always set a timer so that the air-conditioner would switch off automatically at 7:30AM every morning. After it switches itself off, the temperature in my room starts rising, so the battery level of the smoke detector increases as well. After some time, the battery level goes above the borderline and the smoke detector stops giving the warning sound.

After I understood everything, I made a report to NUMed about that and pretty soon, they sent someone to replace the battery of the smoke detector. Since then, I no longer hear that sound and I once again can sleep comfortably at night!

If you liked this story, you may want to read these too:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2014/07/an-amusing-incident.html

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2013/06/14-march-2013-day-of-hope.html

My valuable 4th year of MBBS

The 4th year of my MBBS course at NUMed is known as Stage 4. Here, I would like to express some of my thoughts about Stage 4.

There are many things in life that we often take for granted. We only learn to appreciate them after we lost them or came close to losing them. For me, Stage 4 is exactly one of those things.

After I apparently passed Stage 3 of MBBS on 31 July 2017, progression to Stage 4 just felt like the natural next step. At that time, I considered Stage 4 to be just another year in MBBS. I didn't have very positive thoughts about Stage 4, due to the fact that I had heard many students describing Stage 4 as very difficult.

What I had never expected to happen was that on 4 September 2017 which was supposedly the first day of Stage 4, NUMed declared the results of the Stage 3 written examination invalid due to a 'security breach' and required all students to resit the written examination on 14 and 15 September 2017. (Read about the whole incident here: https://www.daniellimjj.com/2017/09/4-september-2017-incident.html )

This incident nearly took away my opportunity to be in Stage 4. I had to put in so much effort to do the seemingly impossible task of revising the entire Stage 3 curriculum in such a short time frame of 10 days. Finally on 18 September 2017, I was able to pass the resit examination and officially proceed to Stage 4 of MBBS.

After going through the whole ordeal, it made me value Stage 4 so much more. Indeed, I wouldn't have realised the significance of being in Stage 4 without the experience of nearly losing it. Even though Stage 4 is difficult, I was grateful of the fact that I was in Stage 4 and I truly embraced it. Therefore, I definitely wanted to make the most out of Stage 4 which I valued so much.

Here’s how I made the most out of Stage 4:

1st - Doing the Student Selected Component 3 (SSC3) in UK

NUMed students can choose to do the SSC3 during Stage 4 either in UK or in Malaysia. In the past, I was reluctant to do the SSC3 in UK, because my family kept pushing me to go to UK, but they couldn't give a good reason to justify that. I don't like it when my family tell me what to do, because I want to have the autonomy to decide for myself. The more they tried to push me, the less willing I was to go to UK. Over time, my family realised that it would just be futile to keep pushing me on going to UK, so they softened their stance.

With that, I started considering the possibility of doing the SSC3 in UK. Later, I found out that many of my friends were planning to do the SSC3 in UK. This made the idea of going to UK more attractive. The greatest turning point was the incident where I had to resit the Stage 3 written examination, which changed my perspectives on this. Since I wanted to make the most out of Stage 4, I felt that I should go to UK for SSC3, which would give me valuable experience.

2nd - Attending every single lecture in Stage 4

In Stage 3, most of the teaching was carried out at clinical sites and there were lectures only on certain days, but the lectures on those days were really long. Consequently, I didn't like attending lectures back then. I preferred to skip the lectures and read the lecture notes myself instead. However, all lectures in Stage 3 were compulsory so I had no choice but to attend them. As I attended the lectures unwillingly, I often did not focus well during the lectures and I even fell asleep on a few occasions.

In Stage 4, there were many lectures every day, and the timetable was very packed because the start date of Stage 4 was delayed due to the Stage 3 resit examination. Unlike Stage 3, most lectures in Stage 4 were not compulsory. It was common for students to skip the lectures on Patients, Doctors and Society (PDS). However, due to my desire in making the most out of Stage 4, I was much more enthusiastic in Stage 4. As a result, I made it a point to always attend all lectures including PDS lectures, and to pay good attention during the lectures.

3rd - Having a good relationship with my friends in Group 4

For Stage 4, I was allocated to Group 4. This group allocation was largely based on the grouping for the Stage 3 Hospital Based Weeks previously, although there were a bit of changes. Most of my group mates in Group 4 were previously my group mates in Hospital Based Group (HBG) B1. I was lucky enough to not get excluded from this group like what happened with my Stage 3 Essential Junior Rotations grouping. I could reunite with most of my friends in HBG B1, so I was quite happy to be in Group 4. Therefore, I definitely did my part to form and maintain a good relationship with every one in Group 4.

4th - Engaging well in every Case-based Group Work session

There were Case-based Group Work sessions every week in Stage 4. These sessions are a unique feature of Stage 4 as the other years of the MBBS course do not have such sessions. The Case-based Group Work sessions are essentially like the Problem Based Learning (PBL) sessions in other medical schools. During each session, I and my group mates were presented with clinical cases where we had to discuss and work together to come out with the answers for the questions in the case. I found these sessions really interesting and I always got myself well involved in the sessions.

5th - Aiming for a score of 75% in the Stage 4 written examination

I scored 75% for the Stage 3 resit examination in September 2017. This was my highest score yet since the Stage 1 Progress 2 examination in January 2015, so I was really happy with my performance. Therefore, I wanted to maintain the same level of performance for the Stage 4 written examination in December 2017. I believed that the key to achieving this aim is early preparation, which was why I had started my revision for the Stage 4 examination in late September 2017. I also made sure to avoid the same mistakes that contributed to my failure in the FoCP written examination, LTC MOSLER and WH MOSLER during Stage 3.

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4 September 2017 incident

On 4 September 2017, something completely unexpected happened that had a huge impact on me and many others. What was it actually?

Stage 3 of my MBBS course at NUMed had not been smooth for me. During Stage 3, there were 6 MOSLER assessments where we had to pass at least 4 in order to be eligible to take the final written examination. I found the MOSLER's really difficult and I feared them a lot. In fact, I failed 2 of the MOSLER's quite badly. With a lot of hard work, I was eventually able to pass the other 4 MOSLER's and proceed to the written examination.

The written examination for Stage 3 was held on 17 and 18 July 2017. The examination was rather difficult. Although there were some easy questions, many of the questions were quite tricky. I estimated that I would be able to score at least 58% in the examination. The problem was that the pass threshold of the examination is often higher than 60%. In the previous year, many good students failed the written examination just because of the high pass threshold.

Therefore, I was quite worried about my written examination results. If I failed, I would have to repeat the entire Stage 3 as my final attempt. On 31 July 2017, the results was released. I was so happy to know that I passed the written examination. My score in the examination was 67% which was Amber (borderline pass), while the pass threshold was 64.3%. With that, I was able to continue on to Stage 4 of MBBS. This was a huge relief for me after overcoming all the challenges to pass Stage 3.

There were only 8 students who failed, which was a remarkable improvement over the previous year. Stage 4 was supposed to begin on 4 September 2017. Between 19 July and 3 September 2017, I had 6.5 weeks of summer break. During the break, I didn't study anything at all, because I strongly believe that we should fully relax ourselves during breaks. On 28 August 2017, the students who failed the July examination began their repeat year of Stage 3. On that day, NUMed also uploaded the Stage 4 timetable and study guides to the learning support website and sent us a welcome email.

However, there were some unusual things. The welcome email was somehow much shorter compared to that of the previous years and all it said was that we had to register for Stage 4 on 4 September 2017. In addition, the timetable incorrectly stated the Stage 4 Semester 1 start date as 18 September 2017, but it correctly stated the end date as 30 November 2017. The student group list was also not released. I didn't give much thoughts about these things.

Due to Malaysia's victory in the 2017 SEA Games, the government declared 4 September 2017 as a public holiday. However, NUMed informed us that there would be no holiday in NUMed on that day as it was too late to alter the timetables. On 3 September 2017, I returned to Bukit Indah and moved into the university accommodation. Unlike the previous years, I didn't actually feel sad that the summer break was ending, even though I really enjoyed the break. Instead, for some reason I was actually looking forward to Stage 4.

On 4 September 2017, there was supposed to be a Stage 4 introductory lecture at 9AM. I overslept on that morning and it was already 8:30AM when I woke up. I had to rush and I managed to arrive NUMed a few minutes before 9AM. At that time, I met one of my friend who failed the July examination and had to repeat Stage 3. He told me that for unknown reason, NUMed asked him to attend the Stage 4 introductory lecture on that day with us.

I didn't think much about that and I just walked into the lecture theatre. The atmosphere in the lecture theatre was just like usual and many students were talking to each other about the summer break. A few minutes later, a few lecturers walked into the lecture theatre, while one of them prepared to begin the lecture. Their facial expressions looked a bit unusual. Then, the lecturer said that he had a bad news to share with us.

At that moment, my immediate thought was that NUMed was going to announce a change to the curriculum for Stage 4. I had known for quite some time that they were planning to introduce a new curriculum in a few years. In the new curriculum, Stage 3 will be easier than it used to be, but Stage 4 will be more difficult. I had always hoped that the new curriculum would not be implemented in my year. However, it turned out that the bad news had nothing to do with the curriculum.

Instead, the lecturer said that it was about our Stage 3 written examination in July. According to him, a few days after the examination results was released, they received information that there was a security breach where some of the examination questions along with the answers were leaked out before the examination. When they later performed a statistical analysis of the students' answers, they concluded that there was indeed a security breach beyond reasonable doubt.

As a result, NUMed declared that the results of the July examination was invalid and all students had to resit the written examination on 14 and 15 September 2017. The students who failed the July examination previously would be resitting it as well. Only the students who pass the resit examination would be able to proceed to Stage 4 which would begin on 18 September 2017, while the students who fail it would have to repeat the entire Stage 3 as the final attempt. This was the reason for the 18 September start date in the timetable.

The announcement immediately struck everyone in the lecture theatre. Many students started complaining that it was unfair to require those who didn't receive any of the leaked questions to resit. The lecturer's response was that as a result of the security breach, they could not be confident that we passed the written examination legitimately and met the required standards. Since there was no way to determine exactly which students received the leaked questions, every student had to resit it.

Then, we asked why NUMed didn't inform us earlier even though they had known about the security breach for quite some time. The lecturer stated that to ensure fairness, every student had to be informed at the same time so that all of us would have the same amount of time to prepare for the resit examination. During the summer break, the only way to inform us was through e-mail, but many students were known to not check their e-mails regularly. Therefore, they decided that the best solution was to not let us know anything until we were back at NUMed on that day.

We requested that NUMed postpone the resit examination because we couldn't revise the entire Stage 3 curriculum in just 10 days. The lecturer said that he understood our concerns, but they couldn't delay the examination any further because there wouldn't be enough time to complete the teaching for Semester 1 of Stage 4 in that case. Delaying the Stage 4 start date to 18 September 2017 had already resulted in a very tight timetable. He also stressed that as medical students, we shouldn't just forget everything after the previous examination.

The lecturers said that the only other alternative for us was to repeat the entire Stage 3, and if we chose to do so it would not be considered to be our final attempt. They told us they had already spent a lot of time trying to think of a better solution, but there were none. They added that this was the first time where such security breach occurred, and they would take extra steps to ensure that it would never happen again in the future. In the end, nothing could be done to change the fact that we had to resit the examination on 14 and 15 September 2017.

This incident definitely put me in a very difficult situation. Just as I was looking forward to start Stage 4 after all my efforts in passing the 4 MOSLER assessments and eventually getting a borderline pass in the written examination, now it was back to the uncertainty of whether or not I would get to enter Stage 4. I had been relaxing throughout the summer break, and now I had to immediately go back to hard core studying. I felt very angry, sad and stressed.

My immediate thought was that I would rather choose to repeat Stage 3 instead of resitting the examination because it seemed impossible for me to revise the whole Stage 3 curriculum within 10 days and I didn't want to waste an attempt by failing. However, repeating Stage 3 would mean that I had to once again go through the MOSLER assessments which I struggled so much to pass, and I also had to separate with most of my friends who wouldn't be repeating Stage 3.

After some analysis, I concluded that although very challenging, it was feasible for me to complete one round of full revision for the entire Stage 3 curriculum in 10 days. For the July examination previously, I finished one round of revision in 13 days without much stress. This could be shortened to 10 days by studying longer hours every day. However, this would mean that the next 10 days would be extremely busy and stressful. I decided to go ahead with resitting the examination.

In the afternoon of 4 September 2017, I began revising for the the resit examination. Luckily, I still had significant memory of my Stage 3 knowledge, which made this revision easier and faster. I started my revision with General Medicine (FoCP/LTC/ID/PC) which was the most important. On 7 September 2017, I finished revising General Medicine and started revising Psychiatry (MH). Being relatively short, I was able to finish revision for Psychiatry on that day itself. Then, I revised Paediatrics (CH).

I finished revision for Paediatrics on 9 September 2017 and continued with Obstetrics and Gynaecology (WH). On 11 September 2017, I finished revising Obstetrics and Gynaecology and proceeded with Emergency Medicine (FoCP). On that night, I had completed my first round of revision for the whole Stage 3 syllabus. Over the next two days, I did a quick second round of revision for General Medicine. Throughout the 10 days, to avoid wasting time, I stopped playing the video game Clash of Clans completely.

Although I was fairly well prepared for the resit examination, I was still quite worried that the questions would be difficult. On 14 September 2017, it was Paper 1 of the examination. This paper was slightly easier than the examination in July and this made me feel more confident. Paper 2 of the examination was on 15 September 2017. This paper was a bit more difficult compared to Paper 1 as well as the July examination.

Just like the July examination, I estimated that I could score at least 58% in this examination. Once again, I was worried about the pass threshold which is usually higher than 60%. NUMed had stated that the pass threshold for this examination would be determined in the usual way. After studying so hard for 10 days, I fully relaxed myself for the few days after the examination while trying not to think about the results.

The results of the resit examination was released at 8AM on 18 September 2017. Just before the results was released, I was feeling extremely nervous and my body was trembling. Then, I was so happy and surprised to know that I scored 75.1% in the resit examination which was Green (safe pass). This was also a huge improvement compared to my score in the July examination. The pass threshold for this examination was 63.9%. I officially began Stage 4 at 9AM on that day.

With the exception of one student, all students passed the resit examination, including the 8 students who failed the July examination previously. This is no doubt the highest pass rate ever in the history of NUMed. Even though we passed in the end, this doesn't change the fact that we had to endure two weeks of extreme stress. We are definitely angry about the whole incident. Luckily, this incident happened to the Stage 3 examination. The examinations for the other Stages are much more difficult and it wouldn't be possible to finish revision in 10 days.

Looking back at the whole incident, while I think the way NUMed handled the situation was definitely not perfect, I agree with them that there is no better solution. If they informed us about the security breach earlier, I would have to do revision during the summer break and that would ruin my break. If they delayed the resit examination, that would just prolong the duration of extreme stress that we had to face and also adversely affect our studies in Semester 1 of Stage 4.

This incident was actually a blessing in disguise for me since my examination results improved from Amber to Green. I am glad that I chose to take the resit examination instead of repeating Stage 3. Obviously, the 8 students who failed the July examination benefited the most from this incident as they passed the resit examination and could enter Stage 4. Under normal circumstances, there is no resit for the Stage 3 written examination and any student who failed it has to repeat the entire Stage 3.

If you liked this story, you may want to read these too:

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2017/08/disasters-in-my-3rd-year-of-mbbs.html

https://www.daniellimjj.com/2017/11/my-valuable-stage-4-of-mbbs.html