How To Survive First Year in a Medical School Ukraine

November 3, 2020
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Introduction

Hello everyone !  I hope you all are doing well and If you are here then it means that you are Struggling in your first year medical studies. My motive in this article is to share my experience and guide you to How to Survive First Year In a Medical School in Ukraine. For More information on Medicine in Ukraine click here : 

Overview

Although every year matters, the first year, in particular, is very important to a student as it helps them figure out the teething problems in studying, introduces them to new technical terms, tests their fundamentals, what they studied in school, and enables in developing a strong understanding of the basics.

Medicine in Ukraine basically consists of six long years or twelve  semesters. The first year subjects include :

ANATOMY

CHEMISTRY\HISTOLOGY, CYTOLOGY AND EMBRYOLOGY

BIOLOGY

LATIN 

ANATOMY

Anatomy is the most important subject in your whole medical studies whether you like it or not. The most important subject which most students skip in their starting medical career is Anatomy and afterwards they realise the importance when there is no time left to study. Problem which most students encounter is from where and which book to study from because Anatomy is quite lengthy. As there are thousands of books to choose from I personally recommend three books for Anatomy.

  1. Netter’s Atlas of Anatomy
  2. Gray’s Anatomy
  3. B.D Chaurasia

The first two tops are mandatory for mastering Anatomy. How to use these books effectively and efficiently. Always try to maintain your syllabus with your lecture syllabus so you will not be confused from where to start. And there is a second way if you want to study by Yourself. In this method of study you try to start according to the Index of Gray’s anatomy with Netter’s Atlas. Gray’s Anatomy is written in very simple language with proper diagrams, follow up questions and much more. Whereas in Netter Atlas you will find very detailed pictures of every part of Human Body as the name suggests Atlas. Always try to read both books side by side as this will help in your building basic concepts. One more help you can get from the Youtube  channel name Anatomy Zone is best for visual learning. 

My method of studying mostly is self study and I used to read Gray’s and Netter together side by side. This helps me alot and still sometimes I use Netter’s Anatomy for revision by just going through the detailed picture in my meantime. 

At last don’t try to learn each and every thing as it is a very vast subject so here is the most important topic to learn in anatomy by heart :-

Head and Neck

Head and Neck is very important and vast. Under this topic you should never miss the cavernous sinus, remember its boundaries, structures passing through cavernous sinus, tributaries and drain channels. This is a very important topic from examination point of view and a question is always asked from this topic.

 Upper limb

You should know everything about the region of the shoulder joint, especially the muscles(insertion, action, nerve supply). Apart from that the important topics in the upper limb are Brachial plexus and Axillary artery.

Dermatomes of the upper and lower limb is also a very important topic to prepare. Regarding lower limb, you should know about dermatomes of lower limb, knee joint, sciatic and obturator nerve, saphenous vein, arches of foot, muscles of sole of foot.

 Abdomen

Abdomen is an important section from the PGMEE point of view. This is a very important topic which definitely should be on your priority list while preparing Anatomy.

Give special importance to Perineum while preparing the abdomen. Most common questions asked under this topic are from Urethra, Ureter and Pudendal canal.

 Thorax

Blood supply of the heart and structures passing through diaphragm are of prime importance.

The most important artery from this section is Subclavian.

HISTOLOGY

You need not mug up everything in Histology, prepare very selective topics. Most important topics being types of epithelium and derivatives of different types of Epithelium (this topic is also covered in Embryology). Prepare it well as a question from this topic is asked very frequently. There are two best books to read from are :

  1. Inderbir Singh’s Textbook of Human Histology
  2. diFiore’s Atlas of Histology With Functional Correlations

These two books are more than enough for histology and you can choose rather any one of them.

At last for Chemistry and Biology you don’t need any specific books as these subjects you already studied in your High Schools

Pro Tips

Here are some tips to study effectively without any Confusion :

  • Schedule – Try to finish it in a proper time.
  • Repetition- Always repeat what you studied earlier as early as possible. This will help you to regain for longer time.
  • Take clear notes
  • Use Memorization tricks- Use flash cards, use mnemonics.
  • Try to get Information from the resources available to you like YouTube,  Facebook Page etc.
  • Start Early- Don’t wait for exam to come, it is much better to start early as soon as possible so to avoid any panicking because of wide syllabus during your exam. 
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