“I’m originally from Hong Kong but did my A-levels at school in the UK and so was really looking to keep expanding my horizons and seeing more of the world. Australia is a famous study option in Hong Kong. So I applied to the UK and to Australia as well.

“I made sure that all the medical schools I applied to had full accreditation in Hong Kong. Hong Kong accepts degrees from some medical schools without students needing to do an extra test, so I made sure I was working from that list. Most Australian medical schools are on the list, however, so this didn’t really limit me.

“It wasn’t hard to balance applying to UK medical schools and applying to Australian medical schools, because the timing and deadlines are different. For the UK I applied during September and October, and for Australia I applied the following year. I remember I panicked a bit, as I thought I’d left it all late, but the careers team at my school recommended I contact Study Options and once I’d found Study Options it was all quite straightforward. I actually applied after finishing my A-level exams. I remember doing a Zoom call with Sarah two days after my last exam, and I completed the application forms during my grad trip to Greece!

“The application was fairly straightforward compared to the UK and I also already had my personal statement ready from my UK applications. So applying was a good experience overall, though it did feel as though I had to wait ages for the results! My friends were starting their UK degrees in September, but I didn’t get my interview invitation for Adelaide until late September and didn’t know whether I had a place or not.

“I think that it’s really hard to get into UK medical schools because they use your personal statement and your work experience to decide whether to give you a conditional offer, whereas for Australia they look at your grades, and focus much more on the interview performance.

“In Adelaide they changed their medical degree curriculum three years ago, so we’re the third cohort going through with the new system. We have most of our lectures online, though with some in person. The downside of online lectures is that it’s hard to catch up if you forget to watch something – you have to be organised, because it’s very much self-guided learning. The positive thing, though, is that you can go back and revisit any lecture that you need to, and they are all captioned which is great for note-taking!

“In our week, though, the majority of our face-to-face time is not spent in lectures. Instead, it is spent in workshops, seminars and scenario-based learnings (SBL). They will have different cases – so one case spread over two weeks – and we split into small groups, random selected groups, with tutors and some year 6 med students to guide us through how to diagnose and so forth. We have a lot of small group learning. The thing I like the most is clinicals – where they introduce us to skills, such as how to take a history from a patient, and how to do an exam with a patient. Adelaide have simulated hospital rooms and we have simulated patients – actors – to work with! Starting a few weeks ago we get to do an exam on them. So we are being taught not just the clinical skills, but also how to communicate with a patient in a clinical setting right from the start.

“We also have practicals, which include anatomy classes. We started seeing specimens from day 1. I was pretty shocked, actually – I walked into the lab on the first day to find that they were already displaying specimens from cadavers. I thought we’d start with models! I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn in this way though.

“I think at this university they really emphasise how you approach and communicate with patients and how to work with your colleagues and teammates, as well as giving us academic knowledge. They also teach us a lot about self-growth, so really focusing on learning in all kinds of different areas and ways, as a person, not just academically. Those are some of the aspects I like most about the course.

“This first semester is called Foundations of Medicine. The content looks at one system per week. This is only introduction level though, starting from semester 2 we’ll be going into Medical Studies 1, where we will have four weeks per system.

“I have classes every day but my timetable is different each week. My average at the moment is around 3 hours of face to face teaching per day, plus two hours a day of lectures online. We don’t have lots of assignments just yet, this semester feels very much like they are giving us time to settle in. We have a mid-semester exam and an end of semester exam, so four exams per year. The mid semester exam is formative; the end semester exam is summative. The workload is quite manageable at the moment.

“I’m in Australia and I really want to make the most of it. First of all I have church, and I meet people there. I also joined the Rural Healthcare Club and through them I got to travel to a rural town called Quorn. It was a five-hour bus ride to get there. I had the opportunity to look around the hospital there, as well as hike around the local area. I met a lot of the clinicians there who were really helpful and informative, they were happy to chat to me. It was a great opportunity to see more of Australia and to try to understand more about the situation in rural areas.

“I’m quite an outdoor person and I’ve tried to do lots of things since I got here. I’ve been surfing, and to look around a few different places around South Australia. I feel as though I’ve been able to get out and do quite a bit already which is great. My cohort is really nice, I’ve met lots of students, both international and local. I would definitely recommend that students make sure they get out and see Australia – don’t just stay in the city!

“At the main campus they have Ask Adelaide – you can pretty much ask them anything and they’ll help you! For medicine specifically they have really good coordinators. One of the coordinators is my tutor in SBL for this semester, so we can ask him anything, if we’re confused or need help.”