June 29, 2020, by ZY

Moving to UK Campus: Wong Wei Kit (MPharm Year 3)

It’s currently 2020 and I have just completed my third year of MPharm in the UK campus. They say second year is the toughest year of MPharm course. To me, the toughest semester is the first one in third year.

Don’t worry though. We’ve been through two years of grueling MPharm DMP modules, come on, I’m sure we can now stare the next three modules dead in the eyes and say “Is that the best you’ve got?!”. The pharmacy school in the UK definitely goes above and beyond with the amount of support for us as MPharm 2+2 students; PharmSoc, the UK pharmacy student society, also do their best to facilitate our integration into the UK cohort. With that said, academic affairs were not the most challenging aspects for me in retrospect. Personally, life in the UK itself was tougher than my pride would’ve liked to admit.

I’ve definitely not thought much about how well I would fare over here. I’ve always assumed I was ready for everything. But as always, life is a journey and this one year here has been a significant lesson. I’ve felt lost, frustrated, and even struggled with the infamous Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) first hand when nightfall came at 4pm, but my friends had my back. Friendship will definitely evolve in this journey abroad as you depend on each other on a daily basis. My biggest advice to you in this lengthy article would be: don’t be afraid to let people in. If you’re anything like me, guarded and cautious about who you care about, now it’s the time to let those walls down, because friends are your families from now on.

Goose Fair, Nottingham

Overall, even with COVID-19 plaguing on my third year, this experience has helped me grow so much as a person and I regret nothing. As a person who’ve been through all these, here are my top 10 tips for those who will come over soon:

1. Cooking here is so much cheaper than eating out, so prepare to be chefs! Cooking together with friends will prove to be various types of fun, you’ll see!
2. Don’t be so hard on yourself if you don’t settle down right away- we’re all experiencing new things and major changes in our lives when we live abroad.
3. Support each other and offer a shoulder, an ear, your full attention, anything that your friends need when they need it.
4. This might seem pretty funny but I’m definitely not joking. If you are planning to use mechanical pencils often, BRING MORE PENCIL LEADS! These are literal gold over here as I have yet to see the shops selling them separately from another mechanical pencil. It is also very expensive here for some reason. Bring both 0.5 and 0.7. Be that cool friend who has both.
5. As mentioned above, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is too real. At the time of writing, it’s summer and I’ve just discovered SAD is applicable in summer too and not just winter when the sun rises at 8am and sets at 4pm. You’ll see what I mean when you experience it (hopefully not), so talk to your friends or anyone you feel comfortable with, don’t suffer alone.
6. Use the campus libraries!! They’re amazing places for a quick study maybe after classes or for assignments. A great change of scenery as well instead of getting cooped up at home.
7. E-wallet is almost applicable everywhere and I highly suggest it for convenience and safety purposes. Monzo and Revolut are examples of great virtual banks which you can start applying in Malaysia and start using right away when you reach the UK. Non-virtual banks such as HSBC and Santander accounts take awhile before you can use them. Virtual banks also have very user-friendly apps which allows you to have full control over your account on your smartphone.
8. Prepare at least a 20 pound note wherever you go as Nottingham still has places that only accept cash. On that note, 50 pound notes are not accepted in many places as it needs specialized tools to validate its legitimacy.
9. If you don’t have the Nottingham bus app (NCTX Buses) where you can purchase a ticket with your smartphone, note that some bus lines only accept exact cash for a ticket.
10. Get your SOPs ready for the Professional Practice Exam in the first semester of your third year! It will be a major bonus if you pass all three tests in your first attempt. The second round is usually scheduled together with the semester 1 finals and it might bring unnecessary stress!

Me going to School of Pharmacy

I hope these 10 tips will be useful for you when you come over! Finally, I sincerely wish you have a great time in the UK and enjoy it as much as I did, if not more!

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