Starting the new academic year can feel overwhelming. With UCAT still ahead for some of you, balancing school and commitments, writing a personal statement, picking universities, and interview season looming ahead, it can feel like there are a million things competing for your attention.

To help you through, I’m going to share my top tips and techniques I used as an applying student to help me manage multiple priorities at the same time without burning out.

First, it’s important to talk about burnout. As an applying student last year, this was something I struggled with as I always felt like there was something I HAD to be doing. But if you don’t take time out for yourself and focus on preventing burnout in the first place, you will be forced to. And burnout can hit at any point. So to prevent burnout, the first step is to create a timetable. Look at your week and pick one part of your week where you do nothing. This could be a Sunday morning, Wednesday afternoon or Friday night. Any slot of time. This is for you to do something relaxing and enjoyable, such as a hobby. Because REST is PRODUCTIVE. So remember to include rest as part of your week.

So now that you have some definite rest time scheduled, it’s important to organise your personal statement, UCAT and interview prep. This helps you to feel more in control because you know exactly what to do and when. So spend 20 minutes working out how you want to structure your week for the next couple of months so you can manage applications more easily.

Here’s one way you could organise your evenings to manage applications and academics. Remember to make your timetable work for you!

Example Timetable

In school

• Biology lesson
• free period 1 - complete biology lesson notes and revision
• free period 2 - personal statement
• Psychology lesson
• Chemistry lesson

After school

• 5 pm to 6 pm - rest
• 6 pm to 7 pm - psychology and chemistry notes
• 7 pm to 8 pm - personal statement and university research
• 8:30 pm to 9 pm - light interview revision
• 9 pm onwards - rest

Juggling multiple parts of your application is difficult. However, organising your time helps you to stay on track and balance everything you need to stay productive, including revision for A-levels, interview preparation, university research, personal statement writing and rest.

And finally prioritisation. This may seem obvious and might be something you already know you need to do, but here is how you can ACTUALLY put it into practice. Every morning, write down your 3 most urgent tasks that need to be completed by the end of that day. Even though you have a general timetable created for you, this brings focus back into the present and helps you to take things day by day and again prevents you from feeling overwhelmed. For example, your 3 priority tasks of the day could be

1. Write an introductory paragraph for my personal statement
2. Complete 5 biology practice questions
3. Learn the 3 interview styles

This creates easy, actionable steps you can follow and takes away some of the mental procrastination from having to start tasks. Instead of thinking, ‘I have to start interview revision’ or ‘I need to write my WHOLE personal statement’, break up tasks into smaller sub-tasks you can tackle more easily each day.

I hope these tips help you to work sustainably, feel more organised and most importantly, prevent burnout so you can feel confident during your application!

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To help you work in a balanced manner and avoid last-minute stress, it's important to start building interview habits into your routine.

As an applying student last year, the interviews felt so overwhelming, and I had no idea where to start. And this can lead to procrastination. The best thing to do is just start small, so here is your first interview task, so you can set yourself up for success and achieve your dream of studying medicine.

Take a piece of paper or open up a doc, and I want you to make a list of every single experience you have taken part in. This includes things you have mentioned on your personal statement, roles you have led, things you're proud of achieving and so on. This list is going to be your bank of unique, personal experiences that will help you answer interview questions in a way that makes you stand out. This is your foundation, and next week I’m going to tell you HOW this list connects to the psychology of medical school interviewers.

When I built my own list like this last year, I didn’t realise how much of an impact it had on answering interview questions. Inside my interview course, I dive deeper into this, teaching you

• All the interview content you need to know through 18 hours of live teaching
• How you can turn your list of experiences into standout stories that stick in the interviewer’s mind
• The art of presentation and psychology

Your interview success could start here!

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I am giving you free access to my UCAT notes, which are filled with tips, strategies and confidence-boosting tips, to help support you on your UCAT journey.

You can check out my website for resources such as the A* AQA A-level psychology notes and my notes template designed in an active recall format. If you would like access to my UCAT University Guide, click on my website and read the newsletter edition 'Does Your UCAT Limit You?'

📸Here are the links to each of my social media pages, so make sure you follow! In all, I detail the advice and tips you need to help make your application to medicine so much easier! If you ever need any help, feel free to reach out to me at loveleenj241@gmail.com