My first year of vet school - and what I learnt from it !

Dr Catherine Hauw, veterinary surgeon & biologist, CEO of MyDogtor, coach for vet students.

Wow, I’ve been asked to tell you the biggest lessons I learnt during my first year as a vet…

Let me first remember this year, between the parties and the endless studying nights! I found a couple of tips that could help out some of you in the beginning of your new adventure ☺

Tip 1 – Get social. Your first exams will only be at the end of the semester, you can breath for at least a month or two. Make friends, you will spend 5 of the toughest and coolest years of your life with them. Don’t take this for granted. These are lifelong friends, and going out in your first months of university is as important as passing your first exams !

One thing that helped me during exam periods? My group of friends. We would study together and help each other. That is how you grow during your first months of vet school. So ease up on yourself and have fun, you have just one first year of vet school, make it great! :D

Tip 2 – Don’t compete with each other. Anyways, a pass is a pass, a good mark is a good mark. There can be multiple top students, but helping each other will get you way further than you would go on your own.

You need to help out, create groups, and exchange notes. Don't keep things for yourself. Anyways, speaking about topics and learning together as a group is always the best way to learn more. Don’t stay completely on your own during exams! Of course, I did prefer writing my notes on my own and learning my lessons by heart alone, but I’d always have friends who studied close by. We joined during the day to study together even if it was just to share a table or a lunch. Exam periods can be stressful, don’t make it worse by adding competition to it!

Tip 3 - Study clever. Everyone has their own way of studying. I had created myself a schedule for memorizing the many subjects we had for uni, and it worked really well for me: I used the Curve of Forgetting, from California State University.

When you go through the material you have to read for an exam, study it one hour day 1, 10 minutes the next day and 5 minutes day 7. This will allow the material to stick longer in your brain while spending less time studying - and to be honest, you will need it when you’ll have the Epidemiology exams in your last year of vet school where you have to study 250 topics!

Tip 4 – Join a club - in and out of vet school. I joined the Katedrock uni band, and it was really amazing. It forced me every week to have 3 hours of only singing, playing with the band, meeting other students and teachers. Knowing I had a couple of concerts a year to look forward to, the excitement of doing something other than just giving back a paper or studying for an exam changed everything!

I was also the exchange officer of the IVSA - the International Veterinary Student Association. I really loved it, we organised trips to the Netherlands, Greece, planned their trip to Budapest, and showed them around this magical city. It gave me the opportunity to meet vet students from around the globe, who I’m still in contact with at the moment. I would definitely advise anyone who likes meeting new people and travelling to enroll!

Tip 5 – Do a sport. Even if you weren’t a big sporty person before (and don’t need to become one), I realised that jogging a couple of times a week, doing yoga or going to swim was probably my favourite moments of the day in Budapest. I remembered that in the mornings, I would go jog along the Danube, get a coffee and I was then able to start the day with a really great mindset. I think stress can grow inside of our bellies and sport is the way to release it.

My friends also bought me my first bicycle there, and I was going by bike to Uni – such a great way to start the day. When you get used to it, it’s such a nice thing to move your body in the morning before uni starts.

Tip 6 – Never over-do it. If you feel you have a moment where you can’t get your brain to understand anything STOP!!!

It’s so important you realize the brain can’t concentrate longer than 45 minutes. I would say every 45 min get a cup of tea, a glass of water, or go on facebook. Then get back to it, turn off that social media craziness, and start again a good 45 minutes of full concentration.

For lunch, I would always go take a walk with friends. This is so important, you need an hour of NOT studying, just relaxing. Getting back to it will be much easier. Personally, I actually also stopped coffee during vet school, realizing it brings more anxiety and sleepless nights than anything! I started sleeping better, studying better, and got into black tea.

In conclusion, I would say the first year of vet school was one of my craziest years, lots of partying and drinking, but also lots of studying and cracking on with it. I passed all my exams without fail, but you should also know: failing once is NOT a big deal. You will fail some exams, but it is just to remind you that you will understand better next time, and to help you pass your years without accumulating gaps!

Vet school was probably five of my best years, so please enjoy them, get amazing friends, go out, EXPLORE the city which you are in! Don’t forget to realize how lucky you are to be living this dream. For my part, Budapest was one of the most beautiful cities I ever lived in.