Journey of a Muslim

Front view of the college

Now let's talk about 1st year. In RC, its done quite differently. Your course is divided into cycles starting with Junior cycle, followed by Intermediate cycle and ending with Senior cycle. So, when you come into rc for the first time, you'll be in JC 1 and that's junior cycle 1. you've got JC 1, JC 2, JC 3. Then comes IC 1, IC 2, IC 3 and finally, insyaAllah is SC 1 and SC 2. and when all that's done with, insyaAllah what we'll become is an RCSI graduate doctor ready to serve.

First things first, do know that you'll be getting a FREE LAPTOP upon registration; and in your homepage in the laptop will be the RCSI MOODLE. It's got everything important for your study in rcsi; lecture notes (which you'll print beforehand and can read before lecture), useful videos posted by the lecturers, past year questions; simply said, everything useful for your course.

In your first semester of being a medical student at RCSI, this is what you’ll learn if there are no major changes:
-Neuromuscular (NM)
-Concepts and principles in biochemistry (CPB)
-Health and behaviour in society (HBS)
-Haemotology and Immune system (HIS)
-Alimentary system (AS)
-Clinical competencies (CC)

Alhamdulillah, having been given the opportunity to study here allows you to get early exposure onto the medical profession. You'll be very lucky to study anatomy in the anatomy room twice a week with your group of less than 10 and use the cadavers there well. You can practice dissecting with respect and care and trying a hand at getting the Best Dissection award for your table; practice reading x-rays, ct scans and mri's or you could just get to know your anatomy real well and marvel at the magnificent creation set in front of you.

Like it or not, you will know your anatomy very, very well because you have cardsignings to do. and what's that? well it has nothing to do with signing cards. What it is though is oral anatomy test. Nervous though you may be, it’s a good experience to get you talking in medical terms and testing your anatomy knowledge.

Talking of tests, in RCSI, it's a continuous and summative assessment throughout the year. Those cardsignings (you'll have 3 per sem) are worth about 2.5% each. You'll have 2 MCQ'S (multiple choice questions) per sem and it'll comprise of sets of questions from each module you've learnt (2.5% marks allocated for each module in the MCQ). It used to be done online..now, we have it in the exam halls. Research projects and presentations..don't worry about them. yet. For JC 1 there'll only be one individual research project for health, behaviour and society (HBS). Simply said, for your first year here, you'll have plenty of time to study and do well for your exams since it’s not a packed year for you.

You'll be learning clinical competencies too and this is where lots of practical sessions come into action. You'll learn how to use the stethoscope here, how to take pulses, how to do history takings of a patient, and also on how to do GI (gastrointestinal), respiratory and cardiac exams on a life model (actors). Really cool and you'll feel quite competent as a future doctor insyaAllah. :)

Life in Dublin?

$$$ For sponsored students (MARA and JPA), you’ll get rate A allowance. and that’s about 935 euro per month; times that by 4 and you’ll be one very rich person in Malaysia for your age. For students lucky enough to not have debts with the gov and mara, your financial supporter will settle this for you, I’m sure.

Advice for all? Manage your money well. Upon registering as an RCSI student on your first day, you’ll be advised on setting up a bank account. 3 choices- AIB (Allied Irish Bank), Ulster Bank and BOI (Bank of Ireland). You’ll find many seniors telling you to open up an account in AIB; because that’s what their seniors told them to do! and the seniors before that told those seniors and so on. But really, it’s your choice. Go and look at the leaflets and ask the representatives of the banks to talk to you and explain things.

We opted for AIB coz it’ll be easier for the sponsors to handle the monthly allowance for all of us. :)

You can have another personal account in the same bank or a different one if you like. But having a savings account is highly recommended for all.

Don’t worry, you’ve got your helpful seniors to lend you a hand with all these new grown-up stuff (and we haven’t talked about rents and bills yet have we??). In Ireland, internet banking is practiced widely. Everything really is just a click away so life is made much more simple, alhamdulillah.

Accommodation

For a soon-to-be RCSI student, you’d most probably want to know about where you’ll be staying and what’s the place like, no?

Well, the one special thing about your accommodation is, you’ve got to look one for yourself! Technically speaking, the seniors will offer to search reasonable houses for you and your friends to stay. But there you go. We’re not staying in college accommodation. Millin House and Mercer Court...let’s just say that our money is better spent someplace else. The rent there is as much as your monthly allowance dear adik2. @_@

So, what choices do you have?
LOTS and LOTS of choices. :D

We’ll talk more about this in the pre-dep, so yes, do come to to JOM!

What’s the housing area like?

In general, most of the Malaysian student community (from RCSI and TCD usually) will tend to cluster around the Dublin Mosque area - South Circular Road, Harold’s Cross, Rathmines and that’s good. For guys and gals, brothers and sisters, you can pray jemaah 5 times a day be it in RCSI’s prayer room or in Dublin Mosque or at home even! Consider yourselves lucky.

This area will be around 20-25 min walk to college and 10 mins by bus (20 min if you take the bus before or at 9 am). You’ll learn the Irish walk soon enough (they walk really fast, no kidding)... Time and tide waits for no man, so they say.

Now, for food...’where do you get halal meat and halal groceries from?’ you may ask. Another reason why we like to make a perkampungan rkyt malaysia in that area is coz you have a wide array of halal shops there. Who says its difficult to find halal food here? There’s Halal Food Groceries, Four Seasons Halal Shop, Timgad Groceries, EasiShop (also another grocer), Favourite Fried Chicken (FFC), Rico’s (you have to try the taco fries from Rico’s. absolutely amazing), La Boulangerie (delicious pastries and cakes from here, yummy!) and ALDI and Lidl stores. The last two offers a huge selection of suitable for vege food you’ll be glad to know. And this is not the whole list. There are other shops and restaurants to treat yourself and your friends and your neigbours with if ever you feel like eating good food (though home-made is still the best).

In short, you don’t have to dread about eating bread and pasta and pizza every day. You’ll learn to cook up some good Malaysian and western food (if you haven’t already done so at home). So, no worries about that; Dublin welcomes you warmly.

What to prepare?

That, you have to come to our pre-departure programme JOM! to find out more.

But here's a list of books and stuff that you could buy back home and bring here:
1. Stanley Monkhouse's Master Medicine 'Clinical Anatomy'
2. Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews ‘Biochemistry’
3. Gray's anatomy/ Netter's anatomy flashcards (useful but optional)
4. a box of nitrile blue gloves for anatomy practical
5. white coat (try and get a long sleeved one. it'll keep your clothes clean better) 6. you could buy a stethoscope now but you'd only be using it in JC 2. so it's optional

where to buy all this you may wonder? There is a shop called Kedai Buku Kamal just opposite HKL. It's where all the medical students in Malaysia get their stuff from. So, you can shop happily here. Be warned, it can get packed some times.

Still curious and want to know more?

Feel free to contact these people below. InsyaAllah they'd be more than willing to help.

*contact person(brother)
Ahmad Bazli Azizah Ariffin
skype id: lik_king23
email: lik_king23@yahoo.com

Muhammad Fazli Abdullah
skype id: m.fazli07
email: leowyatt90@yahoo.com

*contact person(sister)
Nadzirah bt. Baharuddin
skype id:nadzirah baharuddin
email:nadzirahbaharuddin@gmail.com

Che Nurul Ain bt. Che Mood
skype id: che.ain1
email:ayie_b.forest@yahoo.com

Nur Najihah binti Ghazali
skype/YM id: jiha11
email:kiki_speky11@yahoo.com