FAQs
Congratulations to all of you! Getting into Cambridge is hard, and you’ve done amazingly well to make it here.
See below some answers to your questions during the '22 Freshers Q&A
What MedSoc Does
MedSoc represents medics at the university, both in an academic context – working with faculty to change the course to better suit student’s needs – and providing resources, advice and support for anyone who needs it. We also run a variety of talks which are completely free for MedSoc members, with term card to be released in the next couple of weeks. MedSoc currently has 1700 members -actually more than the current number of medics! – so you’ll be joining a large community!
Our welfare teams runs a variety of chiller events, as well as Medfare (our medic-specific equivalent to camfess) and supporting students – they also organise the variety of discounts we provide! The full list is currently being finalised but I can confirm that ice cream, market food and perhaps even Boba are all on the list. We’ll send out a full list at the start of term so everyone knows what discounts they’re entitled to.
The Ents team run our events, and they range from cocktail nights to rock climbing and our main event, the yearly MedSoc ball. Held in Lent term and normally attended by hundreds of students you get a significant discount as a MedSocmember, as well as priority access to tickets.
We also have sports officer, LGBTQ+, BME and Access officers who will all be contacting you in the next few weeks with opportunities and events. If you’ve got any concerns relevant to them you’re more than welcome to contact them, or any of the MedSoc officers through their emails or any of our social media accounts. Finally, a huge shout out to our Grad and Freshers officers who’ve been organising so many of your freshers events!
Which note taking apps do you use during lectures? Is note taking recommended?
-
Handouts can vary in quality, so note-taking can be more beneficial for some lectures compared to others
-
Maybe helpful to take handouts into lectures and annotate them, as opposed to making a whole new set of notes
-
Note taking isn’t for everyone, see what works for you and it is tricky to keep handwritten notes
-
Recommended App: Notion
​Joining MedSoc
You can join MedSoc through the QPay app, which will provide you with the virtual membership card and then when you go to the freshers fair we’ll provide you with your free stash – this year that will be either a tote bag or a T-shirt, whichever you prefer. Membership is £26 for life and therefore if you get ice cream 7 times a year, or go to a single talk, or two MedSoc balls in your entire time at Cambridge it will pay itself off quite nicely.
You can join through this link and answer the questions (Your CRSid is the initials + numbers at the start of your Cambridge email address). This also signs you up to our mailing list, meaning you can vote in our elections and will receive information about all our events.
Freshers Events
We’re running a variety of Freshers events which we’ll send out to you nearer the time but most of our major ones are on Thursday the 13th October (MedSoc Day), with the MedSoc Freshers fair from 11:30-14:30, a pre-club pub trip to the Maypole and our first club night at Revs. There will also be a café crawl on the Friday (14thOctober) morning, followed by our first academic talk that evening, a welfare talk and hopefully some other socials.
The MedSoc Freshers Fair will be taking place at Downing Place Church (next to Downing site where your practicals are) from 11:30-14:30 on Thursday the 13th of October. Loads of different societies, companies and organisations with relevance to medicine will be there – both so that you can find out which you’re interested in and to give you lots of free stuff!