How do you navigate a school where half the cohort wants to do medicine? Can "gaslighting" yourself through SACs actually work? What if the real secret to UCAT success isn’t doing more questions, but doing them differently?

In Episode 12 of the Medical Student Interviews series, we sit down with Rithika Ramesh, a first-year Monash Medicine student, UCAT tutor, and MacRob graduate who scored a 99.50 ATAR and 3310 on the UCAT. From moments of doubt to major breakthroughs, Rithika shares how she transformed VCE stress and UCAT stagnation into confidence, clarity, and success

In this episode, we cover:

• MacRob Realities: competition, camaraderie, and blocking out the noise in a selective school
• VCE Mindset: SAC setbacks, “gaslighting” yourself, and making mistakes work for you
• Subject Selection: why passion sometimes beats scaling—and can even lead to perfect study score
• UCAT Journey: from question spam to error logs and skill-building
• MMI Wisdom: soft skills, self-awareness, and the myth of the “perfect doctor”
• First-Year Med Life: simulated patients, practical learning, and the highlights of learning
• Why Medicine?: a personal story and reflection that truly changed everything
• Final Advice: resilience, kindness, and the long game of doing your best

Interested in joining Contour, or just want to see what we're all about? You can sign up for a free, no-strings-attached trial of our VCE or UCAT programs and see what makes Contour stand out firsthand!

Sign up at https://www.contoureducation.com.au/enrolment/

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⊳ SPECIAL THANKS TO ⊲

Host: James Blanch

Special Guest: Rithika Ramesh

Editor: SaoDigital

AV Technician: Will Alexander

Music by Projectify

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