Siddharth Mohan Roy | Admissions Consultant
Every year, without fail, I have the same conversation with students in May. They tell me about the ambitious plan they have for the summer: volunteering, competitions, personal statement drafts, summer schools … the list goes on. And every year, I have a different conversation with those same students in August, when the plan has quietly shrunk to a fraction of what it once was.
However, this isn’t because students are lazy or unmotivated. It’s the first myth I want to address: “You have a lot of time” Summer looks enormous on paper! Seven, sometimes ten weeks with no timetable, no CCA, no homework deadlines. It’s tempting to treat that stretch of time as infinite.
If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll “use the summer” to catch up on something, I’d encourage you to sit down now and actually map out how many usable hours you have. Family trips, rest days, other commitments, and simple burnout all eat into that number far faster than students expect. Most students who go in assuming they have “a lot of time” come out the other side having done less than they would have if they’d planned properly from week one. The takeaway isn’t to panic. It’s to plan with the assumption that your time is scarcer than it feels, not more abundant.
Priority: If your academics need work, this is where summer goes …
I’ll say this as plainly as I can, because it needs to be said plainly: if you are behind on your grades, that is where your summer belongs. Not partially. Not after the volunteering and the competitions. If you’re applying for medicine, the hard truth is that your grades are the gatekeeper for everything else. A strong profile full of shadowing, research, and volunteering does very little for a student who cannot meet the academic bar. I’ve watched students build genuinely impressive extracurricular portfolios while their grades quietly disqualified them from ever using that profile in the first place. So before anything else on this list, ask yourself: are my grades where they need to be? If the answer is no, that is your summer project. Everything else on this page is secondary until that’s addressed.
Building your summer!
Summer can be exhausting. I say this to students often, and they rarely believe me until they’re three weeks in and running on empty. The students who get the most out of their summer are the ones who plan rest days the same way they plan workdays. There’s a cost: burnout in July doesn’t just cost you the month of July; it costs you the motivation and energy you need for August too. Treat rest as part of the plan!
What to do?
Once your academics are on track and you’ve built in rest, here’s where I’d direct your energy.
1. Long-term volunteering
During the school term, most students simply don’t have the bandwidth to commit to volunteering alongside classes and tuition. Summer is your window to start something that can run long-term. Elderly care centres and nursing homes are consistently good options, and organisations like Youthcorps have well-structured programmes if you’re not sure where to start. https:///youthcorps.nyc gov.sg/
2. Olympiad preparation
If you’re aiming for an academic olympiad, summer is the natural runway
3. Summer school (but for the content, not the name)
I’d caution students against choosing a summer school purely because of its institutional name. Choose based on what you’ll actually learn and whether it deepens your understanding of a subject relevant to medicine. The name on the certificate matters far less than what you can speak to convincingly at an interview.
4. Start your own project
If there’s an idea you’ve been sitting on, whether it’s a research question, a small community initiative, or something else entirely, summer is actually the time to start it.
5. Draft your UK personal statement
If you’re applying to UK universities, now is the time to write your first draft. Waiting until closer to the deadline means writing under pressure.
6. Start UCAT preparation
The UCAT rewards consistent, spaced-out practice far more than last-minute cramming. Summer gives you the runway to build that up properly!
7. Plan your shadowing early (but you may already be behind!)
Shadowing placements typically require applications three months in advance. If you’re only thinking about arranging shadowing now for later this year, you may already be behind for this particular cycle. The lesson here isn’t really about this summer; it’s about planning your holidays ahead of time, so you’re not caught out again.
8. Read
Reading around medicine, not just for interview talking points but for genuine understanding, is something students consistently underinvest in. I run Prep Zone’s medical society, with book discussions specifically for this, and it’s a low-pressure way to build both knowledge and the ability to discuss it. https://medicalschool.sg/prep-zone-medical-society/
9. Work on your speaking skills
Interviews, MMIs, and even everyday academic discussions reward students who can articulate their thinking clearly and confidently. Summer, with fewer competing demands, is a good time to actively work on this rather than hope it improves on its own.
10. Essay competitions
Competitions like the John Locke Essay Competition are worth preparing for over the summer precisely because they require sustained research and drafting time you won’t have once the term starts.
This summer, Prep Zone is running Cancer Through Our Eyes in partnership with the Singapore Cancer Society, an essay competition open to all students based in Singapore. You’ll choose from a set of thoughtfully crafted questions on cancer awareness, prevention, screening, and community support and write an essay that reflects your own research, thinking, and voice. It’s a genuinely good use of summer hours for students who want to build both subject knowledge and writing ability.
https://medicalschool.sg/events/cancer-through-our-eyes-essay-competition/
You might be reading this when your summer has already ended, or you’re halfway through, or you might just be beginning. Regardless, there are so many things to do! But the idea of using a break well, regardless of whether it is summer, winter, or term break, is the same.
