Published: 17 June 2024
Rishi Kumar, an F-Year medical student at St George’s, has become one of only five St George’s students ever to claim the Clinical winning prize at the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition. Fellow St George’s student, Dona Mathew, also took home a distinction as one of the top 10 performers.
We caught up with Rishi who shared some reflections on his triumphant performance.
How did you find out about the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition?
I have been competing in NUNC for a while now. This is my third entry.
St George’s has a reputation for doing quite well in this competition.
- Rishi Kumar, F-Year medical student at St George’s -
I had first come to know of it from an article that was on the Dissection Room noticeboard, and I was invited to take part during a Neuroanatomy lecture by Dr Paul Johns.
How did you enter the NUNC?
You can visit their website, the link on their Instagram page via @natneurocompuk_. From there, just buy a ticket when they release. The competition is held at Glasgow University, usually in the first or second week of June.
What did you have to do in order to win the NUNC?
A lot of preparation. For my first entry in my second year at St George’s, I had spent a couple months preparing. This would take the form of revision at home, and about six hours on a Wednesday afternoon (with breaks) in a lecture theatre with Dr Johns. These were largely for memorising different brain slices, front and back. I did similar preparations for my other two attempts but largely on my own or with friends.
What are your main reflections on participating in the NUNC?
Thinking about it, NUNC is probably the defining academic milestone of my St George’s career. The competition itself is good fun but the progress I have made in Neuroanatomy has been rewarding in so many ways. Not only has my NUNC performances benefited my CV but I have also been able to give lectures on Neuroanatomy with confidence as well as fully appreciate my Neuroplus placement in P-year. Without my preparation for NUNC, I might not have decided to pursue Neurology as a potential career. Overall, I would have to say that my participation in this competition has been the single most important and fruitful decision that I have made during my time at St George’s.
- Rishi Kumar, F-Year medical student at St George’s -
If you had one piece of advice for a medical student considering participating, what would it be?
Fully go for it. When I first thought about NUNC, I came into the sessions after they had been going on for a while; and I was unsure about buying the ticket. At that point, I wasn't even thinking about anything Neuro-related for my future career. With encouragement from my friends and Dr Johns, I decided to fully go for the competition, and I have never once regretted it. If you do decide to go for it, there are a lot of us past participants who are more than willing to help prepare you for the competition.
That is how St George’s has been successful all these years: a core community of passionate Neuroanatomists. It's hard, fulfilling work, so if you do give it a chance, you will need a passion for excellence and the dedication to support it.
- Rishi Kumar, F-Year medical student at St George’s -
What does it mean to be one of just five winners from St George’s?
So how NUNC works is that there is a Pre-clinical category and a Clinical category, each with a winner and a runner-up. The Pre-clinical category allows for prizes for those who haven’t started Clinical years of MBBS (typically 1st and 2nd year students) or those who are on a non-medicine course. There are then 10 distinctions for the top 10 performers outside of the winners and runners-up. Only five people from St George’s (including myself) have ever won the Clinical Winner prize. This is synonymous with 1st place in the competition. We have had success in winning distinctions and runners-up prizes but rarely a winner of one of the categories.