First year is the hardest, mostly because you don't have a way to gauge your abilities until you've actually passed. With that in mind you should realize how important it is to never miss a class test or substage/viva. That's the only way you'll know whether or not you're doing enough or not. I know that's somewhat general advice, but there were always people in my first year who would skip tests and vivas just because they assumed they would fail. That's ten times worse than actually going to the test and failing it.

The other thing you should keep in mind, and actually look forward to, is that there does come a point where you've familiarized yourself with all of the medical terminology, so you're not necessarily learning entirely new things as you are just adding on to what you already know. It makes things much easier in my opinion, and actually gives you time to be interested in what you're studying, rather than just cramming it in word for word.