You can find tips to survive by doing a search, there are quite a few threads on it.
I have many friends who are in the UK, and don't worry, you will survive it, it's not that tough as some people make it out to be and you'll have a lot of time to do your own thing.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure the toughest med school in the world is in the US, my friends come back telling me that even students in Singapore, Malaysia learn and do a lot more than UK students, but post graduate, that's a different story
The key is to study constantly, do your ward work, polish up your physicals and history taking.
Everyone slacks from time to time but you'll be catching up in no time. Finding out that you're "kinda dumb" in comparison to your well read colleagues is a good motivation
For the UK, you'll definately need Oxford, get the Clinical Handbook as well as another Oxford for clinical specialties. Kumar & Clark or Davidson's would be good too. Along the way, there will be recommended textbooks. I'm not sure if you'll be encouraged to use US books, I still find alot of animosity going on between UK trained graduates/lecturers/professors in regards to using US books or practices although the US has one of the best healthcare standards. You would be able to see some differences especially when it comes to Obgyn where ACOG and RCOG guidelines are concerned. Here's an example of what happened to me once.
I use US books but am from Asia so UK guidelines are mainline, but I modify my learning along the way to incorporate the best of both worlds. But I have been told by a junior lecturer from the UK that in regards to investigations and treatment:
a) if it is available in the US, but NOT in the UK nor in your home country, your answer is wrong
b) if it is available in the UK but NOT in your home country, your answer is right
c) if it is available in the US AND also your home country but NOT in the UK, then something is wrong..
What a *****..
Anyway, learn from your lecturers what are the recommended books, it helps if you get those because it would then be useful for exam purposes where questions may appear from these books.
My advice is to be a book ***** and read from everywhere, journals, online text etc and don't forget to go to the wards. Remember what Sir William Osler said :"To study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all"
