Liverpool, Sheffield, Southhampton, Leicester, BSMS, Leeds, Nottingham, Penisula...

Hey guys!
Basically this is my short list from which the four universities i will be applying to this October will come from...

Liverpool
Sheffield
Southampton
Leicester
BSMS
Leeds
Nottingham
Peninsula
Keele

Obviously i need to more than half this number and what i'm looking for is help for my decision is...
1. Any students already studying A100 at one of the above universities that can offer opinions (good and bad please)
2. Any Sixth Form students with a similar short list - what their preferences are at the moment and why they like that particular university.
3. Any students at one of the univerisites above that could tell me about the area surrounding the city - museums, culture, social life, part time job opportunities etc
4. Any Medicial students at any university studying by PBL - how advantageous this type of learning is compared to traditional styles (from a student point of few as opposed to a university lecturer)

Yes i could just email addmissions etccc but i'd much rather have some opinions from students actually in the same situation i am/on the A100 course at the moment!

Thanks very much :smile:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

jeremybag

go to one of their open days? go and look around the city?

you might also want to wait until after UKCAT for places like nottingham and sheffield.

Reply 2

lmfw

jeremybag

go to one of their open days? go and look around the city?

you might also want to wait until after UKCAT for places like nottingham and sheffield.

Liverpool will definitely be one of my four as i looked around yesterday and simply loved it! However there were a lot of open days i missed yesterday and a lot of dates i'll miss in July and a few in august :frown:

But i'm hoping for some in September!

Do Nottingham and Sheffield highly regard UKCAT?

Reply 3

sd91

not this **** again...

do your own research and go on open days.how can people on an internet forum tell you where to apply to? many serious applicants would have booked open days months in advance and here's a thought - if you can't spell the medical school name properly you best avoid them

Reply 4

crazylemon

I am at imperial. We do PBHell for something. I absolutely loathe it and wish we didn't do it, don't like learning from it never sticks, only know my bit, never bother with it and still manage to get Merits.

Probably not what you wanted to hear.

Reply 5

gildartz

sheffield is a UKCAT-nazi. You can probably cut that list down quite a bit once you know your UKCAT and AS levels.

Some of those courses are quite different to each other, e.g. PMS and BSMS so look into the courses and see which ones you don't like, e.g. PBL or no/little PBL. There's not much use asking for people's opinions on PBL, it'll differ from person to person.

Reply 6

lmfw

sd91

why be so nasty?! I'm only asking for advice...

I have done an awful lot of research for these universities i would just like to know what the students think. So here's a thought for you - leave me alone!!

Reply 7

lmfw

gildartz

Okay thank you ill bear that in mind when i recieve my UKCAT results! As for PBL i'm still deciding if it'll be right for me!

thanks

Reply 8

dilipd

LOL - OP has edited the spelling of southampton after sd91's comment althought not from the title. in essence i agree with her

anyway umm, yeah it really depends on your ukcat. you have to get used to pbl whatever med school you go to - med school is the easy bit, the real work starts later

Reply 9

Lu-x

Just a note - Leicester isn't PBL, incase anyone told you it is! I've actually really enjoyed the course structure here :smile:

Not sure if you went to the Focus on Medicine open day at Leic this year, but it was a good opportunity to hear about the course, see the med school and talk to the students.

Reply 10

ilovehotchocolate

Have a look at their cirriculums and exam styles and see which ones you get excited about studying the most. Look at the amount of patient contact from early on, the facilities and the skills teaching. Although location is important, if you don't like the course you are studying you aren't going to enjoy uni that much, so make sure you have your priorities right. Think about how well you learn things - what you have to do to make things stick. If you can learn by listening, try a more lecture heavy one like Leicester, rather than a self directed learning one like Peninsula, although remember that you will have to masses of own study wherever you go. If you learn best by fining things out yourself, then a PBL uni would be better. New Media Medicine is a forum like this one, but only for med students and Doctors so it has a lot more current students floating around and some of the old threads may help you make up your mind - check it out. http://www.newmediamedicine.com/forum/uk-medical-school-admissions/

Reply 11

Medicine Man

crazylemon

Wait, you have 'bits' to do for PBL? At BL, we all just sorta have to do the whole thing on our own and feedback to the group a few days later. Granted it does take longer to do the entire thing on your own but people find out stuff from papers etc. you probably didn't see which can be useful but atleast you know your bit.

Reply 12

Moe Lester

crazylemon

Is PBL that bad - the way universities sell it makes me want to go to a PBL course :smile:

Reply 13

crazylemon

Medicine Man

we do bits as we have pbl only 1 hr every 2 weeks with 10ish learning objectives we have to split them, if we all did them all it would take forever to present. Also not assesed so don't care

Reply 14

Candyflosses

what does PBL actually involve? can you give me an example because i know what it stands for and thats about it

Reply 15

crazylemon

Moe Lester

Is PBL that bad - the way universities sell it makes me want to go to a PBL course :smile:

I find it bad but that could just be me. There is huge potential for pbl to be an effective learning tool but that is just the thing. You get people who are unenthusiastic then it doesn't work. Also sometimes you just miss the point which can be fustrating.

Reply 16

Chloeee02

I'll try and tell you what I can about each one! I looked at pretty much all the courses before deciding.
I personally didn't want PBL but only you can decide! Some people think that PBL doesn't give enough direction and you have to learn everything yourself. If you're not sure, perhaps a mixture could work for you.

Liverpool - quite a PBL course. Apparently use computers rather than dissection/prosection for anatomy.
Sheffield - the one I know the least about!
Southampton - I applied here. I liked the look of the traditional lecture based things and met a student there who loved it. Only thing is they don't interview so loads of people apply there so it's fiendishly difficult to get in!
Leicester - I'm going here :smile:

. For me, this is the best course because it has dissection (not many places in the country do it now. Most do prossection) and half of the week you'll have lectures and the other half is group work. This group work is very slightly PBL I suppose, but not really, because the learning is not based on the problems. GMC likes this course because of the mixture of group work and lectures.
BSMS - don't know a huge amount but it's quite popular and does have an emphasis on taking in predominantly mature candidates (I spoke to a doctor who has been on its interview panel). Lots of new stuff cause it's a new medical school.
Leeds - I barely looked at this course. It's extremely popular and I'm not sure why. People just seem to like Leeds.
Nottingham - I think this is a good course aha you probably know more than me...
Peninsula - PBL. Have to change campuses between universities each year I think.
Keele - PBL

Reply 17

Medicine Man

crazylemon

we do bits as we have pbl only 1 hr every 2 weeks with 10ish learning objectives we have to split them, if we all did them all it would take forever to present. Also not assesed so don't care

Ahh right. Makes sense to hate them considering you actually have to present stuff. :p:

Ours is a lot more informal. We're not assessed on the sessions either though we do have a PBL exam at the end of the year. I assume you do too right?

Reply 18

Medicine Man

LisaWilliams

4. Any Medicial students at any university studying by PBL - how advantageous this type of learning is compared to traditional styles (from a student point of few as opposed to a university lecturer)

PBL is quite structured at BL:

•

Basically, we get a standard scenario (1 a week for the first module, 2 a week afterwards till the end of the year - this is for first year - usually 2 a week all year round in 2nd year).

•

We sit around a table (all pretty informal) and set objectives as a group. Have one chair, and one scribe (everyone will eventually have to do these roles at some point throughout the year). Also have a PBL tutor - PBL tutor directs us (without giving anything away which would defeat the purpose of a PBL) as to what objectives to set and what to focus on - they have tutor notes given to them by the uni for each scenario.

•

Everyone goes away, does a bit of research (or reads wiki the night before the feedback session :ninja: ) and returns a few days after to feedback to the group.

•

We then go through each objective one at a time - most people I've had in my group are willing to contribute and do take it seriously - even the quiet ones are usually prompted by the pbl tutor/chair to contribute something just to make sure we're all talking and undersanding whats going on. Most people do turn up to sessions, but like everything at med school there are a few that persistantly won't turn up for sessions. I, being the sad guy I am, haven't missed a session yet! :h: Been late quite a number of times - once I was an hour and a half late for a 2 hour session which didn't look good at all - and I was chair for that session! :facepalm: In my defence, I am not a morning person at all. Having said that, being late does look very unprofessional so I'm working on that! :p:

•

The pbl tutor always directs us if we're going off topic when it does happen - in my experience it doesn't happen too often because we'd usually have done the lectures linking to it to the scenario beforehand which sorta guides us in the right direction. Lectures and PBLs are timetabled to go really well with each other at BL - approx. 10-12 hours of lectures a week, 4 hours of PBL a week (2 hours a week for the first module), 2 hours of anatomy a week, 2 hours of practicals a week/fortnight and 2 hours of OCSE sessions a week/fortnight - and these all link very very well with each other. Tutors also have tutor notes which they use for each session - these are basically pretty concise notes on exactly what should be covered in each session - we're not allowed to see these though because no one will ever turn up for a PBL session.

•

Feedback session ends (if you have a nice tutor, you can finish this early and have a cheeky hour to hang out with mates or something)

•

Formative end of year style SAQ exam questions given to us (and marked) to ensure each group in the year has covered exactly what they need to cover. Sorta makes sure you're not missing out on stuff in your group. Just a way of standardising learning between groups. Formative assessments like these do not actually count towards anything - they're pretty much sample questions which you can use for revision etc.

•

Discuss next scenario's objectives and so on...

I quite like the PBL course at BL - its very structured to make sure we all learn exactly what we need to learn (tutor notes given to tutors and formative saqs for students), it's very informal and highly interactive which I personally like - it actually makes me think about stuff I would usually just hear once in a lecture and forget, and its directly linked to lectures we've had that week which means its not so much: go-away-and-read-about-this-random-disroder-we've-never-mentioned-to-you, but more: you've-already-learnt-the-science-behind-this-in-a-lecture-this-week-now-go-away-and-think-about-this-in-a-clinical-context-like-you-will-have-to-do-once-you-qualify. Quite useful really.

Only annoying thing is having to know your PBLs inside out for the end of year exams - i think we had like 35 to know by the end of first year (of which 10 at random were put in our exam). On top of that we were given 3 new senarios like two weeks before exams started to go away and do on our own and then a last scenario in the exam itself which we'd never ever seen before. Thats not the only written paper we have if thats what you were thinking.... :p:

But every uni does things their own way. I didn't like BLs way of doing PBLs at the beginning as I just hadn't warmed up to it, but by xmas, I was used to the whole thing and quite like it now.

EDIT: Why isn't Barts on the list??!? :ninja:

Reply 19

crackerbox

Hey OP,
I'm at PMS and I can tell you a bit about 1st year:
*Everything is split into 2 week case units that follow the human life cycle e.g. 1st is conception
*Almost everything is assessed including professionalism for everything (so no turning up late etc.) which can fail you if you're unsatisfactory and fail to improve
*AMKs mean we're tested throughout the year rather than just a lump of end of year exams (more chance to remediate and pass)
*There's quite a bit of PBL (3 sessions a fortnight) and it basically sounds like Barts.
*I really enjoy PBL and find I remember more from it than I do from lectures (but I know some people in my year that hate it- usually the hard core scientists)
*We have about 3/4 hours of lectures a week which sometimes overlap the PBL work so if you don't do much for PBL you're not completely screwed.
*We don't do dissection as you'll already know but during Life Sciences Resource Sessions (twice a fortnight) we have 2x 1 hour intro. from a radiologist on whatever system we're studying that case unit e.g. kidneys and have 2x 45 minute Living Anatomy session where we use surface anatomy to discuss the case unit.
*There's a lot of self-directed learning which I think is a good thing
*There's a lot of self-reflection (a graded self-reflective essay a term) and Jigsaw sessions (2 hours a fortnight) are group sessions to reflect on your community placements (2 hours a fortnight)
*Clinical skills is 4 hours a fornight and one of the best parts of the course obviously

I'm in Plymouth
-everything is really easily walkable distance
-there's really nice parts like the Hoe and the Barbican but also run down bits (it's not a very affluent area)
-most of the medics mix well with students from other courses which is great (although in Exeter I believe it's pretty much unheard of to do so as they all live together on a separate campus)
-social life is awesome and in this first year I haven't had to miss going out when friends on other courses have so the workload can't be that bad
-I know quite a few students with part time jobs but as there's a high rate of unemployment in Plymouth you may find it more difficult than other places?

Anyway hope that helps and good luck with the application!
p.s. come to PMS :P