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Apart from the fact that they absolutely do have sufficient places for everyone to proceed to the next year (which I have been categorically told by numerous senior members of the faculty, but will be emailing the administration for an official response in writing about the issue to confirm definitively whether it is I or ilikesmiling who is correct on this issue) ilikesmiling seems to me to be claiming that if they had less places this would be malpractice, when in reality it is something that I am fairly confident will occur in many medical schools across the country and the world, because drop-outs are inevitable and you can never precisely know how many people will fulfil the offers on UCAS - we all know that every university gives offers to more people than it has places.
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Anatomy teaching has been a weakness recently at Birmingham, and we'd all love to do dissection instead of prosection (and more of it), but it's not an ideal world and once again the information was presented as if every or most other medical schools in the country do vast amounts of anatomy and dissection, which, as anyone who has read a few prospectūs can tell you, is absolutely not the case.
In addition to this, I understand that anatomy teaching has vastly improved of late; and certainly in my first year I found that anatomy teaching, resources and practicals were everywhere. Indeed, it was my favourite subject, and there was plenty of it.
A specific sarcastic example given by ilikesmiling was the claim that people at Brum wouldn't be able to tell 'the gluteus minimus from the gluteus medius'.... A claim that is wildly untrue and I think most first years would disprove, but even so is an amusing criticism to make so scythingly - I'd be amazed if the average success rate at such an idenfitication were any statistically significant value higher in medical schools across the UK on average.
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What other complaints that have been made into massive slurs are there? Oh yes, that students don't know what's expected of them. And, may I say as I enter second year, this is the classic fresher's dilemma which is normally resolved by Christmas as not only do lecturers and tutors explain what you need to know, but they also provide comprehensive detailed lists of learning objectives that are even matched to the chronological order of relevant lectures/tutorials/practicals throughout the year. So you might see why I would be somewhat bemused by some of the claims.
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If anything, the medical school is too supportive regarding exams and helping you avoid failing or being forced to drop out.
Whilst mitigation is casually thrown out of the window by ilikesmiling who claims that they don't care about anyone who hasn't submitted any and just kick them out, it's actually massively explained and you're repeatedly informed about it throughout the year. I think as many as a third of people had some form of mitigation entered from minor disturbances in someone's life to trauma directly preventing revision - not as a way of getting easier exams, but to make sure that genuine complications were registered - and the system is very diligent in making sure that those who have a genuine issue are helped properly if something does go wrong, and if it doesn't, then they need not worry.
In addition to this, you don't get kicked out if you fail... Even without mitigation at all you get at least one resit for every module you've failed, and can even do a third sit the next May if after the second sits you have only 2 modules left un-passed (one biological science and one social science permitted). Indeed, this is before applying mitigation; with which you have even more chances and can even re-take the exam as if it were your first time (ie allowing full marks as if you were sitting it without resitting at all) if your mitigation is serious enough.
And even on top of all of this, you get immediate counselling on resits on the day of your results with senior lecturers in the relevant modules, and from then until the resits throughout the summer holidays, they are available to be emailed and contacted on the online WebCT forums to help you with your revision and address specific queries!!!
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Apart from the fact that they absolutely do have sufficient places for everyone to proceed to the next year (which I have been categorically told by numerous senior members of the faculty, but will be emailing the administration for an official response in writing about the issue to confirm definitively whether it is I or ilikesmiling who is correct on this issue) ilikesmiling seems to me to be claiming that if they had less places this would be malpractice, when in reality it is something that I am fairly confident will occur in many medical schools across the country and the world, because drop-outs are inevitable and you can never precisely know how many people will fulfil the offers on UCAS - we all know that every university gives offers to more people than it has places.
•
Anatomy teaching has been a weakness recently at Birmingham, and we'd all love to do dissection instead of prosection (and more of it), but it's not an ideal world and once again the information was presented as if every or most other medical schools in the country do vast amounts of anatomy and dissection, which, as anyone who has read a few prospectūs can tell you, is absolutely not the case.
In addition to this, I understand that anatomy teaching has vastly improved of late; and certainly in my first year I found that anatomy teaching, resources and practicals were everywhere. Indeed, it was my favourite subject, and there was plenty of it.
A specific sarcastic example given by ilikesmiling was the claim that people at Brum wouldn't be able to tell 'the gluteus minimus from the gluteus medius'.... A claim that is wildly untrue and I think most first years would disprove, but even so is an amusing criticism to make so scythingly - I'd be amazed if the average success rate at such an idenfitication were any statistically significant value higher in medical schools across the UK on average.
•
What other complaints that have been made into massive slurs are there? Oh yes, that students don't know what's expected of them. And, may I say as I enter second year, this is the classic fresher's dilemma which is normally resolved by Christmas as not only do lecturers and tutors explain what you need to know, but they also provide comprehensive detailed lists of learning objectives that are even matched to the chronological order of relevant lectures/tutorials/practicals throughout the year. So you might see why I would be somewhat bemused by some of the claims.
•
If anything, the medical school is too supportive regarding exams and helping you avoid failing or being forced to drop out.
Whilst mitigation is casually thrown out of the window by ilikesmiling who claims that they don't care about anyone who hasn't submitted any and just kick them out, it's actually massively explained and you're repeatedly informed about it throughout the year. I think as many as a third of people had some form of mitigation entered from minor disturbances in someone's life to trauma directly preventing revision - not as a way of getting easier exams, but to make sure that genuine complications were registered - and the system is very diligent in making sure that those who have a genuine issue are helped properly if something does go wrong, and if it doesn't, then they need not worry.
In addition to this, you don't get kicked out if you fail... Even without mitigation at all you get at least one resit for every module you've failed, and can even do a third sit the next May if after the second sits you have only 2 modules left un-passed (one biological science and one social science permitted). Indeed, this is before applying mitigation; with which you have even more chances and can even re-take the exam as if it were your first time (ie allowing full marks as if you were sitting it without resitting at all) if your mitigation is serious enough.
And even on top of all of this, you get immediate counselling on resits on the day of your results with senior lecturers in the relevant modules, and from then until the resits throughout the summer holidays, they are available to be emailed and contacted on the online WebCT forums to help you with your revision and address specific queries!!!