Barts and The London Applicants 2012

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Reply 20

digitalis

Original post by Med2

please keep us update about how queens going to use UKCAT.

Wtf is queens? Wrong thread mate

Reply 21

Medicine Man

Original post by joemullally

Niice,
Hopefully you'll be able to answer a few questions about being there.

What's the best and worst thing about Barts?
Is London really as expensive as everyone says it is? Or can you live relatively cheaply?
Is there anything you don't like about your course?

My opinions will be very similar to FFCrusaders post, but I'm bored at home and this gives me something to do so...

Just a tip, I tend to waffle a lot so for a TL;DR just read FFCrusader's post! :p:

Best Bits: The close knit community. I think that’s probably one of the biggest selling points about BL. You can be in your first year here and have mates in the final year! Camaraderie is a very big thing here - and I think the fact that we have pbls helps this a lot - I have had loads and loads of emails forwarded on to me from my course mates containing revision notes etc. and other useful stuff! People are willing to share useful academic stuff with minimal hesitancy. I think that’s a very rare thing to have in medical school considering how competitive the career is.

There is also an ENORMOUS sense of pride with the medical school! The vast majority of students here are very proud of our tradition, our history, our market opposite the Whitechapel campus (ok, maybe not so much that), our old fashioned union bar (which is getting done up in a few months), our complete dominance at RAG, our autonomy from QM (even if their union at Drapers does have some decent nights), everything! You get here, spend a few weeks here and then suddenly you're transformed into a true Bartan! We get the slack for having crappy anatomy teaching - tbh, that is more of an old boys thing and things are improving greatly here. I feel pretty confident about my anatomy knowledge after my two years of preclin (not so much this very second as I haven’t opened up a text book for 2 months :o:

), but I don't feel that we are any worse off than the other medical schools.

BL has a pretty good mix of PBLs and Lectures (as well as other forms of teaching). Lectures can be boring so it’s nice to have the more informal PBL sessions twice a week for the most part of your preclin course. The spiral curriculum here also means that you basically cover topics at least three times over the course of your 5 years here which means it’s more likely to be remembered. Very smart way the course is organised IMO.

Medical school can be stressful at times so it’s really nice having this laid back atmosphere around you - friendly course mates, friendly staff etc. I actually fell in love with BL at my interview and haven't looked back since. LOVE it here!!

Worst Bits: The timetable is quite jam packed in the first two years. We have relatively short terms in years 1 and 2 which means there’s a lot to cover in a shorter amount of time. It sucks when you have your first exam at the end of the first term whilst your other mates are still out partying their first term away and putting up the pictures on your Facebook, but then again, you get used to it and these end of module exams make end of year revision so much better.

We also only have 2 weeks off for Xmas and for Easter which is quite annoying at the time - we then have 4 months off for summer in year one (and about 3 months off in year 2). Now this isn't necessarily a bad point, but I dunno, summer holidays can get a bit boring especially at the beginning when you are the first to go home and none of your other mates are back. But then again, 3 weeks off for summer in between years 4 and 5 doesn't look that appealing either!

The area is a little off putting if you are not originally from the East End and the smell of fish literally whacks you in the face when you step out of the station, but it soon becomes home! You get accustomed to it. :p:

You won't get mugged here if you are sensible with your belongings - we're in a city so by default crime rates will be higher here. Just be safe and know your wits about the place and you'll be fine. I have never been mugged or attacked or whatever here and I don't know of anyone of my friends who have either. If you are a girl, you do get the odd rude boy wolf-whistling at you and checking you out, but tbh, this isn't specific to Whitechapel.

You can live relatively cheaply in London if you really want to. You don't have to go out every night, you don't have to eat out every day etc. You can end up spending a lot of money, partly because TFL take the piss, but it’s nothing too extortionate. I commuted throughout my preclin years so I saved quite a bit of money not having to fork out on rent, but even when you do move out after first year, house prices on our side of London are fairly reasonable. Food is cheap here - you have the market, and in first year, I remember seeing 22 bananas for couple of quid.

Here is a post a made a while back about my idea of the pros and cons at BL - you can see other student responses here. This post and this post might also be useful for you to read.

Hopefully this answers your questions. :smile:

Reply 22

Medicine Man

Original post by Med2

please keep us update about how queens going to use UKCAT.

OH MY GOD! MY EYES!!! I wish I couuld unsee this!
:nothing:

Reply 23

Medicine Man

Original post by FFCrusader

No comment.

:awesome:

HAHAHA!

Original post by digitalis

Lol

This time next year, someone will be an F1...

Original post by Penguinsaysquack

Well you are getting on a bit! :tongue:

Reply 24

Penguinsaysquack

Original post by joemullally

did it show up as barts or QMUL on your UCAS?

Just out of interest?
It's QMUL this year on Ucas maybee it changes around a lot?.

Queen Mary, UoL. Whitechapel Campus..

But that's besides the point!

It's Barts and The London and I will not acknowledge anyone calling it Queen Mary :noway:

Reply 25

digitalis

Original post by Medicine Man

I feel pretty confident about my anatomy knowledge after my two years of preclin (not so much this very second as I haven’t opened up a text book for 2 months :o:

), but I don't feel that we are any worse off than the other medical schools.

Hmm, I do hope that is has changed since my preclinical days. Doing the USMLE has really opened my eyes to how little we were actually taught, like basic fundamental stuff. I genuinely cannot believe how I blagged my way through first and second year (getting a merit in first year) when I basically had no clue at all.

And I was wrapped up in the whole "you don't need to know this, it's not clinically relevant" thing. Yes, some bits are not clinically relevant (hexamethonium preganglionic blockade in animal models?) but most of it is, so now I understand why things happen rather than rote learning drugs that go with conditions or signs/symptoms with disease (things like why don't you give a beta blocker for someone with a tachycardia from cocaine overdose?)

I have to say in hindsight, my preclinical teaching was total *******s.

Reply 26

CpnCornetto

Original post by Penguinsaysquack

Queen Mary, UoL. Whitechapel Campus..

But that's besides the point!

It's Barts and The London and I will not acknowledge anyone calling it Queen Mary :noway:

No I agree.
I was just wondering.

Reply 27

Medicine Man

Original post by digitalis

I certainly didn't (and probably couldn't) blag my way through first and second year - these two years have been the hardest I've worked in my life to date (especially the last few weeks/days before end of year exams) even if it didn't look like it to outsiders. Oddly enough, I worked harder in first year I think even though second year was hell. Having said that, I do think our CVS/Resp physiology is pretty basic considering how important they are clinically. That, and our embryology - but the lack of embryology content in our course doesn't seem to be a BL specific thing; it seems more across the board - and some people *cough*FFCrusader*cough* probably think there should be more of it on our course. I think generally speaking, everything else is pretty decent now though, but then again, I'm not quite sure how 'bad' it was then...

Some bits of preclinical I'm sure aren't that useful in the grand scheme of things (and this is one of the reasons why I am choosing to intercalate now as opposed to interrupting studying 'actual' medicine when I start the clinical course), but I don't think anyone should go into preclin med thinking that - it'll do them no good. It’s just the name of the game - there is sadly a lot of rote learning involved in most preclin courses anyway and it doesn't seem like that's suddenly going to change any time soon.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 28

apple17

Gr. Want to apply here so bad but they have a stupid AGE requirement.
Not fair. :frown:

Reply 29

FFCrusader

Original post by Medicine Man

I love embryology :awesome:

Best SSC ever! :biggrin:

I'm still under the impression that it's impossible to learn everything, even the basics :erm:

I learn something new and the old evaporates :bawling:

I need a better hippocampus :colonhash:

Reply 30

Beska

Original post by apple17

Gr. Want to apply here so bad but they have a stupid AGE requirement.
Not fair. :frown:

What?

Reply 31

apple17

Original post by Beska

What?

Apparenly you have to be 18 at the start of the course.
I am a Janaury baby so I will be 17 yrs 8 months and can't join unless i choose deferred entry which I don't want to as medicine is a long course anyways.

Reply 32

Joseppea

Original post by apple17

So confused... so did you start your A-levels a year early or something?! :confused:

Reply 33

apple17

Original post by Joseppea

So confused... so did you start your A-levels a year early or something?! :confused:

Nope. I am an international applicant and do IB not a-levels.

Reply 34

Joseppea

Original post by apple17

Nope. I am an international applicant and do IB not a-levels.

Ah okay, I was very confused then! :tongue:

Well, you said you thought medicine was a very long course, maybe you could do a related science degree and then do graduate entry medicine (4 years) :biggrin:

Reply 35