[softy_dog1]

Is there anyone else interested in doing biomedical sciences?
I was wondering about applying to Oxford, but i'm worried because it's a new course so there's not much information about it.
Does anyone know how competitive the course will be to get on to?

[Alex-92]

Yes i'm definitely interested. Before this, there was the physiological course, which was one of the best in the country so quality should not be a worry. The website is a bit vague, but assuming it has similar stats to nearly all other 3 year degrees, they interview the majority (95%), and offer the minority (about 35%). I wouldn't worry, if you have AAA and are really interested in the subject you will almost definitely get an interview, and then all things going well, (he says), get an offer.

I got my results not half an hour ago. Somehow recieving AAAb, so i'm preparing a hopeful application to imperial, ucl, and oxford (most definites). Should be good!

[softy_dog1]

(Original post by Alex-92)
Yes i'm definitely interested. Before this, there was the physiological course, which was one of the best in the country so quality should not be a worry. The website is a bit vague, but assuming it has similar stats to nearly all other 3 year degrees, they interview the majority (95%), and offer the minority (about 35%). I wouldn't worry, if you have AAA and are really interested in the subject you will almost definitely get an interview, and then all things going well, (he says), get an offer.

I got my results not half an hour ago. Somehow recieving AAAb, so i'm preparing a hopeful application to imperial, ucl, and oxford (most definites). Should be good!

congrats on those results! Do u know how important the results of the BMAT are towards getting an interview? Only the website is abit vague about that too... i've done some practive papers and i'm finding them abit difficult. But i suppose it wouldn't be much of an oxford grade exam if it was easy.

[sarah8989]

hey =)

Yep, biomed at oxford used to be 'physiological sciences'. I've just finished my degree in physiological sciences at oxford (and I survived =P) and I'll be helping out at the open day coming up soon (September 17th). I wouldn't be worried about the course being new, if anything I'm sure that the university would want it to be a success (they've actually merged the intake of PPP and physiology students.. so the intake is larger than that of the previous physiology course- makes it a bigger incentive for them to put in more effort)

If you want any advice just shout =)

xx

ps. I wouldn't worry about the odds of getting a place.. if you want it, go for it =)

[Alex-92]

(Original post by sarah8989)
hey =)

Yep, biomed at oxford used to be 'physiological sciences'. I've just finished my degree in physiological sciences at oxford (and I survived =P) and I'll be helping out at the open day coming up soon (September 17th). I wouldn't be worried about the course being new, if anything I'm sure that the university would want it to be a success (they've actually merged the intake of PPP and physiology students.. so the intake is larger than that of the previous physiology course- makes it a bigger incentive for them to put in more effort)

If you want any advice just shout =)

xx

ps. I wouldn't worry about the odds of getting a place.. if you want it, go for it =)

Ahh amazing! I'm coming to the open day with my 'rents next friday, so hoping it will be a good experience, as I'm yet to choose a college aswell, (exeter and corpus look good). I was just wondering how you found the physiological sciences course in general? As this course will be fairly similar i'm told. Like the teaching, workload, and any fun/interesting experiences on the course.

[sarah8989]

Okay cool =) definitely worth coming to the open day to get an idea of the place/ talk to students/ visit colleges. It was from visiting Oxford that I decided to apply (before I was in the mind set that everyone would be really posh, INSANELY clever and would look down on me.. its not true =P).

People always say that it doesn't matter what college you apply to- 15% of offers given to students aren't for their first choice college (its part of ensuring that the best candidates get the places irrespective of where they applied, but you probably know all of this already so I'm just waffling =P). It is possible to submit an open application if you're unsure of which college to apply. Saying that I applied to a specific college (Hertford which I think is definitely worth looking at.. it has a reputation of being one of the most friendly =), but I'm really biased)

I think there are going to be some significant changes from the physiological to the biomedical sciences course: they are bringing in more of a chemistry/ physics element to the first year, and there are second year exams (I had no exams in my second year). With the physiology course, we had most of our lectures alongside the medics and we sat some of the same papers as the medics in our final year; I'm not sure whether this will be the case for the biomed course (so far I'm being REALLY unhelpful sorry =P). But anyway yeh I can tell you some things about the workload/ key features of what makes the two courses similar.

You are assessed by three written papers at the end of the first year; its easy to get stressed about the exams (I did) but its really not worth it- as long as you pass (not too difficult); these marks do not count towards your final degree. If you like the idea of an end of year assessment without having to worry about ongoing assessment throughout the year (a lot of unis do this) then this course may suit you. I handled my first year by doing HARDLY ANY work in my first term, AVERAGE amount in my second term and then I worked continuously in my third term =P (overall the workload isn't bad though- especially if you work consistently). In the first year you have in college tutorials to support your learning (for most of the tutorials you have to write essays which you discuss), you also have lectures (6-10 I think- tutorials usually expand upon lecture content) and you have weekly practicals (which aren't too hard).

In the second and third year there's much more scope for you to pursue your own interests and there is a lot of self directed learning (really important that you can motivate yourself). You choose your examinable papers and work towards them (attend lectures, arrange tutorials and most importantly get searching for the most interesting published research papers/ journals which relate to your selected papers). There's a lot of time spent in the library, but again consistent work will mean that there is plenty of time for other things.

Like the physiologists, it looks like the biomedical scientists also do a 2nd year research project (which a WHOLE TERM is dedicated too). You arrange this by finding yourself a supervisor. The scope for what you can do is quite large. I ended up researching whether affecting the expression of a certain protein would reduce cancer cell proliferation for my dissertation (NB. some people have to give up some of their holiday for the project- but the holidays at Oxford are insanely long) whilst the other girl on my course at my college was investigating the mouse Vas deferans (measuring noradrenaline release). The project can be quite frustrating if you don't find anything cool =( but the examiners take that into account.

Anyway I've really gone on a bit. Hope that helps =) xx

[Alex-92]

(Original post by sarah8989)
Okay cool =) definitely worth coming to the open day to get an idea of the place/ talk to students/ visit colleges. It was from visiting Oxford that I decided to apply (before I was in the mind set that everyone would be really posh, INSANELY clever and would look down on me.. its not true =P).

People always say that it doesn't matter what college you apply to- 15% of offers given to students aren't for their first choice college (its part of ensuring that the best candidates get the places irrespective of where they applied, but you probably know all of this already so I'm just waffling =P). It is possible to submit an open application if you're unsure of which college to apply. Saying that I applied to a specific college (Hertford which I think is definitely worth looking at.. it has a reputation of being one of the most friendly =), but I'm really biased)

I think there are going to be some significant changes from the physiological to the biomedical sciences course: they are bringing in more of a chemistry/ physics element to the first year, and there are second year exams (I had no exams in my second year). With the physiology course, we had most of our lectures alongside the medics and we sat some of the same papers as the medics in our final year; I'm not sure whether this will be the case for the biomed course (so far I'm being REALLY unhelpful sorry =P). But anyway yeh I can tell you some things about the workload/ key features of what makes the two courses similar.

You are assessed by three written papers at the end of the first year; its easy to get stressed about the exams (I did) but its really not worth it- as long as you pass (not too difficult); these marks do not count towards your final degree. If you like the idea of an end of year assessment without having to worry about ongoing assessment throughout the year (a lot of unis do this) then this course may suit you. I handled my first year by doing HARDLY ANY work in my first term, AVERAGE amount in my second term and then I worked continuously in my third term =P (overall the workload isn't bad though- especially if you work consistently). In the first year you have in college tutorials to support your learning (for most of the tutorials you have to write essays which you discuss), you also have lectures (6-10 I think- tutorials usually expand upon lecture content) and you have weekly practicals (which aren't too hard).

In the second and third year there's much more scope for you to pursue your own interests and there is a lot of self directed learning (really important that you can motivate yourself). You choose your examinable papers and work towards them (attend lectures, arrange tutorials and most importantly get searching for the most interesting published research papers/ journals which relate to your selected papers). There's a lot of time spent in the library, but again consistent work will mean that there is plenty of time for other things.

Like the physiologists, it looks like the biomedical scientists also do a 2nd year research project (which a WHOLE TERM is dedicated too). You arrange this by finding yourself a supervisor. The scope for what you can do is quite large. I ended up researching whether affecting the expression of a certain protein would reduce cancer cell proliferation for my dissertation (NB. some people have to give up some of their holiday for the project- but the holidays at Oxford are insanely long) whilst the other girl on my course at my college was investigating the mouse Vas deferans (measuring noradrenaline release). The project can be quite frustrating if you don't find anything cool =( but the examiners take that into account.

Anyway I've really gone on a bit. Hope that helps =) xx

Yeah I'm hoping the open day will clear up my mind about college choices, and will obviously help my parents understand what I may be studying, (if all goes well!)

I'm liking the addition of the Chemistry aspect, as Chemistry is awesome. Physics aspect should be interesting, in relation to the body systems etc.

I do not like the idea of continual assesment, so the oxford examination periods sound pretty good. I'm not the biggest fan of writing essays though? Will this be a huge negative for me studying at oxford? Or are they not too full-on, and more research-based, looking more for scientific content and your understanding than your essay writing skills?

Research project sounds epic.

[Eloades11]

Hi, basically, I have a big problem. Oxford require the BMAT for the course I wish to study. That is the only admission test for it I think, however, I have a very low set of GCSE grades and I spoke to one of the professors there and he told me as long as I can get a good BMAT score I have as good as chance as anyone else. I have looked at the papers as it seems very hard. I could spend 2 hours on the first section and still not get full marks on it........ I have ordered the preperation book and I was wondering wether it is a big help to students who have taken it in the past. 1 last thing, what do you reckon oxford consider as a good mark? my GCSE average is 5.5 =[

[elieshout]

A good score on the BMAT is indeed a good way to make up for other low grades. It's only natural you find it hard when first trying it, practice should help. Most people find prep books very helpful, so make sure you work through it. Good luck!

[AnonymousPenguin]

The test is made in such a way that it's nearly impossible to get all the questions correct. On average people get half of questions right in S2 and a bit more than half in S1. That was once posted here, but they longer release that data AFAIK. I did the BMAT twice, getting 7 and 6.7 in S1, which I'm told is reasonably good, and my general experience was that if you get through the complete paper in the time allocated and you have a reasonable understanding of what the questions are asking you can get that. I think nexttime had an insanely high S1 score, so you might ask him as well.

The prepbook was useful - it's a must I think. I don't think you can get a high score using the prep book alone, it's a very broad test. All scores are relative (i.e. you're scored compared to others) and everyone probably does at least some prep. In a nutshell, I don't know of a way to "learn" the BMAT and I don't think there is one.

I hope this was helpful, even though it might be a bit disparaging.

[Eloades11]

(Original post by elieshout)
A good score on the BMAT is indeed a good way to make up for other low grades. It's only natural you find it hard when first trying it, practice should help. Most people find prep books very helpful, so make sure you work through it. Good luck!

thanks a lot. when would you say the best time to start working through all the papers and book? a month before hand or more?

[Eloades11]

(Original post by AnonymousPenguin)
The test is made in such a way that it's nearly impossible to get all the questions correct. On average people get half of questions right in S2 and a bit more than half in S1. That was once posted here, but they longer release that data AFAIK. I did the BMAT twice, getting 7 and 6.7 in S1, which I'm told is reasonably good, and my general experience was that if you get through the complete paper in the time allocated and you have a reasonable understanding of what the questions are asking you can get that. I think nexttime had an insanely high S1 score, so you might ask him as well.

The prepbook was useful - it's a must I think. I don't think you can get a high score using the prep book alone, it's a very broad test. All scores are relative (i.e. you're scored compared to others) and everyone probably does at least some prep. In a nutshell, I don't know of a way to "learn" the BMAT and I don't think there is one.

I hope this was helpful, even though it might be a bit disparaging.

thats ok, thanks, i was told by the head of biomedical sciences professor at oxford that most of the content is based around basic GCSE knowledge? would you say that is the case? Obviously its not basic, it is quite twisted in fact

[AnonymousPenguin]

(Original post by Eloades11)
thats ok, thanks, i was told by the head of biomedical sciences professor at oxford that most of the content is based around basic GCSE knowledge? would you say that is the case? Obviously its not basic, it is quite twisted in fact

I'm sorry - I never did GCSEs being an EU student. From my perspective the level of difficulty wasn't that high compared to the level of difficulty in the International Baccalaureate - especially so, knowing that I didn't have to get every question right. I got 6.7, 6.5 in my 2nd try - so make of that what you will, it is by no means an amazing score.

[elieshout]

(Original post by Eloades11)
thanks a lot. when would you say the best time to start working through all the papers and book? a month before hand or more?

Whatever works in your scedule. Aim for doing the whole book and a couple of practice tests, estimate how much time that will take, how much time you'd be able to free up each week and make a scedule.

[thewiseone]

As above ^^

[Alex-92]

(Original post by thewiseone)
As above ^^

Yes. Yes you do.

[Alex-92]

So who has applied for this new course? The deadline has come and passed, and yet there seems to be such little support on TSR. So sign up with ya' name and college, and good luck!

[Alex-92]

Name: Alex-92
College: Exeter

Name: Eloades11
College: Keble

Name: Munster
College: Keble

Name: Kidms001
College: Keble

Name: Georgina601
College: Keble

Name: warrior_22
College: Open Application - Allocated to Corpus Christi

Name: CZephyr
College: St. John's

Name: xx_At
College: Lady Margaret Hall

[Alex-92]

Wow, anyone? *Bump*

[Sizzzla112]

(Original post by Alex-92)
Wow, anyone? *Bump*

Is is too late to apply through UCAS?