[stanman]

(Original post by carcinoma)
Now that most of you have firmed Peninsula do any of you have any questions about PMS? Course, Social or other.

Feel free to ask.

What are the SSCs like at Peninsula?

[Kanonoji]

(Original post by Cheddar)
Hmm... I'm not a big lover of KFC but hurray for cheap food . Plymouth overall appeals to me more than Exeter, for the first two years anyway. Cost of accomodation is definitly a huge factor for me as well.

Have you actually lived in Exeter as well? How does it compare?

Only Plymouth so far but I've been out in Exeter and been around the town centre.

IMO the clubs are better but they do close earlier. Can't really say anything about the music, was too drunk to remember what was being played

The town center is much nicer looking than Plymouth and in general Exeter is just a nicer looking place.

[carcinoma]

(Original post by stanman)
What are the SSCs like at Peninsula?

We have two types of SSC at Peninsula, the first are SSU (Student Selected Unit) blocks and we also have longitudinal SSUs.

In Year 1, there are three SSU blocks. Each block lasts three weeks.
One of the SSU's in first year are formative, with the other two being summative.

You do the following themes in first year - Biomedical Sciences/Medical Humanities and Health care environments.

There are a large choice of subjects with a variety of placements and each SSU is 2,000 words and 1 presentation to your provider.

In Year 2, there are only two SSU blocks both Summative.

[FunsizedKarateGeek]

(Original post by carcinoma)
x

Trust me, I will have LOADS of questions once I know where I'm allocated..
But first thing's first: Fresher's fortnight.
Is this one week with the medics and then another with the rest of the uni or something (I seem to remember this written somewhere but idk where)?

Also how many weeks do you need accommodation-wise?

Also budget-wise.. (excluding accomodation) how much do think you need a week to be okay.. i.e. cook most of the time, the occasional takeaway, a few good nights out etc shopping..

[OSharp]

[QUOTE=FunsizedKarateGeek;3699593 4]Trust me, I will have LOADS of questions once I know where I'm allocated..
But first thing's first: Fresher's fortnight.
Is this one week with the medics and then another with the rest of the uni or something (I seem to remember this written somewhere but idk where)?

I thought it was only a fortnightly thing at Plymouth.

[FunsizedKarateGeek]

(Original post by OSharp)
I thought it was only a fortnightly thing at Plymouth

I'm sure I remember there being something like a medic's freshers week and then a general one in Exeter or something like that
Then again I could have just made that up so anyone feel free to correct me..

[snoz64]

(Original post by FunsizedKarateGeek)
Trust me, I will have LOADS of questions once I know where I'm allocated..
But first thing's first: Fresher's fortnight.
Is this one week with the medics and then another with the rest of the uni or something (I seem to remember this written somewhere but idk where)?

Also how many weeks do you need accommodation-wise?

Also budget-wise.. (excluding accommodation) how much do think you need a week to be okay.. i.e. cook most of the time, the occasional takeaway, a few good nights out etc shopping..

1.) Freshers fortnight is how you want it to be. You can do everything with medics, or nothing with medics, really doesn't matter. "Fortnight" is a bit of an understatement... Start of my uni, got there on 11th of September, spent until the 19th (pre-freshers) with flat/halls etc, then the official freshers started. Medic freshers is probably the best of the uni. Over the freshers fortnight had some pretty good events, but left enough time to spend with your flat and others. We had few nights out in oceana, booze cruise, bar crawls, fish and chips down the hoe, loads of fancy dress etc. These are all brilliant as you meet all the medics and from how its panned out these will probably be your best mates for the next few years! About 50-60% of the nights in the freshers fortnights are medsoc nights.. don't have to go on them but I would advice it! (I'm on the Medsoc committee for next year and we'll have some good stuff planned) After the two weeks freshers fortnight there's basically a post freshers... by then you're probably skint/knackered but I spent about half with flat/halls and half with medics. Can spend it how you want! From the 4 weeks of freshers I went out 27 out of 28 nights... definitely worth making the most of it!

2.) 40 weeks is fine.

3.) I have 60-65 a week which works pretty good. This is fine to be fair, I know people on 30-40 a week. For this I basically spend 30 on food (mostly cooking, maybe a wetherspoons or chinese or something in the week) then 20-30 on nights out (plym nights are cheap/ not too sure about exeter) then 5-10 on random impulse buys.. happens alot more than you would think! Take extra for freshers though. Blew through 700 in the 4 weeks.

Hope that helps!

[FunsizedKarateGeek]

(Original post by snoz64)
1.) Freshers fortnight is how you want it to be. You can do everything with medics, or nothing with medics, really doesn't matter. "Fortnight" is a bit of an understatement... Start of my uni, got there on 11th of September, spent until the 19th (pre-freshers) with flat/halls etc, then the official freshers started. Medic freshers is probably the best of the uni. Over the freshers fortnight had some pretty good events, but left enough time to spend with your flat and others. We had few nights out in oceana, booze cruise, bar crawls, fish and chips down the hoe, loads of fancy dress etc. These are all brilliant as you meet all the medics and from how its panned out these will probably be your best mates for the next few years! About 50-60% of the nights in the freshers fortnights are medsoc nights.. don't have to go on them but I would advice it! (I'm on the Medsoc committee for next year and we'll have some good stuff planned) After the two weeks freshers fortnight there's basically a post freshers... by then you're probably skint/knackered but I spent about half with flat/halls and half with medics. Can spend it how you want! From the 4 weeks of freshers I went out 27 out of 28 nights... definitely worth making the most of it!

2.) 40 weeks is fine.

3.) I have 60-65 a week which works pretty good. This is fine to be fair, I know people on 30-40 a week. For this I basically spend 30 on food (mostly cooking, maybe a wetherspoons or chinese or something in the week) then 20-30 on nights out (plym nights are cheap/ not too sure about exeter) then 5-10 on random impulse buys.. happens alot more than you would think! Take extra for freshers though. Blew through 700 in the 4 weeks.

Hope that helps!

Thanks a lot, it really does help

[carcinoma]

(Original post by FunsizedKarateGeek)
Trust me, I will have LOADS of questions once I know where I'm allocated..
But first thing's first: Fresher's fortnight.
Is this one week with the medics and then another with the rest of the uni or something (I seem to remember this written somewhere but idk where)?

Also how many weeks do you need accommodation-wise?

Also budget-wise.. (excluding accomodation) how much do think you need a week to be okay.. i.e. cook most of the time, the occasional takeaway, a few good nights out etc shopping..

Basically What Snoz64 said above. ^

The only thing I could add is that Exeter uni freshers is only one week, but I think Medics move in a week earlier to have MedSoc Freshers. MedSoc in Exeter since last year has been far better than in the past, and I would assume the next committee will be just as good.

Plymouth MedSoc is far better because as a University and Student City - Plymouth has far more to offer, although either way you will have a fantastic first year.

[theatrical]

(Original post by Kanonoji)

The town center...

It's a city... albeit a small one!

[eesha_25]

Hey i found this on the internet whilst searching for the curriculum on peninsula and am totally freaked out!!!
Could someone who is at Peninsula at the moment please clear it up!!

http://truthaboutpeninsula.wordpress.com/

thankssssss!

[hopes]

(Original post by eesha_25)
Hey i found this on the internet whilst searching for the curriculum on peninsula and am totally freaked out!!!
Could someone who is at Peninsula at the moment please clear it up!!

http://truthaboutpeninsula.wordpress.com/

thankssssss!

what on earth.

[carcinoma]

(Original post by eesha_25)
Hey i found this on the internet whilst searching for the curriculum on peninsula and am totally freaked out!!!
Could someone who is at Peninsula at the moment please clear it up!!

http://truthaboutpeninsula.wordpress.com/

thankssssss!

Absolutely spectacular drivel.

Only 5% of each cohort tend to actually fail the year, not the dramatic 15% that article makes out. But there is no set fail rate for the entire year.

I will explain our assessment methods slightly better with less of a dramatic twist:

Year 1

Medical Knowledge

4x Applied Medical Knowledge Progress Tests

Spoiler:

Show

These are 3 hour 125 SBA question medical knowledge papers, based at the level of knowledge required by FY1 doctors. Every student in every year takes the same test from year 1 - year 5. They are taken in October, January, March and May of each year.

The idea of these tests is that you progress on each successive test in line with your cohort.

Yes the tests are norm referenced for years 1-4 and a pass mark is set for the tests in 5th year. So Years 1-4 - Unsatisfactory = lowest scoring 5%, Borderline = next 10%, Satisfactory = 15th-95th percentile and Excellent = 95th-100th percentile.

So yes by definition 15% fail each test, however it is not necessarily the same 15%.

It is your aggregate on these tests that counts and not your individual performance. For example you can Unsatisfactory the first test, unsatisfactory the second test, borderline the third and pass the final AMK and still Pass the Medical Knowledge Module.

1 x End of Year 1 Knowledge Test

Candidates who have failed on aggregate on medical knowledge progress tests can pass the End of Year and still progress to year 2.


Clinical and Communication Skills
There are 4 Clinical Exams in year one all which must be passed within 3 attempts.


Personal and Professional Development

• Through the course of Year 1 there are various Professionalism Judgements (from PBL, Clinical Skills, Jigsaw ect) totaling 9 judgements.
• You must obtain no more than 2 judgements of unsatisfactory.

Student Selected Comopnent

• There are 3 SSU projects to complete in year 1 the first of which is formative. You must pass the summative ones, and can remediate (retake) one if you receive unsatisfactory.

[carcinoma]

Peninsula Curriculum FAQ

(Original post by How many students have to resit a year or have to leave the programme at PMS?​)
In the 2010/11 academic year, for those students who completed the assessment programme, 940 / 1014 (93%) students progressed to the next year of study or graduated. 56 (5.5%) failed the year and were given the opportunity to repeat. 12 (1.2%) failed and had to withdraw from the programme.

(Original post by Why do we use the progress test at PMS?​)

Spoiler:

Show

The PT is an objective test that assesses the cognitive skills expected of students upon graduation (McHarg et al. 2005, Medical Education 39, 221-7). The test has very strong conceptual validity in that you will be faced with similar problems and queries to those posed in the PT when you become practising doctors. As students familiar with Progress Testing you will not be surprised when you start practising – you will be familiar with the depth and breadth of knowledge required of you. The PT is designed to assess long-term and functional knowledge rather than detailed and easily forgotten ‘facts’. It is a measure of how much and how well you are learning, not how good you are at revision, cramming or rote memorisation. It is also the most suitable means of measuring applied knowledge in a programme that emphasises the importance of PBL and lifelong learning skills.

(Original post by Why is the progress test norm-referenced - and is norm-referencing fair on students?)

Spoiler:

Show

There are two major approaches to assessment; norm-referencing and criterion-referencing. Criterion-referencing (where an assessment has a ‘pass mark’ of, say, 50%) is probably what you are most familiar with. Norm-referencing compares your performance to that of your peers on the basis of your score and the test mean score, and ranks you on a continuum that includes the whole cohort (McHarg et al. 2005, Medical Education 39, 221-7). The continuum ranges from the 1st percentile (the highest scoring student) to the 100th percentile (the lowest scoring student). We norm-reference the PT for reasons including: (1) Your score will increase year-by-year, so defining statistically what makes a satisfactory and unsatisfactory score shifts within and over each year as the cohort progresses. We could not reliably determine how many points a student should gain on, say, their third test in Year 4, to be awarded a satisfactory grade – to do so would be subjective and unreliable. (2) Although we aim to only include questions that are of FY1 level, the difficulty of each test will vary slightly. If we used criterion-referencing this means that gaining a ‘pass mark’ of, say, 50% would be easier on some tests than others. This would increase measurement error and reduce the reliability of the test in measuring progress. (3) The two approaches are similar in that they both identify the ‘failing’ students; the students who would benefit from remediation; and the students who are not performing at a level comparable to their peers. In comparison though, norm-referencing is less arbitrary, more objective, and more sensitive to changes in test difficulty and/or cohort performance.

[airdoc]

Good news? http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Warn...ail/story.html

[FunsizedKarateGeek]

Apparently campus allocations and confirmation packs are in the post and on the way guys!

[airdoc]

(Original post by FunsizedKarateGeek)
Apparently campus allocations and confirmation packs are in the post and on the way guys!

omg omg omg says whooo?

[Tobia_s]

(Original post by FunsizedKarateGeek)
Apparently campus allocations and confirmation packs are in the post and on the way guys!

Got the e-mail about the omitted form aye?

[Kanonoji]

(Original post by hopes)


what on earth.

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool


How did you come across this comedy gold ?

Carcinoma explained it pretty damn well.

[FunsizedKarateGeek]

(Original post by Tobia_s)
Got the e-mail about the omitted form aye?

Sure did