[tpxvs]

There must be loads of people who are about to start a Medicine course in September without having studied A2 or A2 and AS Biology. And for those that have, all courses differ slightly in that some may have none or minimal topics on Human Biology. Would you recommend someone in this position to read over an A level revision guide for human biology?

Does the first year of medical school just recap everything needed or properly teach from scratch? Also, what sort of thing do you learn in year 1? Thanks!

[anoldbaby]

I am starting in Sept too without AL biology - heard that its best to go through revision guide b4 course begin... otherwise it will be tougher to follow

there is some recap but school assumed that you already have knowledge so would go over very quickly... but then I suppose it depends on which school

yeah anyway so I plan to do some reading over the summer but don't stress too much

[digitalis]

(Original post by anoldbaby)

yeah anyway so I plan to do some reading over the summer but don't stress too much

Don't waste your time.

[chloemo14]

(Original post by digitalis)
Don't waste your time.

For students who've at least done AS bio I'd definitely agree there's no point, but I'd hate to have tried to manage the terms and exams we've just had with no knowledge past GCSE Biology 2 years beforehand. One of my closest friends did so and found it really quite stressful as our first year is very basic-science heavy, minimal additional support is given, and the fact she was missing some quite basic concepts (like protein synthesis, phospholipid bilayers, cell cycle, basic biochemistry) meant it was hard for her to keep up in lectures and gave her a lot of subsequent work to do. Obviously it's not necessary to go through a revision guide or anything, and it's perfectly possible to just do that bit extra during term time, but if you have a fourth month holiday to have a look through it anyway, it might alleviate a bit of the academic stress when you're dealing with settling in/making friends/adjusting to being away from home and take the pressure off a bit?

[purplefrog]

If you haven't done AS biology, it would be worth flicking through a guide so you're aware of cell organelles, cellular transport and basic biochemistry - other than that, you're not missing out on much and all the physiology textbooks will cover the rest from scratch.

If you have done biology to any extent at AS/A2, don't bother - just enjoy your summer. At uni, any advantage people have from their varying exam boards in terms of knowledge tends to disappear before the end of the lecture on that topic, as everything they know is covered and a whole lot more.

[Beska]

If a medical school accepts applicants without AS/A2 biology, or if you've met an offer that includes biology, it means that you're perfectly well qualified for the course. You don't need to do any extra reading, all of the A-Level syllabus on a particular organ is likely going to be covered in a single lecture at medical school so there's no point faffing in the summer trying to read CGP.