[*stars and stripes*]

(Original post by mhairi_10)


haha danielle, lets! we are actually going to annoy everyone on tsr until august (nevermind how neurotic we could become if we actually get to cambridge) so it would be nice to panic together - consider yourself the official reciptent of my offer/cambridge related worries (lucky you, theres lots!) :]

P.S. i think bad english might be common to all sciency folk - an english teacher once described my style as apalling, but said he had to give me an A because i seemed to be able to remember a shocking amount of information about my texts :]

Woooo we have an official club (and you know what, if we get to Cambridge we can get college funding to set up our panic society )
I don't think I've been an official recipient of anything like that before so I feel honoured

Now that's clever- just jam-pack every essay you do with knowledge! Although unfortunately, I don't think that cuts it any more... let's just put the appalling English down to being tired...yes, that's a good excuse

[mhairi_10]

sorry stevo,

can i correct myself and say some sciency folk?

mainly meaning me, i have to stop generalising :]

[Vesicle]

*tunnels out from a WW1 trench*

I was working on my English Lit coursework tonight, and I found a gignormous sentence that just went on and on and on without even any commas!

You all seem to have perfectly sensible working english to me- which is what we'll need really. I find that I start describing people in terms of 'themes' if I've done too much english in one day. Like yesterday at an interview for another uni, I went on about how this person experienced 'alienation' 'mortality', and 'contrasts' . *needs to be less airy fairy*

[*stars and stripes*]

Hehe, I get like that when I've been analysing too much French literature/film...but airy fairy's good :-)

[Vesicle]

Lol. thanks. I guess being airy fairy makes you immune to some of life's harsher realities.

I'm going to see the practice nurse tomorrow, and I'm going to try my best to persuade her that she does indeed want to give me all the injections. I'll probably be her worst/most argumentative patient of the day. what fun.

[zedliv]

I had my first Hep B injection yesterday, after taking about 5 mins to convince the nurse that I need it before I get the grades in August! It would have been very helpful to have the letter from Occupational Health then (came in the post today!). Good thing though--she didn't charge me!

[Vesicle]

(Original post by zedliv)
I had my first Hep B injection yesterday, after taking about 5 mins to convince the nurse that I need it before I get the grades in August! It would have been very helpful to have the letter from Occupational Health then (came in the post today!). Good thing though--she didn't charge me!

Urgh. I've just come back from mine. Despite finding out that her daughter goes to the same school as me, and a number of other things about one of the practice G.P's daughter, I have come back with a 'standard letter' to go and bother Occupational Health as it's not 'their responsibility'. Apparently they think that if they make us make a lot of fuss for them, new services will be put into place for this sort of thing.

But then of course, surely a separate service just for medical student hep vaccinations would be really inefficient and costly, and it would make much more sense for the service just to be tacked on to the G.Ps. General Medical Council guidelines are illogical.

Actually its really irritating that everyone's just avoiding taking the responsibility of these few new services. It does not make any sense that people can have these injection for travel purposes, but not for work. And why did my G.P have to take the 'offical line' on it?

She was slightly nice and gave me the number for another practice that ran a travel clinic, so I might have to try there. I might email Occupational Health in the mean time though.


I hate feeling like a pingpong ball.

[invisibleforest]

hang on - we needed a lab/blood test BEFORE our first jab? o__O

I swear my letter didn't say that ... only about eh subsequent one after you've had all three jabs ... >.<
Had my first one on Friday.

[Vesicle]

It's the first point on my covering letter. To check that you're not infected with Hep-B already. But a lot of people who had the vaccine for when they go on holiday etc, won't have had that done. So I don't think it'll be too much of an issue.

[LoveOfHumanity]

Sorry to deviate a bit from your hepatitis-B discussion, but I just have a quick question.

What do you guys think the difference is between reading medicine at Cambridge, as compared to a place like Imperial or UCL? I'm just curious as to what you guys have to say.

[sTe\/o]

You have to fit everything into shorter terms (8-week terms), whilst also doing 3 essays per week. I'd also argue you are taught quite a lot more basic science, but that's open to debate. In terms of the course structure, UCL has a traditional course, but Imperial's is slightly different (integrated?), so I would venture that Cambridge is more similar to UCL than Imperial. I'm sure UCL and Imperial would both set you up well as a doctor, as they both have a strong scientific basis and are attached to great hospitals.

[invisibleforest]

(Original post by Vesicle)
It's the first point on my covering letter. To check that you're not infected with Hep-B already. But a lot of people who had the vaccine for when they go on holiday etc, won't have had that done. So I don't think it'll be too much of an issue.

argh. i feel so stupid now >.< do you think i should ring occupational health and ask or anything ... or just leave it as there's not much that i can really do now? >.<

[Nasher and Basher]

(Original post by sTe\/o)
You have to fit everything into shorter terms (8-week terms), whilst also doing 3 essays per week.

Would they be similar to A-level History essay standards, or they completely different to Humanity essays ?

Another question, how much does A-level science prepare you for the course, knowledge wise ?

[medman07]

1) No-one really cares about anything to do with Hep B

2)Completely different to humanities subjects; comparing to A-level history would be nonsense

3) A-level maths, physics and chemistry set one up well - medics who haven't done physics find the physiology course much more challenging, and medics who haven't done Stats 1 or S1 & S2 will find our epidemiology and statistics lectures more challenging. Ultimately this course is a reasonable distance beyond anything at A-level but you've all got offers, therefore you have all been adjudged as having the necessary faculties to deal with it - no need to panic!

[*Liana*]

(Original post by medman07)
1) No-one really cares about anything to do with Hep B

2)Completely different to humanities subjects; comparing to A-level history would be nonsense

3) A-level maths, physics and chemistry set one up well - medics who haven't done physics find the physiology course much more challenging, and medics who haven't done Stats 1 or S1 & S2 will find our epidemiology and statistics lectures more challenging. Ultimately this course is a reasonable distance beyond anything at A-level but you've all got offers, therefore you have all been adjudged as having the necessary faculties to deal with it - no need to panic!

I would say that 'much' more challenging is a bit misleading on the Physiology front - it makes it a little more difficult to understand but you're not at a massive disadvantage - I got my best mark in Physiology without having done Physics.

I agree entirely about the humanities essays - the essays for Medicine are quite different.

[Nasher and Basher]

How different are the essays for medicine ?

[darzona]

I'm not really sure what you mean by 'how different are the essays' but I will attempt to answer anyway.
I'm also not convinced by what others are saying about the essays being different but I did English, not History or anything so I suppose that might be why. Anyway, I think they're reasonably similar in that you have some sort of introduction, several structured paragraphs containing information usually integrated from various sources and then some sort of conclusion, often with some bits about clinical relevance (depending on what the original question was). We've also been told to try to get in some controversy, or random interesting bit, to make your essay stand out, which again seems similar to humanities essays. But then again, maybe I just do all my essays in completely the wrong way...
Perhaps the best thing to do is to give you a few examples of titles:

Anatomy:
'Describe the anatomy of swallowing'
'Describe the brachial plexus with particular reference to the median nerve'
Or you might get something very clinical, like describing a patient with a knife embedded in a certain area of his neck, discuss the structures this might have damaged and the probable effects.

Biochemistry:
'Briefly explain DNA repair pathways and discuss how deficiencies in DNA repair can lead to cancer.'
'What are the three major types of cell surface receptors? How does their structure relate to their function?'

Physiology:
'Describe the roles of calcium in nerve and muscle'
'Describe the body's response to haemorrhage'

Hope this helps.

[invisibleforest]

How long do the essays end up being, usually? Or do they vary?

[Nasher and Basher]

Thanks !!

How else are you examined ?

[visesh]

They are usually about 3+ sides in an exam. YOu get about 40 mins per essay on average.

You also get practical exams (written, involving calculations etc. or MCQs, or steeplechases/spotters in anatomy) and short answer/MCQ/True or False type questions. They are fairly straightforward but have a relatively high pass mark (60-70%).

In the first year, you'll have MCQs (1 in 5 i think) for physiology and biochem, and lots of small MCQ/matching/fill in the blank type questions for anatomy. You'll then have an MCQ practical paper for physiol, a calculaiony paper for biochem, and a steeplechase for anatomy.

In the second year, pharm and path T+F questions are negatively marked, and you'll have up to 275 questions to do in an hour. Neuro is short answer questions, and repro is MCQ. The practical papers involve some microscopy and looking at pretty pictures for path, neuro and repro, and some nasty calculations for pharm.