Suffolk’s Official Rep – Emma (Diagnostic Radiography)

hi, I'm hoping to study diagnostic radiography this year
what is the town like in terms of nightlife and just social life in general?
thank you!

Hey Emma ,

I have a few questions if you don’t mind me asking..

Do you think having a part-time job is manageable in the 1st year?

What is the ratio between coursework and exams?

How many exams did you sit in your first year and how difficult were they?

Provided that all necessary work placement hours are completed and your not doing re-sits , when will you finish the academic year?

I know some University require students to work through the summer holidays , Does Suffolk require the same?

Thanks

Ah, I'm so glad you've posted this. I had a quick question, I was wondering what kind of pre work could I do before my first year of Radiography. I know a lot of people say anatomy, but I wanted to know more specifically what? and would it be good to get some knowledge on physiology and are there any youtube videos or websites you would recommend for this?

Hi @Hannah_lynx - that's a great question!

I'd agree and say that anatomy is definitely a key part of the course and can be learnt beforehand including all of the bones in the body e.g. the 8 carpal bones in the wrist is a good bit of anatomy to learn (there are also a few good mnemonics to help learn these). The book called "Bones and Joints" by Gunn (on Amazon for about £37) is a brilliant book to help learn anatomy as it also shows you what the anatomy looks like on radiographs and diagrams! You start learning about physiology quite early on so it would be beneficial to get to grips with that a bit more. There are a few good anatomy & physiology books such as the one by Tortora and Derrickson and another one by Ross and Wilson (on Amazon for about £23). You'll learn about how each body system functions e.g. the cardiovascular system, how the heart works, the anatomy of the heart etc. so even just learning anatomy would put you at an advantage! There are also some nice anatomy colouring books on Amazon if you enjoy colouring in and that might help you learn anatomy The website called "TeachMeAnatomy" is a great online tool as well! I don't think I have any specific YouTube videos that I'd recommend but the channel called "CrashCourse" have some great videos on the different body systems which I found really helpful, otherwise I'd usually just search for whatever I was struggling for e.g. anatomy of an X-Ray tube and they'd be videos on that! In terms of learning any radiation physics, unless you really like physics, you don't have to learn anything beforehand as they'll teach you everything you need to know in lectures and they can put on evening revision sessions if you'd like additional support.

Realistically, a lot of the content you'll learn when you're in lectures and especially when you're on placement in hospitals as you'll be surrounded by people willing to teach you 24/7 and they'll be able to share their expansive knowledge with you! Clark's Pocket Handbook for Radiographers (on Amazon for about about £21) is a staple for training but some of the positioning may be explained slightly differently than what your placement site will do so it's definitely something to take into consideration but it's a brilliant starting point! With the books, you can buy them new or used or some people may be selling them independently for a bit cheaper so it's worth looking around The university also have online copies that you can view via the library's online page!

I hope this helps and bit and feel free to ask any more questions! Congratulations on your offer as well!!!

Emma
3rd year diagnostic radiography student

Hi Emma!

Ive recieved an unconditional offer from Suffolk and debating weather to accept it or not so thank you for this thread!

Do all Uni's have Holidays from June to September? and how long are your December holidays

Hi @Deborah2x! I'd be more than happy to answer your questions

I think that it's definitely possible to have a part-time job in first year but you have to be able to organise yourself really well in order for it to work out. In first year when we had lectures, we were in university around 3-4 days a week (with 3 x 1.5 hour lectures each day at 09:30-11:00, 11:30-13:00 and 14:00-15:30). We always had Wednesdays and weekends off though so if you had a part-time job, you could organise to work Wednesdays and weekends whilst at the university? However, when you're on placement, you might not have Wednesdays off. When we're on placement, we always get weekends off and we have study day each week (it can be any week day depending on your hospital site) and it could change throughout the three years so there's that to take into consideration when you're looking at part-time work. However, I know a lot of students who commute home and work at the weekends so it's definitely do-able!

In terms of the ratio between coursework and exams, for every module that we take at the university, we have an exam at the end of it. These can either be writing an essay (we had one that was 2500 words long in first year), typical written exams in a hall, making a poster or a PowerPoint presentation, working as a group on a project or having image-viewing exams at the university/ online. There's definitely a good mixture of exam types to suit a range of students I sat six exams in the whole first year for each module and they were a mix of the styles I mentioned above. There were a couple of physics-based modules in first year that I wasn't the biggest fan of as physics isn't my favourite subject, but the lecturers taught us everything we needed to know (that is relevant to radiation physics etc.) and they put on revision sessions in the evenings if we needed extra support too so even if the module seems a bit tricky, there's a lot of support available!

The academic year ends mid-June for all three years and if everything is completed on time, then you don't need to stay behind in the summer to catch up with anything. You can have a nice holiday instead!

I hope this helps to answer your questions and please feel free to ask more if you'd like to!

Emma
3rd year diagnostic radiography student

Hi Emma,
you mentioned a group project being one of the possible exam formats. Is this graded?

Hi @Loves_running! The group project was for our Interprofessional Learning (IPL) module in first year (although I don't think the IPL module runs anymore) and students from different courses came together to make a poster on a case study. The group project was graded but our first year grades do not count towards our overall university grade (you only need to pass the first year exams to progress to second year and the grades for first year do not count for your overall grade at the end of third year). We also didn't have any other group work for second and third year. I hope this makes sense!

Let me know if you have any other questions that you'd like me to answer!

Emma
3rd year diagnostic radiography student

Thank you, that makes sense.
Apologies for asking one question at a time. I should probably make a list and then ask in one go 🙂

Me again
How do you find block learning at Suffolk? I do understand that students might like it as they can just focus on one module at a time but don’t you find it boring if you have a whole day of lectures about the same topic?