what is harder a medicine degree or A-levels?

We have case based learning which is related to the topic we’re currently on. So if we were looking at the cardiovascular system, our anatomy teaching would be on that system, our skills sessions would be on CV examinations, we would be looking at diseases and conditions affecting that system, pharmacology sessions would look at the appropriate drugs and treatments and we’d have case studies running, working in small groups looking at patients and situations.

It’s easy to say ‘I don’t like PBL’ if you’ve got no experience of it, which is the situation of most A level students. Most unis use a mixture of teaching methods, not one exclusively.

You've made some more useful points here. Even on my daughter's course they had one group session per week, which actually worked fine. Tbh I've never been too sure about the difference between CBL and PBL, so not sure what label they put on it.

At the end of the day, actually getting an interview and hopefully an offer is the main priority. If you have the luxury of picking your favourite course structure that's just a bonus. Successful applicants will just adapt to the teaching methods anyway.

Exactly…. I didn’t apply to oxford/Cambridge because I knew that the system of late patient contact and weekly essays wouldn’t suit how I learn or my priorities - I’m very much a people person and from my own experience of being a patient I think communication skills are vital and wanted to be developing and observing those from the start of the course. I had the grades to apply, and my entrance test results are likely to have got me into interviews in the year I applied, I just felt the courses wouldn’t suit me. Over and above that, I like that my course has a range of different teaching methods as there’s a LOT to absorb and the variation keeps my brain moving.

Thank you Would definitely say there is a lot more of an academic community in med school than during A levels.

Based on the rest of this thread though I would 100% say that you will very much most likely be fine with the work at medical school. If you can get in, you're showing that you're academically capable, and the majority of people by a long way who are admitted finish the degree and graduate. The point about the content for GCSEs seeming impossible to a Y7 is spot on - medicine is 5 years for a reason and you spend a lot of that time going over stuff. For example, with ECGs, we literally get retaught them every year, with a bit more depth each time, as they're such a key thing to have a strong grasp of.

You're also a lot older and wiser at medical school and especially by the end of it. You mentioned you struggled with A levels and doing all the work - is it worth reflecting on that and thinking about how you can manage some of those factors at medical school? One thing I took away from A levels was that I didn't always make the most of revision, for example, because I felt like I knew it and wasn't good at identifying what I didn't know. So in med school I use a flashcard app that schedules all the revision for me and forces me to cover everything, so I'm alerted to what I don't know with very little effort


Honetsly think this is the best thing about Imperial's teaching

Every doctor and medical student I know has thought of embryology as the bane of our existence 😂
I think the idea of a stork brining a baby is more logical than some of embryology

Ahh that’s very interesting about the admissions process for Leicester! I got 3 A*s in my mocks, which I’m hoping for in the real thing, so if I get those grades then potentially I could be given a lower UCAT requirement? How would I be able to find this out? I will be doing my UCAT before getting my results I believe, so it may not make much of a difference.

I’m a current year 3 med student - year 4 fast approaching.

I would say that being a year 13 student and med applicant is harder than being a med student. The pressure of grades, complexity of material, on top of the stress of ucas/BMAT/ucat/interviews and balancing a job and other responsibilities made it a really really tough year.

As a med student, the workload is heavy and the pace is fast, the key is keeping up - if you got behind it would be really difficult to catch up. But the material isn’t harder than A level and it actually all fits together more logically than A level. I manage to fit in my course, a social life, SU commitments and a relationship with someone in a different uni town, and while this year has been more placement heavy than the first two years I’ve been chipping away at the study and feel on top of things. Life feels less stressful and more manageable than it did in year 13, and I’m someone who has struggled with mental health over the last few years. But discipline and good time management are the key imo.

You're correct that not doing Biology at A level isn't a problem in itself, although it reduces the number of Med Schools where you can apply, as some require it.

The majority of Med Schools require Chemistry A level even though there's not a lot of Chemistry content in the degree. I read that it's because a study found that the learning style required for A level chemistry is well suited to studying medicine.

Personally, I don't think you will know for sure until you actually do the degree. There were a few times when my daughter felt like giving up, and that didn't seem that uncommon, but she's a qualified doctor now. It's a challenging degree, but I suspect you knew that already.

BTW, I edited my original post with an additional comment, in case you didn't see it.