Pros and cons of your med school?
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Totally agree(Original post by Helenia)
Pros:- Cambridge is lovely.
- The collegiate system is very good for making non-medic friends and getting involved in all sorts of activities
- If you like hardcore science, it'll do it for you - there's lots of practicals, lots of dissection and you'll be stretched. Third year, especially if you do a research project, is an opportunity to really get into that side of things.
- The clinical course is good, in my opinion - the DGHs are as a rule friendly, and you get free accommodation at all of them. I feel like I will be pretty well-prepared to hit the wards as an F1.
Cons:
- If you want to see patients early on, don't come here. The "Preparing for patients" course is a very lame nod to the GMC's requirements for early clinical contact.
- In a similar vein, you will feel (compared with others on here discussing examinations, investigations etc in their first year) very behind in some areas, but you do get rapidly up to speed in clinical years.
- It is a pressure cooker. Two people in my year have died - but this is hopefully an exception rather than the rule.
- While the DGHs are lovely, quite a few of them are quite far away, which is a pain in the arse if you have commitments in Cambridge
- Addenbrooke's isn't all that nice for students.
I'll add more if and when I think of them.
Just to add a few more;
Pros
-Decent holidays in the first three years
-The opportunity to disappear off to London if Cam isn't your thing
Cons
-A lot of preclinical medicine is hopelessly out of touch with clinical relevent. Whilst good for the science, I was under the impression that e.g. B-Blockers were used for hypertension until I reached clinical school.
-Stage 1 (4th year) is a little bit of a joke when it comes to what you have to learn. It could easily be cut down by one attachment.
-The annoyance of having to apply for clinical school halfway through.
-Defining your third as an SSC to fulfil GMC requirements. -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Peninsula medical school
Pros:
Work at your own pace, small year group. Few lectures.
Clinical experience from day one which is excellent
Cons:
PBL
They make you move campus after 2 years which is crap because you finally cant settle in a nice place (unless you apply to stay in a particular locality)
No anatomy- so dont come here if you want to be a surgeon....intercalation not possible unless your in the top 15% and is done after your fourth year..at either Exeter or Plymouth uni...if its done at PLymouth uni you might aswell take a year out any degree from there wont be worth the paper its printed on....o and with the way you go through case scenarios they train you to be a GP rather than anything else;
Exams dont test your true knowledge...i mean which idiot thought it would be a good idea to make every year sit an exam set at an F1 standard 4 times a year and base the entire year result on that.
People can pass the year by failing 3 of the four exams and simply pass the last one which counts.
Negative marking
Dont know what to learn, feel you are in a med school for idiots who wernt good enough to get into a decent med school e.g. kings
Its linked to Plymouth university.......enough said.
Public health...i mean WTF!!!Last edited by iceman_jondoe; 11-02-2009 at 16:32. -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Is Plymouth really that bad in general? I thought it was okish.(Original post by iceman_jondoe)
Peninsula medical school
Pros:
Work at your own pace, small year group. Few lectures.
Clinical experience from day one which is excellent
Cons:
PBL
They make you move campus after 2 years which is crap because you finally cant settle in a nice place (unless you apply to stay in a particular locality)
No anatomy- so dont come here if you want to be a surgeon....intercalation not possible unless your in the top 15% and is done after your fourth year..at either Exeter or Plymouth uni...if its done at PLymouth uni you might aswell take a year out any degree from there wont be worth the paper its printed on....o and with the way you go through case scenarios they train you to be a GP rather than anything else;
Exams dont test your true knowledge...i mean which idiot thought it would be a good idea to make every year sit an exam set at an F1 standard 4 times a year and base the entire year result on that.
People can pass the year by failing 3 of the four exams and simply pass the last one which counts.
Negative marking
Dont know what to learn, feel you are in a med school for idiots who wernt good enough to get into a decent med school e.g. kings
Its linked to Plymouth university.......enough said.
Public health...i mean WTF!!! -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Glasgow:
Pros:
It's Glasgow so everyone's sick. High rates of smoking, drinking, heart disease, violent crime... not so great for them but great things to learn from!
PBL so not very many lectures (others may call this a con but I've a short attention span)
Great facilities - we've a shiny new medical building with a big clinical skills area and the "Study Landscape" - a non-lending library with multiple copies of most books you'll need (hence why I've only bought one textbook - the Anatomy Colouring Book)
We do dissection, although there's quite a bit of prosection too.
Good communication skills training - actors come in and pretend to be your patients. This has really helped me as I'm pretty quiet and generally rubbish at this sort of thing! We've got "vocational studies" for 3 hours a week which focuses on communication, ethics and clinical skills.
Early clinical skills training - we did blood pressure at the very start of first year.
We get 2 electives - one at the end of year 3 and another at the end of year 4. (I believe most other med schools only get 1 longer one?)
Greater Glasgow is a really large area so there's lots of different types of hospitals, including a children's hospital.
Glasgow's a lovely city - great, cheap nightlife and lots of shops! The West End, where the university is, is especially nice.
We have 2 student unions.
Cons:
There's not a huge focus on anatomy, you just tend to stumble on some bits in PBL. You don't do some areas in depth unless you do them for an SSM (I'm do
ing upper and lower limb anatomy right now and you can do head and neck in 3rd year.).
Despite doing dissection, you're not really taught how to dissect properly in first year! First years ruined some of the stuff near the brachial plexus that we needed when they were trying to dissect the chest wall. (This might have changed as there's a new person taking first year anatomy)
I've been told that some clinical skills stuff isn't taught directly in later years.
Lots of public health, especially in first year (not necessarily a con, I think it's important, even though it's pretty boring.)
We're apparently rubbish at pharmacology but I think they're trying to change that.
First year can feel quite badly organised, I remember having some labs that didn't seem very relevant to what we were doing at the time. Second year's a lot better for that though.
You can tell I'm trying to distract myself from work.
Last edited by Meltdown30; 11-02-2009 at 19:02. -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?..as a side note i learn alot of stuff from wikipedia it got me through my first year and its getting me through second year so far!...how do people feel about their doctor learning everything he knows of wikipedia....ok not EVERYTHING but alot of things...?
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Barts... Focus is on medicine IMO. You can get through with very little surgical knowledge and appalling anatomy. When I finally realised I wanted to be an orthopod I had to put in a lot of work to get myself up to scratch with the basics.
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Glasgow med school says that Wikipedia is fine, as long as it's not your only resource apparently!(Original post by iceman_jondoe)
..as a side note i learn alot of stuff from wikipedia it got me through my first year and its getting me through second year so far!...how do people feel about their doctor learning everything he knows of wikipedia....ok not EVERYTHING but alot of things...?
A lot of stuff on Wikipedia is from decent textbooks - I've seen references from Martini, Rang & Dale and others. If you search anything anatomical, it's got Gray's anatomy pictures.
It's a bit rubbish for some things, like embryology and when you want loads of detail. -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?I've been known to use wikipedia for information, their links at the bottom are usually useful for referencing(Original post by Meltdown30)
Glasgow med school says that Wikipedia is fine, as long as it's not your only resource apparently!
A lot of stuff on Wikipedia is from decent textbooks - I've seen references from Martini, Rang & Dale and others. If you search anything anatomical, it's got Gray's anatomy pictures.
It's a bit rubbish for some things, like embryology and when you want loads of detail. -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Cardiff
Pros
Full dissection so we have reasonably good anatomy knowledge
Placements all over wales, so we don't bump into each other too much on placement
Nice city + great area
I think I will feel ready (ish) to be a doctor when I qualify (may change my mind here the morning I get handed my bleep)
we still learn quite a lot of the pre-clinical science stuff
cheap to live here
Spoonfed at the start, gradually reduced so that by 4th year you are pretty much independent (being spoon fed at school, PBL might have been a bit of a sudden leap!)
lots of non-medics to socialise with
Cons
Placements all over wales - Bangor is a long way from Cardiff!
cardiff seem to have moved away from putting us with a firm - instead we tend to spend just a week/few days with a team (not always but often) so limits you getting as involved with things as some of you are Barts seem to
Our knowledge of pharmacology is terrible!
Crap choice of intercalation options - is changing though and masters is available from next (?) year
You have to pay £5.40 to enter Wales!Last edited by *tink*; 02-04-2009 at 19:03. -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?I think you'd have had to do the same if you wanted to be an Endocrinologist or a Dermatologist.(Original post by Touche)
Barts... Focus is on medicine IMO. You can get through with very little surgical knowledge and appalling anatomy. When I finally realised I wanted to be an orthopod I had to put in a lot of work to get myself up to scratch with the basics. -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Well that is pretty North but maybe I am not as North as that?(Original post by ozd)
Aberdeen i take it? hahaha
almost got frostbite on my way back from foresterhill today......... -
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Re: Pros and cons of your med school?Southampton
Pros
1. Their widening access course is fantastic, but I would say that because I was on it. But it really prepares you well for preclinical years plus you get an extra year of placements.
2. The pastoral support is amazing. I've been in hospital at least 4 times during medical school and they've always been really understanding. The first time I was in one of the deans came to see me and I was sleeping, but she took away all my folders and books because she wanted me to focus on getting better. They've also taken me to the doctors when its been urgent.
3. The course has good early clinical contact. The preclinical part has changed so I don't know that much about how it is now.
4. We are a regional centre for somethings so you can see really interesting cases at the general.
5. You can mix with non medics because Southampton has a good range of courses.
6. They've changed the course so that within the 5 years you now get a BSc and if you intercalate you'll get a masters. Too late for me though.
7. We have (had) good basic science teaching which had just enough. If you wanted to swat up you could go and get more I guess.
8. It's close enough to London that I can get home when I want to, but far enough away too.
9. There are a wide range of locations where you can be placed.
Cons
1. It's in Southampton. I mean come on. The best thing about this place is the M3/M27, the airport and the port. All so you can leave. If it was a person it would be dead behind the eyes.
2. IPHell. Enough said.
3. Apparently we're **** at anatomy.
4. Southampton general is too busy. You get lost in the massive teaching hospital and it feels like you get ignored a lot.
5. Things like OSCE's aren't regulated enough as people seem to know what is happening beforehand. It was noted by the GMC on their last visit.
6.There is only one thing you can intercalate in and its biomed...
7. There are some attachments we don't have much experience in at all e.g. there are no cardiology placements but 20 weeks of psych? I mean come on.
8. Apparently Southampton coined the phrase "and how does that make you feel?" Because we do a lot of wishy washy stuff. But not as much as some of the newer schools I gather.
9. Prosection. Doesn't bother me but might bother some.
