Please help me achieve my aims

Hi,
I really want to ask you all for some help, because im really confused. I really want to study medicine in france, but I am not really sure what subject are a MUST to get into medicine in france (in poland for example besides bio and chemistry you need physics and maths, where as in England you only need biologyu and one other science ... ). I am currently repeating my 1st year in college mainly because I chose alot of subjects which I didnt really enjoy and that wernt rellevant to medicine.

Reply 1

*MJ*

Try www.ucas.co.uk

Or contact some admissions tutors in France?

Any specific French university?

Reply 2

Melonno

I didnt really look into what university to choose, but i was thinking about paris maybe?

Reply 3

c2uk

Why not ask on a French forum?

Reply 4

Melonno

Can you recomend any good french forums ?

Reply 5

c2uk

No, I'm German and my French sucks. But I'm sure Google is your friend, you might also try http://www.big-boards.com/ and look for French forums there.

Reply 6

T3mp3sT

Melonno

Can you recomend any good french forums ?

French medical student forums : http://www.e-carabin.net/ and http://forums.remede.org/.

Getting into a medical university is quite easy in France, actually, everybody can no matter what are their grades and the subjects they took. With an equivalent to CCC in history, philosophy, a foreign language fo example, you can automatically get into the first year. But that works for french shool leavers applying in the vicinity of their high school. I don't know what's the entry policy towards non french applicants.

The selection is made during the first year and of course, it's extremely competitive. Only a certain number of students can get into the second year, it's called the numerus clausus, generally representing 15% of first year students, who are more than 1000.

To pass the competitive exam of the first year, you better be good in physics, mathematics, bio, and chemistry. In Paris some universities have got the reputation to be more scientific oriented than others, like Descartes and Orsay, whereas Creteil and Bobigny are less. Each university 's got his own syllabus, putting more emphasis on some subjects, or having more various subjects.
Nevertheless, the first year is a lot about learning by heart, but a strong background in sciences allows you to understand and learn faster than others.

Due to the lack of the selection, the first year is extremely competitive. I know people who are working 8 hours per day to learn by heart and training on mcq, and they told me this is the number of hours an average student does. Not a very exciting way of learning :x. Lot of student repeat the first year to make it, in the second year, half of the students are "carrés" (students who made the first year twice). If you fail twice, you say goodbye to medicine (you can do it a third time under exceptional circumstances), and you're not allowed to study medicine in lot of europeans countries. I'm not sure for east european countries though, for a while lot of student failing in France used to go over there.

The advantage in France is that tuition fees are ridiculously low, about 350€ a year.

NB : I'm not a med student, but like you, I considered doing medicine for a little while.

Btw, where are you and what are you studying ?