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Medicine 2012...(hopeful entrants) !!

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Reply 1240

oHellno

It's all happening so quickly. It's so scary.

Reply 1241

resortini

Original post by oHellno

It's all happening so quickly. It's so scary.

Exams are looming :colone:

Reply 1242

Straight up G

Original post by oHellno

It's all happening so quickly. It's so scary.

Shut up woman. You're ALWAYS crying

Reply 1243

Unbiased Opinion

Original post by TooSexyForMyStethoscope

I really have no idea what specific changes will happen. But the whole GP management thing basically exists in remote areas anyway. I come from Strath Halladale in Sutherland (KW13 6YT post code, look it up on maps :tongue:

) and here the clinical lead is a GP. Fair enough they don't deal out the contracts, but GP's here are far more essential than in your average city. Imagine being the GP on Colonsay, with nothing more than x-ray to help, in an emergency, in a storm???

You grew up in the cutest place ever! I put the little person from google maps down and instantly saw countryside and cows, Scottish stereotype much? :p:

So what kind of stuff did you do for funsies through teen years, everyone moans that there's not enough to do in Newcastle let alone the countryside! Was Aberdeen a shock to move to?

That would be really scary. :s-smilie:

Does it happen much?!
I didn't realise that clinical lead was the same thing as management, though. I kind of just imagined clinical lead to supervise things + organise meetings and maybe head MDT stuff... do they control finance too?

There used to be many smaller maternity units like Caithness General (where I was born) but what with issues surrounding blood transport and anaesthetics expertise, these were downgraded by the trust. Now all first time mothers in Highland must go to Raigmore and can only deliver in the smaller centres if the first birth was natural with no comps.

What kind of issues with blood transport/anesthesia were there? Wouldn't it have made more sense to deal with the issues rather than increasing workload for Raigmore?

Here in NHS Grampian it is similar, not nearly as remote but GP's still must offer a lot of community treatments in the rural areas. The ARI, Royal Aberdeen Childrens, and the maternity hospital are all on the same massive site. We have everything here with 1000+ beds but it is still far away for people outwith the city limits.

Yeah, I can imagine. At least you get to see interesting pathology, I guess. :p:

Reply 1244

Unbiased Opinion

Original post by thegodofgod

Shouldn't UCL offer something like this as well - they're very language orientated, aren't they?

I dunno if they do, they require BMAT and I don't want to sit it so I haven't even looked at UCL. :p:

But my friend at Imperial said that her friend gets Spanish lessons at Imp so I guess there would the opportunity for language lessons wherever you went really. :dontknow:

Reply 1245

Unbiased Opinion

Original post by Straight up G

Shut up woman. You're ALWAYS crying

She's right though. This is pretty much out last year of being responsibility free. :eek:

Reply 1246

Straight up G

Original post by Unbiased Opinion

She's right though. This is pretty much out last year of being responsibility free. :eek:

Nah we've got big responsibility this year. You could argue AS levels are more important for a medicine student than A levels (likewise you could argue the other way, so lets call them equal).

We've got to spend a lot of time on school work with the accelerated course (we get 5 extra weeks of A2 after the AS exams), and obviously have to do everything possible to make our applications stand out this year. For the first time, this summer, I will have a lot of work to do.

Reply 1247

Unbiased Opinion

Original post by Straight up G

I don't think achieving AS grades is a responsibility... I mean, we can still resit if we get less than what we want (we can resit in Jan + June. :smile:

not ideal but possible) and if we don't get the overall A Level grades to get in there's the option of resit (even if it is only Liverpool pretty much that allows it without extenuating circumstances :O) or postgrad. It's not the end of the world. :dontknow:

It doesn't compare to the emotional and academic stress of med school at all, imo... like, having to move away and "re-discover yourself", having to cope with the volume of work and coming face to face with the ****ness of the world though clinical placements.

We get those 5 weeks too but from what I've heard they're a right doss! :p:

I'm actually looking forwards to them, time to enjoy the subjects without stressing about exams.

I think I'm just too relaxed a person tbh... :erm:

And I'm away in the summer for a month, I hope we're not expecting to work through it. :O

Reply 1248

Straight up G

Original post by Unbiased Opinion

I don't think achieving AS grades is a responsibility... I mean, we can still resit if we get less than what we want (we can resit in Jan + June. :smile:

I'm actually looking forwards to them, time to enjoy the subjects without stressing about exams.

I think I'm just too relaxed a person tbh... :erm:

And I'm away in the summer for a month, I hope we're not expecting to work through it. :O

Well our AS grades are gonna be cashed in, so resitting will only affect the A2 grade not the AS. It's not ideal at all, and doing retakes is not really viable for Medicine, and neither is postgrad, which is ridiculously competitive.

I don't think that there is that much stress tbh, I know 5/6 med students and all of them are having a great time, found friends quick etc. I do understand emotionally it can be a tough time.

Yeah, apparently they are a doss, but work is work, and it means you have an extra five weeks in which to cover the curriculum, meaning 5 weeks more for A2 than AS which will make a big difference. Plus next year, in my school at least, you will get a lot more free periods.

Haha it's good to be relaxed, but AS grades are really important for medicine imo, it definitely was at our school where people with AAC didn't get in, but people with AAA did (and dont worry, we, collectively, did take into account personal statement, work experience, gcse grades of all the people that we know etc).

Well, this summer, I'm looking to do work experience, self-study C3/C4, volunteer for a week, and write a personal statement, as well as a few others personal things, so quite a lot to do. Next summer will be the best summer ever, free from end of june to end of september, I can't wait.

Reply 1249

navarre

Yep, we have tonnes to do this summer. I'll be looking up A2 chemistry topics whislt reading books around the topic of Stalin for A2 history.

Reply 1250

oHellno

Original post by Straight up G

Shut up woman. You're ALWAYS crying

Not always. I have good reason this time though. :sad:

Reply 1251

Straight up G

Original post by oHellno

Not always. I have good reason this time though. :sad:

'People get lost when they think of happiness as a destination.
Happiness is a mood; it's a condition, not a destination. It's not permanent, and if people thought about it that way, they'd find happiness a lot more often.'

Someone ~~clever~~ told me this

Reply 1252

Unbiased Opinion

Original post by Straight up G

My school doesn't cash in AS grades if you're resitting them. :awesome:

There have been loads of people on here who have got in with less than AAAB at AS, apparently med schools don't really look at your AS grades. More at predictions, I've heard. :dontknow:

Competitive, yeah, but possible.

I just know one med student and she seems really drained. :p:

I guess it varies from person to person but a lot of work + emotional stress = :emo:

See, I dont even understand why they do, I'm pretty certain I'm going to forget everything we do through summer anyway. I'm proper excited about the frees next year. :smile:

But stressing about uni + interviews + the work apparently getting much harder! :eek:

According to this AS grades don't get looked at but it might have changed since then, I don't know.

That summer does sound busy, but not stressful as such... you'll prob enjoy your work exp and volunteer stuff. :smile:

Good luck with self-teaching, self-teaching maths would be so hard! :eek:

I'm half-excited half-scared about the PS... weird that we'll write a few paragraphs which are meant to sum up all we've ever learned and sum up... well, us.

Reply 1253

oHellno

Original post by Straight up G

Also I corrected your post :flutter:

Reply 1254

Straight up G

Original post by Unbiased Opinion

My school doesn't cash in AS grades if you're resitting them. :awesome:

There have been loads of people on here who have got in with less than AAAB at AS, apparently med schools don't really look at your AS grades. More at predictions, I've heard. :dontknow:

Competitive, yeah, but possible.

I just know one med student and she seems really drained. :p:

I guess it varies from person to person but a lot of work + emotional stress = :emo:

See, I dont even understand why they do, I'm pretty certain I'm going to forget everything we do through summer anyway. I'm proper excited about the frees next year. :smile:

But stressing about uni + interviews + the work apparently getting much harder! :eek:

Good luck with self-teaching, self-teaching maths would be so hard! :eek:

I'm half-excited half-scared about the PS... weird that we'll write a few paragraphs which are meant to sum up all we've ever learned and sum up... well, us.

Well, we've been told recently that everyone is cashing them in so they should follow the trend. I can just say from what I've seen you know. It didn't help that some of them at B/Cs in Biology/Chemistry, which is a real downer, especially Chemistry. I think everyone would prefer to get in first time round, so it's better if you don't aim for grad med?

Yep it varies person to person and University to University. I know people mainly at Leeds and Manchester, 1st and 2nd years, and they are all living the life.
I got really pissed off when I learned we had to come back, it all just seems so pointless. Yep the frees will definitely be used for work. I have friends in the year above, who were all jolly and ready to do stuff during frees during the first few weeks, but now I see them all in the library/doing work somewhere. A lot of stress.

It sounds okay, but most of my summers have consisted of lazing around and being treated like a king in my home country, as well as a one or two great summers over here with my friends, I've never done any work ever, and I'm quite a lazy guy anyway (remind me to revise ffs) so it's a lot of work for me. I think I'll be okay with the maths, I've got a few resources, and I'm just nervous as hell for the PS, I've got ideas but I can't write it down properly. I just get sudden hand cramps whenever I try to get some ideas together.

Reply 1255

Straight up G

Original post by oHellno

Also I corrected your post :flutter:

Nah man you underlined it, you should have erased it completely if you wanted to correct it. Or even inserted the word 'bitchy-ex-wife'

Reply 1256

SteveCrain

Original post by Unbiased Opinion

My school doesn't cash in AS grades if you're resitting them. :awesome:

There have been loads of people on here who have got in with less than AAAB at AS, apparently med schools don't really look at your AS grades. More at predictions, I've heard. :dontknow:

Competitive, yeah, but possible.

I just know one med student and she seems really drained. :p:

I guess it varies from person to person but a lot of work + emotional stress = :emo:

See, I dont even understand why they do, I'm pretty certain I'm going to forget everything we do through summer anyway. I'm proper excited about the frees next year. :smile:

But stressing about uni + interviews + the work apparently getting much harder! :eek:

Good luck with self-teaching, self-teaching maths would be so hard! :eek:

I'm half-excited half-scared about the PS... weird that we'll write a few paragraphs which are meant to sum up all we've ever learned and sum up... well, us.