Liverpool Medicine (A100) Applicants 2014

hey there

OK so its quite different in third year because you have rotate through different specialties so no week is the same...

in second year, we are in hospital 2 days of the week, pbl three times a fortnight (monday, friday then the following friday for example). At some point in the year you have a GP slot, so for 1 day a week for 6ish weeks you travel somewhere in Liverpool to a GP practice, and the following week have a UCCT session, which is a session where you discuss with a group and practising doctor cases you have seen and diseases etc...
Second year is hectic because you also have 2 SSMs (allocated research time for 4 weeks each) which is great for time off, but depending on your topic may mean you are exceptionally busy. Most people attempt to use the time to catch up on missed work and revision. HARC is a great anatomy resource centre with fantastic teaching - that's once a week at Liverpool. You have 4 lectures a week in second year, 2 on Monday, 2 on Friday, each lasting an hour. These are introductory lectures, i.e. they dont really teach you anything, you gauge throughout the year which ones are worth going to. Your clinical knowledge increases vastly due to the amount of time you spend seeing and examining patients in hospital, sitting in clinics and being on ward rounds. You have random communication skills sessions in the year too, with actors coming in pretending to be angry/upset patients.

First year (it seems so long ago now!), you had a 1 hr lecture every morning. Again pbl 3 times a fortnight. You have a once a week clinical skills session where for 2 hours you are taught by specialist nurses clinical skills. You have a lot more comms skills sessions and have a community rotation where you research child development. You have 1 SSM this year as well. HARC is also once a week.

Sorry if this was all over the place, I hope this gives you an idea of the course. Remember, there is no spoon feeding at Liverpool xx

Can i ask whether the progress in the pbl sessions is monitored by an academic tutor?
Also can you speak regularly to a professor if you are struggling to understand something?
Before each PBL session do you have to spend a lot of time in the library researching the topics?
How many hours a day would you say you worked in your first year, second year and third year?
Are the lectures and PBL sessions separate, are different things covered in these sessions? Or do you go over the PBL in the lecture?

Thanks! Sorry about all the questions!

Hey

Yeah every PBL session is monitored by a facilitator, this is (most of the time) someone within the healthcare profession, could be a doctor, psychologist, researcher etc. Depending on their background they can be really useful and guide you in the right direction...or not

If you have a specific question on a topic, the likelihood is you can get the email of the lecturer you have during that week/2 weeks whose specialty is within that area who could help you. But to be perfectly honest, you'll probably do better just referring to a textbook or the internet.

Well between PBL sessions, you should be reading up and covering the objectives that you made in your first session. Whether this is in the library or at home is completely personal preference.

Errrrr I have no idea about how many hours I worked, I'll say this, I worked hard in 1st year and twice as hard in 2nd year. I havent started PBL for this year yet.

No, PBL is the central focus of the course. PBL is compulsory, lectures are not. Lectures are purely introductory or just give you a broad overview. I.e. during the alcohol module, you could have a lecture explaining the basics behind alcohol metabolism and its effects on the body. This would help answer one of your PBL objectives

Hi so from your personal experience, did PBL greatly help you pass your exams?
Did you basically self-teach yourself all the stuff then?
Do a lot of people fail their exams because they go very wrong in PBL sessions?

Hi, just wondering about the GCSE requirements at Liverpool! I've got 7a*s, 3as. If I apply here, will I be given the same score as somebody with all As due to the A*/A=2? Or would I be given preference?

Thanks

Have i got good chances here:

4A*s, 4As 2Bs 2Cs for GCSE A*A*A for Sciences, A* Maths and B english lang
AAB AS levels
Taking an extra AS level during my A2 currently predicted AAA(a)