what do you learn in medical degree?

thanks for the answers. so if you have to hand in an essay each week for oxbridge, what do you have to hand in for other universities. do you even get homework in your/other university?
it may sound like a stupid question but oxbridge has supervision/tutorials but i haven't heard anything like this for other universities. do you just get work from lectures, practices, etc. and you do it at your will or do you also hand 'homeworks' in to the professors and theres extra teaching involved where they mark it and they discuss your work with you.
thanks

so what sort of things are covered in medical degree .

At St Andrews you get 4 exams each year split into a mid term exam and a final exam for 2 semesters. The mid term exam is multiple choice and the final exam is both multiple choice, short written answer and anatomy practical. At the end of each year there is a P/F OSCE as well.

We do get homework but they are not assessed. We just are required to submit them, sometimes its reading a paper and answering questions, other times its writing a reflection or learning a bit of extra material.

I'm pretty sure all medical schools have practicals. Ours are generally professor/tutor led and they generally cover specific topics in greater detail after a lecture an example would be an ECG tutorial or a CXR tutorial.

All medical schools that have an iBSc or a BSc/BA will have a degree classification associated. Depending on your degree classification it will give you a few extra points on your foundation applications.

A lot of boring, useless ****.

then why did you do medicine then?

I'd say 'to become a doctor' is a pretty good guess!

There's not much point in studying Medicine for any other reason. There are other degrees with similar theoretical content.

I disagree, studying medicine can be very interesting. I think its amazing to learn about the human body and I really love it when those little questions you've had about the human body get answered in the lecture.

Interesting case: Natasha Richardson's death - She hit her head while skiing, was fine for several hours and then got a headache and collapsed. The reason was an epidural hematoma. At the time of the death I didn't know why either, it seemed a bit of a mystery. However, in school we learned later that this sort of presentation is classic for an epidural hematoma. Often classically due to a hit to the head at the pteryion, damaging the middle meningeal. The victim usually is fine for a few hours before collapsing suddenly.

No other degree has the same content that a medical degree has. A medical degree actually teaches you how to recognize pathology and treat it. This is something no other degree will teach you.

Biomedical Sciences? Anatomy? Neuroscience? Unless you rather unspecifically are equally interested in all the elements that a medical degree focusses on, I would have thought you would be just as well (if not better) served elsewhere.

Why would you want to be taught specifically how to 'recognise pathology and treat it' unless you wanted to do that as part of your job?

Because its interesting? Don't you find pathology interesting?

None of the degrees you listed fully covers what medicine teaches as you said. Each one will cover part for sure, but there is no degree that teaches all of what medicine teaches.. except for medicine.

Its completely possible to actually like the material in your degree not just treat it as a necessary element to practice as a doctor.

And Biomedical Scientists don't study mechanisms of disease?


I find it very unlikely that someone who is only interested in Medicine for the theoretical content will be served well by signing up for a degree where they're required to be on the wards for at least a large part of the final two years. Unless they plan on intercalating before that and leaving.


Bit of a strawman, no? I didn't say anything about people who want to be doctors enjoying their degree or otherwise. I just maintain that for someone who doesn't necessarily want to be a doctor, studying Medicine would be a monumental waste of their time.

From what I know, they don't study pathology in the same way medics do.

Actually I think you used a strawman on me, accusing me of only liking the theoretical aspect of medicine.

I like both, but from what you said earlier, it sounded like you thought the "lecture heavy" part of medicine was not very interesting and the real purpose was to get through that and get into practice. Which is fine, but not something I think everyone believes.

While maybe not the best use of their time, I wouldn't call it a monumental waste of time. There are some research scientists who do MD/PhDs and others who complete their degree and then go into full time research. I think that having that understanding of medicine and clinical medicine would help somewhat in their research nonetheless.

Because its interesting? Don't you find pathology interesting?

None of the degrees you listed fully covers what medicine teaches as you said. Each one will cover part for sure, but there is no degree that teaches all of what medicine teaches.. except for medicine.

Its completely possible to actually like the material in your degree not just treat it as a necessary element to practice as a doctor.

Fair enough. I still suspect that doing a five or six-year medical degree, then presumably at least FY1, and then likely a PhD somewhere down the line, would be an unnecessarily long route into a research career.

but you can't become a Doctor with any other degrees.

What a silly remark.

Professional doctorates

DBA - Doctor of Business Administration
DClinPsych - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
DDS - Doctor of Dental Surgery
DNursSc - Doctor of Nursing Science
DProf - Doctor of Professional Studies
EdChPsychD/DEdChPsy - Doctor of Educational and Child Psychology
HScD/DHSc - Doctor of Health Science
MD or DM - Doctor of Medicine
JD - Juris Doctor, Juris Doctorate, Doctor of Jurisprudence
DHealthPsy - Doctor of Health Psychology
DForensPsy - Doctor of Forensic Psychology
Intermediate doctorates[edit]
DPT - Doctor of Practical Theology
EdD/DEd - Doctor of Education
DMus or MusD - Doctor of Music
DMin - Doctor of Ministry
PhD or DPhil (University of Oxford, University of Sussex and a few others) - Doctor of Philosophy
SocScD - Doctor of Social Science
ThD - Doctor of Theology

Higher doctorates

DD - Doctor of Divinity
DCL - Doctor of Civil Law especially at Oxford
LLD - Doctor of Laws
DLitt or LittD - Doctor of Letters; London awards the analogous degree of DLit (Doctor of Literature)
DSc or ScD - Doctor of Science
EngD - Doctor of Engineering
DUniv - Doctor of the University


[shameless ripped from wiki]

then why did you do medicine then?

Because I didn't know at the time?

How do you relate me learning a great deal of crap at medical school with my decision to do medicine, as per the quote? How was I to know what I would be taught? Like you, I was sixteen at the time I made that irreversible decision to do sciences at A-level and bin off the humanities. Only with hindsight do I see my ignorance.

What would you have done instead, in hindsight?

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yeah, but you don't necessarily do something merely to become something, in this case a doctor or a researcher. the end product is no where as important as what you become pursuing the journey.

now, as long as you enjoy learning and can be fine with it for 6 years then its a good thing isn't it, no matter what you decide to do after that. i would rather go to a med school for this reason, for the sake of learning because you like it then go to med school to learn a bunch of 'useless and boring stuffs' and become a doctor at the end.
i am not saying that all doctors hates their degree and just endures med school just to become a doc, but my point is that your are not just wasting time and money doing medicine if you don't want to become a doctor. i agree with 'Okorange' in a way.

Despite, having a medical degree gives you more opportunities in the future than having just a bio medical degree, in case you were to change your mind. you can be a researcher with a medical degree or any other jobs that bio-medical degree leads to, but you can't become a Doctor with any other degrees.

personally, i want to do a MB/PHD because i like the prospect of a doctor and a researcher.

I had a very serious ambition throughout my entire childhood and early teens to become a pilot which went pear-shaped after 9/11 when the airline market crashed and there was no sponsored pilot schemes with the airlines.

I then thought about medicine after watching ER. I had always toyed with the idea of law, it's something that still interests me and I have an extracurricular activity involving it. Thinking about a part-time LLB as well.

No-one tells you about what life is like as a junior doctor (which is considerable, at least a decade). No-one tells you about the managerial aspects of being a consultant. All applicants really go on is a bit of TV and hearsay from others.

i feel sorry for what happened, but let me give you my perspective on this. don;t feel offended especially if i misunderstand you.

When you were 16 years old, YOU made a decision to apply for medicine for what ever reason. Sure it may be because you watched a TV and it wasn't an informed choice, but guess what you made a decision. Now OWN it! All of the time, nobody ever makes a right decision the first time, instead successful and truly happy people make their decision right. and i think its the time for you to do the same.

you may not like medical school and what you are learning, but trust me JUST ****ing go through it, instead of hating your life and living it full of misery. looking at the sort of post that you post on tsr it seems that 'thoughts' are getting the most of you. you are constantly thinking, taking and discussing about how **** your life has been at med school and that definitely is not helping. i don't know about you, but i can clearly see that you are not satisfied with your life at the moment. isn't that right? i am not going to delve more into this because i don't really know you and your situation but i feel like i have to offer this perspective to you.

this is the reality, you are not unsatisfied with your life because you go to a med school and you are reading boring stuffs, but in fact you are not satisfied because you are feeding your subconscious mind with these thoughts and you believe in them. you are all up in your head and you are not grounded. in order to be grounded and truly happy in life (i know this is what every soul want to be), i invite you to consider looking into meditation and self discovery. of course you don't have to do it, but i strongly recommend it and experience the change.
essentially, you want to stop "thinking" and realize that all of your thoughts are not true and listen to the true you. but, i will let you discover that for yourself.

i am just going to tell you to live now, and go through this experience. assuming that you are a medical student, i will tell you to work really hard and get this degree. i've already said this before but i will say it again. its not about the end result that's important, its what you become through the journey you go through. medicine or any degree in fact is a beautiful thing that not only will it give you a degree, it will develop you as a person and provide you with virtues that going to be important in what ever you decide to do later on. even if you decided to do LLB degree, you will become a better person not just because you decided to follow your inclination and go with law recently, but because of going though med school, having been disappointed and understanding the life as a junior doctor. you will be a better because of all the experience you went through. trust me. it has all happened for good, as long as you decide that it has.
also, have you thought of'Medical jurisprudence.' you dont have to be a consultant and work as a medical doctor with a medical degree. its amazing the ranges of things you can do. infact for this field you can put your medical understand to something you like.
even, if you are already a junior doctor, its not too late to make a decision to change your life, and even if you want to be a pilot, its not an impossible option that you can do.
also, why part time LLB if you don't want to become a doctor then don't be a doctor and always follow your heart.
and don't be offended or feel like i am downing you, if it implies to you then 'you are welcome' if not then just acknowledge this perspective. it may come to be helpful later on..