Barts or Peninsula ??? :S

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Reply 20

winter_mute

Original post by bloody_student

Barts for being close to mother****ing Shoreditch!

Ewwww.

Reply 21

Beska

I stayed in a hotel near Shoreditch recently. It had a brothel across the road. :h:

Reply 22

winter_mute

Original post by Beska

I stayed in a hotel near Shoreditch recently. It had a brothel across the road. :h:

I bet the hookers wore jeggings and all had waxed moustaches and worked "In media" on the side. I bloody hate that place.

Reply 23

Medicine Man

Original post by purplefrog

Barts all the way:
- London
- Teaching hospitals <3
- Exposure to wider range of diseases
- Probably the best at delivering PBL out of all the PBL Schools
- You're not segregated as much as you are in Peninsula with other courses

In comparison between the two, I think the only downside with Barts is the London cost (though it will be cheaper than more central locations like where Imperial is), maybe the area is a bit run down and at Peninsula it is prettier with the sea.

Wise words.
:wink:

Reply 24

purplefrog

Original post by Medicine Man

Wise words.
:wink:

and to think I've not even applied to Barts :p:

Brilliant Medschool though :biggrin:

Reply 25

Alex D

Original post by winter_mute

I bet the hookers wore jeggings and all had waxed moustaches and worked "In media" on the side. I bloody hate that place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVmmYMwFj1I :wink:

Reply 26

Democracy

Original post by Alex D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVmmYMwFj1I :wink:

The ~~funny~~ sad thing is that I actually know someone who fulfills every single stereotype in that song :tongue:

What a ****.

Reply 27

Renal

Original post by purplefrog

Much as I loved my time at The London, I would take issue with some of your points. The two bug teaching hospitals are very famous and all but every medical school has at least one hospital that will provide a similar level of clinical exposure and, to be honest, Barts is a bit of a damp ****hole and i hated the teaching at The London, I had much better firms at da Hom, Broomfield, Queens and S'end.

And why are you no longer segregated? What the **** happened? Are they making the crayon munching geography students do five years of full year course or something?

Reply 28

ImWithTheBand

Not related to the merits of either course but it might be fun to be close to the 2012 Olympics.

Good luck whetever you decide.

Reply 29

mrs_bellamy

Just thought I would add some pros of Peninsula, as this thread has been pretty Bart's-centered so far.

Advantages of Peninsula:
- Some lovely places, beaches and countryside.
- Being in rural places adds an interesting slant sometimes e.g. its quite common for things to happen in the middle of no-where and have to consider what to do in an emergency on your own miles away from a hospital.
- Of course I cannot compare properly to other places as I have only been to one, but generally I am pretty happy with the course at Peninsula, its well structured and they've really listened to students and developed the course a lot over the past few years.
- Our year group is very close and friendly. I know everyone in it pretty well. Although our exams are competitive and we will compete for jobs, I've never really felt particularly in competition with the rest of my year. I have no idea what Bart's is like, but I have heard at some medical schools students can be quite competitive and underhand, but I have never experienced anything like this here.

Disadvantages:
- If you start at Exeter rather than Plymouth, you are quite segregated from other students
- Sometimes have to travel fairly long distances for placements (although they do reimburse us a bit for this)
- Intercalating is selective, so if your really keen to do this then maybe don't pick Peninsula
- We don't do dissection. This hasn't really bothered me too much, but some people seem really against the idea of not doing it.

Reply 30

ilovehotchocolate

I would suggest really sitting down and looking at the courses, because if you don't like how you are studying, what you are studying and how you are examined on it, you really won't enjoy yourself.

Bart's has a good name because it is a London school. Peninsula does things very differently and is making a name for itself by churning out technically brilliant, capable foundation Doctors. We don't have as much hard core science teaching as other places, we're much more clinically orientated, everyone is very friendly, there's loads of opportunities to see things and get involved with stuff so I don't think you'd be disadvantaged by not being in London. Loads of our lecturers come from London because they prefer the ace of life down here. Some people really don't like the lack of science lectures, it's much more teach yourself orientated. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but do you have the motivation to do it and is that how you learn best? We make up for it by doing a lot more clinical stuff early - things I have heard 5th years at other places worry about passing competencies on we can't pass into third year unless we can do well. Also, having done a degree where the exam style really wasn't my strength, I love these applied medical knowledge tests - multiple choice, negatively marked, set at junior Dr level so you aren't supposed to know all the answers at my level, not very easy to revise for since it covers such a broad spectrum of topics. Some people really worry that they aren't getting essay questions and writing papers on each of the different core areas of medicine like the pharmacology, anatomy, physiology, microbiology etc. It does frustrate me a little that some people just guess all the answers and get more marks than me, but I at least know that my mark truly reflects my knowledge. Equally, people don't like that we don't do dissection or pro-section, but the facilities and resources we have available to us are outstanding, so I honestly don't think it makes a difference. We have Aclands video's on-line so you can watch dissections of a particular area with commentary and labels over and over, we have lectures that talk through the anatomy, we have life science sessions where we see the anatomy on plastic models, life models and draw it on each other and then clinical skills where we feel and test the anatomy as part of systems exams. You really do get to build a picture of it from all different angles and sources in your mind. In my opinion, far better than a dissection you can cut/observe once.

That said, I don't know how Barts do things, but I know that Peninsula is the school for me and I am so happy I got a place here. It fits my learning style perfectly and I picked this place from reading about all the different schools when I first applied. I also know people who were left with this choice as their only offer and complain about bits because they don't really want to be here. So congratulations on your two offers, which one suits you best?

Reply 31

robkmac

^ I agree with the above post - being a 2nd Year at PCMD is great and I would hate a lecture based course. Also dissection seems so far up peoples' expections on medical schools. I can really recongise that it could be useful cutting up a body however our live anatomy sessions seems good and intense.
The AMK exam is great at peninsula - my peers will shoot me for this! But it is at a F2 level exam and the same way the memberships exams are in. Also our clinical skills are really good - they teach us to canulate in the 2nd year and you have to pass a competency!