Warwick biomedical science

Hi

I've just finished my second year so I can help you guys out.

1) That link from Lethorio shows all the modules. They're all fairly interesting. The options were (when I did them) Quantitative Biology, Environmental Biology, Animal and Plant Biology, Health and the Community and a psychology module. This might have changed but I think it was the same last year so maybe not.

2) When I did the first year exams (bear in mind that this was two years ago), there was a variety of exam styles, including half MCQ, half short answers (PGG, I think), just multiple choice (AID and Phys and Met), computer-based (Biostats) and half short answers, half essay (optional modules). Cells, Tissues and Organisms wasn't a module when I did first year, so I can't tell you about that.

3) There isn't really a syllabus so to speak, but I can give you an idea of each of the modules-
- PGG is your basic grounding in human biology (lots of eukaryotic cell structure and transcription/translation sorts of things)
- AID is an introduction to immunology, microbiology and virology, with a bit of population biology thrown in
- Phys and Met is quite a bit of biochemistry in the Met section (the reactions that make up respiration and photosynthesis mainly) and the Phys stuff is split up into sections like respiratory physiology, cardio, muscle function etc.
- Biostats is all done on Excel, about learning how to interpret experimental data (a lot of people struggle a bit in this module, just to warn you, but there is a new Mac Suite with c. 150 Macs which the lectures are taught in and makes it about a thousand times easier than when I did the course)
- Health and the Community (an optional) is about stuff like water-borne diseases and food poisoning and disease outbreaks, with a bit of bioterrorism thrown in which was brilliant and everyone's favourite part (I would really recommend doing this module as a biomed - it's the only one which is properly relevant to the course)
- Animal and Plant Biology (an optional) is basically simple evolution with certain bits focused on (frogs and sponges spring to mind...) - a lot of biomeds hate it because it is hard and not relevant so people don't want to bother trying, but if you're vaguely interested in evolution it is good, although I found the plant bit awfully dull despite enjoying the animal/human side

I hope that helps you, and I'm really happy to answer any more specific questions you might have You'll enjoy Warwick - it's amazing!

Hi!
All your advice has been super helpful on here, but just wanted to ask, on average, how much work would you say needs to be put in after lectures and on weekends to obtain a good score for the year? Would you say you were studying every weekday afternoon? Also do biomed students typically have paper notes or digital notes?

Oh good, I'm glad you found it useful!

Hmm, that's a tricky one. I have to say that I can't give you a definite answer, simply because I didn't work hard enough in first year. I did all my assignments and lab reports and revision just fine, but I didn't keep up with writing up lecture notes and making sure I understood everything, which lead to a hugely stressful revision period and I absolutely do not recommend doing this. That being said, I still got a First at the end of first year, but only because for two weeks before my exam period I had three hours of sleep a night and just about killed myself.

Urgh, I'm rambling because I really don't have a clear answer to this question. I'd say that it's not necessary to have to work late every night and all weekend to get an excellent grade in first year (as I got a First). My best advice would probably to be work a 9 til 5 day (or 11 til 7, 12 til 8 - you get the point) - there will be many hours of the day when you're not in lectures and the temptation is to stay in bed until midday or just lounge around when you get back from your 10 o'clock lecture and have nothing to do all day. When necessary, evenings and weekends can then be used to work on lab reports and to revise for the in-module tests that you have every two or three weeks. That's what I wish I'd done.

About paper versus digital notes, I'm not sure if you mean notes taken in lectures or notes written up afterwards, so I'll answer both! In lectures, most lecturers hand out notes, which basically consist of their lecture slides printed out, which students can then annotate. The vast majority of people take notes like this, and many go so far as to print out their own copies as not all lecturers bring notes with them (for some modules they have to print out c. 250 copies!). People do written-up notes in a wide variety of ways - some people write things up on note-paper, collating information from their notes, the lecture slides and books/the internet, other people do the same on their laptop and then print out, other people make mind-maps and charts and so on. I personally do it the other way around - I have an exercise book for each module which I take notes in in lectures and then I annotate the lecture slides when I'm reviewing the lectures, but my friends all think I'm weird for doing that!

Oh, and I'll give you one piece of advice for free - do NOT leave lab reports and revision for in-module tests to the last night! It's not like school, where you can scramble together a coherent piece of work in a couple of hours. Lab reports especially take a LOT of time - I remembering sitting with my lab partner for over an hour puzzling over the instructions for a lab report before we could even start writing or calculating anything at all, and that was a fairly common occurrence. The main reason that people get bad marks for them is because they don't leave themselves enough time, or they just give up. On a Friday evening at 7 o'clock when you've been in the lab for six hours, the last thing you want to do is start the report, but the earlier you start it the better you will remember what you did - it is surprising how quickly you can forget the little details, and sometimes forgetting the little details means you will struggle a lot unless someone else has remembered and can remind you. I hope that hasn't scared you, but it's something I wish someone had told me.

(Wow, this reply is not a lesson in brevity, but I hope you find something useful amongst the ramble.)

for practicals do you have a lab partner or is it all done by yourself?

How are labs, generally? Do you find them boring? I'm worrying that maybe I don't have enough passion for science for this degree, and lab work may be dull?!

Hi

I've just finished my second year so I can help you guys out.

1) That link from Lethorio shows all the modules. They're all fairly interesting. The options were (when I did them) Quantitative Biology, Environmental Biology, Animal and Plant Biology, Health and the Community and a psychology module. This might have changed but I think it was the same last year so maybe not.

2) When I did the first year exams (bear in mind that this was two years ago), there was a variety of exam styles, including half MCQ, half short answers (PGG, I think), just multiple choice (AID and Phys and Met), computer-based (Biostats) and half short answers, half essay (optional modules). Cells, Tissues and Organisms wasn't a module when I did first year, so I can't tell you about that.

3) There isn't really a syllabus so to speak, but I can give you an idea of each of the modules-
- PGG is your basic grounding in human biology (lots of eukaryotic cell structure and transcription/translation sorts of things)
- AID is an introduction to immunology, microbiology and virology, with a bit of population biology thrown in
- Phys and Met is quite a bit of biochemistry in the Met section (the reactions that make up respiration and photosynthesis mainly) and the Phys stuff is split up into sections like respiratory physiology, cardio, muscle function etc.
- Biostats is all done on Excel, about learning how to interpret experimental data (a lot of people struggle a bit in this module, just to warn you, but there is a new Mac Suite with c. 150 Macs which the lectures are taught in and makes it about a thousand times easier than when I did the course)
- Health and the Community (an optional) is about stuff like water-borne diseases and food poisoning and disease outbreaks, with a bit of bioterrorism thrown in which was brilliant and everyone's favourite part (I would really recommend doing this module as a biomed - it's the only one which is properly relevant to the course)
- Animal and Plant Biology (an optional) is basically simple evolution with certain bits focused on (frogs and sponges spring to mind...) - a lot of biomeds hate it because it is hard and not relevant so people don't want to bother trying, but if you're vaguely interested in evolution it is good, although I found the plant bit awfully dull despite enjoying the animal/human side

I hope that helps you, and I'm really happy to answer any more specific questions you might have You'll enjoy Warwick - it's amazing!

I found the lab work fairly dull on the whole - some bits were fun and interesting, but they didnt especially excite me. But I always knew I didnt want to work in a lab or do a lab-based PhD afterwards, and I still really enjoyed the theory side of the degree (which makes up much more of the course). Despite finding it dull, I still averaged much higher in labs than my other modules/work!

Hey! Thanks for all this info - v. helpful Can I ask what you're doing now (further study/job etc.) Cheers

So I just did one year of Biomed at Warwick before changing course (just because I didn't feel it was a useful degree for me personally).

Loopy456 explained the modules really well but I think that it's worth mentioning that on top of that you may have to do a Chemistry for Biologists unit if you didn't do Chem at A Level, instead of one of the other optional modules. I had to do this and it was really helpful because a big amount of PGG requires you to understand chemistry so for the first half of the first term I barely understood this module... Anyway, Chemistry for Biologists was assessed by a set of take-home questions at the end of term 1 and an online multiple choice test in term 3 which, if you've done the online classwork every week, is pretty easy.

Another optional module you have is that you can over-CAT and do Brain and Behaviour. I wasn't allowed to take it because Chem already counted as my external module, but it's run by the psychology department and is supposed to be really interesting but is a hell of a lot of work.

On op of your written, multiple choice and online exams you'll also be assessed through your lab work - we had 2 every 3 weeks and had to write a 3 page (not including images) lab report for each one. And you'll be assessed for your tutorial work and things like assessed essays through out the year but this is relatively small in comparison with other modules.

So I just did one year of Biomed at Warwick before changing course (just because I didn't feel it was a useful degree for me personally).

Loopy456 explained the modules really well but I think that it's worth mentioning that on top of that you may have to do a Chemistry for Biologists unit if you didn't do Chem at A Level, instead of one of the other optional modules. I had to do this and it was really helpful because a big amount of PGG requires you to understand chemistry so for the first half of the first term I barely understood this module... Anyway, Chemistry for Biologists was assessed by a set of take-home questions at the end of term 1 and an online multiple choice test in term 3 which, if you've done the online classwork every week, is pretty easy.

Another optional module you have is that you can over-CAT and do Brain and Behaviour. I wasn't allowed to take it because Chem already counted as my external module, but it's run by the psychology department and is supposed to be really interesting but is a hell of a lot of work.

On op of your written, multiple choice and online exams you'll also be assessed through your lab work - we had 2 every 3 weeks and had to write a 3 page (not including images) lab report for each one. And you'll be assessed for your tutorial work and things like assessed essays through out the year but this is relatively small in comparison with other modules.

I am just wondering how hard is the Chemistry module? I haven't done chemistry since GCSE (I got an A). I didn't find it hard- but just worried because I haven't studied it in a while. Are there are books I can read before I start to brush up on my basic chemistry? Thanks!

I am just wondering how hard is the Chemistry module? I haven't done chemistry since GCSE (I got an A). I didn't find it hard- but just worried because I haven't studied it in a while. Are there are books I can read before I start to brush up on my basic chemistry? Thanks!

So I just did one year of Biomed at Warwick before changing course (just because I didn't feel it was a useful degree for me personally).

Loopy456 explained the modules really well but I think that it's worth mentioning that on top of that you may have to do a Chemistry for Biologists unit if you didn't do Chem at A Level, instead of one of the other optional modules. I had to do this and it was really helpful because a big amount of PGG requires you to understand chemistry so for the first half of the first term I barely understood this module... Anyway, Chemistry for Biologists was assessed by a set of take-home questions at the end of term 1 and an online multiple choice test in term 3 which, if you've done the online classwork every week, is pretty easy.

Another optional module you have is that you can over-CAT and do Brain and Behaviour. I wasn't allowed to take it because Chem already counted as my external module, but it's run by the psychology department and is supposed to be really interesting but is a hell of a lot of work.

On op of your written, multiple choice and online exams you'll also be assessed through your lab work - we had 2 every 3 weeks and had to write a 3 page (not including images) lab report for each one. And you'll be assessed for your tutorial work and things like assessed essays through out the year but this is relatively small in comparison with other modules.