Manchester Medicine Course

Hey,

It's PBL. You study 1 case a week. You read the case and look at the problems mentioned in it and look into various things from that case.

You open the case in your group on a Monday. You all read the case together and pick out pointers and cues to form your learning agenda. That's basically what you need to go away and learn that week.

During the week, you have 6 lectures. Each 1 hour long. These relate to that weeks case. You also have just under 2 hours of anatomy in a week which also relates to the case. And every week, you'll have around 2 hours of communication skills. Where you go and practice communication, how to speak to patients and take histories etc.

Then on Friday, you'll get together in your group again and close the case. You all discuss what you've found and learnt that week. Share information and see if there's anything you missed or that you still need to look into. You also then have a 1 hour lecture to wrap up the week/case.

That's the first semester of Year 1 anyway. You do a total of 8 cases. In between you have Clinical Experience visits. So you visit a hospital and 2 GP's.

At the end of each semester, you have an end of semester test. So it's a 125 question multiple choice exam. You also have to take a Progress Test. This is an exam taken by every medical student from Y1-Y5. All take the same exam. It's just to chart how you're progressing throughout your time at med school. Doesn't really matter or mean much in the first year.

Also assessed with OSCE's and a poster project that you have to do.

Hope that helps!

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for. Just to clarify, how much time are you in the Hospital/GP's in the first and second year? Is it a weekly visit?
Thank you!

Nope. First and Second year is pre-clinical so you spend most of the time doing what I said. Hospital/GP visits are limited to around 3 per semester. The hospital visit is all day and the GP visits are half day each.

So in the first two years (before the clinical years where you spend almost all your time in the hospital), you have 6 GP visits and around 6 hospital visits in total. These are scattered throughout the semesters.

Hope this helps and good luck with the interview!

If you need any more info, feel free to ask. I'll try and answer as best I can - any excuse to get away from revision :P

Ah, yes this makes sense now! Thank you so much! How are you finding the course and PBL as a whole? Are you enjoying it at Manchester? Anything you dislike?

Thanks once again!!

Can honestly say that I'm loving it at the moment. Nothing that I dislike. The course seems fun and interesting. Varied enough to keep you interested. Enough components to not get bored and keep you on your toes. Laid back enough to not be stressed all the time but not too laid back that you're not doing enough. Good support from the Med School and other students. Always meeting people with the groups you're in.

Can't think of anything I dislike. Yet. I'll let you know if I do :P

PBL is different. I quite like going away and finding out information myself. Self guided learning. I can see how it might not be for everyone though. You have enough lectures to guide your learning too and provide you with a sense of depth of knowledge that you need to know.

All in all, I love it.

Sounds amazing! Do you have any tips for preparation for my interview next week. MMIs are really difficult to prepare for (Or so I've Heard) So not sure what to do in terms of prep, any advice?
Thanks

Looking back, I can say that the information provided on the Manchester Med website is the most useful. I'll paste it below. Think about them all. Questions around the points and also practicing doing them as they may test your ability to be able to do some of them...

hey! I have an interview next week also, though I am super nervous. How is your preparation going? More specifically, have you come up with answer to the 'why not a nurse?' question?

Preparartion is alright. What i found really helpful using the list of questions on the isc website to practice with and all the news stuff on the medic portal. But i think your answer is pretty good because truth be told the margin between a nurse and doctor is becoming more blurred. Good luck!😊😊

Have any post interview offers/ rejections been given out?

Have any post interview offers/ rejections been given out?