Birmingham A100 / A101 2020 Offer Holders

You and I are very similar — I would like an en-suite, leaning away from meal plan as I’m vegetarian, budget not really a constraint at this point and I’m also unsure of where good accommodation is... want easy commute, good accessibility to shops and restaurants!

Wouldn't mind being flatmates with you then XD
Where are you thinking of applying?

I liked Battery Park bc it’s a new, all en-suite, canal-front, near shops but it’s next to Selly Oak Station and I am not sure about the area in terms of safety etc. Looks amazing though!

Also, I considered Chamberlain tower one but heard they don’t have frequent cleaning, lifts often don’t work, and also it’s far from the university station. V unsure because I want lots of natural light and a good standard of living which seems to be hard to get from the pictures...

Don’t get too hung up about it. Birmingham ask you to choose 6 and allocate by ballot so you have a one in six chance of getting what you want.

Hi, Do we still need to complete the Health and Immunisation forms by 29th May?? And do they send them to us or do we have to print them out ourselves? I emailed admissions already and they didn’t really answer my question😂😂 I’m just so confused😂 Thank you!

I would say we have roughly 20 contact hours per week. 4/5 hours a week of this are small group teachings where we go over stuff in more detail and some are anatomy sessions. We need to prepare for these and it takes roughly an hour or so. The rest are lectures. Every second Thursday we have placement at GP and on the other Thursdays we do a presentation as part of PAS or professionals and academic skills. Most days we are in 9-5 or round about that time, but there are lots of gaps. I’m terms of self study, there’s the prep for small group or anatomy and then the rest is up to you really. Some people do lots of independent study whereas I managed to get away with relatively little and do well in my January exam, albeit with lots of Christmas. I’d probably recommend going over lecture material ASAP and making sure you know it, then do more if you choose to.

It’s worth noting that every week is different though so nothing is typical

With the immunisation forms. Do I need to give them to my GP? And then what happens?

You and I are very similar — I would like an en-suite, leaning away from meal plan as I’m vegetarian, budget not really a constraint at this point and I’m also unsure of where good accommodation is... want easy commute, good accessibility to shops and restaurants!

hey guys! even I am vegetarian and not the best cook around either xd. It would be nice to know you guys! looking for ensuite accomodation also. But i have taken meal plan, as it might be difficult to cook while balancing studies for medicine.

Hey, I'm a current third year so hopefully I can offer some insight into this.

I was in the same position as you when I started out. Looking back, I really don't think that even doing dissection would have made a difference. The first thing I truly appreciated prosection for was when you're trying to learn the massive amounts of anatomy, it really really helped to have someone who knew what they were doing lay it out for you. I honestly would not have known what I was looking for if I was doing the dissection myself.

Another thing is that you're really focused so much more on learning the anatomy rather than the surgery part itself. Dissection also really isn't surgery at all - all you're really doing is opening up the body and trying to pick specific organs/structures out. It has really very little to do with real surgery - you might as well practice on a whole chicken with surgical tools.

Another point I'd make is that at the point when you actually apply for surgery jobs, that is a minimum of 2 years after medical school. At that point, no one even looks at the university you went to, let alone if they did dissection or prosection. What they look more for is your surgical experience in your clinical years/foundation doctor years, and Birmingham is a really really great place to gain experience. Birmingham has far many hospitals that it is affiliated with compared to other medical schools, and of them many of them are huge centres for surgery (i.e. the Queen Elizabeth, Royal Wolverhampton, Royal Orthopaedic, Heartlands, etc), so you'll get tons of experience in surgery if you do come here!

Hi I have a question about the student selected components. Is there much variety in the student selected components of the course? and how many do you get?Thanks

@a-aron, @wcmedb and any other current Birmingham med students-how's the student support system like. Do you have a medic family? Thanks!