The Student Room Group

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Reply 1
There aren't good and bad medical schools. They're all good.
Reply 2
^ You mean they don't accept applicants with only A-Level credentials? How does that work then?
Reply 3
I'm not too sure - I know about 2 years ago, there was a story in either sBMJ or sBMA News (most likely the latter) about how 50% of 1st years had failed their end of years, and most failed the resit... The story then "went away" though...
Reply 4
It was sBMA news 2006 Fluffy, as I recall. I remember it was around the time I considered running for BMA representation at the end of my second year.
ILIGAN
I know it's a brand new medical school , so its system must still be struggling. But Warwick is such a fantastic uni, etc...does its prestige extends to its brand new medical school?

BTW, the Warwick teaching hospital is awesome!!!


Which one, there are a few...

And it is the oldest GEM course there is, IIRC. Someone feel free to correct me though.

:woo:
Reply 6
its a good uni
Reply 7
DrDomDom
They only run a graduate entry course - the 4 year one.

You have to have completed an undergraduate degree first before going on to do graduate medicine, like you would have to do at Warwick.


Thank you for the very detailed information. :smile:

So, Warwick is following a US Education system in as far as its application procedures for med school go. Nobody can get into med school in the US straight from high school. All med school applicants have got to have at least an undergrad degree before they can even apply.

The most popular preparatory course for med (which we call it pre-med over there) is BS Biology or otherwise known in the UK as BS Biological Sciences.
Reply 8
Fluffy
I'm not too sure - I know about 2 years ago, there was a story in either sBMJ or sBMA News (most likely the latter) about how 50% of 1st years had failed their end of years, and most failed the resit... The story then "went away" though...


Is that a good sign or is that a bad one?

It could be that WMS has got a very rigid academic/teaching standard.

What's you personal take on that?
Reply 9
Speedbird2008
Which one, there are a few...



This one: http://www.uhcw.nhs.uk/new/gallery

Warwick Medical School's teaching hospital. Never expected it to be that big and high-tech... It's totally awesome!
Very good, as with all medschools.
Reply 11
I believe St Georges was actually the first 4 year graduate course. Warwick followed some time later. It is the largest graduate entry course though with about 180 students per year. St Georges comes second with about 100. Most other 4 year schools are considerably smaller and are tacked onto existing 5 year programmes either running in parallel or merging entirely at some stage. E.g. grad merging straight into year 2 of the 5 year which is the case at Keele and some other places. I believe there are now 16 graduate entry schools, although warwick and swansea are the only graduate exclusive schools. Orignally Warwick was paired with Leicester who ran the 5 year programme but for some reason (not sure if there was a fall out or something) warwick seperated fully and leicester now has its own 4 year graduate entry course.

Ed Peilie, one of the professors at warwick wrote a fairly influential paper recently in the BMJ I believe where he basically called for a graduate only system citing as the principle reason serious failings with the current predicted grade setup where many students get less then BBB at as level yet get tutors to predict them AAA or AAB, grades that realistically they are unlikely to get. This then forces undergraduate schools to offer something like 300 candidates for 130 places because so many will fail to make their offers.
Aha, a Warwick thread! Fantastic :smile:

I've been here for over 2 weeks now and I've got to admit, and take this seriously, it is hard work and is going to be VERY hard work over 4 years. The university doesn't take slackers lightly and expects us to attend all lectures (or receive disciplinary action) and seminars, as well as all other classes.

But the medical school is amazing. Honestly, we've received all the info we could ever want to do well. Each handbook we get has all the reading we need to do, self-assessment exercises and further info, as well as lecture slides. The teachers are all very enthusiastic, and we learn in groups following lectures to re-emphasise knowledge, which helps things sink in and prepares you for self-directed learning in your own time.

We're doing community placements from the word GO also, which is brilliant. Warwick focusses quite heavily on producing well-rounded doctors who communicate well. They basically plan their curriciulum around the guidelines set by the GMC in "Tomorrow's Doctors", and as a result it's quite heavy on sociology. But our placements are great. We interview patients in 2 weeks time, which is an amazing progression considering thats on week 4 of semester 1. Properly interviewing for an hour! Those poor, poor people.

But yes, I've got to stop singing their praises. I think, to summarise:
- Warwick's an amazing place to study medicine, but only if you're 100% dedicated to a career as a doctor. Those with doubts are weeded out I'm afraid to say. So far, 2 people have left our course already following realism hitting home during the first fortnight.

Any further questions, ask me please :smile:
Reply 13
graemematt
Aha, a Warwick thread! Fantastic :smile:

I've been here for over 2 weeks now and I've got to admit, and take this seriously, it is hard work and is going to be VERY hard work over 4 years. The university doesn't take slackers lightly and expects us to attend all lectures (or receive disciplinary action) and seminars, as well as all other classes.

But the medical school is amazing. Honestly, we've received all the info we could ever want to do well. Each handbook we get has all the reading we need to do, self-assessment exercises and further info, as well as lecture slides. The teachers are all very enthusiastic, and we learn in groups following lectures to re-emphasise knowledge, which helps things sink in and prepares you for self-directed learning in your own time.

We're doing community placements from the word GO also, which is brilliant. Warwick focusses quite heavily on producing well-rounded doctors who communicate well. They basically plan their curriciulum around the guidelines set by the GMC in "Tomorrow's Doctors", and as a result it's quite heavy on sociology. But our placements are great. We interview patients in 2 weeks time, which is an amazing progression considering thats on week 4 of semester 1. Properly interviewing for an hour! Those poor, poor people.

But yes, I've got to stop singing their praises. I think, to summarise:
- Warwick's an amazing place to study medicine, but only if you're 100% dedicated to a career as a doctor. Those with doubts are weeded out I'm afraid to say. So far, 2 people have left our course already following realism hitting home during the first fortnight.

Any further questions, ask me please :smile:


Very well said, i couldn't agree more with what graemematt has said.

I have to say the first week or two i really wondered if this was where i was meant to be, and if it was what i wanted to do. However, we had the group work with Clinical Education Fellows to help us really cement in our knowledge, and our placements in the community (which started today!) were so much more than i expected. These two vital aspects of the course have confirmed in a few days that this is exactly where i am meant to be, and exactly where i deserve to be after all my hard work.

And the hard work doesn't stop now. I'm not kidding myself as to how difficult life will be doing a GEP but that kind of makes it more of a challenge, which i relish! Warwick has been absolutely fantastic to us and the facilities provided really are top notch. And the teaching hospital is second to none in my opinion. Anyone accepted onto Warwick's Medical Course should be honoured and proud that they are part of such an outstanding institution.

/rant

EDIT: See you tomorrow graemematt :biggrin:
Reply 14
wideawake
A few points in response to airtones' post (written simply because procrastination is better than getting ready to leave the house and head to uni):

SGUL GEP and Warwick GEP both started in 2000.

SGUL currently has approx 80 students/year on the GEP course (it started with ~35 in each year). Notts/Derby have about 90 students/year.

Leicester started a 4 year course at the same time as Warwick.

Keele does not have a GEP course.

Derby is also graduate exclusive (it is run in conjunction with Notts in the same way Swansea is with Cardiff).



Keele do have a GEP course as of this year (http://www.keele.ac.uk/undergraduate/undergraduate_medicine.htm)
Reply 15
They took their first intake this year, they've already started. Its quite a unique course though, students literally merge directly into year 2 of the 5 year with limited prior training.

If you look at the GMC quality assurance of medical schools notes over here it seems they have/had their doubts about it to:

"We have some unresolved questions regarding the proposed GEP which will
give direct entry into the standard Year 2. Students will miss the first year of the
course, the content of which would not necessarily be covered by their first degree.
The School plans to carry out a needs analysis on each graduate and provide a twoweek
bridging course prior to the graduates directly entering the standard Year 2
curriculum. We remain to be convinced that the two-week bridging course will be
adequate given the highly integrated nature of the new Keele curriculum"


It will be interesting to see how they do.
Reply 16
graemematt
Aha, a Warwick thread! Fantastic :smile:

I've been here for over 2 weeks now and I've got to admit, and take this seriously, it is hard work and is going to be VERY hard work over 4 years. The university doesn't take slackers lightly and expects us to attend all lectures (or receive disciplinary action) and seminars, as well as all other classes.

But the medical school is amazing. Honestly, we've received all the info we could ever want to do well. Each handbook we get has all the reading we need to do, self-assessment exercises and further info, as well as lecture slides. The teachers are all very enthusiastic, and we learn in groups following lectures to re-emphasise knowledge, which helps things sink in and prepares you for self-directed learning in your own time.

We're doing community placements from the word GO also, which is brilliant. Warwick focusses quite heavily on producing well-rounded doctors who communicate well. They basically plan their curriciulum around the guidelines set by the GMC in "Tomorrow's Doctors", and as a result it's quite heavy on sociology. But our placements are great. We interview patients in 2 weeks time, which is an amazing progression considering thats on week 4 of semester 1. Properly interviewing for an hour! Those poor, poor people.

But yes, I've got to stop singing their praises. I think, to summarise:
- Warwick's an amazing place to study medicine, but only if you're 100% dedicated to a career as a doctor. Those with doubts are weeded out I'm afraid to say. So far, 2 people have left our course already following realism hitting home during the first fortnight.

Any further questions, ask me please :smile:


Wow!!! It was such a wealth of information.

So, what are the WMS grads called after they finished med school there? Are they called Postgrad Medicine or something?

How are they different from those UK unis that let students start med straight right from A-Levels?
Reply 17
When students leave 4 year graduate courses they are identical in name, qualification and role to the 5 year courses. It depends which uni you go to, for example warwick handle their 4 year course very much as a PG degree and everything is handled through the PG admissions team on the whole. Other unis see it still as an undergrad degree just of a different type.

Ed Peile, one of the profs at warwick wrote a pretty intersting article for the BMJ a while ago here: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7629/1072 where he is clear he favours a graduate only british medical system. It makes for an interesting read and really it seems like theres a lot of sense behind what he says. I think now tradition and the financial implications of changign the system are the motives for 5 years more than any other reason. Almost always the highest quality doctors are the graduates for the obvious reason they have 2-3 years more education on average.
Reply 18
airtones
When students leave 4 year graduate courses they are identical in name, qualification and role to the 5 year courses. It depends which uni you go to, for example warwick handle their 4 year course very much as a PG degree and everything is handled through the PG admissions team on the whole. Other unis see it still as an undergrad degree just of a different type.


To be honest, although the course is called graduate entry, and although the medical school still treat us like postgrads, Warwick University in general still class us as undergrads, and our uni ID cards say we are undergrads. Presumably because we haven't graduated from that particular uni.
Reply 19
Graduate entry medicine is an UNDERGRADUATE course.