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Do not go to st georges university

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I urge every single student who is thinking about going to St George’s University of London TO NOT GO THERE. This university is totally and utterly pathetic. They have driven students mental health to points I didn’t even know were possible.
Students in 2nd year are given the general topic of what there LAQ will be on however this university has yet again the university has failed its students. To see a lecturer laugh knowing how much the student's genuinely struggled with the question is dissapointing. The hint set us up for failure right from the start they were better off not telling us anything so that we would know to study everything. The course team should take the time to analyse the lectures that the LAQ was based on so they can see where we are coming from. It's frustrating when you actually have a good understanding of monogenic diseases and the question is anything but...
I distinctly remember the very culture of biomedical science exams at this uni being presented as exam questions not being made for students to fail or to be tripped up, but to be able to showcase their knowledge. Plain and simply, the LAQ proved we’ve been lied to. It shows us that the uni clearly has no concern for the toxic environment they have created by luring 200+ biomed students with a less than 10% chance of transferring to medicine, only to show no support or real encouragement along the way. Instead, we are met with unprofessionalism and apathy, from lectures being released late, to lectures being RECYCLED from past years. Now, with arguably the most important exams 2nd biomed students have sat to date, we receive an LAQ topic with a prompt that couldn’t get more obscure if we tried. It comes as no surprise that this uni has one of the lowest student satisfaction rates, a fact I wish I knew prior to wasting time and money coming here, as well as regularly compromising my mental health to try to succeed in an institution that has shown time and again that it doesn’t want me to.

THIS UNIVERSITY IS BY FAR THE WORST UNIVERSITY TO GO TO. PLEASE DO NOT GO HERE YOU WILL REGRET IT.
(edited 2 years ago)

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Reply 1
Hello , thank you for your message, yes I agree, however a lot of us have fallen into this trap and this university exploits us. Sooooo many of the student who go to this uni end up with terrible mental health conditions and the UNIVER does nothing. After misleading us about the exam question the lecturer who set the question was seen LAUGHING at the students. It’s is truly disgraceful
Reply 2
It's good advice in general, to not go into a degree with the hope of transferring to another. Universities are quite keen to get bums on seats so some are very happy to misrepresent one or two students occasionally getting to transfer as some usual thing. Obviously this isn't applicable to medicine since this might be the only promise of a place they get, but generally if you're choosing between a course that you don't really want to do with the possibility of transfer at your top choice versus a course that you love at one of your middle choices, you should take the middle choice. It's a very bad way to start a university experience. If you want to take up the first place you should be very sure you wouldn't mind staying on the original course.
(edited 2 years ago)
Yes I heard that St Georges have stopped the biomed to medicine transfer
Reply 4
They haven’t yet but they will soon. Even without that this university is HORRIBLE.
Agree
I would point out all unis recycle lectures between years as module content normally only gets reviewed every 3 or 4 years, so it's the same content being taught each year anyway...
Reply 7
What is an LAQ?
Reply 8
As to the above: in my course it's not unusual for the notes to be at least several years old, usually the notes are inherited from lecturer to lecturer, with each making their own tweaks but not majorly altering the content. Not unknown for a new lecturer to shake it up and completely change the course though.
Reply 9
Original post by Sinnoh
What is an LAQ?


It is a long answer question
Sort of an essay and we get 50 minutes to write it
Original post by artful_lounger
I would point out all unis recycle lectures between years as module content normally only gets reviewed every 3 or 4 years, so it's the same content being taught each year anyway...

That is not the problem we have as a cohort. We are paying soooo much money from them to not only recycle the lectures but also the exam questions. They use this an an excuse not to make a question bank. These lecturers are also seen giggling after the exam at our distress

As to the above: in my course it's not unusual for the notes to be at least several years old, usually the notes are inherited from lecturer to lecturer, with each making their own tweaks but not majorly altering the content. Not unknown for a new lecturer to shake it up and completely change the course though.


Don’t get me wrong we have a few good lectures but most of them are not it.
I have just firmed St George’s so of course this thread is a bit alarming. Are any of you studying Physiotherapy?
Original post by Daniellaphysio
I have just firmed St George’s so of course this thread is a bit alarming. Are any of you studying Physiotherapy?


I’m studying Biomed but my friends who study Physiotherapy have had similar experiences.
If you can I would very much urge you to go to a different university.
Original post by Anonymous
That is not the problem we have as a cohort. We are paying soooo much money from them to not only recycle the lectures but also the exam questions. They use this an an excuse not to make a question bank.


Again, absolutely standard at uni. This is why they don't release mark schemes for past papers normally.

You need to get out of the school "learning to the exam" and "customised lessons" mentality and realise at uni you are primarily responsible for your studies, not the lecturers.

This is not a problem of the uni, this is a problem of you having wildly inaccurate expectations of what a uni student should be and do.
Original post by Anonymous
I’m studying Biomed but my friends who study Physiotherapy have had similar experiences.
If you can I would very much urge you to go to a different university.

How did the interview to transfer go?
Original post by Anonymous
How did the interview to transfer go?


The interview has not happened yet.

Many have stated that a reason we may have been given such a misleading question is so that they can decrease the number of interviews they will have to do.
Original post by Anonymous
The interview has not happened yet.

Many have stated that a reason we may have been given such a misleading question is so that they can decrease the number of interviews they will have to do.

Oh I thought you get an interview based off your exam %???
The recycling of lectures isn't such a huge issue. My main deal is the LAQ. We we're given a title "Monogenic disorders' but 50% of the paper was on Alzheimer's disease. Below is the definition I hold of Monogenic disorders. Please tell me if this is incorrect.

"Monogenic disorders are cause by a mutation in a single gene which is responsible for the majority of phenotypic characteristics that manifest when one has that mutation"

Bearing this in mind Alzheimer's to me is not a Monogenic disorder because there are 2 major proteins responsible for increasing the risk. Amyloid plaques and tau proteins. Even these are just a hypothesis and there is no consensus if one is dominant over the other.

Clearly the topic misled 200+ students.
Original post by Anonymous
The recycling of lectures isn't such a huge issue. My main deal is the LAQ. We we're given a title "Monogenic disorders' but 50% of the paper was on Alzheimer's disease. Below is the definition I hold of Monogenic disorders. Please tell me if this is incorrect.

"Monogenic disorders are cause by a mutation in a single gene which is responsible for the majority of phenotypic characteristics that manifest when one has that mutation"

Bearing this in mind Alzheimer's to me is not a Monogenic disorder because there are 2 major proteins responsible for increasing the risk. Amyloid plaques and tau proteins. Even these are just a hypothesis and there is no consensus if one is dominant over the other.

Clearly the topic misled 200+ students.

I don't think one bit of misleading advanced information, which was only wrong for half the paper, and one rude lecturer is a reason that the whole university is totally pathetic?
Original post by artful_lounger
Again, absolutely standard at uni. This is why they don't release mark schemes for past papers normally.

You need to get out of the school "learning to the exam" and "customised lessons" mentality and realise at uni you are primarily responsible for your studies, not the lecturers.

This is not a problem of the uni, this is a problem of you having wildly inaccurate expectations of what a uni student should be and do.


not when the questions are not of the standard of the exams- our formative is releases weeks before and is so easy that its almost laughable to do because it isn't a real representative. Last year when we were online, I did the formative and felt relieved since it was A level content- i believed it was something similar to the real exams because: a) the university gave this as the only form of exam practice and b) everyone says a levels year 13 is harder than university so this is what I thought it meant.
I came out of that exam and cried so hard. Understandable they will not give us questions that are recycled but it shouldn't be a representative.

P.S. universities do give out past papers to help with exam practice and feel more prepared. My friends and sisters and other acquaintances got to different universities with similar courses and not one said that they don't get past papers. Nobody is complaining about the fact that we are responsible for our studies- we are responsible to understand and learn the content. But there should be some level of care and whatnot to aid us. If not, then don't advertise it.

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