Pros and cons of your med school?

Bute:

Pros:


You can do an MBChB with BSc(Hons) in 5 years - the only place where you can do this. I thought you could do this at Nottingham?

Cons:

The school is too far up the GMC's arse.. too much reflection, portfolioing etc etc
Not a lot of clinical medicine, only three afternoons in the whole of first year More than enough. What can you do when you don't know much yet? Imo it'd be a waste of time having any more placements as we don't learn much from them at this stage and can't do much
8ams... We've not had any 8ams...yet!
Pharmacology is a history lesson, not at all clinically focused, indeed some of it is boredering in dangerous, very outdated course. True, but as the pharma dude says, we're doing a BSc here

- No past papers Oh really?

- Some of the lecturers we're too stuck in their way and seem to refuse to budge. I often found myself in a lecture where there was either way too much information being thrown at me to possibly digest, or so little that it was frustratingly repetitive and boring. Whilst I said in the Pro's section that most of the lecturers were good, I dont doubt their expertise, but some of the lectures we're badly spread out and lacked structure. Yep!


- A lack of real clinical exposure. I felt the tuition we had on clinical matters was very superficial (I have only completed first year though.) I think we have more than enough at this stage. I don't feel I would learn or benefit from more placements until I have more knowledge and skills

- Lectures we're not recorded. You might see this as being overly critical, but it was quite annoying if you couldn't avoid missing an important lecture and I know many other universities do this. Agree

did very rapidly find that the prosection and model based minitutorials during the dissections are vastly more useful, the rest of the two hour slots you spend hanging around very bored. Agree, most of the 2 hrs is wasted time that could be better spent studying the models yourself

The cohort marking used in the medical school (and nowhere else in the uni) makes getting a decent grade require a superhuman amount of effort. You're not kidding.


No past papers, but they also have a very poor record of changing exam papers from year to year. Sadly, this came to an abrupt halt

The reflections are a complete waste of time, I would suggest sharing reflections with mates and slightly rephrasing them. Indeed

Give it a year or two and you'll find half the booklist still in plastic shrinkwrap, having paid a fortune for the books at the start. Considering all the lecture materials are available in advance in great detail I would suggest only buying Drake, and then also buying Last's anatomy, and the colouring book. Yep. I would just buy Last's, the colouring book and Marieb. Almost everything is in the libraries

Hi!

I'm at Bristol med school! It looks like it's about time someone represented us on here!

Pros.

1) Good grounding in basic sciences in first and second year. In the first year we cover biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, nutrition, immunology and cancer biology and then in 2nd year we move onto systems based learning.
2) Prosection anatomy. I know some people would prefer dissection, but I really liked prosection, and as it's taught by F2s it's really nice to get a chance to chat to junior doctors about what life is like after uni! Plus lots of them went to Bristol so they give great times about the course.
3) I think we have quite a nice size year with 250 people, and there are quite a few mature students/2 in1s.
4) Pretty much everyone lives in halls in first year so there are many opportunities to meet non-medics and not get sucked into the medicine bubble.
5) Early clinical experience is good. In first year we go to a GP surgery once a week for 10 weeks, where you either sit in on the clinic or go visit a patient at home to chat. In second year we have 5 week long hospital placement after teaching of each system is finished. It's so nice to have some clinical contact after weeks of lectures so that you can see the point of doing it all again!
6) Some PBL integrated into the course in tutorials.
7) From 3rd year onwards you're in clinical teaching, which is really well organised with central teaching days regularly to consolidate and, more importantly, catch up with your friends.
8) Lots of opportunities to intercalate with around 50% of the year doing so between 2nd and 3rd year, and more between 3rd and 4th year. Quite a wide range of subjects to intercalate in as well.
9) Our med soc is AWESOME with lots of socials, mentoring/tutoring schemes, every possible sports club, speciality societies, charities and travel socs.
10) Bristol is a lovely city to live in!

Cons
1) From 3rd to 5th year you spend half/two thirds of the year out of Bristol in Bath, Swindon, Gloucester, Weston, Taunton or Yeovil. Personally I don't mind as you live in halls Mon-Fri (that the uni pays for) and come home to Bristol at the weekends. I think it's quite fun, but can potentially be a problem if you have lots of committments in Bristol.
2) The Bristol student union is rubbish and no-one ever goes there. Not too big a problem as it is a peninsular uni so right in the town, but I still get jealous of other universities.
3) Years 1 and 2 can be quite dry with around 20-25 hours of lectures/practicals a week. Sometimes you do wonder if you need to know every single stage of the Krebs cycle...
4) 1st year exams are HARD. Endless memorising of tiny facts that, to be honest, probably aren't critical to being a good doctor. And Bristol are strict on passing exams. If you fail twice you're out. No appealing unless you submitted an extenuating circumstances form in advance.

That's everything I can think of for now. Feel free to ask any questions!

3rd year medic at Bristol.

Good points

Thanks, this has been really helpful!I have a few questions if you don't mind

Hi!

I'm at Bristol med school! It looks like it's about time someone represented us on here!

Pros.

1) Good grounding in basic sciences in first and second year. In the first year we cover biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, nutrition, immunology and cancer biology and then in 2nd year we move onto systems based learning.
2) Prosection anatomy. I know some people would prefer dissection, but I really liked prosection, and as it's taught by F2s it's really nice to get a chance to chat to junior doctors about what life is like after uni! Plus lots of them went to Bristol so they give great times about the course.
3) I think we have quite a nice size year with 250 people, and there are quite a few mature students/2 in1s.
4) Pretty much everyone lives in halls in first year so there are many opportunities to meet non-medics and not get sucked into the medicine bubble.
5) Early clinical experience is good. In first year we go to a GP surgery once a week for 10 weeks, where you either sit in on the clinic or go visit a patient at home to chat. In second year we have 5 week long hospital placement after teaching of each system is finished. It's so nice to have some clinical contact after weeks of lectures so that you can see the point of doing it all again!
6) Some PBL integrated into the course in tutorials.
7) From 3rd year onwards you're in clinical teaching, which is really well organised with central teaching days regularly to consolidate and, more importantly, catch up with your friends.
8) Lots of opportunities to intercalate with around 50% of the year doing so between 2nd and 3rd year, and more between 3rd and 4th year. Quite a wide range of subjects to intercalate in as well.
9) Our med soc is AWESOME with lots of socials, mentoring/tutoring schemes, every possible sports club, speciality societies, charities and travel socs.
10) Bristol is a lovely city to live in!

Cons
1) From 3rd to 5th year you spend half/two thirds of the year out of Bristol in Bath, Swindon, Gloucester, Weston, Taunton or Yeovil. Personally I don't mind as you live in halls Mon-Fri (that the uni pays for) and come home to Bristol at the weekends. I think it's quite fun, but can potentially be a problem if you have lots of committments in Bristol.
2) The Bristol student union is rubbish and no-one ever goes there. Not too big a problem as it is a peninsular uni so right in the town, but I still get jealous of other universities.
3) Years 1 and 2 can be quite dry with around 20-25 hours of lectures/practicals a week. Sometimes you do wonder if you need to know every single stage of the Krebs cycle...
4) 1st year exams are HARD. Endless memorising of tiny facts that, to be honest, probably aren't critical to being a good doctor. And Bristol are strict on passing exams. If you fail twice you're out. No appealing unless you submitted an extenuating circumstances form in advance.

That's everything I can think of for now. Feel free to ask any questions!

3rd year medic at Bristol.

So glad someone's finally done pros and cons for Bristol - I'm trying to choose between Birmingham and Bristol offers and I just have a few questions.
Do you think there's a good balance of lectures vs. small group teaching?

How easy/common is it for medics to do sports/music/other societies apart from the medic societies?

Do you think the quality/content of teaching is good, i.e. are lecturers good overall? I know it's always a mix at most med schools but just out of interest

Also, do you have exams just once a year? And how often do you get essays/ tests or other work to do?
Thank you

..

Sorry... nice of you to tell the other person who asked questions. Definitely fair. :/
I'll just pm the person offering to answer questions then.

Finally got round to updating the first post of this again! (sorry if I've missed anyone's)

Though the medical school is a trek away, once you get there you have 1000+ beds directly across the road. The ARI+Royal Aberdeen Childrens'+Aberdeen Maternity hospital site at Foresterhill offer every specialty and clinical procedure under the sun.

The systems-based course has been in place for at least 15 years. It's by no means new. The change is simply that you do physiology AND pathophysiology at the same time instead of returning to the system a year later.



Except for geriatrics and elective orthopaedics at Woodend and clinics at Woolmanhill. There's no GUM at Foresterhill.

Feeling pedantic

More bored, in fact