Pros and cons of your med school?
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by asif007Sorry this is so late... Not sure if Leeds has been covered before, but here is my view. I'm a 2nd year student at Leeds, and this is what I've observed over the last 12 months.
Pros:
-Excellent anatomy and basic medical science teaching. Lecturers are highly enthusiastic, very good at presenting the information and very keen to chat about their leading research. Most are very funny too.
-Lecture topics are very interesting, especially in basic medical science and anatomy of the heart/lungs/digestive system.
-Good system of reinforcing lectures with small group tutorials later in the week. Allows us to know how much to revise, what we will be examined on etc.
-I wouldn't be in Leeds without it's very well-established links to Clinical Science at the University of Bradford, which allows students like me to transfer to the MBChB. This is the only Widening Access programme of its kind in the UK and it works incredibly well - the success rate of students entering Medicine at Leeds from Clinical Science is amazing. Anyone who is committed to entering Medicine should put Bradford Clinical Science as their 5th option - it's an alternative route to fall back on in case (God Forbid) you don't get a straight offer for Medicine.
-Great Fresher's Week and Medic Fresher's Week. Huge programme of new societies and welcome talks.
-Highly useful online system (VLE) and easy to navigate emails.
-Regular announcements on the VLE and through email ensure that you are always regularly updated about assignments, lectures/tutorials and deadlines. It's really hard to fall behind or miss things, unless of course you don't check your email!
-The university and medical school is such a close-knit community, and most medical students make a big effort to get to know students studying other courses.
-Russell Group university - very prestigious and a great honour to be part of. Always interesting to read in the national news about research being carried out by staff from your own university.
-The SCONUL scheme - meaning you can get a card from the med school library that lets you enter other university libraries at Russell Group universities in the UK and do as you please, within reason. I've been to King's, UCL and Birmingham University to do revision in the holidays.
-Varied styles of buildings on campus ensure you always have something nice to look at. Particularly the historic Parkinson Building, Great Hall and Clothworkers' Court.
-Excellent societies. It's a bonus being a medical student as you can choose to be part of medic societies, university ones or both. Whatever your taste, there is something for you here - everything from Poetry to Vegetarians, Film Soc to Bhangra and Bollywood dance!
-Being at one of the biggest universities in the UK means you are never short of friends and support.
-Excellent student services programme. Help with finance, accommodation, personal problems etc.
-Student accommodation in 1st year is excellent. Especially the Tannery (v.popular with medics), Sentinel Towers, Leodis, Henry Price, Charles Morris, Oxley and places in Headingley.
-Very well-established integrated style of teaching Medicine at a historic and well-respected medical school. Lectures mostly 9am-4/5pm - but at least you're getting your money's worth!
-Leeds Medical School's Surgery society (Cutting Edge) is one of the best in the country. The committee are always extremely organised, very kind and helpful and arrange talks from leading surgeons in the UK as well as suturing classes to improve your own skills if you're interested in surgery. In 1 year I've been to talks given by a neurosurgeon, ENT surgeon, cardiothoracic surgeon, cosmetic surgeon, paediatric surgeon and others. The annual Cutting Edge Surgical Conference is always an amazing opportunity to meet consultant and trainee surgeons, talk to them about their jobs as well as meeting other committed medical students from all years.
-Many opportunities to visit national medical/surgical conferences in Leeds or further afield. You can find out about these through societies (e.g Cutting Edge) or lecturers, but if you go to anything (usually just a couple of hours on 1 day), it will demonstrate your interest and commitment to your chosen specialty or Medicine in general.
-Clinical symposia teaching sessions puts all the anatomy in a clinical context, making things very relevant and interesting for future practice.
-Full-body dissection and prosection. In both 1st and 2nd year, 5-6 people per cadaver and detailed instructions given on work to be carried out.
-The medical school common room (the "Airport Lounge" or APL, as we call it) has just had major refurbishment and welcomes you to the medical school much better than it did before.
-Medical Ethics and Communication Skills taught in an adequate level of detail.
-Dissection Room open for group revision - not just practical classes.
-Full-length anatomy videos provided for revision in own time.
-Library is huge, with plenty of books on each subject so you always have something to revise from. As well as both quiet and group study areas.
-Placements start very early on in pre-clinical years. From the second term in 1st year, you spend half a day per week in a hospital or GP surgery, while in 2nd year it's 1 day a week.
-Very good emphasis on the transition between university and healthcare area. Preparation for placements and reflections on what you see outside university.
-Interactive lectures with e-voting pads, podcasts, videos and self-directed learning quizzes.
-Good teaching of professional practice by looking at clinical scenarios. Areas such as patient safety, enterprise, leadership and teamwork are all covered in the IDEALS strand.
-Multi-layered and interesting teaching of human psychology, mental health and brain development in Individuals & Populations.
-High number of varied topics for SSC choices and individual projects.
-Early emphasis on the importance of research and the opportunity to get involved/learn more about research going on in Leeds/West Yorkshire, as well as further afield.
-Students from completely different backgrounds and from all over the world come to Leeds to study Medicine. Some of my friends are home students from London, Kent, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, Plymouth, Hertfordshire, Newcastle, Leicester, Glasgow and further afield. Others are international students from Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Singapore etc. Makes your year group incredibly diverse and your experience of socialising is miles better than if you were studying any other course!
-Visits to volunteers with chronic illness/disability and those who have had acute treatment, provide a good first practice for interviewing future patients.
-Tutorials focused on communication skills emphasise from very early on that your manner with patients is the most important thing about clinical practice. Learning the skill required in order to inspire trust in your patients is something you will start as soon as you get here.
-Group and individual presentations always turn out to be lots of fun. Prizes awarded for the best groups/presentations.
-It goes without saying that Leeds has an amazing nightlife. I don't party much but I'm always hearing stories about the clubs in Leeds. Tiger Tiger, Oceana, Warehouse and Mission are just some examples.
-The medical school's own society, MedSoc, is infamous for organising some of the best university parties and activities you could hope for. They go mad on nights out so it's always funny to see videos of their antics!
-For people like me who don't drink, the city is still pretty awesome. Cinemas, restaurants, shopping, activities. Plus it's really easy to travel to the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District for day trips.
-Leeds is in a fantastic place geographically. Bradford, Sheffield, Manchester, York, Birmingham, wherever you want in just a few hours by train/coach - both of which run very regularly. Links to London by road or train are very straight-forward. For me, back home to London in 2 hours 15 minutes on the train.
-Medical students are pretty intense, but they're all incredibly lovely people. In 1 year I know pretty much 3/4 of my year group - a big year group means many more opportunities for socialising.
-Clinical skills teaching on GP placements is often lots of fun. My GP supervisor is a great laugh!
-Opportunity to see lots of different diseases and presentations in one of the most deprived areas outside London.
-Gym and sports facilities at the university are excellent and very popular.
-10am starts on some days is a nice break from routine - although I am still late every day!
-Great opportunities available for intercalating in a BSc, at Leeds or elsewhere.
-Small group teaching is always a good opportunity to have a laugh!
-Union building is excellent, well-refurbished and a great place to chill.
-Food is pretty cheap on campus and there are rows of restaurants very near the university. Whatever you choose, you can find it for a good price.
-The amazing Leeds City Centre is less than 10 minutes walk from the med school. If you have a long lunch break, go shopping!
-Going away for your elective between Years 4 and 5 is an amazing opportunity to experience healthcare in another part of the world and compare it to the NHS.
-Some boring/depressing/gibberish lectures are a good opportunity to sleep or listen to music or play Angry Birds/Doodle Jump/Temple Run/whatever you like. Bring headphones and charge your phone the night before!
-There are some modules for which you can go to almost no lectures, and still pass at the end of the year.
-Absolutely ZERO PBL. IMO, this is the best thing about Leeds, as I completely despise PBL.
Cons:
-Some lectures and tutorials are utter BS. Examples such as "How to reference", "Statistics in Research" and "How to interpret statistics". As you can probably tell, I HATE statistics.
-Research lectures and tutorials as part of the RESS strand are often very boring and pointless.
-Some small group sessions in the IDEALS strand are completely laughable as they're so hurried and irrelevant - I know the med school are working to improve this for the future though.
-Some SSC choices in 1st year are complete rubbish. Examples include "use of biomarkers to identify rheumatoid arthritis" but the choices change every year so maybe it's just me.
-Being at a RG university means research is always involved in some capacity. Lecturers always discuss the research they are involved in and almost persuade students to get involved. But I hate research and always will - it's just not something I'll ever be interested in, so I can't make good use of all those opportunities.
-Clinical placements in 1st year are sometimes not very well organised and a bit... fluffy. I was placed in Bradford for my 1st year attachment and I had to visit 8 different departments for 2 hours each. Whereas some of my friends placed in Leeds and Wakefield had the opportunity to stay with the same department for 3 hours every week and, as a result, had much more informative and enjoyable experiences. Would have helped if all the placements were arranged like that.
-Clinical skills teaching on 1st year hospital placements is lacklustre because most doctors/tutors believe 1st year medical students don't have to know them - even though it's part of the competencies you have to pass in order to progress to 2nd year and complete more placements.
-Some tutors can't be understood because their accents are so thick. If you originate from another country like me, you will be fine - but if you are not used to people speaking without British accents then you might struggle!
-If you get a clinical placement in Bradford, it might be quite weird to hear entire consultations being spoken in Urdu/Punjabi and having no-one to translate for you!
-Probably too much emphasis on night-life and clubbing. Not enough suggestions for people like me who don't drink - what are we supposed to do while everyone else is out clubbing?
-Sometimes quite annoying to be hassled by students who are being paid to throw leaflets about parties and club nights at me, when I have no interest in any of their offers. This happens quite a lot outside Parkinson Building, especially during Fresher's Week, and can get on my nerves.
-The medical school only has one main lecture theatre (imaginatively named the Medical Lecture Theatre, or MLT), which is mostly used for 1st year teaching. Often means that us 2nd year students are based in the Roger Stevens building or the Clarendon Lecture Theatre (part of Leeds General Infirmary, next door to the medical school). Both of those are quite cramped and not very nice places in which to sit through a full day of lectures.
-The Medical Teaching Centre (MTC) is a set of small group teaching rooms on Level 8 of the medical school. You'll quickly realise that Level 8 is a maze of corridors, cupboards and staircases - very easy to get lost when you first start.
-There's sometimes just not enough hours in the day to do everything you want. A full day of lectures (9am-5pm) followed by clubbing and/or society meetings going on every night of the week, means that you absolutely must give something up to get a good balance between work, play and rest. For example, I don't go clubbing so that frees up a lot of my time for societies - in 1 year I managed to attend meetings, socials and other events held by Cutting Edge (Surgery Soc), Psyched (Psychiatry Soc), LUMPS (Paediatrics Soc), Badminton, Bollywood dance and Bhangra. That's still loads but there were many others I wanted to be part of - swimming, street dance, anaesthesia, tennis, childrens' hospital etc.
-It's sometimes quite depressing to know that medical students always have exams before holidays while all your flatmates doing other courses have the whole holiday to revise. Less revision time and more rushed for us - but we do get to relax in holidays!
-Student houses in 2nd-5th year can be awesome or absolute horror stories. Be careful where you stay and who you choose to live with.
-If you don't go clubbing and/or you don't drink like me, things can get a bit lonely sometimes. Especially in Leeds, there just isn't enough going on to appeal to people who haven't been brought up to drink themselves into the ground.
-The medical school ask you to pay £20 for an e-voting device which we are supposed to use regularly in lectures across all of 1st and 2nd year. In 1st year, we barely used them 4 times in 8 months because they are always having problems with the software or lecturers are not hugely bothered about using it anyway. Bit of a gimmick really - but this has been fed back to the staff and they are working to change this.
-Not enough one-to-one time with personal tutors. Meetings are once every term and only involve discussion of your performance/thoughts about being at university. My tutor is a great guy and makes me laugh, but unfortunately I won't build up as much of a relationship with him as I had with my teachers at school and sixth form. Most of the tutors are practising doctors so they won't get much time to see you anyway.
-In first term, the Integrated Medical Science (IMS) module can make you feel like you're just studying a pure science degree. Virtually every lecturer will be from the school of Biological Sciences, there to bombard you with information about cell pathways, and there is very little clinical application. Quite depressing at times and some topics have almost no relevance. But keep looking forward to 2nd term when you start anatomy and clinical placements, and you will forget all about that - first term is over in a flash.
-The Medical School is sometimes not very nice to look at from outside. If you're there at night, it looks like a prison.
-Anatomy is sometimes pretty difficult to learn and understand, especially when you first start revising it.
-Hyde Park (the area as well as the actual park) is dangerous at night and not very well lit - avoid as much as possible.
-Some areas in Leeds are unattractive as well as dangerous at night. Examples include Harehills (surrounding St James' Hospital) and some parts of Kirkstall.
-My year group is not as diverse as I expected it to be - roughly 75% Caucasian British and 25% ethnic minorities (including international students). I don't know if the demographic is the same at other medical schools or not, but it can be slightly unsettling to come from a widely diverse school/sixth-form college into a university where there aren't many other students of the same nationality as you. I'm one of 6 or 7 Pakistani guys in a class of ~270 - even though we are studying 10 miles away from Pakistan (Bradford)!
-Placements in 2nd year are not very different to how they were in 1st year, when our experience was really limited to sitting in GP consultations and going on tours of hospital wards. The only difference in 2nd year is that we stay on placement all day, but the amount of time getting actual clinical experience is less, if not the same, as it was in 2nd year. We travel quite far out of Leeds to sit in hospital classrooms - bit annoying to get up really early and travel when the same thing could be done in university. Unfortunately some of these pre-clinical placements just feel like a waste of 1 day a week.
-By the end of 1st year, many medical students have formed cliques and don't see or talk to a huge number of others. This is partially due to some small group teaching sessions being done just with students near you on the register, and most groups stay the same for the whole pre-clinical stage. To get around this, do your best to become part of several cliques and make friends with as many people as possible - it worked for me!
-Food in the Union is not as cheap as it could be when compared to the restaurants 5 minutes away from uni.
-Food in Leeds is great - but it's not Bradford food! One thing I sometimes miss about my year in Bradford is the food.
-Lots of itty-bitty assignments, reflections and statements to fill out in order to pass some modules, especially in Campus To Clinic (C2C). If you don't write 100 words by the end of term you can fail!
-For some students like me, the quality of revision you do can have no effect whatsoever on the grade you get in your exam. For my most recent exam I worked 5-6 hours a day for 3 weeks before the exam, consolidating a whole term of work, and still only just scraped a pass - not because anything went wrong on the day, but because barely 25% of the content came up in the exam. Everything else was on topics we were not supposed to learn, or so unrelated to the module that we were literally supposed to guess. I don't know about other medical students, but I'm absolutely sick of doing a huge amount of work, to never achieve above 60%.
-The most difficult part about Medicine is getting in. Leeds is such an amazing university and medical school, but Medicine here is intensely competitive. For 2012 entry there were 4000 applicants for ~250 places - make sure your application is airtight.
-The cinema in the city centre only shows 1 Bollywood movie a week! What's even worse is that, for the Bollywood films that ARE screened in Leeds, there are only ever 3 showings a day and the films are only kept on for 1 week so more often than not I end up travelling to Bradford to catch them. Anyone I know will tell you that I am completely addicted to and obsessed with Bollywood - so this just does not work for me. A minor irritance, but majorly annoying for me.
Will add more if I think of anything. Hope that helps!
Pros:
-Excellent anatomy and basic medical science teaching. Lecturers are highly enthusiastic, very good at presenting the information and very keen to chat about their leading research. Most are very funny too.
-Lecture topics are very interesting, especially in basic medical science and anatomy of the heart/lungs/digestive system.
-Good system of reinforcing lectures with small group tutorials later in the week. Allows us to know how much to revise, what we will be examined on etc.
-I wouldn't be in Leeds without it's very well-established links to Clinical Science at the University of Bradford, which allows students like me to transfer to the MBChB. This is the only Widening Access programme of its kind in the UK and it works incredibly well - the success rate of students entering Medicine at Leeds from Clinical Science is amazing. Anyone who is committed to entering Medicine should put Bradford Clinical Science as their 5th option - it's an alternative route to fall back on in case (God Forbid) you don't get a straight offer for Medicine.
-Great Fresher's Week and Medic Fresher's Week. Huge programme of new societies and welcome talks.
-Highly useful online system (VLE) and easy to navigate emails.
-Regular announcements on the VLE and through email ensure that you are always regularly updated about assignments, lectures/tutorials and deadlines. It's really hard to fall behind or miss things, unless of course you don't check your email!
-The university and medical school is such a close-knit community, and most medical students make a big effort to get to know students studying other courses.
-Russell Group university - very prestigious and a great honour to be part of. Always interesting to read in the national news about research being carried out by staff from your own university.
-The SCONUL scheme - meaning you can get a card from the med school library that lets you enter other university libraries at Russell Group universities in the UK and do as you please, within reason. I've been to King's, UCL and Birmingham University to do revision in the holidays.
-Varied styles of buildings on campus ensure you always have something nice to look at. Particularly the historic Parkinson Building, Great Hall and Clothworkers' Court.
-Excellent societies. It's a bonus being a medical student as you can choose to be part of medic societies, university ones or both. Whatever your taste, there is something for you here - everything from Poetry to Vegetarians, Film Soc to Bhangra and Bollywood dance!
-Being at one of the biggest universities in the UK means you are never short of friends and support.
-Excellent student services programme. Help with finance, accommodation, personal problems etc.
-Student accommodation in 1st year is excellent. Especially the Tannery (v.popular with medics), Sentinel Towers, Leodis, Henry Price, Charles Morris, Oxley and places in Headingley.
-Very well-established integrated style of teaching Medicine at a historic and well-respected medical school. Lectures mostly 9am-4/5pm - but at least you're getting your money's worth!
-Leeds Medical School's Surgery society (Cutting Edge) is one of the best in the country. The committee are always extremely organised, very kind and helpful and arrange talks from leading surgeons in the UK as well as suturing classes to improve your own skills if you're interested in surgery. In 1 year I've been to talks given by a neurosurgeon, ENT surgeon, cardiothoracic surgeon, cosmetic surgeon, paediatric surgeon and others.
The annual Cutting Edge Surgical Conference is always an amazing opportunity to meet consultant and trainee surgeons, talk to them about their jobs as well as meeting other committed medical students from all years.-Many opportunities to visit national medical/surgical conferences in Leeds or further afield. You can find out about these through societies (e.g Cutting Edge) or lecturers, but if you go to anything (usually just a couple of hours on 1 day), it will demonstrate your interest and commitment to your chosen specialty or Medicine in general.
-Clinical symposia teaching sessions puts all the anatomy in a clinical context, making things very relevant and interesting for future practice.
-Full-body dissection and prosection. In both 1st and 2nd year, 5-6 people per cadaver and detailed instructions given on work to be carried out.
-The medical school common room (the "Airport Lounge" or APL, as we call it) has just had major refurbishment and welcomes you to the medical school much better than it did before.
-Medical Ethics and Communication Skills taught in an adequate level of detail.
-Dissection Room open for group revision - not just practical classes.
-Full-length anatomy videos provided for revision in own time.
-Library is huge, with plenty of books on each subject so you always have something to revise from. As well as both quiet and group study areas.
-Placements start very early on in pre-clinical years. From the second term in 1st year, you spend half a day per week in a hospital or GP surgery, while in 2nd year it's 1 day a week.
-Very good emphasis on the transition between university and healthcare area. Preparation for placements and reflections on what you see outside university.
-Interactive lectures with e-voting pads, podcasts, videos and self-directed learning quizzes.
-Good teaching of professional practice by looking at clinical scenarios. Areas such as patient safety, enterprise, leadership and teamwork are all covered in the IDEALS strand.
-Multi-layered and interesting teaching of human psychology, mental health and brain development in Individuals & Populations.
-High number of varied topics for SSC choices and individual projects.
-Early emphasis on the importance of research and the opportunity to get involved/learn more about research going on in Leeds/West Yorkshire, as well as further afield.
-Students from completely different backgrounds and from all over the world come to Leeds to study Medicine. Some of my friends are home students from London, Kent, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, Plymouth, Hertfordshire, Newcastle, Leicester, Glasgow and further afield. Others are international students from Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Singapore etc. Makes your year group incredibly diverse and your experience of socialising is miles better than if you were studying any other course!
-Visits to volunteers with chronic illness/disability and those who have had acute treatment, provide a good first practice for interviewing future patients.
-Tutorials focused on communication skills emphasise from very early on that your manner with patients is the most important thing about clinical practice. Learning the skill required in order to inspire trust in your patients is something you will start as soon as you get here.
-Group and individual presentations always turn out to be lots of fun. Prizes awarded for the best groups/presentations.
-It goes without saying that Leeds has an amazing nightlife. I don't party much but I'm always hearing stories about the clubs in Leeds. Tiger Tiger, Oceana, Warehouse and Mission are just some examples.
-The medical school's own society, MedSoc, is infamous for organising some of the best university parties and activities you could hope for. They go mad on nights out so it's always funny to see videos of their antics!
-For people like me who don't drink, the city is still pretty awesome. Cinemas, restaurants, shopping, activities. Plus it's really easy to travel to the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District for day trips.
-Leeds is in a fantastic place geographically. Bradford, Sheffield, Manchester, York, Birmingham, wherever you want in just a few hours by train/coach - both of which run very regularly. Links to London by road or train are very straight-forward. For me, back home to London in 2 hours 15 minutes on the train.
-Medical students are pretty intense, but they're all incredibly lovely people. In 1 year I know pretty much 3/4 of my year group - a big year group means many more opportunities for socialising.
-Clinical skills teaching on GP placements is often lots of fun. My GP supervisor is a great laugh!
-Opportunity to see lots of different diseases and presentations in one of the most deprived areas outside London.
-Gym and sports facilities at the university are excellent and very popular.
-10am starts on some days is a nice break from routine - although I am still late every day!
-Great opportunities available for intercalating in a BSc, at Leeds or elsewhere.
-Small group teaching is always a good opportunity to have a laugh!
-Union building is excellent, well-refurbished and a great place to chill.
-Food is pretty cheap on campus and there are rows of restaurants very near the university. Whatever you choose, you can find it for a good price.
-The amazing Leeds City Centre is less than 10 minutes walk from the med school. If you have a long lunch break, go shopping!
-Going away for your elective between Years 4 and 5 is an amazing opportunity to experience healthcare in another part of the world and compare it to the NHS.
-Some boring/depressing/gibberish lectures are a good opportunity to sleep or listen to music or play Angry Birds/Doodle Jump/Temple Run/whatever you like. Bring headphones and charge your phone the night before!
-There are some modules for which you can go to almost no lectures, and still pass at the end of the year.
-Absolutely ZERO PBL. IMO, this is the best thing about Leeds, as I completely despise PBL.
Cons:
-Some lectures and tutorials are utter BS. Examples such as "How to reference", "Statistics in Research" and "How to interpret statistics". As you can probably tell, I HATE statistics.
-Research lectures and tutorials as part of the RESS strand are often very boring and pointless.
-Some small group sessions in the IDEALS strand are completely laughable as they're so hurried and irrelevant - I know the med school are working to improve this for the future though.
-Some SSC choices in 1st year are complete rubbish. Examples include "use of biomarkers to identify rheumatoid arthritis" but the choices change every year so maybe it's just me.
-Being at a RG university means research is always involved in some capacity. Lecturers always discuss the research they are involved in and almost persuade students to get involved. But I hate research and always will - it's just not something I'll ever be interested in, so I can't make good use of all those opportunities.
-Clinical placements in 1st year are sometimes not very well organised and a bit... fluffy. I was placed in Bradford for my 1st year attachment and I had to visit 8 different departments for 2 hours each. Whereas some of my friends placed in Leeds and Wakefield had the opportunity to stay with the same department for 3 hours every week and, as a result, had much more informative and enjoyable experiences. Would have helped if all the placements were arranged like that.
-Clinical skills teaching on 1st year hospital placements is lacklustre because most doctors/tutors believe 1st year medical students don't have to know them - even though it's part of the competencies you have to pass in order to progress to 2nd year and complete more placements.
-Some tutors can't be understood because their accents are so thick. If you originate from another country like me, you will be fine - but if you are not used to people speaking without British accents then you might struggle!
-If you get a clinical placement in Bradford, it might be quite weird to hear entire consultations being spoken in Urdu/Punjabi and having no-one to translate for you!
-Probably too much emphasis on night-life and clubbing. Not enough suggestions for people like me who don't drink - what are we supposed to do while everyone else is out clubbing?
-Sometimes quite annoying to be hassled by students who are being paid to throw leaflets about parties and club nights at me, when I have no interest in any of their offers. This happens quite a lot outside Parkinson Building, especially during Fresher's Week, and can get on my nerves.
-The medical school only has one main lecture theatre (imaginatively named the Medical Lecture Theatre, or MLT), which is mostly used for 1st year teaching. Often means that us 2nd year students are based in the Roger Stevens building or the Clarendon Lecture Theatre (part of Leeds General Infirmary, next door to the medical school). Both of those are quite cramped and not very nice places in which to sit through a full day of lectures.
-The Medical Teaching Centre (MTC) is a set of small group teaching rooms on Level 8 of the medical school. You'll quickly realise that Level 8 is a maze of corridors, cupboards and staircases - very easy to get lost when you first start.
-There's sometimes just not enough hours in the day to do everything you want. A full day of lectures (9am-5pm) followed by clubbing and/or society meetings going on every night of the week, means that you absolutely must give something up to get a good balance between work, play and rest. For example, I don't go clubbing so that frees up a lot of my time for societies - in 1 year I managed to attend meetings, socials and other events held by Cutting Edge (Surgery Soc), Psyched (Psychiatry Soc), LUMPS (Paediatrics Soc), Badminton, Bollywood dance and Bhangra. That's still loads but there were many others I wanted to be part of - swimming, street dance, anaesthesia, tennis, childrens' hospital etc.
-It's sometimes quite depressing to know that medical students always have exams before holidays while all your flatmates doing other courses have the whole holiday to revise. Less revision time and more rushed for us - but we do get to relax in holidays!
-Student houses in 2nd-5th year can be awesome or absolute horror stories. Be careful where you stay and who you choose to live with.
-If you don't go clubbing and/or you don't drink like me, things can get a bit lonely sometimes. Especially in Leeds, there just isn't enough going on to appeal to people who haven't been brought up to drink themselves into the ground.
-The medical school ask you to pay £20 for an e-voting device which we are supposed to use regularly in lectures across all of 1st and 2nd year. In 1st year, we barely used them 4 times in 8 months because they are always having problems with the software or lecturers are not hugely bothered about using it anyway. Bit of a gimmick really - but this has been fed back to the staff and they are working to change this.
-Not enough one-to-one time with personal tutors. Meetings are once every term and only involve discussion of your performance/thoughts about being at university. My tutor is a great guy and makes me laugh, but unfortunately I won't build up as much of a relationship with him as I had with my teachers at school and sixth form. Most of the tutors are practising doctors so they won't get much time to see you anyway.
-In first term, the Integrated Medical Science (IMS) module can make you feel like you're just studying a pure science degree. Virtually every lecturer will be from the school of Biological Sciences, there to bombard you with information about cell pathways, and there is very little clinical application. Quite depressing at times and some topics have almost no relevance. But keep looking forward to 2nd term when you start anatomy and clinical placements, and you will forget all about that - first term is over in a flash.
-The Medical School is sometimes not very nice to look at from outside. If you're there at night, it looks like a prison.
-Anatomy is sometimes pretty difficult to learn and understand, especially when you first start revising it.
-Hyde Park (the area as well as the actual park) is dangerous at night and not very well lit - avoid as much as possible.
-Some areas in Leeds are unattractive as well as dangerous at night. Examples include Harehills (surrounding St James' Hospital) and some parts of Kirkstall.
-My year group is not as diverse as I expected it to be - roughly 75% Caucasian British and 25% ethnic minorities (including international students). I don't know if the demographic is the same at other medical schools or not, but it can be slightly unsettling to come from a widely diverse school/sixth-form college into a university where there aren't many other students of the same nationality as you. I'm one of 6 or 7 Pakistani guys in a class of ~270 - even though we are studying 10 miles away from Pakistan (Bradford)!
-Placements in 2nd year are not very different to how they were in 1st year, when our experience was really limited to sitting in GP consultations and going on tours of hospital wards. The only difference in 2nd year is that we stay on placement all day, but the amount of time getting actual clinical experience is less, if not the same, as it was in 2nd year. We travel quite far out of Leeds to sit in hospital classrooms - bit annoying to get up really early and travel when the same thing could be done in university. Unfortunately some of these pre-clinical placements just feel like a waste of 1 day a week.
-By the end of 1st year, many medical students have formed cliques and don't see or talk to a huge number of others. This is partially due to some small group teaching sessions being done just with students near you on the register, and most groups stay the same for the whole pre-clinical stage. To get around this, do your best to become part of several cliques and make friends with as many people as possible - it worked for me!
-Food in the Union is not as cheap as it could be when compared to the restaurants 5 minutes away from uni.
-Food in Leeds is great - but it's not Bradford food! One thing I sometimes miss about my year in Bradford is the food.
-Lots of itty-bitty assignments, reflections and statements to fill out in order to pass some modules, especially in Campus To Clinic (C2C). If you don't write 100 words by the end of term you can fail!
-For some students like me, the quality of revision you do can have no effect whatsoever on the grade you get in your exam. For my most recent exam I worked 5-6 hours a day for 3 weeks before the exam, consolidating a whole term of work, and still only just scraped a pass - not because anything went wrong on the day, but because barely 25% of the content came up in the exam. Everything else was on topics we were not supposed to learn, or so unrelated to the module that we were literally supposed to guess. I don't know about other medical students, but I'm absolutely sick of doing a huge amount of work, to never achieve above 60%.
-The most difficult part about Medicine is getting in. Leeds is such an amazing university and medical school, but Medicine here is intensely competitive. For 2012 entry there were 4000 applicants for ~250 places - make sure your application is airtight.
-The cinema in the city centre only shows 1 Bollywood movie a week!
What's even worse is that, for the Bollywood films that ARE screened in Leeds, there are only ever 3 showings a day and the films are only kept on for 1 week so more often than not I end up travelling to Bradford to catch them. Anyone I know will tell you that I am completely addicted to and obsessed with Bollywood - so this just does not work for me. A minor irritance, but majorly annoying for me. Will add more if I think of anything. Hope that helps!
haha just wow to the length of your response!
it's been super helpful though so thank you for this!
Reply 381
Another one for Leicester so far UPDATED VERSION. I am have finished my 3rd year at Leicester now:
Pros:
-Really good course structure in my opinion as it is all systems based so you learn about one system like the CVS and then move onto another and make cross-links.
-Good patient contact. You get your first patient in the first 2 months of the 1st year or earlier.
-Not essay based which is good for me personally (apart from a few things..see cons).
-Brilliant medical students society with great socials just for med students
-MOST lectures are of a very high standard obviously some will always be below par
-Very good pastoral support from what I've heard from others. There is a medics welfare group run by medical students but you can also consult your personal tutor if you need to.
-Year group isn't too large or too small
-Many extra revision sessions towards the end of the semester. There are numerous medical societies that run lots of revision sessions.
-The exams in the pre-clinical years are very straight forward in my opinion and suit my style of learning. No essay or long questions only short answer questions. Max 3 marks per question. Also now there is also an additional multiple choice paper that has been introduced.
-Friendly staff
-They provide FREE vaccines! So you don't need to pay your GP for them as my other friends have done
-Hardly any PBL which is brilliant in my opinion (although we do have group work which is different to pbl though). Apparently Leicester are going PBL soon so keep an eye out.
-The pre-clinical years give you a very good scientific backround. It's actually a very "scientific" med school where the lecturers are of a scientific backround, encouraging the use of science and intercalated degrees etc
-Intercalated programmes are very varied as I've heard and many students get prizes/publication
-You're in medschool only 9-1 almost everyday in 1st year!! In second year you will only be at uni in the afternoons, 2-5 normally.
-Freshers of Medicine come to uni 1 week before everyone else...but not to work! You have introduction lectures in the morning and PARTEEEY at night the whole week! It's a mad week with so much going on and getting about 2 hours of sleep everyday!
-Great "Medic sports societies" going on almost everyday of the week. About 15 sports to choose from!
-Not incredibly hard at all to scrape a "borderline pass" in you're first year but if you want the highest grade you need to revise properly.
-The clinical years are set out well. You will have 6.5 weeks on one clinical attachment and then you have a few days off before you move onto the next attachment.
Cons
-Personally I find it quite hard to keep up throughout term on notes and have to play some catch up during holidays/weekends... I don't know how some of the other students do it but they stay ahead of the work.
-1st year exams have a lot of Epidemiology/simple stats/interpretation of stats in them which is hated by students including me! Luckily less of this comes up as you go through the course. There will still be odd things like random psychology and social things coming up in exams,
-I've heard the pass mark is higher for us than most schools although I'm not too sure about this. Our marking system is very different so it's hard to judge. EDIT: This has recently changed although our pass marks may still be at the higher end.
-Leicester want you to learn a lot of breadth so one stem question could contain lots of different subtopics.
-Medschoold building is tattered but we are getting a new one by 2015 which will be the best one in the country!
-Group work. Most people like this but I don't really because we are kind of just told to get on with questions that can sometimes be completely random. They can be fun to work out though even if your miles of the answer...
In first year it was absolutely useless but in 2nd year so far it has been moderately useful.
-A lot of crap like self evaluations and stuff like communication skills that take up a lot of time sometimes, and I hate stuff like that. Although I do realise communication is important....
-Lecture seats hurt my buttocks but as I said we are getting a new building
-Sometimes we don't get told the detail we have to know something in so you end up learning the crap out of everything.
-Anatomy teaching is very shabby even though we do have dissection which is fun but you don't learn anything from it. We get so much anatomy thrown at us in the course of 25 minutes and are expected to know it straight away for the dissection straight after so you basically end up self-teaching anatomy. But everything else is taught very well.
-So many absolutely pointless lectures in the late afternoons occasionally. Again this reduces to almost 0 in 2nd year but then again you have one or twocrappy modules in second year to make up for this.
-Some lectures will have so much content in them it takes you absolutely hours to go over them
-1st semester Wednesdays are 8:30am starts
-Food is expensive as heck in medschool
-Medschool is far away from where you will most likely live in 1st year (35-40 min walk)
-There are a few reflective essays in your pre-clinical years which are a pain in the bum. There is also a 10,000 word dissertation but this isn't what I am talking about here.
-Some clinical blocks are very poorly organised.
-It is very difficult to know what to learn on the clinical blocks as the course becomes pretty much self taught.
-You are (or at least should be) in from 9-5 in the clinical blocks and so doing work at home can be difficult as you will be tired by the end of the day.
-VERY bad reputation for student appeals. If you have the misfortune of failing your exams and resit then it is very difficult to persuade Leicester to allow you back onto the course. Many students have problems with this. Especially with the high pass mark and increasingly difficult exams, this is now becoming a major issue.
Pros:
-Really good course structure in my opinion as it is all systems based so you learn about one system like the CVS and then move onto another and make cross-links.
-Good patient contact. You get your first patient in the first 2 months of the 1st year or earlier.
-Not essay based which is good for me personally (apart from a few things..see cons).
-Brilliant medical students society with great socials just for med students
-MOST lectures are of a very high standard obviously some will always be below par
-Very good pastoral support from what I've heard from others. There is a medics welfare group run by medical students but you can also consult your personal tutor if you need to.
-Year group isn't too large or too small
-Many extra revision sessions towards the end of the semester. There are numerous medical societies that run lots of revision sessions.
-The exams in the pre-clinical years are very straight forward in my opinion and suit my style of learning. No essay or long questions only short answer questions. Max 3 marks per question. Also now there is also an additional multiple choice paper that has been introduced.
-Friendly staff
-They provide FREE vaccines! So you don't need to pay your GP for them as my other friends have done
-Hardly any PBL which is brilliant in my opinion (although we do have group work which is different to pbl though). Apparently Leicester are going PBL soon so keep an eye out.
-The pre-clinical years give you a very good scientific backround. It's actually a very "scientific" med school where the lecturers are of a scientific backround, encouraging the use of science and intercalated degrees etc
-Intercalated programmes are very varied as I've heard and many students get prizes/publication
-You're in medschool only 9-1 almost everyday in 1st year!! In second year you will only be at uni in the afternoons, 2-5 normally.
-Freshers of Medicine come to uni 1 week before everyone else...but not to work! You have introduction lectures in the morning and PARTEEEY at night the whole week! It's a mad week with so much going on and getting about 2 hours of sleep everyday!
-Great "Medic sports societies" going on almost everyday of the week. About 15 sports to choose from!
-Not incredibly hard at all to scrape a "borderline pass" in you're first year but if you want the highest grade you need to revise properly.
-The clinical years are set out well. You will have 6.5 weeks on one clinical attachment and then you have a few days off before you move onto the next attachment.
Cons
-Personally I find it quite hard to keep up throughout term on notes and have to play some catch up during holidays/weekends... I don't know how some of the other students do it but they stay ahead of the work.
-1st year exams have a lot of Epidemiology/simple stats/interpretation of stats in them which is hated by students including me! Luckily less of this comes up as you go through the course. There will still be odd things like random psychology and social things coming up in exams,
-I've heard the pass mark is higher for us than most schools although I'm not too sure about this. Our marking system is very different so it's hard to judge. EDIT: This has recently changed although our pass marks may still be at the higher end.
-Leicester want you to learn a lot of breadth so one stem question could contain lots of different subtopics.
-Medschoold building is tattered but we are getting a new one by 2015 which will be the best one in the country!
-Group work. Most people like this but I don't really because we are kind of just told to get on with questions that can sometimes be completely random. They can be fun to work out though even if your miles of the answer...
In first year it was absolutely useless but in 2nd year so far it has been moderately useful.-A lot of crap like self evaluations and stuff like communication skills that take up a lot of time sometimes, and I hate stuff like that. Although I do realise communication is important....
-Lecture seats hurt my buttocks but as I said we are getting a new building
-Sometimes we don't get told the detail we have to know something in so you end up learning the crap out of everything.
-Anatomy teaching is very shabby even though we do have dissection which is fun but you don't learn anything from it. We get so much anatomy thrown at us in the course of 25 minutes and are expected to know it straight away for the dissection straight after so you basically end up self-teaching anatomy. But everything else is taught very well.
-So many absolutely pointless lectures in the late afternoons occasionally. Again this reduces to almost 0 in 2nd year but then again you have one or twocrappy modules in second year to make up for this.
-Some lectures will have so much content in them it takes you absolutely hours to go over them
-1st semester Wednesdays are 8:30am starts
-Food is expensive as heck in medschool
-Medschool is far away from where you will most likely live in 1st year (35-40 min walk)
-There are a few reflective essays in your pre-clinical years which are a pain in the bum. There is also a 10,000 word dissertation but this isn't what I am talking about here.
-Some clinical blocks are very poorly organised.
-It is very difficult to know what to learn on the clinical blocks as the course becomes pretty much self taught.
-You are (or at least should be) in from 9-5 in the clinical blocks and so doing work at home can be difficult as you will be tired by the end of the day.
-VERY bad reputation for student appeals. If you have the misfortune of failing your exams and resit then it is very difficult to persuade Leicester to allow you back onto the course. Many students have problems with this. Especially with the high pass mark and increasingly difficult exams, this is now becoming a major issue.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 382
I school in Nigeria, the University of Benin, to be precise, I decided to join this forum to find out about medical education in other climes.
My medical school is what you would typically expect from a medical school in a 3rd world country, there are few fancy machines, so we have to learn our clinical skills very well. The teaching hospital is attached to the University, so it's a walking distance. I'll just skip this and list the pros and cons. I'm typing on my iPhone, so this is a bit clumsy.
PROS:
- You see tropical cases firsthand and get a lot of experience.
-Everybody around gives you tons of respect because you're a Doctor in training.
-You get to master your basic clinical skills very well
-Tuition is virtually free
Cons:
-You get to deal with frequent power outages
-You only know about the theoretical aspect of the most recent medical equipment e.g no MRI in my teaching hospital for now.
- Poor internet connection
- Professors are viewed as demigods and access to them is virtually nonexistent outside lecture rooms.
-Incessant University lecturers' strikes mitigate the academic calendar leading to extended stay in medical stay.
-Access to student loans and scholarships are restricted.
-You have to take exams when you travel abroad to practice.
I'll remember other problems and advantages and post them later.
Posted from TSR Mobile
My medical school is what you would typically expect from a medical school in a 3rd world country, there are few fancy machines, so we have to learn our clinical skills very well. The teaching hospital is attached to the University, so it's a walking distance. I'll just skip this and list the pros and cons. I'm typing on my iPhone, so this is a bit clumsy.
PROS:
- You see tropical cases firsthand and get a lot of experience.
-Everybody around gives you tons of respect because you're a Doctor in training.
-You get to master your basic clinical skills very well
-Tuition is virtually free
Cons:
-You get to deal with frequent power outages
-You only know about the theoretical aspect of the most recent medical equipment e.g no MRI in my teaching hospital for now.
- Poor internet connection
- Professors are viewed as demigods and access to them is virtually nonexistent outside lecture rooms.
-Incessant University lecturers' strikes mitigate the academic calendar leading to extended stay in medical stay.
-Access to student loans and scholarships are restricted.
-You have to take exams when you travel abroad to practice.
I'll remember other problems and advantages and post them later.
Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 383
Original post
by Insanity514-1st semester Wednesdays are 8:30am starts
Ahhh, TOB...that'll haunt you all the way until your Phase I exam!
Reply 384
Anyone for Queen's Belfast??? Hardly seen anyone discussing about Queen's!
Reply 385
anyone with more pros and cons for RCSI Ireland?
Reply 386
22
Only just saw this... lets do Oxford.
Pros:
- Academic course than smoothly handles the transition through school work, lectures, research, then clinical work, ensuring that when you are eventually put in front of a patient, you know what you're doing.
- Many world-leading academics.
- Unique access to professors and doctors via the tutorial system.
- College system - ready prepared social group that isn't just medics.
- Unrivlled access to sports and other societies at both college (come and have a go) and university (elite/obscure) levels.
- Very well resourced and active pastoral support.
- Very generous financial support and scholarships.
- Cheap rents in pre-clinical years.
- Smaller city that still has good facilities and great transport links, especially to London (thank you tourism)
- Beautiful city and colleges, set in a valley in one of the nicest parts of the country.
- Very on the ball, efficient and responsive administration. If the students don't like something, they actually do change it.
- Relatively little time spent in DGH in clinical years and never required to commute or own a car.
- Apparently uses logbooks far less than other universities. You are trusted to direct your learning to a much greater extent.
- On average, highest post-grad exam pass rates, highest FPAS points achieved and highest post-F2 employment rates.
- Opportunity to do clinical years in London.
Cons:
- Might be forced to do clinical years in London.
- Academic course is definitely not for all.
- 3 years without patient contact for wannabe doctors is a LONG time.
- Long term times in clinical years
- The city does get quite expensive once you are living there year-round in clinical.
- Essays, of which you write very many in pre-clinical, are not to everyone's taste.
- Some DGH accommodation is very basic, frequently without internet.
Pros:
- Academic course than smoothly handles the transition through school work, lectures, research, then clinical work, ensuring that when you are eventually put in front of a patient, you know what you're doing.
- Many world-leading academics.
- Unique access to professors and doctors via the tutorial system.
- College system - ready prepared social group that isn't just medics.
- Unrivlled access to sports and other societies at both college (come and have a go) and university (elite/obscure) levels.
- Very well resourced and active pastoral support.
- Very generous financial support and scholarships.
- Cheap rents in pre-clinical years.
- Smaller city that still has good facilities and great transport links, especially to London (thank you tourism)
- Beautiful city and colleges, set in a valley in one of the nicest parts of the country.
- Very on the ball, efficient and responsive administration. If the students don't like something, they actually do change it.
- Relatively little time spent in DGH in clinical years and never required to commute or own a car.
- Apparently uses logbooks far less than other universities. You are trusted to direct your learning to a much greater extent.
- On average, highest post-grad exam pass rates, highest FPAS points achieved and highest post-F2 employment rates.
- Opportunity to do clinical years in London.
Cons:
- Might be forced to do clinical years in London.
- Academic course is definitely not for all.
- 3 years without patient contact for wannabe doctors is a LONG time.
- Long term times in clinical years
- The city does get quite expensive once you are living there year-round in clinical.
- Essays, of which you write very many in pre-clinical, are not to everyone's taste.
- Some DGH accommodation is very basic, frequently without internet.
Reply 387
I'm trying to compare Liverpool and Bristol so i can firm one of them soon… Can anyone help please?
Reply 388
Original post
by SRose_95I'm trying to compare Liverpool and Bristol so i can firm one of them soon… Can anyone help please?
Sorry if it's past the firming deadline, but I'm at Bristol at the moment!
Pros:
- Aiming to get "the best of both worlds" with extremely lecture-heavy preclinical years, whilst somehow managing to squash in GP placements in first year, and introductory hospital placements in second year.
- The anatomy teaching is fantastic. Dissection is only available as a (competitive) optional unit in second year, but the prosections we use are great, and the e-learning resources are the best we receive in our preclinical teaching.
- I didn't realise how much we take this for granted, but all our lecture handouts are printed out and given to us for free! Having just completed my preclinical years, I shudder at idea of paying for the 1000+ pages of lecture material that the faculty provided us with.
- The preclinical dean is really enthusiastic about feedback, and if you attend the feedback sessions, he genuinely cares about what you have to say.
- Galenicals, the med student society, is very active, and despite most of the year leaving Bristol to attend clinical academies full-time in years 3-5, it manages to create a feeling of togetherness amongst medics.
- The switch from centralised teaching in years 1 and 2, to hospital-based teaching in years 3-5, means that there is greater scope for small-group sessions, which my friends doing clinical tell me are very helpful.
- Bristol have just implemented an academic mentoring system, where every student gets paired with a clinician from Bristol or the surrounding areas. Every student meets their mentor a few times a year to discuss academic progress, career aspirations etc. I might be a bit biased because mine couldn't be more lovely!
- Bristol graduates have been shown to do very well in postgraduate exams (3rd in the country in this particular study)
Cons:
- There's hardly any small-group teaching in the preclinical years, especially in year 2. This led to me feeling a bit lost at times, especially when the year 2 neuro teaching got really heavy around February. On that point, Bristol really love their neuro (which sucks if it's not your thing).
- The first two terms of first year covered vast amounts of basic science, psychosocial material, and clinical epidemiology. While this stuff may prove useful later (the epidemiology has already come in handy when evaluating papers!), it seemed a bit dry to first years who'd just arrived at uni expecting to do something resembling "real medicine". But in my opinion, those first two terms gave us a good base to build clinical knowledge upon. From our point of view, it was a case of "missing the forest for the trees".
- The hospital-based teaching in years 3-5 is variable (even though it's not supposed to be), and some of the hospitals are in fairly isolated places like Yeovil. Although everyone manages through informal car-sharing, the university doesn't ensure that everyone can actually get to and from their placement hospitals.
Reply 389
Original post
by KidneyjeanSorry if it's past the firming deadline, but I'm at Bristol at the moment!
Pros:
- Aiming to get "the best of both worlds" with extremely lecture-heavy preclinical years, whilst somehow managing to squash in GP placements in first year, and introductory hospital placements in second year.
- The anatomy teaching is fantastic. Dissection is only available as a (competitive) optional unit in second year, but the prosections we use are great, and the e-learning resources are the best we receive in our preclinical teaching.
- I didn't realise how much we take this for granted, but all our lecture handouts are printed out and given to us for free! Having just completed my preclinical years, I shudder at idea of paying for the 1000+ pages of lecture material that the faculty provided us with.
- The preclinical dean is really enthusiastic about feedback, and if you attend the feedback sessions, he genuinely cares about what you have to say.
- Galenicals, the med student society, is very active, and despite most of the year leaving Bristol to attend clinical academies full-time in years 3-5, it manages to create a feeling of togetherness amongst medics.
- The switch from centralised teaching in years 1 and 2, to hospital-based teaching in years 3-5, means that there is greater scope for small-group sessions, which my friends doing clinical tell me are very helpful.
- Bristol have just implemented an academic mentoring system, where every student gets paired with a clinician from Bristol or the surrounding areas. Every student meets their mentor a few times a year to discuss academic progress, career aspirations etc. I might be a bit biased because mine couldn't be more lovely!
- Bristol graduates have been shown to do very well in postgraduate exams (3rd in the country in this particular study)
Cons:
- There's hardly any small-group teaching in the preclinical years, especially in year 2. This led to me feeling a bit lost at times, especially when the year 2 neuro teaching got really heavy around February. On that point, Bristol really love their neuro (which sucks if it's not your thing).
- The first two terms of first year covered vast amounts of basic science, psychosocial material, and clinical epidemiology. While this stuff may prove useful later (the epidemiology has already come in handy when evaluating papers!), it seemed a bit dry to first years who'd just arrived at uni expecting to do something resembling "real medicine". But in my opinion, those first two terms gave us a good base to build clinical knowledge upon. From our point of view, it was a case of "missing the forest for the trees".
- The hospital-based teaching in years 3-5 is variable (even though it's not supposed to be), and some of the hospitals are in fairly isolated places like Yeovil. Although everyone manages through informal car-sharing, the university doesn't ensure that everyone can actually get to and from their placement hospitals.
Pros:
- Aiming to get "the best of both worlds" with extremely lecture-heavy preclinical years, whilst somehow managing to squash in GP placements in first year, and introductory hospital placements in second year.
- The anatomy teaching is fantastic. Dissection is only available as a (competitive) optional unit in second year, but the prosections we use are great, and the e-learning resources are the best we receive in our preclinical teaching.
- I didn't realise how much we take this for granted, but all our lecture handouts are printed out and given to us for free! Having just completed my preclinical years, I shudder at idea of paying for the 1000+ pages of lecture material that the faculty provided us with.
- The preclinical dean is really enthusiastic about feedback, and if you attend the feedback sessions, he genuinely cares about what you have to say.
- Galenicals, the med student society, is very active, and despite most of the year leaving Bristol to attend clinical academies full-time in years 3-5, it manages to create a feeling of togetherness amongst medics.
- The switch from centralised teaching in years 1 and 2, to hospital-based teaching in years 3-5, means that there is greater scope for small-group sessions, which my friends doing clinical tell me are very helpful.
- Bristol have just implemented an academic mentoring system, where every student gets paired with a clinician from Bristol or the surrounding areas. Every student meets their mentor a few times a year to discuss academic progress, career aspirations etc. I might be a bit biased because mine couldn't be more lovely!
- Bristol graduates have been shown to do very well in postgraduate exams (3rd in the country in this particular study)
Cons:
- There's hardly any small-group teaching in the preclinical years, especially in year 2. This led to me feeling a bit lost at times, especially when the year 2 neuro teaching got really heavy around February. On that point, Bristol really love their neuro (which sucks if it's not your thing).
- The first two terms of first year covered vast amounts of basic science, psychosocial material, and clinical epidemiology. While this stuff may prove useful later (the epidemiology has already come in handy when evaluating papers!), it seemed a bit dry to first years who'd just arrived at uni expecting to do something resembling "real medicine". But in my opinion, those first two terms gave us a good base to build clinical knowledge upon. From our point of view, it was a case of "missing the forest for the trees".
- The hospital-based teaching in years 3-5 is variable (even though it's not supposed to be), and some of the hospitals are in fairly isolated places like Yeovil. Although everyone manages through informal car-sharing, the university doesn't ensure that everyone can actually get to and from their placement hospitals.
Thank you for this!! I did firm Bristol a couple of months ago now so glad to see i picked the right place!!
Reply 390
Original post
by SRose_95Thank you for this!! I did firm Bristol a couple of months ago now so glad to see i picked the right place!!
Naww nice to hear
I'm intercalating at KCL next year, and it's just hit me how much I'm going to miss the place! It's such a lovely city, and students get the advantage of living in the nicer areas of Bristol.Reply 391
Original post
by felt_monkeyI don't know if I'm comfortable with doing this as I've only done 1 term! So please take everything I've said with a pinch of salt, because my opinions could very easily change. And this only represents 1/10 of the actual course 
+We're one of only a couple of med schools in the country where all its students graduate with BM and BMedSc.
+Tutorials have been really interesting and useful so far. They really complement lectures.
+Placements once a fortnight in the first year. Following the development of a baby has been fascinating.
+Pathology has been so interesting so far. Lots of lectures from many different lecturers in different specialities, half a dozen tutorials and these interactive sessions called 'pathology in practice'. After the New Year we're having post mortem demonstrations, too.
+We're a big year with a huge variety of people; I know there's at least 210, but I don't know if that includes the 33 BM6 students from last year.
+ Great pastoral support. You are assigned your own personal tutor and the whole year also shares a pastoral tutor. She's so lovely and really helped me at first, as my personal tutor was on holiday so couldn't see me. You definitely don't feel the need to bottle anything up.
+Our MedSoc really knows how to throw a party!
- Histology and anatomy are poorly taught. The practical sessions can be disorganised and I know people who refuse to go to histology practicals. For anatomy, there's about 70 of you sharing the attention of 2 session leaders. However, one of the lecturers is fantastic and will happily give you private teaching in his own time if you need it.
- 3/5 days we're at SGH. All right for some, but because of where my bloody accommodation is it's a huge pain in the arse getting there for 9am.
- SSUs and IPL are a joke. So we've paid £1600 (or whatever) so far to make a board game and a poster.
- You've got to be prepared for ~25 hours of contact time a week (only a negative if you feel you're more of a PBL student, really). Which will include, as I said before, 4 lectures in a row on a Monday morning.
- I know this is probably true for all med schools, but you really are thrown into the deep end and expected not to drown. We were given an essay on the mechanisms of action of trastuzumab within the first few weeks, and it's safe to say everyone had a breakdown over it at some point!
-Southampton as a city is a bit meh. Although it is the 'teen pregnancy capital of the South', which gives me at least something to write about in my SSU essay
+We're one of only a couple of med schools in the country where all its students graduate with BM and BMedSc.
+Tutorials have been really interesting and useful so far. They really complement lectures.
+Placements once a fortnight in the first year. Following the development of a baby has been fascinating.
+Pathology has been so interesting so far. Lots of lectures from many different lecturers in different specialities, half a dozen tutorials and these interactive sessions called 'pathology in practice'. After the New Year we're having post mortem demonstrations, too.
+We're a big year with a huge variety of people; I know there's at least 210, but I don't know if that includes the 33 BM6 students from last year.
+ Great pastoral support. You are assigned your own personal tutor and the whole year also shares a pastoral tutor. She's so lovely and really helped me at first, as my personal tutor was on holiday so couldn't see me. You definitely don't feel the need to bottle anything up.
+Our MedSoc really knows how to throw a party!
- Histology and anatomy are poorly taught. The practical sessions can be disorganised and I know people who refuse to go to histology practicals. For anatomy, there's about 70 of you sharing the attention of 2 session leaders. However, one of the lecturers is fantastic and will happily give you private teaching in his own time if you need it.
- 3/5 days we're at SGH. All right for some, but because of where my bloody accommodation is it's a huge pain in the arse getting there for 9am.
- SSUs and IPL are a joke. So we've paid £1600 (or whatever) so far to make a board game and a poster.
- You've got to be prepared for ~25 hours of contact time a week (only a negative if you feel you're more of a PBL student, really). Which will include, as I said before, 4 lectures in a row on a Monday morning.
- I know this is probably true for all med schools, but you really are thrown into the deep end and expected not to drown. We were given an essay on the mechanisms of action of trastuzumab within the first few weeks, and it's safe to say everyone had a breakdown over it at some point!
-Southampton as a city is a bit meh. Although it is the 'teen pregnancy capital of the South', which gives me at least something to write about in my SSU essay
Hi,
Seen as you've been at Southampton for a few years now, do you think you'd be able to give another, more representative review, please?
Thanks in advance
Reply 392
11
Original post
by LegitBarts and the London SMD
This opinion is based on the pre-clinical years only.
Pros
- I believe we have a very good course so far, its spiral meaning that in the first year you cover all the normal physiology and in second year its all pathology. It does make it a little harder as you need to remember all of first year again to be able to sit second year.
- Reading some of the Pros from other medical schools, people have written 'No PBL', i think thats silly when they haven't really experienced it. No-one can explain or experience what it is like doing a PBL. To be honest, I think it makes the course a little bit harder but it helps you remember things. At Barts, the PBLs are pretty much nearly always based on lectures. So all it does is re-inforce your learning.
- Unlike most other medical schools, our SSC is always done together in a 2 week period, in which you have no lectures or PBLs. It is Mon-Fri for 2 weeks doing your SSC. Its more enjoyable and relaxing than doing your SSC once a day per week for like 5 months or something.
-You get your results for all exams pretty much in a week
- I think we get fairly good term time!
http://www.smd-edu.qmul.ac.uk/medicine/timetables/MBBS%20Block%202012-13.pdf
- I've seen several lecture halls from other Medical schools and we DEFIANTLY have the nicest looking one (Perrin LT)
- Its East London, if you can live with the area not looking nice, then you'll love what the Royal London Hospital has to offer! I've seen rare diseases which most doctors do not even encounter ever during my pre-clinical years!
- Student Union has been refurbished! Looks amazing now.
- Anatomy teaching has been excellent, its improved a lot since the last few years. We have small group anatomy sessions, good booklets to work with.
- The medical school listen to you, if you have a problem they will sort it!
- Within a few years, Barts will be one of the top medical schools in the country based on the improvements they are making yearly. - Garrod Building is open 24/7 for every day of the year.
- We have the best looking Library (Whitechapel) IMO
Cons
- In my first year, the first 2 months is based on introducing you to the basics of Medicine called FunMed (Fundamentals of Medicine) - this is a joke. The teaching is poor at times.
- I personally feel Barts course is a lot more tougher than other medical schools. I have many friends studying at KCL and Imperial, us at Barts always have exams compared to these guys. We have 3 'In Course Assessments' within the first year compared to one at Kings in the first year i think.
- I dont remember many days when i didnt have to start at 9am.
- Histology goes into crazy detail IMO compared to other Medical schools.
- PBLs can be a bit too much when your expected to complete 2 per week!
- Before every major exam, we have to do a 2000 word write up on a PBL which is unhelpful, rubbish, I hate it, everyone hates it and its stupid.
- I think in the first year, around 20-25% of the teaching in lectures was utter rubbish. In 2nd year its the exact opposite, its been excellent so far! Everything is amazing and teaching is very good.
- If you get 49% in end of year exams = you get kicked out. I've heard Kings have some allowance if you get good marks in the other exams. I had a friend who got top marks in Paper A Bi Bii D and E, but failed paper C by 1 mark and was kicked out of medical school.
- The Whitechapel medical campus isn't really a 'campus', soon as you leave the lecture hall, your on the street rather than been enclosed within Uni grounds. Sometimes I feel as if i would of preferred it with a campus feel.
This opinion is based on the pre-clinical years only.
Pros
- I believe we have a very good course so far, its spiral meaning that in the first year you cover all the normal physiology and in second year its all pathology. It does make it a little harder as you need to remember all of first year again to be able to sit second year.
- Reading some of the Pros from other medical schools, people have written 'No PBL', i think thats silly when they haven't really experienced it. No-one can explain or experience what it is like doing a PBL. To be honest, I think it makes the course a little bit harder but it helps you remember things. At Barts, the PBLs are pretty much nearly always based on lectures. So all it does is re-inforce your learning.
- Unlike most other medical schools, our SSC is always done together in a 2 week period, in which you have no lectures or PBLs. It is Mon-Fri for 2 weeks doing your SSC. Its more enjoyable and relaxing than doing your SSC once a day per week for like 5 months or something.
-You get your results for all exams pretty much in a week
- I think we get fairly good term time!
http://www.smd-edu.qmul.ac.uk/medicine/timetables/MBBS%20Block%202012-13.pdf
- I've seen several lecture halls from other Medical schools and we DEFIANTLY have the nicest looking one (Perrin LT)
- Its East London, if you can live with the area not looking nice, then you'll love what the Royal London Hospital has to offer! I've seen rare diseases which most doctors do not even encounter ever during my pre-clinical years!
- Student Union has been refurbished! Looks amazing now.
- Anatomy teaching has been excellent, its improved a lot since the last few years. We have small group anatomy sessions, good booklets to work with.
- The medical school listen to you, if you have a problem they will sort it!
- Within a few years, Barts will be one of the top medical schools in the country based on the improvements they are making yearly. - Garrod Building is open 24/7 for every day of the year.
- We have the best looking Library (Whitechapel) IMO
Cons
- In my first year, the first 2 months is based on introducing you to the basics of Medicine called FunMed (Fundamentals of Medicine) - this is a joke. The teaching is poor at times.
- I personally feel Barts course is a lot more tougher than other medical schools. I have many friends studying at KCL and Imperial, us at Barts always have exams compared to these guys. We have 3 'In Course Assessments' within the first year compared to one at Kings in the first year i think.
- I dont remember many days when i didnt have to start at 9am.
- Histology goes into crazy detail IMO compared to other Medical schools.
- PBLs can be a bit too much when your expected to complete 2 per week!
- Before every major exam, we have to do a 2000 word write up on a PBL which is unhelpful, rubbish, I hate it, everyone hates it and its stupid.
- I think in the first year, around 20-25% of the teaching in lectures was utter rubbish. In 2nd year its the exact opposite, its been excellent so far! Everything is amazing and teaching is very good.
- If you get 49% in end of year exams = you get kicked out. I've heard Kings have some allowance if you get good marks in the other exams. I had a friend who got top marks in Paper A Bi Bii D and E, but failed paper C by 1 mark and was kicked out of medical school.
- The Whitechapel medical campus isn't really a 'campus', soon as you leave the lecture hall, your on the street rather than been enclosed within Uni grounds. Sometimes I feel as if i would of preferred it with a campus feel.
Hey I'm thinking of applying to Barts next year
I'm wondering if you have any further comments about changes/ opinions in the last 2 years. This post was really helpful
Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 393
Could someone please make a post for Dundee?
Thank you very much!
Thank you very much!
Reply 394
Any Lancaster medics?
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 395
Original post
by Hygeiasince everyone's giving such detailed responses, i've had a think and come up with some more for UEA
Pros:
- Small med school, means you get to know everyone and in general the staff actually seem to care if you're struggling and will do anything they can to help
- Early clinical contact: from week 1 of year 1, then every week of the course
- Good communications skills teaching – they bring in actors for us to practise with, and we get lots of practice at primary and secondary care days
- 2 nice DGHs and a big teaching hospital for placements (with transport provided to the DGHs)
- In general, the staff at the hospitals are really enthusiastic about teaching
- Norwich is a really nice area (even if it's a bit remote)
- Lots of experience in most areas of medicine (I think we get to see pretty much everything, even if it's only for a week or two)
Cons:
- Not enough basic science teaching, possibly due to the strong emphasis on psychosocial taking up all the lecture slots
- PBL can be a bit hit and miss – if you have a good group, then it's brilliant, if you don't, then you have a lot more work to do yourself
- Analytical reviews I know they're a useful skill to have for the future but I hate them!
- The med school's organisation isn't brilliant – we only get our secondary care timetables the day before we start our placement and most recently only found out which hospital we'd be at 2 days before (which then caused problems as they'd messed up people's placement requests...)
- Some 'old school' consultants spend teaching sessions insulting the way the UEA med course is run and structured
- very little surgical teaching
- 14 weeks psychiatry... though this is being reduced for future years
- For my year group, we seem to either get the worst bits of everything with improvements being made for the years below, or we're the guinea pig year where they try something on us and then decide the old way was better
Pros:
- Small med school, means you get to know everyone and in general the staff actually seem to care if you're struggling and will do anything they can to help
- Early clinical contact: from week 1 of year 1, then every week of the course
- Good communications skills teaching – they bring in actors for us to practise with, and we get lots of practice at primary and secondary care days
- 2 nice DGHs and a big teaching hospital for placements (with transport provided to the DGHs)
- In general, the staff at the hospitals are really enthusiastic about teaching
- Norwich is a really nice area (even if it's a bit remote)
- Lots of experience in most areas of medicine (I think we get to see pretty much everything, even if it's only for a week or two)
Cons:
- Not enough basic science teaching, possibly due to the strong emphasis on psychosocial taking up all the lecture slots
- PBL can be a bit hit and miss – if you have a good group, then it's brilliant, if you don't, then you have a lot more work to do yourself
- Analytical reviews
I know they're a useful skill to have for the future but I hate them!- The med school's organisation isn't brilliant – we only get our secondary care timetables the day before we start our placement and most recently only found out which hospital we'd be at 2 days before (which then caused problems as they'd messed up people's placement requests...)
- Some 'old school' consultants spend teaching sessions insulting the way the UEA med course is run and structured
- very little surgical teaching
- 14 weeks psychiatry... though this is being reduced for future years
- For my year group, we seem to either get the worst bits of everything with improvements being made for the years below, or we're the guinea pig year where they try something on us and then decide the old way was better
Hey can I have an updated review of UEA or is that ok?
^Reply 396
Could someone please make a post for Queen's University of Belfast?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Reply 397
17
St Andrews
Pros:
Great Teaching - Our lecturers in general are very good at what they do, funny, engaging
Organized - The school is in general very organized, order of lectures and practicals make sense, no "surprises" usually
Strong Feedback - The school asks for our feedback for each placement, provides a ride to every placement (we don't pay and we don't have to arrange anything), the school asks for feedback on each guest lecturer and poorly rated lecturers don't come back
New Medical School - The new medical school opened in 2010 and everything (except 2 computer labs in 2nd year) are in the same building making things convenient.
Pre-clinical - Strong pre-clinical teaching in general,
Anatomy - Very strong anatomy teaching, this can be a pro or con because we get 2 and a half years of dissection averaging about an hour and a half per week. A lot of anatomy lectures, great when you are learning about the thorax and abdomen, gets a bit annoying when you spend hours memorizing every muscle and cartilage and crevice of the larynx or when you are required to know everything about all cranial nerve nuclei and every spinal tract gahhh.
Intercalated Degree - Everyone gets a BSc (Hons), a few extra points on foundation apps and more letters after your name :P.
Class Size - Only 150 students in the 1st year, 130 by 3rd. Definitely a small cohort and I think that it is an advantage. You'll know most students by the end of your 3 years but of course there will always be a few who you are surprised were in your class because they never show up to lectures and of course a few from the year above come in every year as well.
Fair Exams - Exams are fairly marked. The school goes to great lengths to prove this to us. Basically they are graded on somewhat of a curve, but it does change if people do better in one year. If a MCQ question wasn't in the lectures/guided studies it is removed, and they can tell this because the "top 20% of students will get the question wrong just as often as the lowest 20%" otherwise known as a poorly discriminating question, also the overall # of right answers will be lower. All SWAs for a specific question are marked by one examiner generally the person who wrote that question so you can be assured of consistent grading. We get 4 a year 2 mid term MCQs and 2 finals with short answers and MCQs as well as an anatomy exam. 1 OSCE exam at the end of each year.
Traditional/Integrated Course - Again a personal preference, but the traditional lecture based course was supplemented with tutorials as well as dissection and clinical skills which made for a relatively balanced course. We also had guided studies which is a fancy name for homework, never liked it, but a bit of everything and in my opinion good. We had a few sample PBL sessions in first year but I didn't feel like we knew enough at all to really appreciate them at the time. I feel as though too much PBL could create serious gaps in learning.
Galen - Galen is the best organizing system ever, and it is the go to source for all information med school related, includes a great timetable.
Dissection - Dissection is good at St Andrews, I put it as a pro because not many schools still offer dissection and I personally think its a great opportunity. I won't say great however because there are 4-5 students to one half of the body. Which means 4 to a body for things like the arms, legs, lungs but 8-10 to a body for the heart, the brain. This means not much opportunity to actually dissect although if you are keen you will usually get decent exposure since many don't want to dissect, but the experience could be improved if there were fewer students per body.
Cons:
Research - No real research to speak of. No real surprise here since St Andrews does not have a clinical school, but the only real research done in St Andrews is through CAHRU the Child and Adolescent Health unit and the Molecular Biology and Microbiology side of things. Other research includes Med Ed and Ethics. If you are interested in anything else you are out of luck, this ends up in limited choices for your dissertation, of course you can always do a critical review.
Pathology - The strong anatomy teaching comes at the expense of pathology. We had maybe 5 or 6 lectures on neuropathology, not nearly enough in my opinion, especially when you consider we had more than 30 on neuroanatomy.
Public Health - Way too much public health. Again this could be a pro or con, but its a con for me as I think it was excessive. Material felt more appropriate for a MPH rather than a BSc in Medicine.
St Andrews - Again a pro or a con, but I felt St Andrews got a bit boring after 2 years, this really depends on the type of person you are though. Its a small town, not that much to do. Everything does seem so far away, you feel a little disconnected.
Pros:
Great Teaching - Our lecturers in general are very good at what they do, funny, engaging
Organized - The school is in general very organized, order of lectures and practicals make sense, no "surprises" usually
Strong Feedback - The school asks for our feedback for each placement, provides a ride to every placement (we don't pay and we don't have to arrange anything), the school asks for feedback on each guest lecturer and poorly rated lecturers don't come back
New Medical School - The new medical school opened in 2010 and everything (except 2 computer labs in 2nd year) are in the same building making things convenient.
Pre-clinical - Strong pre-clinical teaching in general,
Anatomy - Very strong anatomy teaching, this can be a pro or con because we get 2 and a half years of dissection averaging about an hour and a half per week. A lot of anatomy lectures, great when you are learning about the thorax and abdomen, gets a bit annoying when you spend hours memorizing every muscle and cartilage and crevice of the larynx or when you are required to know everything about all cranial nerve nuclei and every spinal tract gahhh.
Intercalated Degree - Everyone gets a BSc (Hons), a few extra points on foundation apps and more letters after your name :P.
Class Size - Only 150 students in the 1st year, 130 by 3rd. Definitely a small cohort and I think that it is an advantage. You'll know most students by the end of your 3 years but of course there will always be a few who you are surprised were in your class because they never show up to lectures and of course a few from the year above come in every year as well.
Fair Exams - Exams are fairly marked. The school goes to great lengths to prove this to us. Basically they are graded on somewhat of a curve, but it does change if people do better in one year. If a MCQ question wasn't in the lectures/guided studies it is removed, and they can tell this because the "top 20% of students will get the question wrong just as often as the lowest 20%" otherwise known as a poorly discriminating question, also the overall # of right answers will be lower. All SWAs for a specific question are marked by one examiner generally the person who wrote that question so you can be assured of consistent grading. We get 4 a year 2 mid term MCQs and 2 finals with short answers and MCQs as well as an anatomy exam. 1 OSCE exam at the end of each year.
Traditional/Integrated Course - Again a personal preference, but the traditional lecture based course was supplemented with tutorials as well as dissection and clinical skills which made for a relatively balanced course. We also had guided studies which is a fancy name for homework, never liked it, but a bit of everything and in my opinion good. We had a few sample PBL sessions in first year but I didn't feel like we knew enough at all to really appreciate them at the time. I feel as though too much PBL could create serious gaps in learning.
Galen - Galen is the best organizing system ever, and it is the go to source for all information med school related, includes a great timetable.
Dissection - Dissection is good at St Andrews, I put it as a pro because not many schools still offer dissection and I personally think its a great opportunity. I won't say great however because there are 4-5 students to one half of the body. Which means 4 to a body for things like the arms, legs, lungs but 8-10 to a body for the heart, the brain. This means not much opportunity to actually dissect although if you are keen you will usually get decent exposure since many don't want to dissect, but the experience could be improved if there were fewer students per body.
Cons:
Research - No real research to speak of. No real surprise here since St Andrews does not have a clinical school, but the only real research done in St Andrews is through CAHRU the Child and Adolescent Health unit and the Molecular Biology and Microbiology side of things. Other research includes Med Ed and Ethics. If you are interested in anything else you are out of luck, this ends up in limited choices for your dissertation, of course you can always do a critical review.
Pathology - The strong anatomy teaching comes at the expense of pathology. We had maybe 5 or 6 lectures on neuropathology, not nearly enough in my opinion, especially when you consider we had more than 30 on neuroanatomy.
Public Health - Way too much public health. Again this could be a pro or con, but its a con for me as I think it was excessive. Material felt more appropriate for a MPH rather than a BSc in Medicine.
St Andrews - Again a pro or a con, but I felt St Andrews got a bit boring after 2 years, this really depends on the type of person you are though. Its a small town, not that much to do. Everything does seem so far away, you feel a little disconnected.
Reply 398
13
Does anybody have any insight into the Graduate Entry courses at KCL, Southampton, Newcastle, and Warwick? Or at least the first year or two when it's not integrated with the normal undergrad course? Thanks!
Reply 399
Southampton in a nutshell
PROS
- Friendly, chilled out, supportive medical school compared to others
- Great course
- You get a Bmedsci. Can also do the MMedSci
- You learn clinical stuff (e.g. how to take a history) from your first week, so you are very prepared for going into clinical years
- First two years are lecture based but theres a good mix with tutorials etc, and not tooo much irrelavant science stuff compared with other schools
- Prosection is not a bad way of learning anatomy, and less time consuming.
- Postural support is fantastic, you actually feel like the medical school cares about you!
- Focus on communication skills, professionalism and clinical focus which, although you may get slated for lack of scientific knowledge, you generally fair pretty well on placement and at F1
- Good sized year group, 220 or so
- Campus is wonderful
- You are part of a university, not just a med school so great to make non medic friends and get involved with everything the uni has to offer
- Medsoc is great, tons of societies, sports and socials
- You are in a lovely area of the country with great beaches, the new forest and some lovely cities close by. Some great placements in lovely places such as winchester, poole, jersey and salisbury
- The student clubs in portswood are outstanding. You wont understand until you go
CONS
- City is meh. lack of culture, average nightlife. Slowly improving!
- You do at least half of your lectures in the hospital, so sometimes feel a bit isolated from campus. Its also a 15 minute cycle away but I quite enjoyed that.
- The BMedSci year (4th year) is great for some, but awful for others. I found it fustrating
- We often get told we don't have enough knowledge, especially anatomy knowledge. However we are excellent in other areas!
- Some placement durations are a bit silly. Tons of psych, not enough different medical specialities
PROS
- Friendly, chilled out, supportive medical school compared to others
- Great course
- You get a Bmedsci. Can also do the MMedSci
- You learn clinical stuff (e.g. how to take a history) from your first week, so you are very prepared for going into clinical years
- First two years are lecture based but theres a good mix with tutorials etc, and not tooo much irrelavant science stuff compared with other schools
- Prosection is not a bad way of learning anatomy, and less time consuming.
- Postural support is fantastic, you actually feel like the medical school cares about you!
- Focus on communication skills, professionalism and clinical focus which, although you may get slated for lack of scientific knowledge, you generally fair pretty well on placement and at F1
- Good sized year group, 220 or so
- Campus is wonderful
- You are part of a university, not just a med school so great to make non medic friends and get involved with everything the uni has to offer
- Medsoc is great, tons of societies, sports and socials
- You are in a lovely area of the country with great beaches, the new forest and some lovely cities close by. Some great placements in lovely places such as winchester, poole, jersey and salisbury
- The student clubs in portswood are outstanding. You wont understand until you go
CONS
- City is meh. lack of culture, average nightlife. Slowly improving!
- You do at least half of your lectures in the hospital, so sometimes feel a bit isolated from campus. Its also a 15 minute cycle away but I quite enjoyed that.
- The BMedSci year (4th year) is great for some, but awful for others. I found it fustrating
- We often get told we don't have enough knowledge, especially anatomy knowledge. However we are excellent in other areas!
- Some placement durations are a bit silly. Tons of psych, not enough different medical specialities
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