Advice Medicine

[caring star]

Hi All,
Can anybody please give advice/information for the following:
A )Birmingham, Bristol , Keele, Leicester, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cardiff. Does anyone have experience of the medicine at any of the above universities –preferred to least preferred list if possible ?
B) How can we organise visiting the universities like can we visit them only on open days after making an appointment or can we visit them whenever we are free like weekends without an appointment. What we should look while visiting ?
C) Advice/tips on UCKAT/BMAT exams like is it enough revising the books or is there any mock exams ?
D) what all courses you can add for the fifth option in the application ?
Many thanks for all your advice

[Catseye]

My OH knows a little about Med Schools.
You have quite eclectic collection of Med Schools.

broadly speaking Med Courses and be broken into two types :


Traditional- where the course is broken down to quite strict pre-clinical and post clinical components

preclinical- the fundamentals of Medicine including ; Anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, embryology,pathology,
immunology,genetics, epidemiology, pharmacology ect

this usually lasts for 2 years followed by 3 years of clinical training ,(hands on)Medicine as most of would understand.(involving medicine, surgery,pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology,psychiatry and the myriad of sub-specialties ENT, orthopaedics, general practice..... ect )


Problem Based learning (PLB)

first introduced by Manchester Med School in the UK(1990) but pioneered by Tronto Med School Canada and now adopted by most USA Med Schools.

This involves small groups working on a clinical problem from real life patients and then working around the solutions ( differential diagnosis, investigations, treatments ect) it could take junior med students a few weeks to solve this but they would have to cover the basis of the basic anatomy,physiology, biochemistry ect
so they learn in a holistic manner.

I know Keele is PBL since my OH had some input into establishing the course there since Manchester Medical School was in partnership with Keele when it was allowed to have Med School status .

The traditional course favours those who have good memories and like to be spoon fed whereas PLB is more suitable for students who are poorer at retentive memories but are good problem solvers -so says my OH but I wouldn't believe a word he says,

What kind of learning style will your dc be best at ?then target those Med Schools.

good luck

ps chemistry is compulsory for all Medical courses and some also require biology at A levels but very academic med schools may prefer Maths or even Physics over biology !!

[DIY Mum]

Hello,

Sorry, no one has replied.

In response to your questions:

1: Have a nephew at Keele who's nearly finished medicine. He has had a very positive experience there considering the fact that he's special needs and has been going through some serious personal issues. Have you tried searching some threads on the student room? You'll get many more answers there.
2: Ds1 booked online for the specific medic open days. You can visit on other days but the specific dept open days are very beneficial. The only problem he had with one of them is taking time off school during term time to attend it.
3. There's a thread on here about BMAT and UKCAT prep. We found it very useful. E.g. the Medify online course.
4: This is a question that we need help on also. My son would like to leave the 5th option blank but I think the competition to med school is very, very tough. I know of a few people who have the grades and sufficient work experience and still finding themselves unable to secure a place at any med school. I would like him to put Biomedicine down as some sort of insurance but most of his friends (and teachers) are advising him also to leave it blank. What to do?!
Sorry , your post didn't appear on my computer! Very useful, thank you .

[KenR]

Further advise:-
3. As BMAT is taken after UCAS submission make sure that all of your selections are not BMAT - otherwise they may not get any offers if they don't perform well in the BMAT test.
(Competition is so tough for applications for medicine that poor performance by the student in any of the criteria is used as sufficient reason for rejection by the admissions tutors)

For info, my nephew successfully finished his course at Hull/York Medical School just over 1 year ago - he was pleased with the course - PBL based

[Drama 797]

My DS applied to Durham to do Natural Science for his 5th option. He was rejected, despite receiving offers for medicine from Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Birmingham. His application was obviously focused on medicine and it would appear he wasn't even considered. Just our experience, no doubt others will have different experiences.

[Catseye]

My DS applied to Durham to do Natural Science for his 5th option. He was rejected, despite receiving offers for medicine from Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Birmingham. His application was obviously focused on medicine and it would appear he wasn't even considered. Just our experience, no doubt others will have different experiences.

Durham is a very prickly university IMHO , they want to shake off the the reputation it only takes Oxbridge rejects and when they get an inclination that a top student is Oxbridge material especially wanting to do medicine and using natural sciences as a insurance subject they won't even consider that candidate .

They want (quite rightly imo) candidates who are passionate about the subject applied for and want to choose Durham as their prefered University.

[um]

That's interesting.

I assume Bham Uni is academic/traditional, not PBL?

So do universities get to see all of an applicant's preferences?

[DIY Mum]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

That's exactly what my ds says. His application is heavily focussed upon medicine so there isn't any point in putting a 5th option down.

But my argument is that biomedicine is an alternative route, just in case the A100 course doesn't materialize initially. And in the city where he would like to go to study medicine, there is a uni which offers the MBBS route after a year to their bio med students. Iirc, the top 15 students are guaranteed a place. So, why would the tutors dismiss the application if they state this themselves?

Even for the top students, the competition for medicine is fierce. I'm not being a pessimistic just cautious as I know what others have experienced. There was one student who had A*AAA, long term work experience in a gp, shadowed a doctor in St Mary's (London), various volunteer experience, exceptional bmat score (3rd in the country and was invited by Oxford uni for interview but later rejected), early 800 ukcat score but still didn't secure a place here and went to study medicine abroad.

There's very little time left to fill in and submit the form. Most I know have left the 5th option blank. But if that's the case, that tutors will dismiss the 5th option, surely UCAS need to change the procedure.

Catseye, cross posts again.

[ToadMum]

That's interesting.

I assume Bham Uni is academic/traditional, not PBL?

So do universities get to see all of an applicant's preferences?

DS1 off to Birmingham at the weekend but not for Medicine, so can't help there, I'm afraid. But no, UCAS operates an equal preference system and universities don't see where else you have applied. But obviously if you are applying for Medicine your personal statement will mainly be slanted that way, so the 'non-med' uni / department will assume that they are not your first choice. Although apparently, one of DS1's friends, having been offered a place to read Medicine at one of the only two UK universities some people think exist, IYSWIM, turned it down for the offer from his 'fifth choice'.

[hermanmunster]

My DS applied to Durham to do Natural Science for his 5th option. He was rejected, despite receiving offers for medicine from Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Birmingham. His application was obviously focused on medicine and it would appear he wasn't even considered. Just our experience, no doubt others will have different experiences.

Did he submit an alternate personal statement for the 5th choice. Durham is one of the only places I know that allows students to do this.?


----
Other bit of advice re medicine - ask why the number of applicants from UK students dropped by 5% last year?
This is when we really need a great many more qualifying to make up for those leaving the country / giving up / covering the 84 hr GP week etc etc.