Medical Course at Birmingham

[2009?]

I am just making this thread as dsn asked me to.. you'd think after 930 posts you'd be able to start threads ...hehe jokes thanks so much for all your help!

[MBS]

Sorry to steal your thunder DSN,
(Btw, thanks a lot to DSN who contributed alot to the following post):


During the first two years at Birmingham Medical School you will study

• six Biological Sciences modules each year. Apart from MTM these are systems based modules that intergrate biochemistry, physiology, pathology, anatomy and pharmacology for each system. Each (except IIH and CAN) has its own anatomy component which is integrated into the module's exam.
• two Medicine in Society (Law, Ethics, Psychology, Sociology) modules each year
• Community Based Medicine (Firm 1 – GP placement)
• Integrated Problems
• Basic Life Support (first year only)
• Learning Medicine (first year only)
• Student Project 1 (second year only)

Teaching

Teaching is delivered by

• lectures (where all 400 of us sit)
• small group sessions (with your "M-Group", a group of 18 students or so - this is how most anatomy is delivered). SGTs usually have a tutor present, but may be group study sessions in which work must be done and then posted online to receive feedback.
• prosection (currently four hours per year but likely to increase)
• self-directed learning. SDLs may be timetabled to prepare for SGTs or may be stand alone work that will not be covered elsewhere.

The modules

Each semester you will have three BS modules and one MiS module. (2 semesters, first Oct-Dec, second from Jan-April).

Year 1, Semester 1

• MTM - Molecules to Man (cell biology, embryology and clinical genetics)
• CEP - Cell Communication, Endocrinology and Pharmacology
• NAS - Neurones and Synapses (neuroscience and neurophysiology)

• PPP - People, Patients, and Populations (Sociology (why patients consult), law & ethics (Consent)..etc..)
  
• BLS – Basic Life Support. For four Mondays in first year, you will have to stay from 6:30pm to 10pm to do this. It may be in semester one or two.
  
• LEM – Learning Medicine. This assesses SSCs – Student Selected Components. These comprise SSAs (Student Selected Activities: Academic or Student led) and SSMs (Student Selected Modules)). In first year there are four weeks of SSAs: one student led at the end of Oct, one academic led is in mid Feb, and there is another of each in mid June (after exams). There are no normal lectures during SSA weeks. During student led SSAs you choose a topic and research it, whereas during academic led SSAs you are given a few lectures/ seminars and usually given a topic to research and make a presentation about. Following each SSA you write a reflective report for your Personal Mentor about what you have learnt about study techniques. These reports are assessed for the LEM module mark.
  
• CBM – Firm One. This is your GP placement and it could be anywhere in the West Midlands County plus Worcester. You will have to make your own way. You will be in a group of three or four students who will be at a particular surgery for the two years. You will have a GP tutor who will teach you during the day – you will learn to take histories and do basic examinations of patients (this is assessed at the end of year 2). You will also spend a lot of time discussing things in your group. Firm One days are usually 9-5. Dress smartly! You have eight days at placement a year (sixteen in total)
  
• IP – Integrated Problems, continue over the two years on alternate weeks to Firm One. This is done in your M group. In year 1 you are given a case in the morning that you have to deconstruct and identify learning objectives from. The M group then splits in to sub-groups of three or four who then go away and research these topics to come to present them back to the whole M group in the afternoon. In year 2 you present the case in the morning and are given the next case immeadiately afterwards, so you have two weeks to do the research. In year 1, one case presentation is assessed, whereas in year 2 all cases are assessed. This is 20% of the module mark. In year 1, 40% of the mark is based upon an unseen case (which you must deconstruct and identify learning objectives for) and 40% on a seen case (which you are given in advance and asked questions about in the exam on learning objectives you should have identified and revised in preparation). In year 2 there is a further statistics exam based upon stats lectures/ SGTs. IP now also has 36 anatomy lectures over the two years that supplement those given within specific modules.
  

Year 1, Semester 2

• MJM - Muscles, Joints, and Movement (mostly anatomy, management of common injuries and rheumatological conditions)
• IRM - Introduction to Respiratory Medicine
• DIS - Digestive System

• DPS - Doctors, Patients, and Society (epidemiology, sociology, and psychology).

Year 2, Semester 1

• CVS – Cardiovascular System
• IIH – Immunity, Infection and Haematology (lots of immunology)
• REN – Renal System
• HES – Health Services (disability studies, healthcare organisation, sociology, law & ethics (more consent))

Year 2, Semester 2

• BAB – Brain and Behaviour (more neuroscience and neurophysiology)
• RED – Reproduction, Endocrinology and Development (reproductive system, fertilisation, growth and more embryology)
• CAN – Cancer
  
• DEM – Decision Making (sociology, psychology and law & ethics (abortion, mental health euthanaisa)).
  
• SP1 – Student Project 1. Also called SSM 1 (Student Selected Module 1) – you choose a module from a wide variety (e.g. history of medicine, sociology, toxicology, 3D anatomy, comparative anatomy etc etc). Teaching is delivered during semester two in lectures and/ or seminars. Assessment varies between modules but is usually about 25% on a presentation and 75% on an essay of around 2,500+ words which is based on your research.

Exams

Pass mark is 50%. You are also given your ranking in the year group. You must pass all modules to pass the year. If you fail a module, it must be re-sat successfully in August to “progress.” However, if you get 45-50% in one BS module, but pass the other two you studied that term and the average between the three is over 50%, you can “compensate” to pass without retakes. (e.g. you could compensate if you get 47% in MTM, 52% in CEP and 53% in NAS).

Biological Sciences

Each module is assessed with -

• In course assessment (ICA). 20% of module mark. This at some point during the term you study the module and may be MCQs (e.g. MTM/ DIS), presentations (e.g. NAS/ BAB), an essay (IRM) or SAQs (CAN)
• Multiple choice questions (MCQs). 20% of module mark. For winter modules (i.e. MTM/ NAS/ CEP & REN/ CVS/ IIH) this is in January; spring modules (i.e. DIS/ IRM/ MJM & BAB/ RED/ CAN) are sat in May. 20 questions. You choose the correct answer out of five possible alternatives.
• Extended matching set questions (EMQs). 10% of mark.10 questions. Sat at the same time as MCQs. These are also called anatomy spotters, as they examine anatomy knowledge; you must pick the correct answer(s) out of a list of 26 possible answers. Exceptions are IIH and CAN where EMQs are substituted by an additional 10 general MCQs.
• Short answer questions (SAQs). 50% of module mark. SAQs are all sat in May. Six questions of ten marks each which are usually split in to further sub-parts to the question.

Note: you do not need to pass each sub-component of each module, just the module overall.

Medicine in Society

Each module is examined in one paper; PPP & HES in January and DPS & DEM in May. The papers are combinations of MCQs, EMQs and SAQs.

Typical Timetable

• Firm One and IP are on alternate Thursdays in first year and alternate Tuesdays in second year.
• Wednesday – always finish by 1pm or earlier
• All other days – commonly start at 9am, sometimes 10am, very rarely later than that. Usually finish by 5pm, but may finish at 6pm. There are usually several hours of breaks (spent in med cafe common room/ computer cluster/ Barnes Library etc) during the day, sometimes all in one slot, so you could go home..etc..

[MBS]

Same info and more details are on the UoB MedSoc website (New Students section):

http://medsoc.bham.ac.uk

[2009?]

Thanks... that was all really helpful.. soooo close to firming birmingham right now?.. i just wondered if there is any info like that for years 3-5.. i couldnt find it.. but that was probs me just failing

[MBS]

I have no idea really. As far as I am aware, in year three you do Integrated Medicine and Surgery Mon-Thurs, and on Friday you do GP one week, and Epimethods the other week (In semester1). In semester 2, its similar, but you dont have Epimethods, so you get a friday off every other week.

In years 4 & 5, you get assigned into blocks (5-weeks or so) in different specialities, and u do ur elective at end of Year 4.

You can intercalate between Yrs2&3, or between Yrs3&4 (or even between years 4&5 - my friend is doing that now).

Anythign specific you wanted to ask? placements are all over the westmidlands, but in 2010 we'll have the new hospital built up and ready (Massive superhospital, Birmingham's new hospital ). so maybe lots of us will be based there? Just thinking.

We have the "Clinical Passport" scheme in clinical years, so you'll have a list of skills you need to learn and tick off the "passport" booklet. This was presented at the MedSoc conference last year and other medschools didn't have it and liked it.

[dsn]

Re Hospitals - NHS partners

I think in third year everyone spends at least one term at a Birmingham hospital and possibly the other outside, but I don't know too much about how placements work.

In third year you do a group public health research project on the friday that alternates with CBM.

[MBS]

Thats Epimethods tho isn it? I spoke to the third year rep a while back and she said in Sem2, u get alternate fridays off cuz u'd have finished Epimethods in Sem1.


EDIT: As per post below

[chris18]

You get alternate Fridays off in 2nd term - i.e. the ones when you're not at GP

[2009?]

so you dont actually spend anytime really in the medschool in year 3?

[dsn]

No, you do for the epimethods teaching in semester 1 and you have lectures for the whole of September anyway before you go in to hospitals. I'm not sure if you get academic in-days in third year as part of the IMS module?