Help

[NobodyWeirdLikeMe]

Ok spur of the moment I lost my 'Yes Aberdeen accepted me lets go there.' movement and now I'm in a panic. Because if it's not Aberdeen it will be Glasgow an offer I've been keeping in the back of my mind as I rather rashly said 'no health problems' on the form I filled in. A bit of a lie as I have recurent thrush and IBS (well ok at that time it looked like the thrush would be tackled with suppresors *which haven't worked* and I didn't know about the IBS).

So Glasgow...help me out. I've read alot of the threads here today to try and quit my nerves over accepting them *I don't want to make the wrong choice* How good is the anatomy course? Someone told me today there was *although not alot* cadavaric dissection. I only know as much about the course as is in the prospectus it would relaly help if I could see an example of timetable. What exactly do we get up to in Vocational Studies? The descriptions a bit vague it could mean something like going to mothers who've just given birth and seeing them on a weekly basis like in Cardiff or it could be something else. Hahaha sorry I just need to know these things to lay my poor mind at rest.

Also the city. Is the accomidation near the city centre? How much does it cost to go out and about? *I will be working on a tiny budget, my loan is the basic so will just cover accomidation, and my parents are sending me £10 a week with which to buy my food * Is there a bus service that runs from the main accomidation to city centre? Whats the union like? I feel woefully underprepared for such a big desicion!! I never got to spend any more time in Glasgow then the day I had when I was being interviewed. We flew there and back the same day so I'm clueless!

Thanks for bearing with me hopefully with a little reassurance I'll have the guts to reply to UCAS!

[heed]

Ok well i will tackle the course: pretty much you have three main bits in first year. You have PBL, VS, and "other stuff".

PBL - You go to PBL twice a week (mon and thurs in frist year if i remember) and on each occasion you get a scenario which as a group you dissect down to a list of main issues or problems, which you make into your objectives for the next session. on the next session you feed back all the info you have on the objectives as a group, sort out any differences and leave happy that you have got it all sorted out in your head. you then start on the next scenario and the cycle repeats over again......

VS - This happens for one half-day a week. I was on a Tuesday afternoon in first year. Your group of 10 (stays same all year) meet your VS tutor (a practicing GP) and its here that you learn all your ethics, medical law, clinical skills, communication skills and all the other stuff you need to know to avoid becoming the next harold shipman. You do your hospital attachments and general practice attachments in your VS groups. In terms of clinical skills in first year (we did): suturing and local anaesthetics; resuscitation; chest exam, basics of a musculoskeletal exam, blood pressure etc

The other stuff: This is what fills your time between PBLs and VS. You have labs, seminars, tutorials and lectures to back up what you have been doing in PBL and VS and to broaden your knowledge of the areas being covered. They also use these teaching sessions to explain things that have traditionally caused problems in PBL (ie if a particular objective is really difficult to find info on, if there are loads of different opinions on an issue etc etc)

Overall the course is designed to make you the right person doing the right thing at the end of the day. PBL, clinical skills and all the lectures etc make sure you do the right thing in a clinical sense, and VS makes sure you are the "right person" (morally, ethically, in terms of your legal position etc etc)

there you go - glasgoows course in a nutshell

[NobodyWeirdLikeMe]

I'm officially reassured I'm not making the biggest mistake of my life. Haha thank you! It's been kind of stressful having to choose, my two friends also going into medicine and have the same niggling doubt as me over their choice...just they don't have the luxury to turn anyone down so the decissions have been made for them!

[Mark____]

So givemeheed, you never answered if there is dissection?

I'm confused about this, everyone is so vague - do you actually get to chop up body parts? If so, which body parts (or whole cadaver) and how often?
Or do you stand around, watch someone else chop them up then get to have a wee poke at them?

You said lectures; we're always lead to believe that Glasgow medical school doesn't have any lectures? Are these frequent? Do they cover everything you need to know/will be asked in exams?

In your first year are you on wards at all? if so, whit you doin'?

THANKS!

[scohoust]

Yes you'll do dissection. It's not a full dissection like some Unis still do, mainly because some structures (head particularly) are far to complex for us who know nothing about dissection. For these you'll look at images and prosected material.

When it comes to chest and abdomen you get pretty much let loose on them. Block 2 (before Christmas) is the anatomy block and you go from skin down to removing the lungs. Also take a look around the abdomen.

If you look in the medical press you'll almost always find something about a shortage of cadavers (student BMJ has had a few articles on it recently) and this is probably a main reason for having a lot less dissection than there used to be.

There are maybe 1-2 lectures a week on average. PM me an email address and I'll send a timetable if you like. They certainly don't cover everything, much more reinforcing what you learn in PBL.

You visit a ward, hospice, A&E and GP in first year. This is mainly talking to patients to work on communication skills. Since your VS tutor will likely be a GP, their practice is one you'll come back to for 2 of the coursework pieces in first year.

[An-can-you-dig-it-drew]

You can do SSMs in anatomy, and you spend 2 hours a day, for 4 weeks dissecting if this floats your boat...

[heed]

Originally Posted by Mark____

You said lectures; we're always lead to believe that Glasgow medical school doesn't have any lectures? Are these frequent? Do they cover everything you need to know/will be asked in exams?

you can be examined on anything at all from the course - labs, PBL, lectures, seminars, VS - anything. nobody will ever tell you - "right guys get this one learnt back to front - its going to be in the exam" as the scope of stuff they could ask if pretty huge.

[NobodyWeirdLikeMe]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll be choosing Glasgow now.

[Mark____]

This will sound silly, but I honestly don't know - do they give you examples of exams in past years?
How do you have any idea what the exams will be like??

I really know very little about the course other than all the bits they expect you to know in interview from the website and the prospectus.

Are there textbooks with questions in or is it a make-your-own-notes job?

How often are the exams, does every exam need to be past? I know that for other subjects you don't even have to sit every exam as long as you get a certain amount of credits from the exams you do sit...

Are they very hard exams?
What is the format of the exams - multiple choice/essays/short written questions ?

Are there any practical exams like, for example, being marked on how well you disect ?

You say you can be asked questions on VS, how does this work? :S I thought VS was basically communication skills and good moral judgement etc.

God, I've got so many questions Thanks for your patience.

[heed]

You do not get past papers for medicine - although you can easily get hold of past questions from people in senior years. You do get a mock exam about half way through the year to give you an idea of the level and the style of the questions.

In first year, the assessment is made up of three parts: coursework, MILE, and MBChB(1) professional exams.

You get 5 courseworks in first year which must all be passed at D or above for you to pass the year (3 essays and two group projects).

The MILE is a 24hr exam which takes place in february (i think) which is where you are given a clinical case (basically like a shortened PBL) and you have 24hrs to come up with a report on it. It's an open-book exam and you can do it in groups - although the final report has to be your own stuff. Its basically like an episode of house but withouth the hot one with the brown hair.....

The MBChB exams for first year are in the first week of June. At Glasgow you will get one big exam at the end of the year, unlike some places which give you two smaller exams. The exam is made up of two papers of 2.5hrs each. The first paper is the MEQ paper. This is a series of clinical scenarios with questions attached to each (from 1 to 15ish marks each) covering both clinical medicine and medical sciences (anatomy etc). Paper two is the Short Notes Paper. This paper is 5 essays (20 marks each) on pretty much anything from the course. Examples can be things like: Causes, Signs+Symptoms, Pathology and Management of Myocardial Infarction; Compare type 1 and type 2 diabetes etc etc etc. There is no EMQ or MCQ (extended matching or multiple guess) questions in first year. There is also the literary review section of paper two - here, you need to review a journal article or compare two conflicting articles etc and write a report on them. Its like higher english over again and its the hardest part of the exam lol

There is (at the moment anyways) no practical clinical exam in first year - but the clinical skills from first year can be assessed in the year two clinical. However, they can ask you to describe an examination in the written paper in first year (ie "outline the system used for examination of the chest stating what you are looking for at each stage")

VS does come up in the exam - both in paper one and two - and is usually in the form of medicolegal or ethical questions. For example where do you stand legally in prescribing the contraceptive pill to a girl under 16, explain the concept of informed consent etc etc etc.

You must pass all courseworks, the MILE, and the written exams to pass the year. The pass mark for the written is usually about 65-70%.