Intercalation

**Eponine_hugo** · 10-09-2007, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by alex MD

thats something i wondered! i mean im not in med school but in the current job climate for doctors, a BSc in neuroscience wont harm an application to a competitive speciality like neurology will it? btw eponine_hugo, did u do 8 A levels or are there some AS's ones there? cos either way thats some achievement!!

alex

Yeah they're A2s. Thanks.

Are u at med school now? Are u planning to intercalate? What specialty are u hoping for in the end?

**Captain_Carrot** · 10-09-2007, 08:14 PM

Friend of mine has done an intercalation and is now gonna spend the next 3-4 years doing a PhD in neurodevelopment. That should help him should he choose neurology. Here at brum it's encouraged to do an 'intercalated' phd...

**alex MD** · 10-09-2007, 10:43 PM

your welcome!

no im currently in year 13 so hopefully i'll be able to scrape an offer!! but if i did get into med school i'd definitely consider intercalated! however ive heard its extremely hard, is this true? as for speciality i have no idea!!

alex

**Eponine_hugo** · 10-09-2007, 11:43 PM

What med school hard, or intercalation? Med school is tough cos theres a lot of work, but I havent found the content too difficult so far, but everyone's different, some think the work load is ok but find the content hard, some find it all hard and others breeze thru!
I dont know about intercalating yet - I was thinking of doing it next yr. Marc says it's hard, but am waiting for him to elaborate and explain in what ways med students arent prepared - maybe I can prepare myself then.....
Lea
xx

**alex MD** · 11-09-2007, 12:02 AM

intercalation. yeh, thats what made me ask cos i saw the post by marc and wondered if anyone else had different views on it!! not that it matters at the moment, i could get 4 big fat rejections yet!

alex

**j_mason85** · 11-09-2007, 01:04 PM

I just wanted to back up what Marc said. Medicine is difficult because of the long hours and workload, however, it isn't as academically or complex as a BSc (at least in my opinion). Sure you'll have less contact time and less lectures but the work is purely academic with virtually nil clinical experience in somecases.

Trust me I know, I did a BSc in biochemistry before medicine (as I didn't want to do medicine whilst in school despite getting the grades), and there is a big difference in the depth of the work. And to back Marc up again - cell signalling! It's a nightmare, and that is basically neuroscience! And also, you are joining the third year of a three year BSc, so the non-medics will have a distinct advantage over you in a lot of modules, i.e. they will have been doing cell signalling for three years!

Just make sure you make an informed choice! As getting a 2.2 would be a disaster!

**Eponine_hugo** · 11-09-2007, 01:15 PM

That's a very good point - thanks for that. However I would like a BSc as well - I may go and review the list of options at Leeds (cos I need to stay here, will cost too much to move at this stage) and then consult back here for opinions if thats ok? I'm very keen to intercalate, but I don't want a 2:2 so I really need to consider the course content.

**Eponine_hugo** · 11-09-2007, 01:17 PM

PS I really want to intercalate between yrs 2 and 3 so I need to decide soon, that's why I'm hurrying. lol

**Eponine_hugo** · 11-09-2007, 01:19 PM

Ok, the ones am interested in are:
Microbiology in relation to medicine
Physiology
Neuroscience
and maybe psychology.
Which will medicine prepare me for the most do u guys think? I don't want to be getting a 2:2.....

**j_mason85** · 11-09-2007, 02:12 PM

Microbiology is easily the most boring "bio" subject ever, so don't do that lol. Physiology is a good idea, but it is quite generic at the same time, so depends on your long term ambitions. I suppose with physiology you'll already have an understanding of this from your first 2years of medicine too.

But if you wanted to do neurology and you are dead set up on doing a BSc then obviously neuroscience would be the best option. Some unis doing joing neuroscience with psychology too, so maybe this could be an option.

Biomed could possible be a good choice too. I did a few biomed modules in my third year of my BSc and most of these included actual medics, i.e. medics could take the modules as part of their MBBCh. These were particularly helpful as it provided a more overall picture of certain aspects, e.g. cancer cell signalling and molecular pathology of disease.