any questions?

**Andy S** · 04-03-2007, 11:47 PM

To expand upon Milly's information:

AMK: 4 per year. 1st year doctor standard. 125 cases in 3 hours. Multiple choice and negatively marked (some people score less than 0!). At the end of the 1st year you also sit an AMK for 1st year knowledge only. To illustrate the difficulty, lots of doctors sat this exam with us a few years ago, their average mark was mid-50s, with 5% of doctors <42.5%!

SSU: 3 special study units during the first year. Usually involves some experience, lots of research, and BMJ-style paper writing. You get out of SSUs what you put into them.

Clinical skills: regular exams to check your skills are okay. Integrated exams at the end of the first year, receiving a patient history, then doing appropriate examination. Usually covers 2 of the big exams: respiratory, cardiac, GI, cranial nerves, at the end of the first year.

Professional behaviour: continually assessed on how you work and behave. Lots of regular feedback.

In short, PMS will examine you regularly and early. The idea is to spot problems early, then rectify. Our drop-out / failure rate is very low compared to some med schools, the examination strategy is part of the reason. The rules for progressing from one year to the next are complex, but simply put, you need to pass pretty much everything.

You can't really get a feeling for workload by the lectures we do. Most of our learning is in small groups, supported by self-directed learning. This includes life sciences (in my opinion the best bit of the course), clinical skills, workshops, jigsaw (don't ask!), problem based learning, and community placements.

Andy

**Mattie** · 04-03-2007, 11:51 PM

Hey guys,

Just to add to what Milly said:

Exams in year one are in the format of multiple choice AMKs. We have four spread out over the year. Everyone in the med school sits the same exam at the same time. Therefore 5th years are sitting the same exam as 1st years. The exam is set at the level of a junior doctor. Therefore in first year you are aiming for results of about 10%.
SSUs count as exams which are research projects. You have to write an essay on a specialist topic in the style of a BMJ article. We've just started our second one. Mines called 'allergies and the environment' with involves researching aspects of immunology.
We also have PPD essays (Personal and professional development) which is about appraising one's self and looking at your strengths and weaknesses.
At the end of the year we have an End of Year AMK Progress Test. This is in a similar style to the AMK but has questions that are purely based on the info you should have covered during the first year.
As Milly said we have clinical skill competencies through out the year. And we also have an ISCI which can assess anything we have learnt in clinical skills this year.

The main thing about assessment at PMS is that it's not cram and dump learning. The idea is that you aquire knowledge over time and it's better to understand and learn things as you go along rather than just not doing much work for the year and then panic revising for the last few weeks of term.

In response to Iceman. Lectures are almost the least important aspect of the PMS course. I'd say that you should go to them but they're not compulsory. The main parts of the course in my opinion are:

Life Science where you learn all the biomedical science.
Communication and Clinical Skills - pretty obvious.
Community placement - placements out in the community.
PBL where all the learning of the case unit is brought together.
Lectures- these vary a lot in quality but 80% of them are really useful.

At PMS even though you're not directly tested on some parts of the course ( they are all tested through AMK but with a clinical angle) you can't get away with doing no work. Having small groups for PBL, LSRC etc. means you can't just sit at the back of the class and keep quite.

You do have to have a lot of motivation to become a doctor. And I think you need to have even more to go to PMS. I think that the learning I do at PMS is active learning... you're not sitting there letting stuff go through one ear and out the other. You must put the effort in. But it's worth it in the end as I think you'll make a more well rounded doctor.

**Mattie** · 04-03-2007, 11:53 PM

Dam you Andy... got there just before me!!! Lol.

**Andy S** · 04-03-2007, 11:57 PM

Originally Posted by Mattie

Dam you Andy... got there just before me!!! Lol.

Great minds think alike.

I think our descriptions complement each other quite well.

A

**Mattie** · 05-03-2007, 12:02 AM

Yeah... you must have read my brain waves. Do you learn how to do that in clinical skills in second year?

**Rake** · 05-03-2007, 12:09 AM

Ahh, so you have these AMKs instead of a whole load of end-of-year exams in Biochemistry, Anatomy etc? That sounds like a really good idea: I'm much better at learning principles and applications than learning reams of information off by heart.

Couple of random questions:
-How far into the term should you consider buying books?
-Apart from your belongings and bedlinen, what do you need to bring with you to halls? Cutlery, crockery, etc.
Also what's the ratio of bathrooms to people like? (Some places it's one toilet among 11 people

)

**feluda_uk** · 05-03-2007, 12:21 AM

well i still read both blurbs, both really usweful!

**Mattie** · 05-03-2007, 12:24 AM

Lol. Good questions.

You never directly get tested on your biomedical knowledge. It's all indirect through the AMK. For example: a question on the anatomy of the gastrointestinal tract would NOT be: "describe the inervation of the nerves to the mid gut?". It would be something like: "if someone presented with pain in the umbilical region of the abdomen radiating down into the right ingunal area, what is the likely diagnosis?"

Before I came I bought a couple of books.
Tortora 'Principles of anatomy and physiology' is the main one for year one.
For anatomy I use Moore and Dalley a lot. THis gives more detail than Tortora and also makes it clinically relavent.
I find Netter an amazing anatomy book. I decided to buy this after my first term. it has really good drawings that make the layout of the body so clear.
All the books are in the LSRC or IT centre so there's not rush. If i were you just get Tortora to start off with.

Accommodation all depends on where you are placed. In exeter you can either share a shower with 5 people or two showers with 9. Tbh there's never an issue with waiting for ages int eh morning for a shower. Anyway the race down to corridor wakes you up!