Calling All BM4 2010 :)

[Chazzeak01]

Hey,

Thanks for offering to answer questions...

1) Just wondering are therer 40 people in your year/more?
2) You dont happen to know how important the UKCAT is in their selection?
3) When did you find out you had an offer?
4) Your qualifications + work experience
5) How is your workload??? Do you have a social life at all??

Lol, thanks again

Hey guys.

1) There were 40 at the start of the year, there's 39 now.
2) I know the UKCAT is taken into consideration but I'm not sure to what degree. The personal statement seems to be the main thing for Soton.
3) 20th February 2009, but people got offers right through to March.
4) 2 A's and B at A level, 1st in biomedical science. Work experience - shadowed consultant haematologist for 4 clinic sessions and worked as HCA for a couple of months. volunteered with St. John's for a bit.
5) we have learning outcomes to cover each week and it's up to us whether we do them. For me, I've covered a lot before from biomed so it's more revision therefore doesn't take THAT long. However it's getting tougher now that a lot of the material is new to me. So, it depends on the person really. The holidays are really good, (month off at easter?! crazy!) and there are 2 reading weeks in first year (!) So every time things get heavy, they give you a nice break to catch up. Not as sweet a deal in second year though.

[Chazzeak01]

Hmmm, that's interesting Chaz*. I think I'll be more receptive to learning in an infromal setting. The lack of anatomy anf histology coverage is rather disappointing but I'm fascinated with both so with the proper references I should be fine.
Yea, so do you have a social life? I mean- can you make any spare time at all?

the anatomy we cover is "clinically oriented" - so instead of learning the entire nervous system, you learn the parts of the nervous system that are relevant to the topic thats being covered that week in graduate group. e.g. in diabetes week, we learned the anatomy of the autonomic nervous system so we would understand diabetic neuropathies. If you wanted to learn the somatic nervous system as well, that was up to you.

Social life - oh I manage! lol. It's not too bad at all but as I say, it varies. Some people work solidly all week so they can have the weekend off to go out and stuff. Some people do very little but seem to get by fine. Either way, there's decent time for your hobbies/ social life etc. Not as intensive as they would have you believe!

[faith777]

Whew! That's good news. So how many times are you examined in the year?

[Chazzeak01]

Thanks for posting!

Do you know how the work load compares to a typical 5 year programme? My only concern with graduate entry courses in general is that medicine is tough enough without compressing the material even further.

I would not have applied if I didn't think I could handle it, but equally it would be nice to have a life at the same time and I would like to think I will still be just as good a doctor at the end as someone doing a normal medicine course.

In my opinion, the structure of the southampton course is the way medicine should be taught if you want to be a good doctor. If you want to know the intermediate steps in the Kreb's cycle, there are traditional courses you can do but is that really going to be useful in a hospital setting? Personally, I would much rather have as much practice as possible with examining patients, reading chest x-rays, interpreting laboratory results, and forming a diagnosis. But some people just aren't happy unless they know the embryological origins of the fossa ovalis. Each to their own!

The bottom line is that Southampton teaches you everything you need to be a good doctor - including all the knowledge you will need on the wards / primary care. It just encourages you to be a bit more pro-active in your own learning rather than revising from lecture handouts which you ultimately forget after exams (IMO).

[Chazzeak01]

There is a fair amount of coursework throughout the year. We are examined once at the end of first year on the material from the whole year. Two papers and an OSCE. There is a mock paper after semester one so you can gauge your progress.

[True.Enigma]

Thank you for going into so much detail!

I imagine the first few offers could well start coming out soon then as the first few rejections were reported a couple of weeks ago now.

While Southampton is my top choice by far I'm still trying to be realistic about my chances. It's not that I think I'm a bad applicant, but the amount of competition per place is scary, who knows what will make the difference in the end?

[faith777]

Thanks Chaz! Soton is my first and last choice (well at least for this ac. yr.). Hahaaa. The course sounds awesome! Fit for me.

[foxyamy]

OMG I want an offer from Soton!!! Come on you Southerners - make me an offer!!

[Martigan]

Cheers Chazz.
It's good to hear these things.
Althought I know I'm a good candidate , I don't have high hopes of getting in at S'ton as good candidates are 2-a-penny this year.
But still it's now my only possibility of a 2010 entry.

[emily_1978]

I just got an 'usuccessful' from southampton on UCAS track for 4 year course. Really sad Good luck to the rest of you.