Jamie - Medicine

Name: Jamie Edmonds
Subject: Medicine
Year: 1st
A-levels taken: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths (AS)

What does your working week entail?

I tend to have a pretty full timetable: we have about 10 hours of lectures, 4 hours of dissection, 2-4 hours of practical sessions, and a microscope session each week. On top of this, we have odd things such as GP visits and PBL sessions a few times per term. We also have hour long supervisions for the three main subjects each week. We will normally get an essay for each of these, which usually take me between 5 and 8 hours. As well as this structured work, most people will tend to do some reading of notes for dissection sessions, and try to revise as they learn. Despite the long hours, the work is very interesting, and it is still easy to take time out to pursue other activities.

How easy was the transition from A-level to the first year of your degree?

The main difficulties lay simply in finding time to fit in all the work. The actual concepts don't tend to be too difficult, and follow on very nicely from the A level course, but the pace picks up quite quickly. There is a difference between lectures and classes at school, but it is fairly easy to adjust to the new way of working, and in general the course is very structured. Supervisions are brilliant, and a great opportunity to ensure you understand the lectures.

How easily can you fit social activities into your working week?

With a good diary, it is definitely possible to fit in lots of extra things. I go swimming quite a bit, and go out with friends in the evenings a few nights a week. Some people seem to fit endless hours of rowing/choir/drama around their work, and still get good grades in medicine.

What sort of things did you talk about in your interview?

I had three interviews: one general and two based on science. The scientific ones focused on the A level course, but tended to use the concepts from that and apply them to completely different kinds of examples: the key is to work out what part of your course the question is actually about! I was asked questions on return of blood from the foot to the heart, transmission of nerve signals, changes in concentration of a drug in the blood, and changes in heart rate. I was also asked a few ‘strange' questions such as "what makes a human human?" The interviews are very much like a supervision: they want you to talk about your thought processes that lead you to an answer. The general interview asked me about the A levels I had chosen (and questioned me as to why I was giving up maths!), as well as talking through my personal statement, and asking general medical questions on ethics, the NHS, my future aspirations, and current medical issues in the media. The interviews felt really difficult, but they seem to be designed to test you until they reach something you can't answer, so don't worry about that. I quite enjoyed my interviews in a macabre sort of way, and I think that being relaxed and enjoying it is probably quite important.