Hours in Medicine (Studying at college)

rois!

Hi!
I was just wondering could anyone please tell me what the timetable is like when studying medicine in first year? Sorry if this has already been dealt with I just can't find it anywhere!!

Thanks!

PhysiologyRocks

I had about 25 hours per week in first year, not including study.

It could rise very significantly if you add in study!

It was brilliant, though.

rois!

woah....
did you have time like for clubs and societies and drinking and a real college experience still?

PhysiologyRocks

Absolutely! You can fit it all in if you manage your time.

Medicine's the best thing ever...

I'm not biased at all...

rois!

OKay cool! thanks for the reassurance!

emz4

PhysiologyRocks wrote: »

I had about 25 hours per week in first year, not including study.

It could rise very significantly if you add in study!

It was brilliant, though.

do you think the hours would be similar in every college?

PhysiologyRocks

emz4 wrote: »

do you think the hours would be similar in every college?

I'd imagine so.
I've heard similar things through people, but not directly. I doubt they vary significantly.

emz4

Thanks thats great! 25 isnt too bad even adding in study! id been hearing quite a bit about the lack of social life i was sure to have next year!

PhysiologyRocks

emz4 wrote: »

Thanks thats great! 25 isnt too bad even adding in study! id been hearing quite a bit about the lack of social life i was sure to have next year!

Your social life should be absolutely fine! Best of luck for the year.

Piste

Did you study right from the very beginning? I mean was it a bit like 6th year where you did a little every week and did more and more as it came up to exams, or did you only study round exam time?

tallaght01

If you're doing a PBL based course you'll have no choice but to do some work all the way through. It's one of the few advantages of that system, IMO.

But you'd be brave to leave all the crazy anatomy etc until the end.

Though I'm not sure how much of that gets taught in some places now.

Piste

Ok, that doesn't sound too bad, that's how I normally work anyway, doing little bits all the way along. Around how many hours of study a week on top of lectures is adviseable?

tallaght01

It depends on how brainy you are. It also depends on what they're teaching at the uni. Like I said before, I keep talking to students who say they're not learning big chunks of the biochemistry and anatomy courses any more, and are just learning the "applied" stuff.

But I don't know how true that is. Like, even when I went to uni, which wasn't THAT long ago, the anatomy of the lower limb was an optional module! Apparently it's gotten worse, but I don't know for sure.

Where will you be studying? We have students from several unis that post here. They might be able to tell you better than I could.

But personally for me, it was variable. Some weeks I didn't do much. Other weeks, when I felt I was a bit behind, I'd do loads. You'll have a lot of assignments, too, so you'll have to do SOME work regularly, sadly :P

PhysiologyRocks

In UCC we learned pretty much everything from what we did last year, theoretical and all, but there was only one assignment all year. We studied from the start, bar one or two, as far as I know.

Still, the hours were not horrible. Sometimes a group of us got together to practice doing examinations on each other, or we'd quiz each other on physiology.

flerb22

im doing 50hrs a week now in 4th med. just finishing a stint doing nights delivering babies in the rotunda. woo.

whadabouchasir

I'm in pre med in NUIG and we have around 26 hours a week including lectures,labs and tutorials.Doss year my hole!

bleh1234

Piste wrote: »

Ok, that doesn't sound too bad, that's how I normally work anyway, doing little bits all the way along. Around how many hours of study a week on top of lectures is adviseable?

if you're RCSI you'll have anatomy cardsignings every 2 weeks which will force you to study anatomy I'd recommend doing as much in the other subjects as you do in anatomy sometimes people get bogged down studying anatomy because of the continuous assessment which is worth a tiny fraction of the marks & forget about every thing else.

eth0_

rois! wrote: »

woah....
did you have time like for clubs and societies and drinking and a real college experience still?

25 hours isn't excessive...I studied engineering in college and in first year I think we did 30-35 hours of lectures and tutorials a week!

eth0_

flerb22 wrote: »

im doing 50hrs a week now in 4th med. just finishing a stint doing nights delivering babies in the rotunda. woo.

Is there any option to avoid obs/gyn? I'm not squeemish about anything EXCEPT childbirth.

Carsinian Thau

eth0_ wrote: »

Is there any option to avoid obs/gyn? I'm not squeemish about anything EXCEPT childbirth.

I doubt it.

You'll be getting a degree in Obs at the end so you'll have to do some sort of placement for it.

I'm terrible with eyes, they really freak me out so I'll be the same with Opthalmology. I'm dreading it already but there's also no hope of avoiding it for me.

Piste

Haha I'm a bit squeamish about eyes too. I'm just going to have to suck it up and pray nothing squirts at me when I'm dissecting them.