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The 2012 'What's On Your CAO?' Thread
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1. GY501 Medicine (Galway)
2. RC001 Medicine (Royal College of Surgeons)
3. DN400 Medicine (UCD)
4. TR051 Medicine (Trinity)
5. CK701 Medicine (Cork)
6. TR072 Pharmacy (Tinity)
7. RC005 Pharmacy (Trinity)
8. DC162 Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (DCU)
9. TR075 Medicinal Chemistry (Trinity)
10. GY301 Science (Galway)
Think I am sorted
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partyatmygaff wrote: »I'm currently a first year student Pharmacist in TCD. I don't know much about how RCSI and UCC handle things but as far as i'm concerned the course is pretty good.
TCD itself is a great University. The facilities are modern, the campus has a certain charm to it and the lecturers are by and large brilliant.
As for the course content, there's very little there that you could call "not updated" or irrelevant to the course.
In first year you do
Biochemistry - Taken with JF Medicine. You cover protein structure and function, enzymology, membranes and transporters, carbohydrate metabolism, cell division and the cell cycle and bioenergetics. All with a focus on the chemistry of what's going on and with a focus on the clinical relevance of everything involved. A pretty difficult module but thankfully there's a proteomics project worth 25%. The other 75% is examined in a end of year exam.
Cellular & Molecular Biology - Taken with JF Science. A fairly broad module with a lot of content. It's more or less LC Biology in quite a bit more detail. Not that difficult though. In the lectures, you cover the cell and the molecular/chemical basis of life, genetics, embryology and microbiology. In the practicals, you learn about experimental error, how to use a spectrophotometer, protein purification/separation and analysis and microscopy. There are no lab reports required but there is a practical multiple choice question exam worth 22% and two in-term practical assessments worth 11%. The other 67% is examined in May where you write two 3-4 page essays and answer short questions.
Physiology - Taken with JF Radiation Therapy. You cover all the different systems of the human body and how they interact with each other. Quite an interesting and detailed module but the exam is notoriously difficult. You do an online multiple choice test (Nowhere near as easy as it sounds) at the end of every system worth 10% overall and the other 90% is examined in May.
Sources & Characteristics of substances used in medicinal products - A very interesting module. You cover some basics of organic chemistry like stereochemistry as well as many other topics such as the reaction mechanisms of relatively simple drugs like Aspirin or Acetaminophen. At the end of the module you're given a brief taster of what's in store in later years with a lecture on Paracetamol toxicity and treatment. The practicals almost directly relate to what's covered in the lectures and are almost all related to synthesis and purification. It's examined with 15% going on your lab reports, 5% on a fairly tough practical MCQ test, 10% on a (Minimum 15 page) report on a particular drug and the other 70% in the final exam.
Physical Pharmacy - The physics of Pharmacy if you will. You start with learning about different physical phases, solubility (More complicated than you'd imagine and very useful for later practicals), stability of systems (Chemical kinetics essentially), thermodynamics, ionisation and partitioning, drug absorption and distribution, interfaces and surfaces (What happens at the boundary between a drug particle and a liquid e.t.c.), adsorption and surface films and surfactants. The practicals are very simple to carry out but very challenging when it comes to the lab reports. It is examined through 15% lab reports and 85% final exam.
Discovery, Separation & Isolation of substances used in medicinal products - I only started this module last week so I'll have to rely on what i've been told to expect. We'll cover Pharmaceutical analysis, spectroscopy (IR/UV Spectroscopy in particular) and all the different types of chromatography for Unit A. For Unit B, we cover drug discovery, introduction to pharmacognosy, classification of drugs, pharmacophores and receptor interactions, structure/activity relationships, inorganic medicinal compounds, transition and heavy metals in medicines and organisms. The practicals look interesting, they're mostly assays of drugs like aspirin or boric acid eye lotion with introductory practicals on the different types of chromatography. The exam looks like it involve chromatographic analysis of an alkaloid drug (Alkaloids are drugs like caffeine, morphine, cocaine, nicotine...). Examined with 10% lab reports, 10% lab exam and 80% written exam.
Pharmaceutics - Quite an important module. The lectures and practicals all relate to compounding and making formulations such as solutions, suspensions, capsules, linctuses e.t.c. The lectures really only serve as a guide to the practical classes which are really the main focus of this module. You cover different dosage forms such as solutions, suspensions, capsules and so on in the lectures and you then prepare them in the practicals. The practical exam in this module has "Historically had a fail rate of around 50%" according to our lecturer. This is one of the modules that you can't compensate for and need to pass to move on to 2nd year. That said, it's probably going to be one of your more engaging modules. Essentially all you're told is "Make a formulation of drug X in form Y. Label it for use Z." and the rest is up to you. The practical exam is worth 40% and the written exam is worth 60% and both must be passed independent of each other. There is also 1 of 2 Pharmaceutical calculations exam that you need to get over 70% in to pass.
Pharmaceutical calculations and mathematics - Taught by two schools. The school of Maths covers functions, differential/integral calculus, differential equations and linear algebra. The school of Pharmacy covers pharmaceutical statistics, derivations of rate laws related to chemical kinetics and prescription compounding calculations. There's a simple Excel exercise worth 4% and the other 96% is examined in a written exam. The second Pharmaceutical calculations test is in this module. The first part of this module is probably the only "irrelevant" section of the TCD course and even at that it's not exceedingly difficult.
Practice of Pharmacy - Probably the most interesting module of them all. You start the year with ethics, the structure and laws of healthcare and the Pharmacist's place in Primary Care. Next up in the lectures is an introduction to Pharmaceutical care where you're introduced to topics like Pharmacology and Pathology. You then move on to practical classes (Which I enjoy) where you cover topics like communication skills (You're put in an observation room and have to do mock consultations) and clinical skills where you cover topics such as responding to requests for medicines and diagnosing common illnesses. There are also dispensing classes but they're only introductory for first year. There's also a 3000 word dissertation on a particular Pharmacy related topic every year. The module is examined with 80% written exam, 10% dissertation and other 10% practical exam. You need to pass each section of this module independent of the other to progress to 2nd year.
Integrated Pharmacy studies - A problem-based learning module that I haven't started yet. Your group is assigned a problem related to Pharmacy and you have to solve it and present your solution to the rest of your class. You're only graded satisfactory or not satisfactory and you need to pass this module to move on to second year.
As you can see, it's a fairly challenging but very rewarding course. You'll be in 9-5 before Christmas and 9-6 after Christmas with at least 9 hours of practicals every week. There are many assignments dotted throughout the year that you'll also need to work on. That said, it's an incredibly good course and i'd recommend it without hesitation. You'll love it. If you've any questions about the course just ask
Wow, thanks for that! It's exactly what I'm looking for
I was just wondering if you spend many hours studying during the week? And is the workload heavy or does a solid grounding in LC Biology/Chemistry help you out a fair bit?0 -
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youcantstopme wrote: »are many applying for arts in ucd,maynooth or galway? :P
Arts in NUIG for myself! What about you? 0 -
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yeah samefizzyorange wrote: »Arts in NUIG for myself! What about you? and ucd and nui maynooth i live in dublin so getting somewhere to live will be tricky haha 0 -
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Final decision.
Level 8's
1. CK203 Business Information Systems(UCC)
2. DC120 Enterprise Computing (DCU)
3. CR150 Business Information Systems(CIT)
4. NC004 Business Information Systems(NCI)
5. TA323 Information Technology Management(ITT)
6. CR310 IT Management(CIT)
7. BN101 Business(ITB)
8. NC003 Computing(NCI)
Level 7's
1. NC008 Management of Technology in Business(NCI)
2. TA313 Information Technology Management(ITT)
3. BN010 Business and Information Technology(ITB)
4. BN016 Business (Common 1st Year)(ITB)
5. DT315 Business Studies(DIT)0 -
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