The 2012 'What's On Your CAO?' Thread

MauraTheThird wrote: »

Appartently the RCSI and UCC courses are much more modern and updated than the Trinity one. I'm in your boots tbh:') Look at the UCC forum where I posted about Pharmacy and the replies I got. It may help your decisions. Good luck btw:D

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

yamadeejit wrote: »

1.TR072 Pharmacy
2.RC005 Pharmacy
3.TR075 Medicinal Chemistry
4.TR073 Human Genetics
5.CK703 Pharmacy
6.TR056 Human Health and Disease
7.TR053 Physiotherapy
8.TR054 Occupational Therapy
9.TR071 Science
10. DN200 Science - Chemistry and Chemical Sciences

I have a problem that I'd reallllllllly appreciate help with. I definitely want to do Pharmacy, that's my dream. But the problem is there's only 3 pharmacy courses in Ireland, in TCD, RCSI and UCC. TCD and RCSI are fine because they're in Dublin but Cork is literally hours away. I'd only be able to go home once a month because of transport costs, etc. So should I follow my dream of doing pharmacy and put UCC higher up regardless or should I stick to Dublin for convinience?

I was in a similar position in that I really wanted to do pharmacy when doing my CAO. My advice from my experience would be: move UCC up. I'm also from Dublin so had it third on my CAO as well, usually RCSI is 5-10 points lower so having that 2nd should have you covered for staying in Dublin if you get the points (though you can't be sure of that with the supply/demand system of the CAO!).
I did a year of medicinal chemistry in TCD. It's completely different to pharmacy. The first 2 years are general science, you only move on to specific med chem modules in 3rd year. Upon finishing it I assume you can try and get work in a drug company, or go on to further study.
In pharmacy from day one you're studying pharmacy-specific modules. It's very health-related, i.e. the chemistry I studied in med chem was very broad, general properties of carbon & silicon etc. whereas the chemistry I did in first year pharmacy involved things like the structure & bonding of anti-cancer drugs.
After finishing pharmacy you can try and get work in industry, work in a hospital, work in a community pharmacy or go on to further study.

This is just what I found anyway (speaking as a 2nd year RCSI pharmacy student!)
I tend to rabble on when talking about the pharmacy course, I can do up a guide to RCSI pharmacy a la partyatmygaff if anyone wants, PM me and I can try to answer any questions you might have!

I'll just leave with this message: Pharmacy is hard but I personally love it!

Filled it in just now, Delighted to have it done

Level 8 Course Choices:
1. MH214 Computational Thinking (Comp Sc. Maths and Philosophy)
2. MH203 Computer Science and Software Engineering
3. DN201 Computer Science
4. MH140 Computer Science and Software Engineering Arts
5. TR033 Computer Science
6. DT228 Computer Science
7. DT211 Computing
8. TA322 Computing
9. BN104 Computing (Information Technology)
10. TA323 Information Technology Management


Level 7/6 Course Choices:
1. DT080 Networking Technologies
2. TA312 Computing
3. BN013 Computing (Information Technology)
4. TA313 Information Technology Management
5. TA302 Computing
6. BN002 Computing (Information Technology)
7. AL750 Business Computing
8. AL703 Computer Network Management
9. DK721 Computing (incorporating 3 award options)
10. LY737 Computer Security and Digital Forensics

Changed mine. I've only three courses down now. Oh well.

1. GY251 Civil Law
2. GY250 Corporate Law
3. GY101 Arts

Level 8 Course Choices:

1. DN500 BA Degree - joint honours - full time
2. MH101 Arts
3. CK112 Drama and Theatre Studies (Restricted)
4. GY115 Arts with Theatre and Performance
5. SG241 Performing Arts
6. TR025 Drama and Theatre Studies (Restricted)
7. GY111 Arts with Creative Writing
8. LM039 Journalism and New Media
9.
10.

Level 7/6 Course Choices:

1. DK766 Performing Arts (Restricted - see page 4) (Restricted)
2. DB579 Arts(General)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Considering swapping Trinity and Galway 111 or Maynooth and UCC though, since I'm quite dubious about my chances for Trinity and it's a close call between UCC and NUIM for me. :P

I also applied for Music in Edinburgh Napier via UCAS.

Level 8
1. TR051 Medicine (Restricted)
2. DN400 Medicine - Undergraduate entry
(Restricted)
3. TR071 Science
4. DN200 Science - Biological , Biomedical and
Biomolecular Sciences
5. CK402 Biological and Chemical Sciences
6. TR033 Computer Science
7. DN201 Computer Science
8. CK401 Computer Science
9.
10.

I might change it yet, damn indecision.

1. Arts with Theatre and Performance
2. Drama, Theatre and Performance studies
3. Arts with Human Rights
4. Arts
(^all NUI Galway)
5. Arts - NUI Maynooth
6. Arts - UCD

And that's all I have down so far.
I'll tweak it slightly when the CAO opens again for the "change of mind" although I'd say it'll be a toss up between Galway and Maynooth....
Hmmmm..... anyone have any insights into whether they'd choose Galway over Maynooth or vise versa?

Maynooth is definitely the more practical choice (I live 30 mins from the college)
But I just love Galway city .... hmmmm..... decisions!

1. English Literature/History TCD
2. English NUIM
3. English Studies TCD
4. Arts NUIM
5. Law and Arts NUIM
6. English Media and Cultural Studies IADT

Only have 5 level 8s.. It took so long to decide between my top two as I'm very academic but music is my life :pac: If I don't get my top two though I'd really be considering a repeat! But my teachers have told me that I have an aptitude to achieve far beyond the points requirement for my first choice so am not too worried. Just need to put in the work
1. MH102 Music Technology
2. MH101 Arts
3. DN500 BA Degree - joint honours - full time
4. DT222 Physics Technology
5. DN518 Philosophy

JonnyMcNamee wrote: »

Only have 5 level 8s.. It took so long to decide between my top two as I'm very academic but music is my life :pac: If I don't get my top two though I'd really be considering a repeat! But my teachers have told me that I have an aptitude to achieve far beyond the points requirement for my first choice so am not too worried. Just need to put in the work
1. MH102 Music Technology
2. MH101 Arts
3. DN500 BA Degree - joint honours - full time
4. DT222 Physics Technology
5. DN518 Philosophy

I've a lot of friends doing music tech in NUIM who absolutely love it! You can pick a science subject with it too which would appeal to your academic side! One of my friends had Music Tech first on his CAO but got Arts and ended up dropping out because the difference between Music Tech and Music through arts is immense, so you should make sure you look into the music options through arts!