Hi everyone, hope you're all well. I thought I would give you
a breakdown of what the three years of Biomedical Science consist of. I will give you
an idea of my time in each year and a way for me to share some tips/advice. The
first paragraph is a basic introduction to University and after that each
paragraph is about each year.
During your induction week most of the lecturers try to drum
in to you the fact that, anyone one and everyone can work towards getting a
first class honours degree. The key is hard work! If you put in the time and
effort you can get 70+ in your assignments and exams. It's not about spending
three hours in front of a book and the saying, I studied three hours! You need
to make sure you understand your lectures! And if you don't, find someone or
something (books, online resources, tutorials, etc...) to help you! Those of
you who like doing things last minute, we'll yes, it might be possible to do
assignments a few days before they are due, but now that you know it's
possible, why don't you try to see if it's possible for you to start your
assignments the day it's handed to you! Try testing that out! It's a lot harder
than being a lastminute.com/student.
Year 1: As I hope you’re aware, the first year of Biomedical
Science does not count, that does not mean you don't have to try to make an
effort! It merely means your lecturers are giving you an opportunity to get used to university life and self-study! It is possible to do well in this year,
alongside partying and going out as long as you balance things! So only allow
yourself to go out when you don't have any coursework due and you are up-to-date
on all your lectures (you understand all you lectures and can give a brief
summary of them if need be). But do enjoy yourself in your first year! It’s the
perfect time to make new friends and experience new things.
The first term is aimed at getting everyone on the
same level. Those of you from the biology, chemistry backgrounds will find it
slightly easier as most of the terms and the content will be familiar, of
course you will still need to read up as you will be introduced to in-depth
information.
The second year, it's not easy. Not trying to scare all you
second years but this year you have to knuckle down. Last minute work is not
going to help you this year! You need to up your game. This Involves making
sure you know what's happening in your lectures, you need to be studying!
Especially when you have pathobiology in the second term! Trust me that subject
requires a lot of learning and reading and memorising and there is no living
way you can do this overnight! I am not challenging any of you by saying this!
I'm trying to give you a head start so you’re able to cope! The second year is
a lot more intense then the first and those of you aiming for a first will find
you’re not going out as much as you did in the first year, but that's fine. You
can always go out after your exams! Those of you doing research and
professional skills, stay calm! It's not as hard as you think! Read each
lecture very very carefully! Pay attention to every slide and when you’re in
the computer labs, don't hesitate to ask for help! It is possible to get 100%
in this! I don't know anyone who did but all my friends and I got high 90s in
this! You just need to pay attention! Those of you, who don't like statistics
might find it a bit dry, just be persistent!
As for third year! We'll I don't know about the rest of you
but wow we have our work cut out for us. In the third year, we have a final
year project that is 30 credits. Final year projects can be laboratory based or
literature based. Laboratory based projects involve you doing your own
experiments. So, you need to make sure you have lab time booked, you have all
the equipment you need and you have to sort this all out yourself. Literature
based projects are based on other scientists lab work, so you have to
critically analyse other peoples work. This is an on-going debate about which
one is harder and honestly, who cares which one is harder! What matters is, you
picking the one that suits you. We picked our projects in June. We had three
options and then before we started university we were told which option we got.
I am doing a literature based project which was my second choice. I honestly
thought I would be getting my first choice which was a lab based project, so
did not prepare for this at all. Then when I found out about my project
allocation I was in denial, so still did no research (which is quite essential
as it's a literature project). My subject area is neuroscience and neuropharmacology;
those of you who have read my blog know that I had originally applied to
university to study neuroscience. Will this help me now, I'm not sure, but I
will update you all on what my topic and title is, as soon as I know. I am
quite lucky, in that, my supervisor has said I can write about whatever I like.
I hope you all found this useful.
I
came across this picture and thought it was funny, so decided to share it with
you all J