Typical First Year Timetable - UoB

On all of the 'Open' and 'Offer Holder' Days I went along to, one of the first questions I asked was "What is a typical week like for the med students here?". I just felt that knowing a little bit about what my day-to-day life could look like would allow me to envision myself there, and make a better decision as to where I wanted to go.

Here is a little bit of insight into my Uni, and what my first year timetable was like...

Does the timetable stay the same?

At my uni - Birmingham - the timetable changes from week-to-week. Two days of the week look consistently similar adding a little more continuity. This meant that I could usually plan things into the time I knew I would have on these days, whether that be preparation for future sessions, review of past sessions, or planning to meet up with friends and family.

Starting and finishing times also varied. We started at 9am at the earliest with the official university day ending at 7pm. Lectures rarely went on until 7pm, with this only happening a couple of times. I would say the average end to the day was between 5 and 6pm.

Making the adjustment from finishing university at times like 6 and 7pm was huge. Being used to ending the academic day at 4pm at school and college to then starting university after a super long Summer with no structure meant it was a culture shock I had to get used to! I was often so tired when I finished for the day, and found the concept of having to then cook and work when I got back so daunting.

What days are similar every week?

Wednesdays = Finish at 1pm like all other Universities across the country

Thursdays = CBM Clinical Placement days in a GP surgery from 9am-5pm, or a PAS: Professional and Academic Skills session - This Thursday change happens every other week

---

Semester 1

The modules we covered in Semester 1 were...

- MTM: Molecules to Man

- CEP: Cells, Endocrinology and Pharmacology

- NAS: Neurones and Synapses

- PPP: People, Patients and Populations

- RA: Regional Anatomy

We tended to have days that were dedicated to particular modules. For example, we could expect to have MTM on Mondays and CEP on Tuesdays. This was really nice to have some regularity, and it meant prepping for the day's sessions was a little bit easier.

Lectures from other modules were often interspersed within the days, usually to accommodate lecturers and facilities.

This is a screenshot from a pretty typical week from the first semester, although we rarely finished at 12pm on Fridays haha!

---

Semester 2

The modules we covered in Semester 2 were...

- MJM: Muscles, Joints and Movement

- DIG: Digestion

- IRM: Introduction to Respiratory Medicine

- DPS: Doctors, Patients and Society

- RA: Regional Anatomy

This semester seemed to be a lot more intense than the first (ahh silly me thought it couldn't get much worse)! I think the biggest change from the first semester was the number of 'Anatomy Practical' sessions we had, and the level of preparation required for sessions.

Anatomy Practicals are pretty much the sole way in which we learn anatomy. There are 'anatomy sheets' made up of about 2 pages of introductory information relating to the session's topic, followed by around 3-6 pages of questions and clinical correlations. So researching and learning the anatomy is left to you as students.

These sheets have been criticised by students in many year groups, and I can see why. Questions can often feel very niche, and since the sessions are taught in small groups with different teachers, some teachers choose to cover the questions and others don't, so your experience differs depending on the teacher you get. (I am going to do a post all about the Anatomy Practicals at Brum!)

Where the intensity of this semester stemmed from was the number of sessions we had each week requiring preparation. We sometimes had a total of 6 or 7 Anatomy Practicals including MJM, DIG and IRM , all requiring 2-3 hours prep time minimum and follow-up work. Sooooo... that wasn't fun haha!

We also had 'podcasts' to watch and learn the lecture content from for the IRM module prior the lectures which always took at least 3 hours! Yikes!

Anyway, it was doable, and I have learnt a lot about how to manage my time that I hope to take into Second Year!

This is a pretty standard week in the second semester. There would quite often be at least 3-4 Anatomy Practical sessions (the white blocks with writing in them) and we had more Small Group Teaching sessions this semester (the orange blocks).

---

Consolidation Weeks

As medical students at Brum we did not get 'Reading Weeks' with no scheduled teaching sessions. Alternatively, the Medical School gave us what they call 'Consolidation Weeks' where we would have a pretty much empty timetable, with a formative exam at the end of the week to track our progress.

These weeks would be placed halfway through the semester, and I would personally use them to catch up on work from the previous few weeks. I would not do any specific revision for the formative exam as it did not count towards any final grades, and it was good to see exactly where my knowledge was at in that snapshot moment.

Here is a screenshot from our consolidation week in second semester.

---

Thank you so much for reading! I hope this gave you some insight into the daily life of a First Year Medical Student, and what Med School life is like at Brum!

Francesca 🖤