Is Medicine at Cambridge right for you?
It can be very daunting having to make a decision that’s going to determine your whole life. No one can make that decision for you, but I can provide you with as much information as possible to help you in the process. So, in this post, I explain how medicine at Cambridge is taught and help you decide if it’s for you. Check out the video here.
Course Overview
Medicine at Cambridge is split into two parts, pre-clinical and clinical, with 3 years allocated to each. In years 1-2, you learn all they key scientific and medical concepts. Year 1 is for anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. Year 2 is for neurobiology, pathology, human reproduction and pharmacology. Year 3 is for intercalation where you take a year to study a topic that you’re interested in. Following this, you graduate with a degree and move into your clinical training, which is a mixture of lecture weeks and clinical placements in hospitals and GPs. So, during your clinicals, year 4 is for general introduction into hospitals where you learn clinical medicine, surgery, acute medicine and general practice. In year 5 you build on this and learn more specific topics like women and child health (O&G and Paediatrics), psychology as well as oncology and infectious diseases. In year 6, you consolidate all of this and sit your final exams. After this, you’re a qualified doctor! Wahoo!
Ok, but what’s it like? The quality of the pre-clinical course in Cambridge is fantastic. It’s very well organised and delivered brilliantly. Lecture material is usually all written for you and presented quite nicely, which means you don’t have to waste too much time scrawling through textbooks. There’s also a lot of guidance through university lectures and also college provided supervisions which are essentially small group learning.
The clinical component to contrast is very hands-off and more “learn your stuff and come and do the exams”. There’s very little “big brother” movements and very few “sign-offs”. This can be beneficial as it gives you a lot of freedom to do as you please, but can be overwhelming at the beginning, so you really have to up your independent learning attitude.
Ok, but is it for me? The first 3 years are very scientific and really tailored towards research and academia than real life doctor work. So, if you’re looking for practical medicine from day 1, probably Cambridge is not the best. However, the pre-clinical course definitely helps you develop a lot of key skills especially critical analysis and gives you unique research experiences, which are highly sought out further in your career. The clinical years will favour you if you prefer independence and freedom. However, if you prefer having set timetables and sign-offs to motivate you to go in and learn, then other universities may be better.
