The current second years are the last cohort to be able to choose from Cambridge, Oxford and London for their clinical years, so this page will have information about the application process and profiles of the other medical schools available. The current first years are the first cohort that will be guaranteed a place at Cambridge for their clinical years.
Cambridge
4th year:
You’ve sat through a near constant stream of lectures, slaved over countless essays, done MCQs until all you can see are A,B,C,D,Es or True or False, but at last you get to the start of your clinical studies. Whether you stay at Cambridge, go off to London or, dare I say it, Oxford, you will find that Clinical School is very different to what you’ve encountered over your first three years.
Gone are the four back-to-back lectures on a Monday morning. Gone are the long practical classes that no one really understands. In their place is a hospital full of real patients and you are free to do what you would find most useful. This may be taking histories, performing examinations, trying to take blood – or just following the actual doctors and learning more about what goes on in the hospital.
You may feel a bit lost and underqualified to be standing near actual patients, but your first clinical year is the time to make the most of a relatively free and unstructured year: Learn how to feel comfortable on the ward and know how the ward works; explore areas of the hospital that you haven’t seen before, such as the theatres and A&E; get to know all the medics that you recognise from lectures, but never knew what their names were; do all of the extra-curricular things that you wanted to do in Undergrad, as you now have your evenings and weekends back.
Clinical School is a massive change in many ways, but for most of you, it will be a welcome change. Use your first year of clinical to adapt to the change in setting and change in style of learning, but if you ever feel lost, just remember the following:
1. Be kind and compassionate to everyone you meet, whether that is a patient or a hospital employee or a fellow student, as you never know when you will need help.
2. You will never get in trouble for asking questions – and some people will pre-emptively see that you are new and lost and will help you before you can even ask!
3. You have worked hard to be where you are and you are completely justified in being at the hospital. In three years’ time, it will be you running about on the ward round, so make the most of being a student, when you are expected to make mistakes that you can learn from!