The MBBS Medicine course has a spiral structure, meaning you’ll come back to the same topics in increasing depth and detail as you progress through your degree.
Modules are based on body systems, such as respiratory and cardiovascular, which encompass various scientific and medical themes. You’ll visit each system at least three times during the course, allowing you to consolidate your knowledge.
You can also choose student-selected components (SSCs), which allow you to explore your own areas of interest while building a portfolio of core competencies. Some of these take place in blocks of two to five weeks, while others run throughout the academic year.
After your final exams, you’ll complete a six-week elective in the UK or overseas. This is a chance to explore medicine in a completely new environment and immerse yourself in a different culture. For many students, this is the most exciting and memorable part of their experience at medical school.
You’ll be assessed through a combination of continuous assessment and regular exams, with finals at the end of each year. Continuous assessment takes various forms, including short in-course exams, written accounts of problems or cases studied, presentations, logbooks, workbooks, and direct observation.
Assessments give you regular opportunities to consolidate your learning and mean less exam stress at the end of the year. Your marks allow you to monitor your own progress, while helping teaching staff identify students who may need extra support.
End-of-year exams measure your progression through the core curriculum. Written papers test your knowledge and how you apply it to problems, with extended matching questions, short answer questions and modified essay questions often used in conjunction with clinical scenarios. You’ll also take computer-based exams for anatomy, histology and data interpretation in the first two phases of the programme.
You’ll take Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) from your first year to assess clinical, communication and practical skills. These involve a series of stations where you’ll have a specific time to perform a task with a real or simulated patient or a mannequin.
Formative assessment workshops (where scores don’t count towards your final mark) and informal feedback in small group teaching sessions help you develop your knowledge, personal and group skills throughout the programme.
SSCs are assessed individually on a simple grading system, and must be successfully completed at the end of each year in order to progress to the next year.