Hello and welcome to the Queen's Access podcast. It's so lovely to have you here.
And I hope you find this a useful resource in learning more about life at Oxford.
But more specifically about life at the Queen's College. My guests this week are all medicks.
They are Bethanne Story and Annie Roberts, who've both just finished their first year, and Banka Lucy, who's just finished his third year.
They'll talk us through what it's like to apply to study medicine at Oxford and then what it's like to actually study here.
My apologies for any poor audio. These interviews have all been conducted over Zoome, and the Internet connexion isn't always completely reliable.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit the Queen's website. I hope you enjoy.
Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me.
I really, really appreciate your help and I'm sure you'll be super interesting and really helpful to listen to.
First of all, would you mind taking me through a little bit about your queens, Danny?
So how you ended up at college? Bethany, you want to start us off?
Yes. I first came to Queens in year 12, actually on the northwest side.
It's residential. And and I really, really enjoyed that.
The rates of student helpers who were refinding, including their natsheh and and and I kind of had NOCH tutorials.
And then so let me be kind of quite definite.
I was going to apply to Oxford and I ran lots of other colleges and then we'll read the paper.
I couldn't take certain smoke screens because I knew a bit more about it.
And here I am. Yes. Fantastic.
Ben, what about you? So I had actually never visited Queens before I applied.
So I knew I wanted to apply for medicine somewhere.
And I sort of after coming to Oxford and listening to the talk in the medical school from some of the tutors and stuff like that,
I knew I wanted to come to Oxford because it's sort of like the science basis of the course really interested me and stuff like that.
I didn't really know much about colleges.
So I just kind of wandered around the city for the whole day and visited like three or four really inefficiently.
But then I went on when it came to sort of doing UCLASS and stuff like that.
I looked on the Internet, all the different colleges. Queens had a really cool logo and like the name is pretty cool.
So I was just like, yeah, I'll apply that.
But yeah, I think I always say to people on open days, choosing colleges is a very sort of arbitrary choice,
because wherever people end up, they always tell you that college is the best college.
I mean, there are obviously wrong. Queens is the best college, but it just goes to show how everyone can fit in, like wherever you end up.
Yes. So kings. Queens. Yeah. I've always said that the people, when I say nothing about college choices is like wherever you go.
Trust me, by the time it's matriculated, yours is the best college in Oxford.
Cambridge. Every college at university in the world. You are absolutely on top of it.
Absolutely. That's about it. Yeah. Artie, what about you?
I knew I wanted to apply for Oxford. I didn't actually apply to Queens.
I applied to Corpus Christi. Was pulled after the interview stage.
So I guess an example of how you don't always end up where you apply.
I love Queens so much. I'm so glad that I was accepted. Oh, fantastic.
So if you could take me through a little bit about what a week in your life looks like at Oxford.
So obviously, you do all do the same course, which is a first on this on this podcast.
But feel free to kind of go into what an academic week is like for you and especially for a band, given that you're in a different year.
And also take me through, you know, fishable and societys and like how you like to relax and all that kind of thing, just feel free to let me know.
So back then, can you start? Yeah. So in first year, you tend to have only about two or three lectures in the morning and it's every little bit.
And says de morning was always. And we had Deeyah which is doing that.
I think it's demonstrating rain but it's where you do live anatomy and then prosection.
So then you'd have one person followed by that.
And most mornings of lectures, benign finish around lunchtime and head back to college for lunch and and then the afternoon, unless you do a tutorial,
which we'd normally have two a week, it was your time to kind of and do your research for your essays or revise if you were that way inclined.
And then you could sit around any extracurriculars at dinner and any sexual activities that you're doing.
So probably about twelve lectures a week and then an.
One or two practicals, it did very sad. Sometimes we had a week,
whether we'd like three and 13 elections and the that is pretty much contactors in the morning and then freetime in the afternoon.
Brilliant. Yeah. And how about you? What what did you, like, take up any hobbies while you were at Oxford?
Yes, I started rowing, which I'm not typically good at.
That is good fun. I've. I did quite a lot of climbing before coming to Oxford, so I kind of carried on.
And then I used gay and sometimes in the afternoon and Tobruk's to go climbing there.
I think generally just kind of socialising with friends. And there are quite a few kind of magic and crawls that we organise.
Well, we didn't organise actually. Someone else organised and then we went along with it.
But it was quite nice kind of mixture of socialising within college and with.
The medicks. Fantastic.
That sounds that you got a really good balance. How about you on a. Yes.
Why submit to a bathroom sex or in the same year? Well, we have lectures the morning come back for lunch and do they work in the afternoons?
In the evenings? I tend to do things with friends or go to all the society events that are in the evenings, like rock climbing, as Beth mentioned.
Then I also get tutoring with the charity Dakari where you like a mash with a people who is like a recent arrival to the area.
They may be refugees, they help them. I get that on the weekends as well.
Fantastic. And Ben, what about you. So my sort of offers I'm listening to what those guys are saying.
I remember the first two years of the course as of say I did exactly the same as those guys.
So I've just finished my third year, which for medicine is a bit different.
It's called the final on a school year or face chest.
And it's really sort of cool addition to the course because it's like the interconnected year, as they call it, as are other units.
But every Medick does it here. So you have a lot more freedom to do sort of academic things that interest you.
So over the last year, I maybe had three or four lectures per week,
which was quite nice because you've got lots of time in between these lectures
to read around them and sort of get really deep into the subject matter.
You book your own tutorials, which is a really nice addition to the course.
So if there's a tutor, a different college,
that you really want to sort of have an hour's one on one or two on one about a certain topic with there's really good opportunities can bolt in that.
And yeah, just generally a quiet shell. Yeah. But because it's you can direct yourself just the things you're really, really interested in.
A really, really interesting year. I've also spent a lot of time working in the sort of lab environment.
So I spent a term working nine to five in a cancer research lab as part of the escalated degree,
which was really cool, really, really good experience. I am one of the clumsiest people you'll ever meet.
So I wasn't necessarily particularly good at it,
but it was a really amazing sort of opportunity to be able to see how cancer research gets done and to even do some of it myself and producer,
a unique sort of piece of original research. So, yeah, just a lot more freedom in the third year as compared to the first two years of the course.
Plus also Internet thing and like it's such a good opportunity to really, really get an in-depth into what you specifically are interested in.
That's a really unique thing. I've not heard of anything like that before. So, so cool.
Yeah. So we talked a little bit about the course itself, but we should probably address, like, actually get again.
So, Ali, do you mind taking us through a little bit about how the interview process works?
Medic's. Yes, two comments in your interview to colleges and generally the college you apply to, you'll be stay.
You'll have an interview down the first day and I'll put you up and give you dinner and put on something in the evening, like a quiz.
And then on the second day, you have an interview at your other college. That one didn't apply to you, given it randomly.
I'd say most colleges will have one more clinical interview.
So I was asked like a question about patient, which was ethical.
Then also something about NHS structures. And then your other interview is going to be more based around science.
So lots of diagrams with graphs and extrapolating your A level biology and chemistry knowledge to try apply it and you scenarios,
which can be a bit daunting. And you'll hear the question. You've got no idea how it relates to anything else, you know, but you just have to.
I think the most important thing is to explain your logic and what you think might be happening.
And they get a sense of your thought process, although I would say that not all the colleges do sort of a split into you and
way may mix up the clinical best scientific content throughout both interviews.
So I would be aware of that. OK.
Fantastic. Thank you so much. So if each of you could use a little bit about what your experience is,
Cecilia Bema was like maybe what advice she'd give to somebody who was preparing to take that exam.
Ben, can you start us off, please? So easy, easy advice to give.
Just practise, practise, practise, practise under time, pressure.
So there's a lot of free resources on the Internet.
So free practise, quizzes, stuff like that.
I would definitely get involved with that because the the absolutely the hardest aspect of the BMA is the time pressure as I remember it.
I think especially the science section, if you didn't do GCSE maths, if you didn't do GCSE physics,
definitely brush up on how to solve the different types of physics problems under time pressure.
And also, don't forget about the essay.
So the essay section is probably sort of often forgotten about by candidates preparing, but it is just as important as the other two sections.
So I would advise sort of maybe reading around the news about having a look at what the hot
debates and topics are and sort of news and medicine and science at the time of taking your exam.
And you don't have to practise sort of lots of times writing the essay because it's,
you know, writing a page of A4 on this topic is quite time consuming.
But I would definitely sort of maybe once or twice before you take the actual exam,
just make sure you get a feel for a sort of the type of content that you want to include and sort of the style of your writing,
and B, just how much writing you can fit onto one side of A4, because that's definitely something you can catch you out.
Really? Thank you, Ben. That's really good advice, I feel. I mean, what about you?
Yeah. So those banks that I'd say it's very important to practise.
Good, because getting used to the exam format and the kind of questions they may ask is a big part of it.
So I think maybe start practising early.
Another thing I'd save the essay is you could see if any of your teachers would be happy to have a look at it,
because my biology teacher looked at one or two that essay of the practise essays I'd done to get some feedback on that.
That was really helpful. And also in my child, it is it's it's a really hard exam.
So when you start, don't be disappointed. Eickhoff Moggs or worse.
I didn't say badly at the beginning. Just remember that everyone else was finding it super difficult.
Oh, great. Thank you. I'm back. What about you?
I think the same thing about just practising as many questions as you can get your hands on this most important thing.
And if you are struggling to find enough questions,
the kind of critical thinking section of the bema is almost exactly the same as thinking skills assessment questions.
So you can kind of borrow some questions. You can you can practise some of those questions as well, because that opens up a whole other kind of bang.
And the other thing is for the science section is a specification available so you can go is kind of in a textbook format.
So you can go right through that.
There's kind of a few odd things that it says, a GCSE knowledge like the kidney, which I haven't done at GCSE and we haven't done yet.
I let's say by going through years that you can pick up those areas and then make sure you know enough about them for it.
Yeah, great. As somebody who sat the TSA, I can tell you that there are a stupid number of factness papers available for that.
That was what a lot of my early. Yes, I think it was by doing so.
Yeah. There's there's definitely a lot of TSA resources that you do run out of FEMA resources.
Okay. So that once you've actually made it dog food, what would you say the course is like and how is it structured?
So the reason you might choose to apply to Oxford rather than another medical school
is because of the sort of relatively unique way that the course is structured.
So while other universities are sort of moving towards this more problem based learning type of teaching for medical students,
so you go onto the clinics,
you see a patient, you have like a group discussion about all of the different aspects of the sort of the different diseases that you're encountering.
Oxford is a very traditional style of teaching.
So the first three years are dedicated in the main to medical sciences and the science that underpins disease.
Before you go on two years, four, five and six, which are actually based in the hospital and focussed more on clinical skills and how
they knowledge you gained in the first four years applies to being in the clinic.
So, yeah, I think from my experience, Queens,
the tutors are very understanding of the fact that you are moving into university life for the first time.
Most people are moving into living independently for the first time.
So they know and they have so much experience in sort of breaking people into that into that new phase of their life.
So the all of the teaching is planned out really well to cover all the topics that you need to cover in a pretty manageable way.
Obviously, there is a bit of hard work involved, but also there's lots of fun to be had.
Well, I've only done three years, but all three years have been really good fun so far.
And the Cheetahs have a really good understanding that you also need to live your life outside of work,
which I think is a bit of a misconception about studying study at Oxford that you might spend your whole time working.
Couldn't be further from the truth. Right. Thank you, Ben.
And then how would you describe the work style upset? So what are your tutorials like?
So it kind of fits in with the strictures.
And let's not start being preclinical first and then clinical in the first couple of years, and the work is almost entirely through essays.
And you normally get one essay per tutorial, say your Cheatwood a couple of weeks before the tutorials send you a title,
which is normally kind of asking you to describe or explain.
And it's kind of medical concept which normally ties in with what you're doing in lectures at time and say you kind of write your essay on that,
which is the core of it is kind of pure science.
But in order to get to the top marks,
you have to be putting in kind of clinical examples of why it's relevant and and kind of some trials and clinical and other kind of studies,
that kind of thing. And then you turn up to your tutorial, having handed your essay in.
And they I found that generally started by asking your students, see,
you tend to go in pairs much together to explain what the concept is that you've written your essay about.
And then if there are any areas where I may be slightly misunderstood something or you hadn't gone into quite enough
detail that you to kind of directly toward staes and expand on them and talk about them in a bit more depth,
which means that the kind of even they each say if you've got six medicks and you have energy tourism pass,
although they're all on the same day topic, they do go down different routes.
And so they're all kind of unique to you.
And then and they may all say the cheetah's sentence brings, say, a journal article for you,
or they might ask each person diagrams to help just with discussion.
But I've always found them quite relaxed. And they're definitely one of the bits of the course that I really,
really enjoy just being able to have quite an informal chats about whatever it is you've been reading about.
The just I. I always find the things I've written essays on.
I understand so much better than anything I've just had a lecture on and say, yeah, I highly recommend.
Fantastic. Thank you so much. And thank you, guys. I feel like I gave a really good description of kind of the ins and outs of the course.
I know that Batman and Ben are also ambassadors on the ambassador platform, which can be found under the Meet Our Students top of the Queen's website.
So I'm sure even after this fantastic, reliable information, if you still have any questions,
I'm sure they'd be happy for you to contact them with any questions through that platform.
OK, brilliant. So our closing question, I'd just like to ask you each.
What is your favourite thing about college and why on earth would you will not?
So I think my favourite thing would be college lunches, because you will come back.
It's about one o'clock. We've had like three lectures. My brain is utterly exhausted.
It's so nice just to be able to sit down and see all your friends from all different
subjects because everyone goes for lunch together to chat about your day and how it's going.
And also, the food's very yummy. I love potatoes. I want all five types of potato ortho's.
That's just the best experience. And it's not too expensive either.
So if it's a winner, brilliant carb loading at lunch.
I loved that back then. How about you? Well, I was going to say college lunch as well, but I think joint second JCR t.
And once you've kind of digested your college,
then gets to about Soapy and you're in the library and that's when GST is and you can go into the JCR, have better snacks for sale.
Also very cheap and perfect excuse to gout's library.
Have a chat with friends and eat some more. There's a bit to scene that.
But yeah, I'd say GST includes food in general.
Oh, fantastic. I'm fine. What about you? So my top two favourite things have now been taken.
So I'm going to go with number three being the best seller.
We have an absolutely cracking college apart. And I visited a few college bars and I can say categorically ours is the best.
It's a great place to hang out, whether you're a sort of drink alcohol or not.
It's a great place to hang out with your friends.
Got some pool darts, quiz machine jukebox, which is usually a point of contention, sort of just playing.
Sweet, sweet Caroline on repeat, etc. And we also have our box stand there.
So what's a like fancy dress parties, everyone.
There's usually a theme, which is a really bad pun and everyone makes really bad DIY fancy dress and all the music is really bad student deejaying.
So yeah, it's just really cheesy, really good fun for everyone.
It's a great time for everyone in college to sort of come together. Oh yeah.
Fantastic. Thank you all so much. That was super interesting. And I'm sure everybody who listened found that really, really helpful.
You've all been great. I really appreciate your support. And I'll speak to you.
Will see. Thank you so much to ban Bethen and Annie for that great conversation.
And a massive thank you to all of you who listened. There are loads more access resources on the Queen's College website.
A w w w dot queens dot org. Dot ac dot UK. Forward slash access dash outreach.
And you can find out more about the college in general through its website, Twitter and Instagram, including on the Access Twitter at Queens Outreach.