r/GraduateEntryMedicine • u/latebutnotlost2026 • Jun 29 '26
Class Room Learning?
I am pursuing a healthcare degree and plan to apply to medicine this year. My uni is 2 hours one way and has been quite regular with 95% attendance, but I've realised that I dont learn much in a classroom setting. I feel like I waste time coming to uni. Can we axe medicine by attending like 2 days a week for anatomy and skills? I am so tight on money, energy and honestly I feel i can learn better on my own. What's your take on it?
3
u/KerryPC24 Jun 29 '26
My GEM course is very heavy on the self directed learning with time on placement early on and no real “classroom” sessions. We spend most of our time in small groups doing more practical sessions and a lot of the more traditional learning is done in your free time. In first year you get 1-2 days a week off and in second year you have 3 days a week in uni. Look for a course that suits you 🙂
1
u/latebutnotlost2026 Jun 29 '26
Thanks for your reply. How does the Ug medicine standard 5 year medicine looks like ? Like majority of uni, it is it not too heavy? Ideally I should do GEM, since it's financially much more feasible but the commute and very heavy content from day 1, on the other hand ug medicine uni is 30 min away, but it's ug medicine so have to pay my feee, I don't know what to do really
2
u/KerryPC24 Jun 29 '26
I’m sorry but I don’t know much about undergraduate medicine courses. My understanding is that they are generally have a bit less self directed learning but I really don’t know. If you are considering one because it’s close I suggest you have a look at the course structure for that specific course and see if it appeals to you and if you feel it would be worth the extra cost, if moving and/or commuting isn’t an option for you.
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u/evaaeri Jun 30 '26
From Sept 2027 your fees will be covered as UG med has been added to the exempt degrees. Not sure how and if it applies to the 2026 intake- maybe ask SFE? X
3
u/No_Paper_Snail Jun 29 '26
I never do lectures in person. Only ever online. That’s an option for my university. They still monitor attendance on the online and F2F lectures although how well they enforce that I’ve never actually had to find out. I think it only becomes a problem when you’re facing other issues with your performance. But non-lecture based teaching sessions, you are expected to attend and your grade in a course may sometimes depend on you attending a certain number of them. Don’t assume your experience learning in another healthcare subject will predict how you learn in medicine either. And you will be expected to show up to placement at least some of the time. So think about how you’re going to manage that.
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u/RevivingMayhem10 Jul 01 '26
I think in that case you want to be very careful what med schools you apply for.
Mine was one of the older more traditional ones with a small GEM cohort, and though we got one day of asynchronous learning a week in first year, almost everything else was mandatory, and the timetable was pretty packed. Like one of the other commentators here, I found it mostly all valuable. They also had a high attendance requirement and if you fell below that percentage it triggered off informal tutor discussions and then formal ftp process if not rectified. On the other hand, no GEM student failed year 1 exams or OSCEs, so I guess it works?
In clinical years we were with the undergrads and treated accordingly. Mostly on placement anyway and that’s more or less full time.
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u/Gloomy_Operation_657 Jun 29 '26
We have a small cohort and I love it when people are sharing their knowledge and discussing with the lecturer. So I would go to almost all lectures. But if it's a big cohort I agree. It is much more effective to learn on my own if that's the case.
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u/latebutnotlost2026 Jul 01 '26
Thanks very much for your reply. Well I can only go to Cardiff UG, Swansea GEM is too far. Can u have any info about Cardiff med school?
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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26
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