Biomed People

[Slumdawg]

Hey, I was really interested in biomed at melbourne next year, I was just wondering if any people who do it could share their insight into workload, how much time you spend studying a night, difficulty of the content, how interesting the content is, is it a full on course with many pracs or lectures, etc. I've been researching from the brochures of Melbourne itself but they could be biased or whatever. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Russ]

All the info in the brochures will be right, it's just that they present only stuff that looks good (but that's always the case for any uni/company). Your questions were kinda general but I'll give my opinions:

Workload is heavy. I didn't have under 20 contact hours a week until 2nd year. Typically your science subjects are 3 lectures, 1 tutorial and a practical/lab session a week (7 hours total), whilst the maths/statistics subjects won't have the practical session. Most of the lecturers are reasonable though, they won't directly assess the extremely complicated/difficult stuff. The amount of work I do at home varies depending on what stage of the year it is. I generally aim for about 4 hours of study a day - 1 hour per subject - which I can usually fit in and still have plenty of time for going out/job/whatever. During swotvac, most people shutdown though and spend every day studying as much as possible.

The course content is tough in sections but isn't extremely hard. Like I said before, generally the really difficult concepts won't be directly assessed, so you can include them if you know them for extra marks. The one thing I will say, is that not doing Biology means that you'll have to work hard in first year. Friends who'd done VCE Biology said that the core biology subjects were mostly just revision...I found them really tough, I had to put in a lot of hours just to get up to speed.

I love the course though, it has a massive focus on integration so you can see all the information coming together...when a lecturer talks about anaphylactic shock you can relate it to things you studied in physics, like fluid flow rates and pressure. The content is advanced but at the same time accessible. Maybe it's just me, but the lectures rarely give me the "oh god what does this mean" feeling. It is full on (the enter is stupidly high, 98 or something, for a reason) and there's a high drop out rate after first year but the intensity isn't that much of a bad thing.

If you've got any more specific questions I'm happy to answer them. There might be other biomed students here on the forums as well, but here's a link you should look at if you haven't already, it's the overview of the course with all your options etc.

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2010/J07-AA

[Slumdawg]

All the info in the brochures will be right, it's just that they present only stuff that looks good (but that's always the case for any uni/company). Your questions were kinda general but I'll give my opinions:

Workload is heavy. I didn't have under 20 contact hours a week until 2nd year. Typically your science subjects are 3 lectures, 1 tutorial and a practical/lab session a week (7 hours total), whilst the maths/statistics subjects won't have the practical session. Most of the lecturers are reasonable though, they won't directly assess the extremely complicated/difficult stuff. The amount of work I do at home varies depending on what stage of the year it is. I generally aim for about 4 hours of study a day - 1 hour per subject - which I can usually fit in and still have plenty of time for going out/job/whatever. During swotvac, most people shutdown though and spend every day studying as much as possible.

The course content is tough in sections but isn't extremely hard. Like I said before, generally the really difficult concepts won't be directly assessed, so you can include them if you know them for extra marks. The one thing I will say, is that not doing Biology means that you'll have to work hard in first year. Friends who'd done VCE Biology said that the core biology subjects were mostly just revision...I found them really tough, I had to put in a lot of hours just to get up to speed.

I love the course though, it has a massive focus on integration so you can see all the information coming together...when a lecturer talks about anaphylactic shock you can relate it to things you studied in physics, like fluid flow rates and pressure. The content is advanced but at the same time accessible. Maybe it's just me, but the lectures rarely give me the "oh god what does this mean" feeling. It is full on (the enter is stupidly high, 98 or something, for a reason) and there's a high drop out rate after first year but the intensity isn't that much of a bad thing.

If you've got any more specific questions I'm happy to answer them. There might be other biomed students here on the forums as well, but here's a link you should look at if you haven't already, it's the overview of the course with all your options etc.

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2010/J07-AA

Thanks heaps for that. I'll be sure to contact you leading up to confirming preferences because that's probably when all my questions will arise. Thanks again.

[Slumdawg]

If there's any other biomed people on here feel free to comment as well. I'd like to get as many opinions as possible.

[QuantumJG]

I have a few friends who do Biomedicine at Melbourne uni and they both love it. The course is much more structured towards the health sciences so if you are interested in becoming a doctor, physio, optometrist, dentist or entering the medical research field then I would do this course. Having said that if you get the UMAT score and ENTER to do medicine at Monash then go for that.

I see you also are considering film and television at VCA, you tend to want to do things that are polar opposites to eachother so I would question which of these you are more interested in.

Just note: Biomedicine has gained a lot of popularity since the minimal ENTER to get a spot for 2009 was 95, last year to get in you required a 98.

[Slumdawg]

I see you also are considering film and television at VCA, you tend to want to do things that are polar opposites to eachother so I would question which of these you are more interested in.

Yer I've been like that for like 2 years now. Both fields really interest me and I still can't choose between them, but my careers advisor said to consider doing biomed then if you don't like it you can switch to film and television. Cos switching the other way around would be ten times more difficult. I could always fulfil any media desires with a breadth in biomed haha. I guess I will see with my scores as well. 98 is a big ask and it will probably only get higher. Thanks for the advice as well!

[iamdan08]

Hey shilayli06, I'm currently in my second year of Biomed at UoM.

The workload is quite intense, especially in the first month of uni where it's a bit of a shock to the system, particularly if you haven't studied biology before. There are times of the semester when the workload is manageable and other times when it can get stressful, but once you know what to expect (particularly in second semester) it isn't as bad. In second year, the pace is stepped up a bit as a result of a double subject that is a core for Biomed students called Molecular and Cellular Biomedicine. I'm not going to lie, it's pretty tough, and stressful at times during the year, but looking back on it i found it was a very good subject and it exposes you (and in quite detail) to Biochemistry, Genetics, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, whilst integrating these topics into themes such as Cancer. Contact hours aren't great, but don't expect them to be if you decide to do a science course. This semester has been my lowest contact hours at 17 (or 13 if i didn't have a prac or workshop).

How much time i spent studying, as Russ said, really depended on the time of the year it was. During semester I just did as much as i could whilst balancing work and a social life. There is plenty of time at uni during classes to get work done if you use your breaks wisely. So i might have done about 4 hours a day, but only 2 of those might have been at home. However when it gets to SwotVac, i go into a bit of a lock down mode and do quite a bit lol.

As for difficulty of the content, well, I'd say it's fair in the most part, considering that the top 5% (now top 2%) of the state are in the course. I don't think the content is difficult per se, but when you add the sheer amount of it, and the pace, it can be a little difficult at times. That being said, i find it very intellectually stimulating.

I find the course content extremely interesting. I also think second year is FAR better than first year. First year in a lot of ways is all about getting everyone up to the same level. If you are interested in science with a medical underpinning you will absolutely love it.

Overall i absolutely love Biomed, and i find it interesting and most importantly, fun. Yes, there are a lot of times during the year where it is stressful, but at the end of the day, they are trying to prepare us for entering graduate courses (such as med, dent & physio), as well as honours and research. On a side note, if you are interested in doing grad med, then the course content in first year is very good and helped me get a pretty good score for GAMSAT.

If you are interested in health science then i can't recommend it more. Good luck with whatever path you chose and as Russ said, I'm happy to answer any question you might have.

[Russ]

I was tossing up between Biomed and Media and Comm. at the end of my VCE year. Like you, the breadth decided me, I'm doing creative writing/philosophy/ethics style subjects as part of my degree and it makes it much more enjoyable.

If you're interested in health sciences, biomed is great since it gives a very good grounding but it is in no way an official feeder course for medicine, so bear that in mind if that was your eventual aim. There's very little choice (you pick a major and that's it) compared to science, so the people who designed the course were able to retain a lot of control over what you learn...I like that, since it makes it much more effective.

The increasing TER for biomed is a horrible thing. I wish it'd go back to 95, it does not need to be higher and if the course ends up as a 99+ then there's something wrong with people's perceptions of it

[Slumdawg]

Hey shilayli06, I'm currently in my second year of Biomed at UoM.

The workload is quite intense, especially in the first month of uni where it's a bit of a shock to the system, particularly if you haven't studied biology before. There are times of the semester when the workload is manageable and other times when it can get stressful, but once you know what to expect (particularly in second semester) it isn't as bad. In second year, the pace is stepped up a bit as a result of a double subject that is a core for Biomed students called Molecular and Cellular Biomedicine. I'm not going to lie, it's pretty tough, and stressful at times during the year, but looking back on it i found it was a very good subject and it exposes you (and in quite detail) to Biochemistry, Genetics, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, whilst integrating these topics into themes such as Cancer. Contact hours aren't great, but don't expect them to be if you decide to do a science course. This semester has been my lowest contact hours at 17 (or 13 if i didn't have a prac or workshop).

How much time i spent studying, as Russ said, really depended on the time of the year it was. During semester I just did as much as i could whilst balancing work and a social life. There is plenty of time at uni during classes to get work done if you use your breaks wisely. So i might have done about 4 hours a day, but only 2 of those might have been at home. However when it gets to SwotVac, i go into a bit of a lock down mode and do quite a bit lol.

As for difficulty of the content, well, I'd say it's fair in the most part, considering that the top 5% (now top 2%) of the state are in the course. I don't think the content is difficult per se, but when you add the sheer amount of it, and the pace, it can be a little difficult at times. That being said, i find it very intellectually stimulating.

I find the course content extremely interesting. I also think second year is FAR better than first year. First year in a lot of ways is all about getting everyone up to the same level. If you are interested in science with a medical underpinning you will absolutely love it.

Overall i absolutely love Biomed, and i find it interesting and most importantly, fun. Yes, there are a lot of times during the year where it is stressful, but at the end of the day, they are trying to prepare us for entering graduate courses (such as med, dent & physio), as well as honours and research. On a side note, if you are interested in doing grad med, then the course content in first year is very good and helped me get a pretty good score for GAMSAT.

If you are interested in health science then i can't recommend it more. Good luck with whatever path you chose and as Russ said, I'm happy to answer any question you might have.

Thanks heaps. All this advice makes me even more keen and is gonna motivate me for the rest of this year.  Looks like quite a few people don't do biology and can still cope with the course so that's definitely reassuring. It's a shame I dropped bio cos I did it in year 11 but my timetable couldn't accommodate it so I just dropped it. Thanks again I'll be looking over everyone's responses numerous times throughout the year to stay really motivated haha.

[Russ]

Looks like quite a few people don't do biology and can still cope with the course so that's definitely reassuring.

I spoke at the evening information session for Biomed last month (if you were there you'll know this) and one of the things Prof. Hargreaves said was that "from looking at the results, students who don't do VCE Biology do just as well as students who did, but they obviously have to work harder"

MCB was the greatest subject ever, 6 lectures a week is fun right?

e, iamdan08, how'd you go on the GAMSAT? you're in my year, yeah?

[Slumdawg]

I was tossing up between Biomed and Media and Comm. at the end of my VCE year. Like you, the breadth decided me, I'm doing creative writing/philosophy/ethics style subjects as part of my degree and it makes it much more enjoyable.

If you're interested in health sciences, biomed is great since it gives a very good grounding but it is in no way an official feeder course for medicine, so bear that in mind if that was your eventual aim. There's very little choice (you pick a major and that's it) compared to science, so the people who designed the course were able to retain a lot of control over what you learn...I like that, since it makes it much more effective.

The increasing TER for biomed is a horrible thing. I wish it'd go back to 95, it does not need to be higher and if the course ends up as a 99+ then there's something wrong with people's perceptions of it

Oh that's great, means I'm not the only one tossing up between media and medical fields. I like the sounds of most of the graduate courses, do you get a bit of an idea of which one you would want to do as you go through biomed? (I'm currently set on medicine but I won't feel extremely dissatisfied if I end up going with another graduate if I end up doing biomed). Praying the ATAR score goes back to 95 because that's actually pretty reasonable for me and achievable, but like 98 (probably higher this year as it's obviously increasing in popularity) is gonna be quite hard to obtain.

[Slumdawg]

Looks like quite a few people don't do biology and can still cope with the course so that's definitely reassuring.

I spoke at the evening information session for Biomed last month (if you were there you'll know this) and one of the things Prof. Hargreaves said was that "from looking at the results, students who don't do VCE Biology do just as well as students who did, but they obviously have to work harder"

oh thanks for that. No I didn't go to the information session :S so it's good that you told me that. I'm planning on going to the open days and stuff though.

[Russ]

do you get a bit of an idea of which one you would want to do as you go through biomed?

Not from the lectures themselves. There are plenty of expos and graduate info sessions throughout the year though; go to one of those and you'll get all the information you need to decide between graduate pathways.

e, Open Day will just be the same presentation as the information session, it was just for people who wanted to go early in the year.

[iamdan08]

it is in no way an official feeder course for medicine, so bear that in mind if that was your eventual aim.

What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.

EDIT: @ Russ: I'm in second year Biomed, what are you in? I got a 62 in the GAMSAT (~80th percentile), with section scores of 54,61,67. Sitting it again next year so i know where i need to improve. Did you sit GAMSAT?

[Russ]

What do you mean by this? Biomedicine is the (and i quote) "preferred pathway" to the MD, and in my opinion is the best course you can do (as well as science with the right subjects) if you want to do graduate entry Medicine. Keep in mind that anyone with an undergrad degree can get into med (apart from the MD because of the prereqs), so anyone with a health science background is going to have an advantage over a lot of other Med hopefuls without this background, in both sitting the GAMSAT, as well as the early years of Med where people without this background have to learn everything from scratch.

It might be their preferred pathway for applicants to take, but they don't have a quota to fill or a bonus to give to people applying from the course. Perhaps saying it was in "no way" official was a bit over the top, since it is designed to help you get in, I just meant there's no formal benefit. (I'd love to be wrong though)

And sitting the GAMSAT...a science degree can give you the same grounding if you take the right subjects. Biomed is a really good pathway though, I'd recommend it without many reservations.