As I\u2019m sure you know, Dentistry is a 5 year course, whereas most other courses are 3. At first, this may seem like a bad thing, but trust me, once here, it\u2019s great! I\u2019m in 5th year now, and it\u2019s absolutely flown by, I wouldn\u2019t have felt ready to leave after just 3 years, it\u2019s way too much fun!
\nThe 5 years is pretty much split into 2 parts, with the first 1.5 years\u00a0being purely academic, and the rest mostly clinical. Here at Newcastle, the dental school adopts the \u2018traditional\u2019 style of teaching, so, lots of lectures and little self study time, with a few seminars (small group teaching) thrown in. In contrast, somewhere like Manchester, is \u2018Problem based learning\u2019, which means quite a few seminars, but hardly any lectures, and you\u2019re expected to go away and do your own reading. I chose traditional as it suits my learning style, I need timetables to stick to, and prefer to be told what to know, rather than do the research myself.<\/p>\n
The first 1.5\u00a0years, are pretty content heavy, and that\u2019s the hard bit, the sheer amount you need to learn, the actual information isn\u2019t difficult. Just be prepared to put some of your own time aside to go over things and make sure you\u2019ve taken them in. You won\u2019t need to spend all your time doing this, you can still do everything your friends from other courses do, just plan wisely.<\/p>\n
A lot of it may not seem relevant at the time, as it\u2019s things like microbiology, pharmacology, and human development, but stick with it, it all acts as building blocks for things later on, like the Human Disease course. A big part of first year is anatomy, at Newcastle this still involves studying dissected bodies and heads, and really getting involved, which is really interesting, but strong smelling!<\/p>\n
Also, just as a side note, don\u2019t worry about the essential reading, it definitely doesn\u2019t mean read the books recommended cover to cover, just know they\u2019re the ones to look to for help, and you don\u2019t need to rush out and buy them, the dedicated medical and dental library here in the medical school has plenty of copies.
\nBy Will Holme (5th yr Dental student)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I\u2019m sure you know, Dentistry is a 5 year course, whereas most other courses are 3. At first, this may seem like a bad thing, but trust me, once here, it\u2019s great! I\u2019m in 5th year now, and it\u2019s … Continue reading