KCL MBBS
Written by: Anthony Siu
Date: 23th July 2021
My first semester in King's College London is definitely one that I completely did not anticipate
The continuity of the global pandemic means that on-campus teaching was not possible, especially since the medicine cohort this year is larger than usual. Apart from that, most social events and extra-curricular activities such as sports teams also had to be suspended in real life. However, I'm glad that my university tried their best to find alternative methods to deliver such activities to keep us mentally and socially active.
Delivery of course content
As I have mentioned, all materials were being delivered online this term, mostly through Microsoft teams. Most of the lectures are pre-recorded, but there are live workshops and tutorials as well. The downsides for online teaching is quite obvious - first of all, there is no way to ask the lecturer on any questions you have after each pre-recorded lecture, which means we will often need to spend extra time after watching the lecture to find out the answers to the doubts we have, and sometimes not even knowing whether we have the correct information. Also, the first year of medicine in King's not only focus on the scientific theories behind medicine, but also the practical and clinical side of becoming a doctor, and having these experiences, such as talking to simulated patients and carrying out PCR experiments in real life, just simply cannot be fully replaced by learning online. Another aspect that I was really looking forward to before starting medicine at KCL was the opportunity to carry out dissection, but of course now that can't happen as well. However, the faculty did try their best to make sure these downsides had minimal effects on our study. There are weekly live Q&A sessions for everyone to ask the professors questions as well as live workshops that aim to simulate the practical and clinical experiences as close to real life interaction as possible. Although there weren't any dedicated dissection sessions, the dissection room was open for self-directed learning and we could book time slots where the demonstrators could teach us anatomy by prosection. Overall, it has been a unique experience and I still feel like I had a good understanding of the materials thanks to the effort all professors made to deliver their teaching as best as they could.
Extra curricular
Another important aspect of university is the social side of things, and this again was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. There were some social events during freshers week, but as the situation worsens in London accompanied by the start of actual teaching at the end of September, socialising in real life became very limited, especially when there was no on-campus teaching. I was fortunate enough to have found my own group of friends during freshers week so almost every weekend we would explore places in London. Without these weekends I would have probably gone mad by the end of the second week! Societies in King's such as ABACUS(Association of British and Chinese University Students), Anatomy Soc, Neuro Soc and of course the GKT Medical Student Association also hosted events online that gathered more people, thus making us feel less isolated than it really is. Mental health is extremely important for medical students with their high amount of workload, and having these social events to destress and recharge my brain after a busy week definitely helped to sustain myself to keep learning through the entire semester.