Richard Haddon                                                      

Sixth Form College, North Yorkshire

Fifth-year student, Medicine

Time passes strangely in Cambridge. The short undergraduate terms (only 8 weeks) combined with the wealth of opportunity for extra curricular activities means that the three years most people spend here are over before they know it. After graduation last year, a large chunk of my friends left to join the real world but they still come back to visit and often complain of missing the life here.

Even after three years, most of the people I knew didn't want to leave and I was one of them. Luckily, Medicine gives you the option of going to London, Oxford or staying here in Cambridge. The new, improved Clinical course structure made staying in Cambridge an easy decision, especially when combined with all the other benefits of being part of Clare and Cambridge.

I've really enjoyed my time reading medicine and having fun at Clare. The first year was a shock after my A levels as the workload was much more than I had expected and the structure of study was a bit of a shock too. Supervisions will help you adjust to being lectured rather than taught, but it's easy to get the balance a bit uneven with regard to work and play, especially in the first year. Having got through all the Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology of the first year, second year is a bit easier. Granted, the workload goes up again, but the subjects are more interesting (Neuroscience, Pathology and Pharmacology) and you're more used to dealing with the Cambridge system. Also, by second year you realised that you can't really spend all your time doing sport and socialising!

The third year at Cambridge is one of the highlights of the course. In your BA year, you're allowed to study almost any subject, with Medics doing things as diverse as the History and Philosophy of Science to the more medically inclined Mechanisms of Disease. Third year also gives you the most flexible timetable (unless you decide to do a lab project), and so it gives you a chance to try out all those societies that your timetable in first and second year stopped you from doing. Also, if you choose a dissertation instead of a lab project, then you can spend hours and hours delving into a topic in great depth, which is possibly more fun than I'm making it sound! I spent a big chunk of my third year writing about strategies to combat the HIV pandemic and found it hugely rewarding to have a chance to really get to grips with such an important and topical subject.

After the lecture/practical-based pre-Clinical years, you transform from being just a medic into a Student Doctor (so our badges tell us). The course changes radically, but it's much more fun. The first section of the Clinical School course is based around 4 attachments, 5 week blocks of Surgery and Medicine in both Addenbrooke's (Cambridge's hospital) and in a regional hospital somewhere in East Anglia (luckily, I was in Huntingdon, which is not only an excellent teaching hospital but also near enough to pop back to Cambridge to stay involved in college and the university). I really enjoyed the surgery as you're in theatre, scrubbed up and watching/assisting the operations. Medicine is interesting too but, well, just isn't as exciting!

Having got through Stage 1, you get the chance to study a Student Selected Component for five weeks before the start of Stage 2. These range from lab projects to studying French and give you a chance to try something you never expected to do at Med School. I spent my five weeks learning about Clinical Hypnosis and put it to good use helping some of the undergrads at Clare chill out during their stressful exam term. After the SSC, you start Stage 2, which involves rotating through speciality blocks, including Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Psychiatry and others. It gives you a change to try the different specialities and gives you a good idea of what you might want to specialise in when you qualify. I've been surprised at which of the specialities I actually enjoyed when I tried them and am currently having an really interesting and enjoyable time doing Psych away on attachment in Bury St Edmunds.

Over the past 5 years, I've done lots of things at Clare, from being President of the Dilettante Society to being on the Student Unions of both the JCR and MCR. I've rowed, fenced, learnt to play bridge and Chinese chess, made some amazing friends and had a brilliant time. Regardless of how you choose to spend your time here, if you come to Clare to read medicine, I'm sure that you'll have an great few years and be well prepared to become a doctor :-)

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