Studying Medicine without Leaving Cert Biology?

--hughesy--

Ok, so at the moment I'm in 5th year. At the beginning of the year I was completely undecided as to what to do in university. Without putting much thought into it I chose Physics and Biology. I know that Trinity accept people into medicine without chemistry but I'm wondering whether having chemistry is really beneficial.

So yeah, I'm really confused because there is no information about it on the college websites.

mardybumbum

So its chemistry your not doing?
The title of the thread put me off.
I'm not sure if TCD accept students who haven't done chemistry like you say they do.
You will find biochemistry a nightmare. It's a difficult enough subject for those who get A's in their LC chemistry.
I would advise taking up the subject yourself. It can be covered fully in a year.

Echani

I'm not sure as it's not the path I took, but I think that if you don't have LC chemistry you just need to do the pre-med year which covers physics, biology, physical and organic chemistry - that's the case in RCSI at least.

--hughesy--

mardybumbum wrote: »

So its chemistry your not doing?
The title of the thread put me off.
I'm not sure if TCD accept students who haven't done chemistry like you say they do.

yeah sorry about the thread title. I'm sick and not exactly on the A-game today . Without wanting to sound like a little brat :pac: I looked up the Trinity website and surprisingly they do let people in without Chemistry :eek:

mardybumbum wrote: »

I would advise taking up the subject yourself. It can be covered fully in a year.

Well at the moment, I have a lot of work and doing a subject outside school would be too much for me imo. Would you recommend buying a chemistry book/revision book and just doing the subject on my own but without formal exams or anything?

A Neurotic

I can confirm that Trinity do accept people without Chemistry. [I'm in first year]

It's an issue that's been raised in our year - extra tutorials in "Essential Life Sciences" are given to students with no LC Biology, to allow them to catch up. But no such help is available to students with no LC Chemistry, who are arguably at more of a disadvantage than Biology-less students. As mardy said, Biochem is bewildering enough for those of us with Chemistry, and it's presumed that we all know Chemistry for most of the module...

Our class has raised the issue with the School of Medicine though, so hopefully they'll provide some help next year.

HQvhs

A Neurotic wrote: »

I can confirm that Trinity do accept people without Chemistry. [I'm in first year]

It's an issue that's been raised in our year - extra tutorials in "Essential Life Sciences" are given to students with no LC Biology, to allow them to catch up. But no such help is available to students with no LC Chemistry, who are arguably at more of a disadvantage than Biology-less students. As mardy said, Biochem is bewildering enough for those of us with Chemistry, and it's presumed that we all know Chemistry for most of the module...

Our class has raised the issue with the School of Medicine though, so hopefully they'll provide some help next year.

I agree witn A Neurotic. I would say Chemistry is probably the most essential of all the LC sciences. You will get by just fine without Biology or Physics.

chocfan

I did Physics and Chemistry for the LC and would agree with those above that you can get by just fine without Biology

I know that the one science you're not doing is Chemistry and you say that TCD accept people without this which is great.
I would still encourage you to think about doing it though as you're really limiting yourself to only getting the points for Trinity and outruling the others (assuming they all require Chemistry which I think they do, though I stand to be corrected)
It would be pretty frustrating to get the points for Medicine in other universities (on the off chance that you missed it in Trinity) but to not get offered a place because you hadn't matriculated in Chemistry

I'd also agree with those above that you'd find the first year or two pretty tough without a Chemistry LC

HQvhs

AFAIK most other colleges will take you without chemistry, although they will require you to do pre-med. I know this is the case with RCSI and UCD anyway. I find it strange that TCD will accept students without chemistry. It's really the only essential science for Medicine. You can pick up biology and physics as you go along I think. But you'd find it tough going with no knowledge of a lot of the concepts from chemistry. Such as how to read chemical equations, formulas, or if you didn't know about redox reactions etc.
Anyway, in response to the OP. If you don't want to do it as an LC subject, at the very least pick up a basic chemistry textbook and get a decent handle on the basics before you start college.

mardybumbum

--hughesy-- wrote: »

yeah sorry about the thread title. I'm sick and not exactly on the A-game today . Without wanting to sound like a little brat :pac: I looked up the Trinity website and surprisingly they do let people in without Chemistry :eek:

Apologies, I just assumed that was the case. My bad.
I'm very surprised that they would let someone with little or no knowledge of chemistry into first med.
Premed I can understand, but I imagine that students without LC chemistry find the biochem extremely difficult.

Well at the moment, I have a lot of work and doing a subject outside school would be too much for me imo. Would you recommend buying a chemistry book/revision book and just doing the subject on my own but without formal exams or anything?

If you have too much on your plate now then I would leave it until after the L.C. I would recommend the "Chemistry Live" text. Think its the text that pretty much all schools use.
You can leave out the parts that will be of no use to you at all in medicine.

--hughesy--

mardybumbum wrote: »

If you have too much on your plate now then I would leave it until after the L.C. I would recommend the "Chemistry Live" text. Think its the text that pretty much all schools use.
You can leave out the parts that will be of no use to you at all in medicine.

Thanks for the advice. I suppose if I want to go through with this career, I'd be willing to put in some extra work.:pac:

Susie-O-

I did chemistry for LC and did well, and I didn't find it helpful at all for biochem, so I don't think you'd be at a major disadvantage! Biology's definitely the most useful, physics is only really helpful if you're gonna do pre-med!

HQvhs

Susie-O- wrote: »

I did chemistry for LC and did well, and I didn't find it helpful at all for biochem, so I don't think you'd be at a major disadvantage! Biology's definitely the most useful, physics is only really helpful if you're gonna do pre-med!

I think it's really moreso that you're familiar with the concepts. The content is very different in comparison to LC chemistry. But if you didn't have an understanding of the concepts behind chemistry I think you'd get lost pretty quickly.

Physics may come in handy for a few things, but it's by no means necessary.

Biology may seem like the most useful on the face of it. But you will be going into so much more depth than the LC biology course that you'll soon find it fairly useless. In my year there were a few who didn't have biology and they were at absolutely no disadvantage compared to the rest after a few weeks.

Kwekubo

A Neurotic wrote: »

But no such help is available to students with no LC Chemistry, who are arguably at more of a disadvantage than Biology-less students. As mardy said, Biochem is bewildering enough for those of us with Chemistry, and it's presumed that we all know Chemistry for most of the module...

Really? When we were in first year in Trinity, non-compulsory chemistry crash-course tutorials were offered in the week before freshers week IIRC. I think they were open to anyone in a science course who hadn't done chem.

I'm in the same boat, sitting my leaving in June and aiming for TCD med (although I'd be happy with any college, just 5 years sounds nicer) but I have no Chemistry. I'm very worried that I won't be able to cope with biochem in 1st med without it. I heard about those chemistry crash courses too, and I've emailed TCD admissions office to enquire about it so I'll let you know what they say when they get back to me. If there is no help for us without Chemistry I might consider putting somewhere with premed before Trinity...

Prime Mover

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm in the same boat, sitting my leaving in June and aiming for TCD med (although I'd be happy with any college, just 5 years sounds nicer) but I have no Chemistry. I'm very worried that I won't be able to cope with biochem in 1st med without it. I heard about those chemistry crash courses too, and I've emailed TCD admissions office to enquire about it so I'll let you know what they say when they get back to me. If there is no help for us without Chemistry I might consider putting somewhere with premed before Trinity...

Relax, you will manage fine. The biggest mistake people make with biochem is getting bogged down in all the detail and organic chem reactions. Just start with the big picture and then work into the detail as you get comfortable with it. Also, buy a book like Lippencott which will give you a good overview and also the clinical relevance of what happens when certain steps are interrupted.

Getting a handle on certain topics like osmolarity and acid/base will make subjects like Renal a lot easier but you can do that once you are in course. Just focus on getting in for now.

OxfordComma

As far as I'm aware, you can get into Medicine in any college in Ireland, bar UCC, without having done LC Chemistry. However, if you want to skip Pre Med in NUIG, UCD or RCSI you'd have to have done it. I only did Chemistry for the LC, so I ended up doing Pre Med (just finished now).

To be honest, I'm quite surprised that TCD let people straight into the 5 year program without Chemistry. In fairness, you do need a working knowledge of it for Biochem, and I'd imagine it's helpful for things like Pharmacology and parts of Physiology too.

I just heard back from Trinity about support for those without LC Chemistry. They say from next year on support will be provided to help those without LC Chemistry or Biology (and Physics I assume).

Good news this!

Narkius Maximus

Deleted User wrote: »

I just heard back from Trinity about support for those without LC Chemistry. They say from next year on support will be provided to help those without LC Chemistry or Biology (and Physics I assume).

Good news this!

I hated physics in a big way in first year. I was pathetic at it, did not understand it, still don't. That said nailed biology, chemistry. I can safely say looking back I've never really needed to know about the inards of a locust, or how many teeth a dog has. Benzene rings, saponification? Not really used in my line of work.
Scalpel please!

Narkius Maximus

Narkius Maximus wrote: »

I hated physics in a big way in first year. I was pathetic at it, did not understand it, still don't. That said nailed biology, chemistry. I can safely say looking back I've never really needed to know about the inards of a locust, or how many teeth a dog has. Benzene rings, saponification? Not really used in my line of work.
Scalpel please!

I take Physics in school and I find it grand. Didn't take Chemistry because I wasn't planning on doing med when I picked my subjects, and I didn't want to do 3 sciences. I love Biology though, one of the reasons I decided to do med was finding all the human biology so interesting.

I'm quite glad to know I won't be completely lost with my lack of chemistry though!

Look_Me_Up

Deleted User wrote: »

I just heard back from Trinity about support for those without LC Chemistry. They say from next year on support will be provided to help those without LC Chemistry or Biology (and Physics I assume).

Good news this!

thank you for that it keeps a lot of things open!!
bit anti pre-med a.t.m!!

whadabouchasir

Look_Me_Up wrote: »

bit anti pre-med a.t.m!!

I was too when i was doing my LC then i ended up having to do it and i loved it!there's so little pressure it's great.You can go out 3 or 4 nights a week and skip lectures and it doesn't really make a difference.Of course this may not be for everyone,but each to their own.