Years 4-6 (Clinical Medicine)
Unlike in the past, all pre-clinical students who pass the 2nd MB are entitled to a place in the Clinical School.
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The Clinical School is a big change from the pre-clinical course. You start doing proper medicine, spending your time on wards and talking to patients. It can be a bit of a culture shock as you're talking with people all day instead of studying in the library but it's why most of us wanted to do Medicine in the first place!
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It is also great as it offers a great chance to get to know all the people you've sat with in lecture theatres for three years and you'll be working alongside them in the hospitals. Plus, you can get involved in lots of specialist clinical school societies, or more importantly, the pantomime!
THE CURRICULUM
Year 4 begins with a 2-week introductory course. Before Christmas, you'll also do two blocks of CCM (Core Clinical Method), one in Addenbrooke's and one in your district hospital. After Christmas, you'll rotate through four blocks - SSC (Student Selected Component), Surgery (6 weeks), Medicine (6 weeks), and Acute Medicine. The SSC allows you to choose a specialty you're interested in and compete a research project. There are also R&I (Review & Integration) weeks thrown in which consist of lectures and seminars. At the end of Year 4, you have two exams - 1 OSCE and 1 SBA.
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Year 5 is generally a bit more specialist. There are four 6-week blocks, each with a 2-week GP placement attached: Maternal & Child Health, Psychiatry & Neurology, Specialist Medicine, and Specialist Surgery. There are also a few weeks of subjects like infectious disease and oncology here and there, as well as a few more R&I weeks.
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Between Years 5 and 6 you will complete an elective. More information on this can be found below.
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Year 6 is very similar to Year 4 and is designed to prepare you for actually being a doctor. The content is very similar to Year 4 but you are expected to know a bit more.
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You can find the official curriculum here.
Electives
Year 5/6 Summer
Your elective is a chance to go anywhere and do anything, as long as it is Medicine-related. It allows you to explore areas Medicine which particularly interest you and experience different healthcare systems around the world. In Cambridge, electives happen in the summer between Years 5 and 6, and are 6 weeks long (plus 2 weeks holiday usually). They often need to be organised long in advance (9-18 months) so it is worth thinking ahead about what you might like to do.
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The Electives Network is a useful website to help you get started planning your elective.
It can be accessed here.
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Each year, the SSMVS President organises an electives evening where Year 6 Sidney students come in and tell the other medics about what they got up to on their elective. This can be really helpful for working out what you would like to do for yours. Many of the clinical societies also give elective talks - be sure to keep an eye out for these too!