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Example of 1st Year MBBS Timetable?

Hi all,
Just wondering what the timetable is like for Monash med students in their first year? I live in Werribee, and would like to know if it is flexible at all, as travelling 3+ hours a day on public transport would be tough to do with the commitments I already have (playing football, tutoring etc.) if I have to leave uni at 5pm every day. I know it's high contact hours and don't really mind that, but if it was possible to get them all done morning/early afternoon rather than spread out throughout the day.

Thanks!
 

Oer

Regular Member
Hi all,
Just wondering what the timetable is like for Monash med students in their first year? I live in Werribee, and would like to know if it is flexible at all, as travelling 3+ hours a day on public transport would be tough to do with the commitments I already have (playing football, tutoring etc.) if I have to leave uni at 5pm every day. I know it's high contact hours and don't really mind that, but if it was possible to get them all done morning/early afternoon rather than spread out throughout the day.

Thanks!

Hey, sorry but I'm not from Monash, but since you've not got any replies I'll chime in. (I'm at UNSW, and don't know much about Monash's timetable, but we cam probably assume that they're fairly similar.)
Medicine timetables are notoriously inflexible/impractical, though the hours aren't that high (usually just over 20/wk). But the general answer is that no, you won't be able to change your timetable to suit you, and it'll likely be spread throughout the day.

That being said however, I do 3+ hours of travel every day as well, and I have quite a few extracurriculars (running uni societies, music, church etc.). Just wanted to let you know that it's definitely possible to do that and be able to study and do well in medicine, especoaloy if we're talking about the early years. It's not exactly the most ideal situation, but I find it very worth it.

All the best, and maybe someone from Monash could chime in. :)
 
Hi! I can tell you what the Monash timetable is :)
Yeah I'm sorry to have to tell you that flexible, medicine is not. You can't choose your timetable :( You have to be at 80% of the tutorials or you actually fail the year, and pretty much everyone goes to all of them so that if you really have to skip one at some point you can. Lectures you can skip and watch later so long as you're good at going back and watching them (I never do), also keep in mind that sometimes the recordings fail and you're stuck begging a friend to teach you the content.

For first semester, which I've just finished, there is 24.5 contact hours per week on an average week (sometimes there's one extra lecture)
Lectures are one hour long, tutorials are 2 hours, practicals are 2 hours and PBL is 3.5 hours
Lectures you can skip, practicals they don't take attendance (so you can skip but you can't catch up), but tutorials and PBL are compulsory
Monday - lecture at 10, 11 and 1, PBL starts at 2 (5.30 finish)
Tuesday - lecture at 10, 11 and 1, and then a tutorial which half of the cohort has from 2-4, the other half from 4-6
Wednesday - NOTHING YES BEST DAY OF THE WEEK - to the pub!
Thursday - worst day of the week - lectures at 8, 9, 11, tutorial and practical at 1 and 3 - I live on campus, it takes me 10 minutes to walk to class and I have skipped more 8am lectures than I care to admit. And the 9am. And 11am. Thursdays are not a good day (see Wednesday pub comment).
Friday - Tutorials at 9 and 11, Lectures at 3 and 4 (the extra lecture I mentioned that they put in sometimes is at 2)

So basically if it really takes you ages to get to uni and you want to be there as little as possible you could come for 2-5.30 on Monday, 2 hours in the afternoon on Tuesday, four hours in the afternoon on Thursday and 4 hours in the morning on Friday. Unfortunately I would assume that getting home in time for your other commitments would be hard as all four days with contact hours finish at or after 5 - except Friday is lectures I guess.

Second semester changes - we lose our Wednesday :( but we also get to start cadavers
They seem to have set it so that the majority of hours are in the afternoons which probably doesn't work for you :(
Monday and Friday have three hours of lectures with a one hour break - Monday finish 5, Friday finish 3
Tuesday is four hours of tutorial/prac from one to five (I think they take attendance on these pracs)
Wednesday is PBL from 1.30 to 5 - to the pub to recover from that
Thursday THEY STILL HAVE 8AM LECTURES WHYY - its pretty much exactly the same as first semester
So for second semester you could only come to uni three days a week because Monday and Friday are totally lectures

My brain is telling me that PBL stands for practice based learning but if I'm wrong that could be embarrassing - anyway its a small group thing where you get given a condition and you have to do research on what it is, the causes, the incidence and how to treat it etc etc boring as all hell as a general rule.

Now I would really recommend that you come to the lectures if at all possible but I guess it depends on how you study best and convenience, I do know people on campus who don't go to lectures at all and then watch them later because that's what works for them, and if you can't get to uni then you'll just have to watch them.

Also the timetable I've just told you shouldn't change for next year unless something drastic like a new degree wanting to use the lecture theatre happens.

Hope that helps! If you need any clarification just ask.
 
The second years apparently have dissection at 8.30 on Thursday so next year, not only am I going to have to actually go to Thursday morning uni but I'm going to have to cut up humans hungover. Lovely.
And you'll have to get up at some ungodly hour to get there on time......3 hours really??
I would advise making an on campus friend who will let you stay over ;)
 

Oer

Regular Member
Hi! I can tell you what the Monash timetable is :)
Yeah I'm sorry to have to tell you that flexible, medicine is not. You can't choose your timetable :( You have to be at 80% of the tutorials or you actually fail the year, and pretty much everyone goes to all of them so that if you really have to skip one at some point you can. Lectures you can skip and watch later so long as you're good at going back and watching them (I never do), also keep in mind that sometimes the recordings fail and you're stuck begging a friend to teach you the content.

For first semester, which I've just finished, there is 24.5 contact hours per week on an average week (sometimes there's one extra lecture)
Lectures are one hour long, tutorials are 2 hours, practicals are 2 hours and PBL is 3.5 hours
Lectures you can skip, practicals they don't take attendance (so you can skip but you can't catch up), but tutorials and PBL are compulsory
Monday - lecture at 10, 11 and 1, PBL starts at 2 (5.30 finish)
Tuesday - lecture at 10, 11 and 1, and then a tutorial which half of the cohort has from 2-4, the other half from 4-6
Wednesday - NOTHING YES BEST DAY OF THE WEEK - to the pub!
Thursday - worst day of the week - lectures at 8, 9, 11, tutorial and practical at 1 and 3 - I live on campus, it takes me 10 minutes to walk to class and I have skipped more 8am lectures than I care to admit. And the 9am. And 11am. Thursdays are not a good day (see Wednesday pub comment).
Friday - Tutorials at 9 and 11, Lectures at 3 and 4 (the extra lecture I mentioned that they put in sometimes is at 2)

So basically if it really takes you ages to get to uni and you want to be there as little as possible you could come for 2-5.30 on Monday, 2 hours in the afternoon on Tuesday, four hours in the afternoon on Thursday and 4 hours in the morning on Friday. Unfortunately I would assume that getting home in time for your other commitments would be hard as all four days with contact hours finish at or after 5 - except Friday is lectures I guess.

Second semester changes - we lose our Wednesday :( but we also get to start cadavers
They seem to have set it so that the majority of hours are in the afternoons which probably doesn't work for you :(
Monday and Friday have three hours of lectures with a one hour break - Monday finish 5, Friday finish 3
Tuesday is four hours of tutorial/prac from one to five (I think they take attendance on these pracs)
Wednesday is PBL from 1.30 to 5 - to the pub to recover from that
Thursday THEY STILL HAVE 8AM LECTURES WHYY - its pretty much exactly the same as first semester
So for second semester you could only come to uni three days a week because Monday and Friday are totally lectures

My brain is telling me that PBL stands for practice based learning but if I'm wrong that could be embarrassing - anyway its a small group thing where you get given a condition and you have to do research on what it is, the causes, the incidence and how to treat it etc etc boring as all hell as a general rule.

Now I would really recommend that you come to the lectures if at all possible but I guess it depends on how you study best and convenience, I do know people on campus who don't go to lectures at all and then watch them later because that's what works for them, and if you can't get to uni then you'll just have to watch them.

Also the timetable I've just told you shouldn't change for next year unless something drastic like a new degree wanting to use the lecture theatre happens.

Hope that helps! If you need any clarification just ask.

The second years apparently have dissection at 8.30 on Thursday so next year, not only am I going to have to actually go to Thursday morning uni but I'm going to have to cut up humans hungover. Lovely.
And you'll have to get up at some ungodly hour to get there on time......3 hours really??
I would advise making an on campus friend who will let you stay over ;)

YAYYYYY A MONASH PERSON HELPED OUT

I live 1.5 hours-2 away from uni and I usually arrive at uni at 8:15 am around 4 days a week
It's about as fun as it sounds.

(Though that means it's doable if you're a morning person like me)

Btw PBL stands for problem based learning (I know from I visited UWS one time hehe - UNSW does scenario-based learning, which is a little different but in the same vein)
Cadaver stuff is great, hopefully you'll enjoy it

Seems like our timetables have similar-ish content but a different layout, interesting
 
YAYYYYY A MONASH PERSON HELPED OUT

I live 1.5 hours-2 away from uni and I usually arrive at uni at 8:15 am around 4 days a week
It's about as fun as it sounds.

(Though that means it's doable if you're a morning person like me)

Btw PBL stands for problem based learning (I know from I visited UWS one time hehe - UNSW does scenario-based learning, which is a little different but in the same vein)
Cadaver stuff is great, hopefully you'll enjoy it

Seems like our timetables have similar-ish content but a different layout, interesting

I stand embarrassed as I predicted on the topic of PBL :p

You may have gotten the (correct) impression that I am not a morning person, so travelling 2 hours to uni sounds like my very own brand of hell. I feel for you. Deeply.

Yeah I am actually keen to start cadavers, it should be really interesting.

What's the different layout? I must say I'm not too excited for the semester 2 afternoon starts - guaranteed I'll sleep all morning every day, get up for uni and then not have any time after to study. Morning people will be fine but I seriously cannot get up in the morning to study before class. I need to figure some sort of coping strategy. Does your stuff always start in the morning?
 

chinaski

Regular Member
Morning people will be fine but I seriously cannot get up in the morning to study before class. I need to figure some sort of coping strategy. Does your stuff always start in the morning?

Life starts in the morning - uni is a short period of time in the bigger context of things. Perhaps worth just sucking it up and learning to get up and be productive at a reasonable hour - it's the beginning of a long career...
 
If I have to be somewhere in the morning I'm fine, I get up and go. So actually I would prefer if everything started in the morning. Its just the getting up to study - not to go somewhere that I have issues with.
 

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Oer

Regular Member
I stand embarrassed as I predicted on the topic of PBL :p

You may have gotten the (correct) impression that I am not a morning person, so travelling 2 hours to uni sounds like my very own brand of hell. I feel for you. Deeply.

Yeah I am actually keen to start cadavers, it should be really interesting.

What's the different layout? I must say I'm not too excited for the semester 2 afternoon starts - guaranteed I'll sleep all morning every day, get up for uni and then not have any time after to study. Morning people will be fine but I seriously cannot get up in the morning to study before class. I need to figure some sort of coping strategy. Does your stuff always start in the morning?

You learn to live with it. It's funny because in my own experience the people who travel tend to have more energy and are more likely to go to class than the people who live on campus hehe.

Yeah, usually lectures go from 9-11 every morning (except Fridays, which usually don't have lectures). Very occasionally there'll be a third lecture on a day, so it'll go 8-11 or 9-12. They all go up online afterwards so a lot of people don't go (I always go unless lectures are the only thing I have that day - not worth it for me to travel 3 hours to attend 2 hours of lectures that I could watch online).

Then during the rest of the day you either have practicals (2 hours, 2-3 times a week) or Scenario Group (2 hours, 2 times a week). Then different weeks alternate between have an on-campus clinical skills session (2-3 hours, once a week) or a hospital session (2 hours, once a week). Fairly occasionally there'll be one-hour tutorials slipped in there. So a day can be anything from a full 9-5 or be completely empty. And layout is very different to yours.

But yeah the timetable is different every week so wotevz. Some days/weeks are better than others.
Also this obviously only applies to first 2 years of the degree.

For your late starts, perhaps set an alarm at the same time as a morning start. It won't force you to study but it will prevent your sleep schedule from going too wacky.
 

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