Honour School of Medical Sciences

Differences from 2017/18 to 2020/21

A

  • 1. The subject of the Honour School of Medical Sciences shall be the sciences basic to medicine.

  • 2. No candidate shall be admitted for examination in this school unless they have passed Part I of the First Examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine.

  • 3. The examination in this school shall be under the supervision of the Medical Sciences Board, which shall prescribe the necessary regulations.

  • 4. Candidates may be examined by such of the Public Examiners in the Honour School of Experimental Psychology as may be required.

  • 5. Candidates may offerbe themselves for examinationexamined in one or more Supplementary Subjects. The Supplementary Subjects available in any year will be notified to students annually during Trinity Term. AAccount shall be taken of a candidate's results in any such subject shall be published, and account shall be taken of those results in the productioncandidate's ofoverall the class listclassification. Candidates awarded a pass in a Supplementary Subject examination may not retake the same Supplementary Subject examination.

B

  • 1. The list of options of the school shall be published byto the Faculty of Physiological Sciences Undergraduate Studies Officestudents not later than noon on Friday of Week 6 of Hilary Term inof the second year preceding that in which the examination is due to be taken.

    Each option shall be divided into themes. The list of themes shall be published no later than Week 0 of Trinity Term inof the academicsecond year preceding that in which the examination is due to be taken. Most themes will be specific to a single option, but some may be shared. The total number of themes comprising each option shall be 4. Each candidate will be expected to have studied 8 themes in total in order to address the synoptic questions of Paper 2, and to have prepared sufficient of those themes in depth to be able to address the requirements of Paper 1 (see paras 2, 3, and 5 below).

    2. The following written papers shall be set:

    • Paper 1 One paper consisting of questions from all the options

    • Paper 2 One paper consisting of synoptic questions

    • Paper 3 Critical reading, data analysis and experimental design

    Paper 1 shall be of three hours duration and shall contain a choice of questions addressing in-depth knowledge and understanding within individual specified themes of each option. Paper 1 will require candidates to answer three questions on three different themes, includingwhich onemust themebe picked from at least two different options.

  • Paper 2 shall be of three hours duration and questions will not be specific to any option.  Each question will require a synoptic approach. Candidates shall be required to answer any two questions from this paper.

    Paper 3 shall be of three hours duration and shall have questions relating to pieces of primary literature.

  • 3. In Eachaddition candidateto must offer threethe written papers:

    • Paper 1 for at least two options, Paper 2, and Paper 3.

    • In addition, each candidate must both:

      • (i) undertake and be examined in a research project

        and

      • (ii) submit an Essay.

      • If, in any part of the examination, a candidate presents essentially the same information on more than one occasion, then credit will be given in only the first instance.

    • 4. Research Project

      • (i) Form, subject and approval of the project

      • Candidates must undertake project work under the supervision of a person approved on behalf of the Pre-clinical Medicine Steering Committee. 

      • The project shall consist of original experiments and/or data analysis carried out by the candidate alone or in collaboration with others (where such collaboration is, for instance, needed to produce results in the time available).

        EachApplications projectfor shall be supervised, and the topic and supervisor shall be approved on behalfapproval of the Medical Sciences Board by the Director of Pre-clinical Studies or their deputy. A list of approvedresearch project titles and their supervisors shall be published no later than Friday of Week 1 of Hilary Term in the academic year preceding the examination, and allocation of these projects to candidates shall be carried out through the Faculty of Physiological Sciences Undergraduate Studies Office.

        As an alternative to the allocation process, a candidate may apply to undertake a project that is not on the approved list. Such application must be made noaccording laterto thanthe Fridayinstructions ofand Weekby 8the ofdeadlines Hilarygiven Termon the Virtual Learning Environment. Candidates who have not applied for approval by the specified deadline or who have submitted a Research Project which did not receive approval may be subject to an academic penalty, as set out in the academicexamination year preceding the examination. The candidate must submit the title of their proposed research project, provide a brief outline of the subject matter and supply details of supervision arrangements. The decision on the application shall be made by the Director of Pre-clinical Studies or their deputy and shall be communicated to the candidate as soon as possible, and work should not start on the project until approval has been given. Candidates should allow at least one week for the process of approval, and should bear in mind that an application may be referred for clarification or may be refusedconventions.

      • (ii) Application to change title of project

        If required, candidates may apply to change the title of their project through the Faculty of Physiological Sciences Undergraduate Studies Office on one occasion and no later than noon on Friday of Week 4 of Hilary Term in the academicthird year in which they intend taking the examination.

      • (iii) Examination

        Candidates shall submit a brief Project Report according to guidelines that will be published by the Medical Sciences Board.

        Each candidate shall make a brief oral presentation of their project to a group of two examiners (or examiners and assessors appointed to ensure an adequate representation of expertise), after which, the candidate shall be examined viva voce on the project. A third examiner (usually the Chair) may also be present. The form of the presentation to the examiners shall be specified in guidelines published by the Medical Sciences Board.

      • (iv) Submission and assessment of the Project Report

        Project Reports must be submitted via WebLearn (accordinguploaded to the instructionsUniversity setapproved outonline insubmission the letter to candidates from the Chair of Examiners)system, not later than noon on the Friday of Week 8 of the Hilary Term in which the candidate intends to take the examination. Each Report shall be accompanied by a certificate of authorship indicating that the Research Project is the candidate's own work. Where work has been produced in collaboration, the certificate shall indicate the extent of the candidate’sthird own contribution.

        The examiners shall obtain and consider a written report from each supervisor indicating the extent of the input made by the candidate to the outcome of the project and also any unforeseen difficulties associated with the project (e.g. unexpected technical issues or problems in the availability of materials, equipment, or literature or other published data)year.

        In exceptional cases, where through unforeseen circumstances a research project produces no useable results (i.e. not even negative or ambiguous results), the candidate may apply through their college to the Director of Pre-clinical Studies or theira deputy for permission to submit a concise review of the scientific context and the aims of the work that was attempted, in place of the normal Project Report. Such an application must be accompanied by supporting evidence from the supervisor of the project. The concise review to be submitted in such circumstances should be comparable in length to the Report of a successful research project, will be presented orally to the examiners and will be examined viva voce in the usual way for a research project. The examiners will be advised that substantive results could not be produced.

        Project Reports previously submitted for the Honour School of Medical Sciences may be resubmitted. No Project Report will be accepted if it has already been submitted, wholly or substantially, for another Honour School or degree of this University, or for a degree of any other institution.

      • (iv) Oral assessment of project-based written work 
      •  
      • Each candidate shall make a brief oral presentation of their project to a group of two examiners (or examiners and assessors appointed to ensure an adequate representation of expertise) and shall be expected to answer questions on the project. 
    • 5. The Submitted Essay

      • (i) Form and subject of the essay

        TheInformation on the content, length and format of the Submitted Essay shall be according to guidelines that will be published byon the MedicalVirtual SciencesLearning BoardEnvironment.

        The subject matter of a candidate's essay shall be within the scope of the school. The essay may relate to any of the themes taught in the options of the school.

        A list of essay titles registered by students in previous academic years will be made available by Week 5 of the Trinity Term of the academic year preceding that of the examination, to assist candidates in the choice of topic or general field for the essay.

      • (ii) Registration

        No later than noon on Friday of Week 8 of Michaelmas Term in the academic year of the examination, everyEvery candidate must register their essay via the means specified by the Facultydeadline ofand Physiologicalaccording Sciencesto Undergraduatethe Studies Office. A decisioninstructions on the applicationVirtual shallLearning be made by the Director of Pre-clinical Studies or their deputy and shall be communicated to the candidateEnvironment.

      • (iii) Application to change title of essay

      • If required, candidates may apply to change the title of their essay through the Faculty of Physiological Sciences Undergraduate Studies Office on one occasion and no later than noon on Friday of Week 8 of Hilary term in the academicthird year in which they intend taking the examination.

      • (iv) Authorship

        The essay must be the candidate's own work. Candidates' tutors, or their deputies nominated to act as advisors, may discuss with candidates the proposed field of study, the sources available, and the method of treatment, but on no account may they read or comment on any written draft. Every candidate shall submit a certificate to the effect that this rule has been observed and that the essay is their own work; and the candidate's tutor or adviser may be asked to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge and belief, this is so.

      • (v) Submission

      • Essays must be submitteduploaded via WebLearn (according to the instructionsUniversity setapproved outonline inassessment the letter to candidates from the Chair of Examiners)platform, not later than noon on the Friday of Week 0 of the Trinity Term in whichof the candidatethird intends to take the examination. Each essay shall be accompanied by a certificate of authorship as specified in the preceding paragraphyear.

    • 6. Should any one option of the school be oversubscribed and the supply of suitable teaching in that option is unable to meet the demand, then the Medical Sciences Board may impose a limit on the number of candidates that may attend Faculty-organised tutorial teaching for that option. Such regulation of numbers may be achieved by the allocation of places in the option to specified students provided that these allocations are published by Monday of Week 5 of Trinity Term of the academic year preceding that in which the candidates are to sit the examination.

    • 7. Candidates may be examined viva voce, the topics may include the subject of any written paper taken by the candidate, or the research project or Submitted Essay.

    • 8. The weighting of marks for the five components required of each candidate shall be 25 per cent for the Research Project, 20 per cent for each of Papers 1, 2, and 3 and 15 per cent for the Submitted Essay.