My experience as a Biomedical Science student

What's it like to study Biomedical Science at ARU? First-year student Simran shares her experience of her degree course so far.

Starting a course at university can be daunting, as you don’t know what to expect and what is involved. In this blog post, I’ll tell you about my experience studying Biomedical Science and hopefully ease any concerns you may have.

The course is a challenge – but getting a degree isn’t meant to be easy! However, it is extremely interesting and a very broad subject – you cover a wide range of modules and topics, allowing you to identify which aspect of biomedical science you enjoy the most.

Support

Support from the University is amazing. Adjusting to the university course structure can be difficult, especially as it is so different to school and college. But lecturers always go above and beyond to ease any concerns or answer any questions you may have, through emails or in person. They also hold drop-in sessions for major coursework to give you advice and guidance, helping you to reach your full potential.

Your Personal Development Tutor (PDT) is extremely useful too – they are like your uni parent, always there to guide you in the right direction and only an email away.

Learning methods

The course is made up of lectures, labs and group tutorials. Lectures can be overwhelming, but I use the time to really understand the content as well as annotate lecture slides with any useful information given by the lecturer. I then go away and watch the recorded lecture, going over any bits I may have missed, as well as using textbooks to further expand my knowledge.

Lecturers usually provide quizzes, which are great to solidify your understanding, but also extremely valuable as past papers aren’t as widely available as they are for school and college – every lecturer has a different style of questions!

My favourite style of coursework so far has been the Live Brief in general microbiology. A biomedical science company joined our lecture and gave us a brief for a real-life scenario, and we then wrote an essay for a creative solution to help the company. It was great to see how biomedical science is used in the real world.

Labs are usually once a week and are the most amazing part of the course! You get to dissect things from rats to lungs as well as carry out interesting practicals. I like the fact that the course has a practical element as well has a theoretical element, as you get to put what you’ve learnt in lectures to practice, which helps you understand the topic more.

Work-life balance

Balancing studying with a social life and work can be difficult. The majority of the time, I combine the two by having a study day with my friends, or getting together the night before an exam (would not advise!). This helps as we motivate and help each other out.

I am part of the Squash Society; this allows me to take time away from studying as well as socialise and keep fit. It’s important to find something you enjoy, to destress and occupy your free time!

In terms of working, ARU Temps offer amazing temp jobs which you can fit around uni, as well as earn some extra money.

I hope this helps with what to expect from being a Biomedical Science student!

Simran studies Biomedical Science at ARU in Cambridge. You can find out more about this, and other courses we offer, at an Open Day.