Theodora Goodwin, 26, is a fifth year medical student at the University of Nottingham. She tells us how she chose her course…
My original thought was to be an author. Then I discovered I was quite good at science,

did well in my GCSEs and thought I?d look at medicine. Once I?d done some work experience, I couldn?t think about studying anything else.
I knew people who had done medicine at Nottingham and had heard very positive things about the course ? one of the big things here is dissection. Another thing that drew me is that the hospital is really close to the university so you don?t feel segregated ? you?re part of university life like everyone else.
I also really like the way the course is structured. Rather than offering problem-based learning, the course is systems-based, providing more of a building-block approach which is less abstract ? this really appealed to me. The first and second years are lecture-based. In your third year, when you get to the hospital and are confronted with patients, everything ties together. You realise that you have the learning and are now able to put it into practice. Another really good feature is that in the third year we complete a unique intercalated BMedSci ? a supervised research project ? and it?s a really good extra degree to have.
In fourth year, we went into our clinical placements and in our fifth year we have a GP placement, visiting a surgery about five times a year. I?m doing ?obs and gynae? (obstetrics and gyn...