Challenging HD. Content is not very enjoyable, most lectures are insufferable to study for or watch, making this my least favourite IMED unit. Lectures aren't particularly content-heavy, but a lot of the learning is conceptual rather than fact-based, unlike all other IMED units, making this one stand out like a sore thumb, requiring students to memorise multiple worded explanations to questions. Unit has 23 lectures (previously 24). This unit probably has the lowest workload of all IMED level 2 units. Due to the conceptual nature of the content, a lot of assessment questions are ambiguous, making it difficult to judge how you performed in the exam. Thankfully the SAQs throughout the semester are more definitive, and avoid the conceptual arbitrary sections of the course. The unit coordinator (Amber)'s lectures drone on sometimes, and are often quite boring, spared only by the fact that she covers most of the math-related units, which are mostly a breeze to get through and review. The workshops aren't particularly interesting, and in some cases like with the first workshop serve only to exist really as practice-question sessions. The last workshop is an advice session for the CAT assignment, which comes way too late in the semester, towards the point where a lot of people would have already started or finished their assignment. The CAT assignment involves researching a topic given to you and writing up a short review of the literature with reference to roughly 3 chosen studies. The topic we were given didn't have much available relevant research, meaning that students had to choose research which was less relevant to the clinical question, and thus studies with vastly differing outcomes were included, and thus a lot of students came to different conclusions. This was likely reflected, rather than accounted for, in the harsh marking of this assignment. Also, the provided exemplar CATs differed wildly in structure, making using them as a guide painful and almost pointless. Additionally, the marks for this assignment weren't released before the exam, which is unacceptable as always, but for some reason the marks for some students were released, but not for some others. Despite being in at least 5 lectures, the mathematical (statistics) components of this unit were barely assessed in the exam, raising the question of why this was even put in the unit in the first place. The exam wasn't particularly easy, again involving a lot of arbitrary "list reason" questions which are close to pointless, as you could kind of guess answers. In general, this unit has very little applicability to MD, so it's unfortunate that it hasn't been changed up to be more relevant - if anything, a couple lectures about critiquing research would be well enough to cover the importance of researching and staying up to date as a clinician. Not sure if there would be any units related to this one which would help doing beforehand, but likely not since although statistics units would be relevant, Amber seemingly forgot to weight the statistic lectures accordingly in the exam for how much of the course content they made up. A 2019 review seemed to indicate that the CAT results were released before the exam, indicating that Amber has fallen behind in recent years with the marking of the CATs. Hopefully in future, marks will be released on time, rather than not released at all. Not sure what the 2018 review is talking about with calculations being frustrating, they were easily the simplest part of the course even for the not mathematically-inclined.

This unit is incredibly boring, insufferable to study for and has too many unnecessary guest lectures. I will give credit that SOME of the lectures, whilst still boring, are relevant and seem important to research and aren’t just filler lectures

Very simple unit where we learn how to read medical literature, as well as appraise and analyse it. Nothing bad at all, but it can get a bit mundane at times, where it all starts to blend together. The lectures are not too heavy, and can easily be watched, though the quality depends on some lecturers, with some being excellent while others are less so. The assessments were not too bad; the MCQ tests were quite easy to do, the quizzes and workshops were also not hard if you paid attention. There was a research assessment part which was a bit hard, as we have to appraise and condense medical literature into a short summary. The things we were taught were highly applicable to the assessment, however, you should also deviate and use some common sense as well. The workload was the lowest of all the IMED units so far, and the exam was not too harsh.

Low-stress unit. You get an overview of medical research, focused on finding, evaluating and interpreting existing evidence to answer questions that might present in clinical practice. The content is pretty easy and the volume was low – only two lightly-loaded lectures per week, along with some workshops that help with skill-building. Tests and exams were equally simple: the MCQs were mainly recall, and the short answer in the exam had lot of questions but was fair. There is a “CAT” assignment asking you to write a one-page appraisal of relevant evidence to answer a research question, but the weighting is only 15%. If you put some time into it and use a bit of critical thinking in your analysis to go beyond just regurgitating results and limitations straight from the papers then you’ll do fine – the average was 75%. All-in-all a nice low workload.

Easiest med science unit ever. Pretty boring, but why we have to study it is understandable. The assignment was marked very harshly, so use Endnote so save yourself losing marks for dumb mistakes in referencing. If you want to score a high distinction, you will have to study a bit. If you want a credit/distinction, you can pretty much get away with doing nothing.

Significantly uninteresting but easy content to score a HD / D. Calculations & workshops can get frustrating towards the end of semester, but overall a highly manageable unit.

Very straightforward unit. Very easy to score high marks in the tests and workshops. Although the content is useful, the unit can be a little boring

Probably the easiest unit I have done so far. Easy 90s with minimal study.

very disorganized but only because it was run for the first time and the UC had some personal emergencies, so I think it will be more organized next time. tests and lectures were kinda easy - basically rote learn and basic maths skills. hardest part was the critical appraisal topic assignment (CAT)- be sure to read the exemplary reports online to understand what the graders are looking for and to guide your report 'angle'. tutorials were a joy since you get to work in groups and the tutors are very nice and helpful and tutorial marks were like a guaranteed 20% of the final grade. by far the easiest level 2 imed unit