The quality of teaching in SPP has been bought up multiple times by the student body in various discussions with the course coordinator and to the medical director. Essentially the anatomy has been fine.

However, in our opinion the physiology teaching has not met the learning objectives. This has been summarised in the study guide when initially we were expecting short answer questions and now there are only MCQs on the exam paper. This problem was highlighted and amended only a few weeks prior to examination. It was also noted that in a mock exam one of the answers was incorrect. Furthermore, multiple questions have been raised by members of the year group and answers to these question have had to sent as group emails. What we feel to be the hardest component of the course, the physiology aspect, lacks any tutorials and this seems poor allocation of resources.

The statistics component has been difficult to comprehend not only in the raw material but also in what we are meant to take from the lectures. The final lectorial was a good way for this to be taught and this is a method that should be incorporated for further years. More clarification is needed, closer attention to the learning objectives is essential so that lectures met their aims. The student body does not feel this is the case.

Finally to have three essay questions on ethics and phycho-social aspects of the course seems again to be an imbalance in the time spent in lectures/ tutorials to the weighting in the exam. We have had three lectures and a tutorial on psychosocial issues and the same with ethicsand this material is worth30/80 of the overall mark for the exam. Another issue regarding the exam is that there are no questions available to see the exam structure which we as a year feel to be unfair.

We urge you to look at the amount of signatures collected and take this into account with marks awarded, and to change the way the course is delivered, tested and structured for the following years cohort! Your Current first years