To think the BMA have misjudged with another doctor's strike? Thread 2

[Locutus2000]

Rolling this over as people still seem to have something to say but no new poll.

Original post

AIBU to think the BMA have misjudged with another doctor's strike?

Last year they got more than anyone else in the NHS along with an improved deal. Nurses and other AHPs received lower rises.

BMA have just announced another 'resident' doctor strike continuing to chase pay restoration to 2008 levels.

Having just had the major win with changes to IMG prioritisation and the clamp-down on PAs it feels a bit tone-deaf and I can't see Streeting going for it.

Oh and an A in PE or Art is not easy. You show your utter ignorance if you think they are easy. Art is the hardest A Level to get an A in. Further maths gets more.

They may not be easy. They're certainly irrelevant.

So is maths. No one needs anything more than GCSE level as a doctor

That's as wrong as your claim that UEA graduates do best at Royal College exams.

And I suppose The GMC do nothing about the worst medical schools because they don't care if gullible students get in to debt to pay for a poor quality medical education. The Royal College exams will weed out the worst ones later.

No one is saying to close Med Schools, we just need to bring them all up to the level required. We have some awesome young medics out there, but we now have more who aren’t quite as they should be too. Maybe that’s to do with entry requirements changing, I suspect so, but that’s just my opinion.
For good medics the unis need to be aiming high, both in entry requirements and the five year basic teaching program.

Oh my goodness this is so ignorant. The reason that subjects such as Further Maths, Latin, Greek etc get very high A star hit rates is precisely because only the very most able students opt for these subjects. The reason Art has a much lower A star hit rate is because a lot of not very gifted students opt for it. I am utterly astonished that you as a teacher don't understand this most basic of facts in relation to high grades mumsneedwine. It's genuinely shocking.

Are there any statistics to back up your opinion that Maths above GCSE level is needed? Would be interested in actual evidence, rather than anecdote, to show the correlation between Maths ability (above GCSE level) and how the Royal College exams uses it, as you say, to 'weed out the worst ones later?'

TBF I am a former Russell Group STEM admissions tutor and art A level is actually quite demanding. It requires a good, slightly different mix of higher level skills.

I have it on good authority that able pupils are often advised against it because it is so time consuming.

I would not argue with the idea that some A levels are less demanding but I don’t think Art is one of them.

I think the point probably is not that art is less demanding (although I suspect it is) but that is not actually useful to someone hoping to be a doctor. Be honest, would you rather be treated by someone with A stars in three sciences or two sciences and maths, or someone with 2 A's in relevant subjects and an art A level?

@mumsneedwine looks like we have another collection of posters hunting in packs. Just like the last threads.

People are allowed to disagree with you purple fairy lights. And when such a lot of what is said by YOUR pack is rubbish you'll find a lot of people will disagree.

Your "pack" are very transparent. Very few people agree with you but when very similar posters pile on a thread it looks very suspicious. It also puts normal posters off threads which I suspect does not cause upset.

Love the intellectual snobbery and looking down on people that I suspect are much better qualified than every member of your "pack".

Whether a teen completed three sciences, two sciences and maths or two sciences plus art, they would still have to get through five years of medical school. I doubt anyone in real life actually gives a toss what the third A level choice was, as long as they met the entry requirements for medicine and successfully completed the course.

Well hardly anyone ever fails the course, and the entry requirements for some medical schools are 3 A's. I think about 25% of pupils get that. Hardly the brightest and best.

And prior attainment predicts success in postgraduate examinations and career progression . If you can't perform to a high standard at A level you won't perform to a high standard in postgraduate exams. And you have to pass those (difficult and set nationally) to progress in a medical career. So yes, people certainly should give a toss.

I don’t think it matters. What the person has done since is much more important

Agreed

You say 'hardly anyone ever fails the course.' What statistics or evidence are you relying on to make such a claim with so much confidence? Can you elaborate?

Seconded the request for stats.

Art A level is certainly demanding in terms of time but it's one of those A levels where the gifted will certainly achieve an A star but many not especially able students will take it and manage a B or a C. By stark contrast there's no room for not especially able students to contemplate Further Maths, Latin, Greek etc. Politics and Psychology are similar to Art in that respect. This is something all teachers should be aware of. The fact that mumsneedwine ranks the difficulty of A levels according to the number of A stars achieved is incredibly revealing as to why she seems incapable of interpreting data and statistics and has had to be corrected so often by so many better informed people across all these threads.

PurpleFairyLights you're the sort of poster whose posts don't merit any sort of response.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I disagree to a point on this....

A lot of the research stats that you need to be able to do if you're involved in research, or understand if you just read it are beyond GCSE (at least the level I studied in 1996).

I think maths and computing will become hugely more relevant innthe near future as well.

I agree. The maths course at DDs medical school was quite tough. Two of them had strong maths A levels, and ended up acting as tutors for the rest of the group. They all got over the hurdle but it was hard work.

My own view is that strong maths and chemistry demonstrate the ability to understand concepts. Increasingly I assume it will be important to be able to understand the technology behind engineering and chemical processes. AI will increasingly do much of the rest.

Stats is quite a big part of new GCSE maths. Not sure why you'd need A level standard for much as there are referencing tools that easily do the analysts for you. Many humanities Uni students do lots of research without maths.