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.

Marchesman no future which serves a purpose other than vaguely satisfying an even vaguer curiosity on the psychology of that sort of poster. There’s an almost heroic lack of logical thinking and willingness to engage with different ideas. Impressive in its own way.

I agree, it is very impressive; and I admire your commitment to the task in hand.

Ah the insults are back. Always the resort of some people who do not have the ability to debate. Weird how these insults are never backed up with any facts.

It makes you both happy to be rude so that says much more about you than me.

Weird how me not agreeing with you is a fixed mind set. But the other way round is just you being right 😂😂

Sorry, I have been reading the thread with interest but not posting because I'm neither a doctor nor work in widening participation, but could you clarify what this post means?

Because it reads as though you read your students submissions and correct mistakes for them so they can change their work? But surely this isn't what widening participation involves, as that is effectively cheating?

I don't think that's right... This year only 37.3% of A-level maths entrants were female.

www.wisecampaign.org.uk/a-level-results-2025

Psychology is the most popular A-level among girls.

I think mumsneedwine just decides which WP papers to request a review for from the exam board. Although I'm curious why this is done only for WP students and not all?

@Mumsneedwine the evening shift begins 🤔

Me too. That’s not the purpose or function of the review/ appeals process.

Thanks, that makes more sense!

I hope you don't mean me? I don't think I've posted on this thread before and I'm definitely not trying to criticise anyone. In fact I've found lots of useful advice from mumsneedwine on other threads

I quite agree with your essential point about science but I think you are underestimating your mathematical advantages.

I did pure maths and maths at O-level and then a maths A-level. The O-levels were distinguished largely by their heavy calculus content and lack of it. I sat the A-level at the end of lower sixth swapping to biology for upper sixth because I wanted to do maths and three sciences, and in my school, biology and maths clashed on the timetable.

None of my school maths included statistics, which like you I taught myself, at first so as to not appear a fool in journal clubs, and then for my own research. But mathematics at O-level was relatively advanced, and statistical methods were much less sophisticated then.

Despite being reasonably numerate, I found third year biochemistry very difficult because of the maths content. This was not uncommon and largely led to the replacement of preclinical courses in the medical sciences with PBL. This translated to a career advantage for traditionally taught medical graduates, and an inverse relationship between NSS scores and postgraduate performance.

GCSE now includes statistics and some syllabus also included calculus.

PBL has pretty much gone.

All exam papers are available to teachers on results day these days. We go through all the WP ones and then any near the grade boundary. Or if students ask. We then submit any we feel might have an error.
It's done like this because we can't check all 200 papers so do the ones that might get less parent support (you need to fill in a form to get this done otherwise). But anyone near a grade boundary will also be contacted if we feel it might be worth sending (but they have to pay unfortunately- but gets refunded if grade goes up).

Many schools do this.

@noodledog

@PurpleFairyLights could set your watch 😂. I've been spending my afternoon with lovely year 11s eating ice cream. And reviewing more scripts. Bit over it now 😂

They do not mean you 😊.

So what is the purpose, if not to spot errors ? There has been some shocking marking last few years (mainly because exam boards pay so badly teachers don't want to do it anymore so there are not enough qualified markers). I'd check them all if I could !

Every priority remark we sent in last week has come back a grade higher. We only send them if we think v strongly the marking is wrong as it's expensive. There are many that are borderline we don't send (but wish we could).
Its hard as mark schemes can be ambiguous but experienced teachers know what has been accepted previously so easier to argue the point.
If in doubt, ask your teachers to review as most schools will be doing that as we speak. They'll tell you if no chance.

Agree with poor quality marking. On one occasion our HT sent a pupil’s script to the Sec of State it was so shocking (Sec of State came back to us saying yes shocking).

What on earth time does your evening begin? This comment at 15.25 makes no sense. Especially when those you seem to have a personal issue with haven't commented since lunchtime.

My comment self evidently meant that the review/ appeals process is meant to correct errors for all pupils but is absolutely not intended to be a tool for 'levelling up'.

The problem is PBL requires a basic soid foundation of knowledge otherwise huge chunks get missed. the building blocks are currentty on quicksand and it is obvious when teaching those who have a solid grasp of the basics to fall back and rebuild their diagnoses from and those who are used to solving a finite problem.
Lateral thinking is missing and medicine is never linear

Science and non-science qualifications are equally valid requirements for medicine, and maths beyond GCSE is unhelpful;

As someone with arts and science A levels - you need a combo of both imo

Entrants to medicine are of equal standard;

utter codswallop

Medical degrees are of equal standard;

Defintiely not

Their content is unaffected by the preferences and aptitudes of students;

you are making me laugh

All medical graduates should have jobs and if they don't succeed it is the fault of consultants (or foreign graduates); no no no

@stuffedpeppers so what are you doing to change things, if you think some medical schools/graduates are sub standard ? Have you tried to effect change or just moaned about things ? It's not the students fault !
As has been seen from the PA debacle, consultants have a lot of power to make changes so why are you not all shouting loud and clear that some medical schools aren't good enough ?