Thinking of studying neuroscience but aren’t sure what it involves? I spoke to Kay, a second-year neuroscience student at the University of Bristol, to help answer some key questions.
Why did you choose to study neuroscience?
I read all the course catalogues and programs and liked the sound of it. I wanted to do something quite niche. I found biology, chemistry and biomedical sciences too broad. Neuroscience appealed in that sense, I found behaviour very interesting, and learning about why we do what we do, but in a molecular biological sense rather than a psychological one.
How many contact hours do you have a week?
Normally 15-20. These are made up of lectures, labs and workshops. In second year, there are tutorials where you give presentations, but it depends on the module that you take.
What are labs like?
It depends on the module. The pharmacology labs are normally wet labs or simulations. You sit in a computer room and either watch a demonstration, run a simulation, or some you can do yourself on the computers.
In first year I had anatomy labs. I went to the dissection rooms and looked at things that had already been dissected.
What modules have you taken this year?
I’m doing Cellular and Molecular Pathology Techniques in Neuroscience and Pharmacology of the Nervous System. Last semester I did Skills for Life Sciences, Infection and Immunity and Neurophysiology.
Do you have modules with other departments?
They’re pretty much all with other departments. Techniques in Neuroscience is the only module I’ve had that’s just neuroscience students. But even then, that included people studying psychology and neuroscience as a dual honors as well as biomed people, and people from physiology and pharmacology.
How flexible is your course?
You can choose optional units. Out of the twelve units I’ve taken, I was able to pick three of them.
What kind of work you expected to do outside of contact hours?
I have coursework, essays and presentations. I’m making a poster at the minute. This also depends on the modules you’re doing. Last year I had pre and post labs as well. The post labs are compulsory, they’re like quizzes and form part of your grade. They’ve made them not compulsory this year, except for some out-of-school units.
There’s not a lot of compulsory reading but there’s suggested reading afterwards. Since we don’t have seminars, we don’t have to read something and be prepared to talk about it in a seminar environment.
This year I have something called PBL, which is done outside contact hours. In Problem Based Learning you’re given a scenario and must conduct research to work out how to solve it. It’s unsupervised and held in groups.
How are you assessed?
Every unit is assessed differently. I’ve only had one unit that was assessed 100% on one exam. Normally, it’s a combination of coursework and exam. For neurophysiology it was 30% essay, 70% exam.
For Life Sciences we had an exam, we had to write a short communication, an abstract, we had to make a poster, and we had to write a CV.
Describe a day in your life
I have lectures pretty much every day, and a lab every Thursday. Most of my stuff is in the mornings, which I quite like. I’d normally start between nine and ten. All the labs are scheduled for three hours, but they don’t always take that long. But since the timetable varies so much, every week looks different!
What are your plans after uni? (How) do you plan to use your degree?
I plan to use my degree – I like working in labs and researching. I’m currently doing some work experience, to make sure that’s what I want. I’d like to complete a masters and eventually a PhD.
What advice do you have for anyone considering neuroscience?
Consider whether there might be other avenues that you also want to explore, because you can do neuroscience in other degrees. Degrees like biomedical science, physiology, pharmacology give you the opportunity to study neuroscience within them.
For example, I really like microbiology, but most of my time is taken up with neuro stuff, because I study neuroscience. Consider whether that’s what you want, or if you would rather take a broader degree as a bachelor’s, and then maybe specialise later.
Find out more about what jobs you could get into with a science degree here.
