Biomedical sciences

  • Biomedical sciences is a fantastic course and no I am not just saying that because doing it for two years has made me berserk. What’s good about it is that strangely enough you don’t have to study Biology at A-level before you come to uni which was the case for me, having parted ways with biology after my GCSE’s swearing I would never do anything science related for my degree it is quite funny how three years on I was doing a course which had 99% biology in it. But be in no illusions my first year was one the most stressful times of my life as everything i was learning was all new to me where as others had studied it before, I had to spend time going over A-level biology books just so I could understand some of what my lecturers were telling me. I would say it wasn’t till exam period that I was confident I was going to do well. So the take home message is just be patient with it.  The best thing about the course is that after the first year the sky is your limit in terms of what you can study, where as some of the other life science course have core modules, biomed students don’t so you can fashion your degree to play to your strengths.

    About the actual course, all life science students have pretty much the same first year with slight deviations. You have modules in biochemistry, Chemistry, genetics, Anatomy, physiology and pharmacology. There is also a clash with the Chemistry for Biologist lecturer and jummah prayer, however what you will find is that most of these lectures you can study in your spare time also there is plenty of support that the brothers can offer you just don’t miss jummah. Also those who are adamant they want to go the lecture Drummand street mosque have two jumaat’s one at 12:30 which is before the lecturer starts. People say that after each lecture you should spend about a hour going over that lecture which is excellent advice, although in reality the vast majority of people don’t.

    Ok now more about the interesting stuff, I remember my first day at uni like it was yesterday… although coming to university was a bit of a culture shock as living in Ilford I was only really exposed to other Asians and my 6th form consisted of 99% Asians and going to my 6th form you tend to forget that Asians are still a ethic minority in this country. So I was really quite buzzing inside wanting to try and speak to as many different types of people as I could find, however the reality was being a non-talkative and shy person I did find it very difficult to just go up to some of my class mates just to say hi my name is… especially as they all seemed to know each other. After the ouus and aahhh’s of walking around UCL getting used to my new home for the next 3 years, my thoughts quickly sprang to the Islamic society (isoc) and more importantly Salah (prayer). Having it only been a few months that I started to “practice” islam at the time. I was very keen to try and find the ISoc brothers and secure that very first Muslim friend and not long was it that I met him, and after finding out that he too was studying biomed and prayed and done all the things which i understood what a good muslim should do… and soon after he was really really clever!!, I felt satisfied and fortunate to find such a good friend.

    It took me two days, but after searching for a place to pray I finally found my beloved HUT 34, which was a relief as I never had to dash to Goodge street mosque between lectures to pray. It wasn’t soon after that i was at the brother fresher’s ice breaker, which was excellent! and I guess a memorable occasion for two reasons but i will only mention one at the start we were put into a circle and asked our names, what subject we studied and our favourite companion of the prophet. There was also a non-muslim who was with us at the time and because he didn’t understand that favourite companion meant our favourite companion of the prophet(may Allahs peace and blessing be upon him), not who is your best friend. When it came to him he said his name, subject and said some random name (it wasnt a companion), still to this day i cant get the look on Br Qasim’s (aamir at the time) face as it he said “umm ok next brother”…
    What makes me laugh when i think about it now is that most of the brothers were saying Umar, Uthmaan or Abu bakar (may Allah be pleased with them) so he must have been thinking wow these guys all seem to have the same best friend.

    To cut a long story short the year went in the same fashion had its ups and downs, but Alhumdlillallah i think getting involved with the Islamic society helped me meet plenty of people and learn hundreds of skills most importantly in time management. Also what you find getting involved with the ISoc is very addictive as one brother put it!!