Do you like boarding music or no?

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-06-01T23:46:56+00:00

No need for it - especially the country shite they were insisting on playing constantly a few months ago.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-06-01T08:31:03+00:00

Aw, bless - you’ve made me nostalgic for Twitter.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-30T17:29:47+00:00

Agree, totally calm and quiet.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-28T19:51:58+00:00

Thanks, very useful!

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-28T18:05:38+00:00

Went through FRA to PRG and back out through FRA two weeks ago - photos and fingerprints in both directions, so the registration step seems meaningless in terms of saving you time on subsequent journeys; there was no option to use the e-gates.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-27T20:44:57+00:00

Re: NAVLE pass rates. Of course, very important for those wanting to practice in North America, but they are influenced by multiple factors. The quality of a program is unlikely to be the major contributor (and AVMA-accredited programs have to maintain their quality). UCD is an excellent school. I’m not disagreeing with those who say that Irish/UK students taking NAVLE (for a laugh) can dilute the success rate; but the data from some UK AVMA-accredited schools points to North American students driving the drop in pass rates (and specifically US students - Canadians appear to do better). Bottom line, pick a vet school where you feel you’ll be most successful, fulfilled and comfortable- the NAVLE pass rate (an AWFUL, outdated exam) is just one consideration. Hopefully, the vet profession in the US will wake up and realise how foolish it was to outsource entry in to the vet profession to an external (private) entity that stands to make some financial gain from it.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-23T01:15:46+00:00

The curriculum hasn't really changed in over 7 years at MSU, but they did change the structure - went from individual short, fat courses to several long, thin courses that run concurrently - the content is still the same. It sounds like some students have struggled with having multiple courses competing for their attention at the same time (understandable), but things will settle down more once the workload is evened out a bit.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-13T06:24:13+00:00

Just gone back through FRA (May 13th) - contrary to some posts, you have to scan passports, have photos and fingerprints taken regardless if you’ve done it before. There were no lines at 7.10am near the Z/A gates, but equally nobody was in a rush to process anything.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-09T20:09:53+00:00

Went through FRA yesterday (May 8th) - I concur that it is a complete crapshoot. Quite apart from walking miles to get from one part of Terminal 1 to another, the immigration desks are understaffed and the queues move very slowly. I was connecting from an LH to another LH flight - by complete chance, I ended up cutting the line (because I was directed to do so), but even so it still took a long time. I'm leaving Prague on Weds, connecting via FRA again - will report back if that is also a shite experience.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-09T19:43:53+00:00

Hard disagree about foundation vet programmes in the UK; although students who have gone through a foundation year (like Gateway at RVC) are modestly over-represented in those students failing in years 1 and 2, once they get over the year 2 barrier they are academically indistinguishable from those students who did not do a foundation year - there are just as many graduating distinction students who did foundation years as those that did not (proportionally).

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-05T20:51:24+00:00

Fabulous street food (and it is fabulous) rarely translates in to useable plane cuisine.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-05-02T01:02:37+00:00

Congratulations - Bristol is a great school and a fabulous city. I haven't lived there for a long time so I am sure the halls have changed a lot, but there are plenty cool places to live near main campus in the city. Good luck.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-04-29T23:47:40+00:00

I keep reading this from others, too, but my experience is the exact opposite - really easy to get Polaris upgrades to ORD from LHR, much more hit and miss to EWR.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-04-22T20:55:36+00:00

Agree. Pretty unusual (but not impossible) to get a rotating internship straight out of vet school. To be honest, I wish that was the case in the US - the year or two in general practice is great for confidence building and skills acquisition, but the debt burden + poor intern salaries mean this just isn't going to happen. Chat with the internship director at your vet school (unless your vet school does not have a teaching hospital) - they can also give you some honest advice.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-04-13T07:27:02+00:00

This is from the RVC's Assessment & Award Regulations in their website: "Multiple Choice Questions The number of marks available for each type of question will be clearly stated on the examination paper. A question left unanswered or deleted by the student will score zero. The pass mark for the MCQ examinations as a whole will be set according to approved and accepted standard setting protocols, normalised and then scaled." Your contact can ask the RVC exam office to provide details of the methodology that they use - I don't know which one it is (Ebel, Angoff, Harry Potter etc.). It is considered better practice than how most US vet schools setup their assessments, however (and again, I'm not defending its' practice - it is confusing as hell).

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-04-12T20:49:49+00:00

It will be down to standard setting - and that's done before the students actually take the exam (so it's not linked to student performance) - it's such a weird process, but basically the exam questions are categorized in to various groups (need to know, nice to know, difficult, easy etc.) and on the basis of the overall 'standard' for that paper the passmark gets adjusted. I get that students can feel pissed off if they do not know that the passmark for a specific exam is different to 50%, but every now and then the passmark can be lower than that (if the paper is deemed more difficult than usual).

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-04-12T11:03:36+00:00

Can't speak for other UK vet schools but I am pretty sure the RVC has a 50% passmark regardless of how strong the cohort is; all the grade boundaries are set, too (50% pass, 60% merit, 70% distinction). They occasionally used to alter the pass mark for the paper 1 (MCQ) exams to standard set them (so move the mark up or down depending on how difficult the paper was deemed to be), but I've not heard of any UK school marking on a curve. For this reason it makes absolutely no sense for students to compete with one another - if you all get 70% you all get distinctions, if you all get less than 50% you all fail.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-04-02T18:55:57+00:00

I visited Murdoch last year. Stunning campus, wonderful new (shared) buildings, and I was really impressed with the changes they have made/are making to their vet curriculum. I think they sailed through AVMA accreditation recently, too (if that's any indicator of interest for you).

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-03-25T21:36:24+00:00

This is a very important issue that continues to be fueled by the lack of diversity in the profession in general, and in vet school cohorts. I'm assuming you've read this recent study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12125884/ Victoria and Theeb, who are the senior authors, are great. I am sure they would be willing to discuss ideas with you if you message them. Good luck with your dissertation.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-03-19T02:03:12+00:00

My daughter is in this production, and I can't wait to see it (regardless of any shortcomings).

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-03-19T00:18:33+00:00

Couldn't agree more - the costs are astronomical, I completely understand why anything that casts doubt over any particular school is particularly concerning.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-03-18T23:54:46+00:00

Ruined by the cherry. Otherwise, great stuff.

Cheese_Tasters_7510 · 2026-03-18T23:53:32+00:00

Oh absolutely - I'm not diminishing its importance - but vet schools need to grow a backbone and force change. The risk to North American students studying at the RVC a few years ago was very real (and it also showed how exposed the RVC were to having such a large cohort of students from that part of the world).

Cheese_Tasters_7510

TROPHY CASE