Study Prioritisation — What to Study First (Unit 4: Medicine Through Time)

Medicine Through Time covers 800 years. Use this guide to spend your revision time where it counts most.

Tier 1 — MUST study (appear in nearly every sitting):

• Medieval Ideas (Topic 33) — Four Humours, Galen, miasma, Church influence
• Germ Theory (Topic 40) — Pasteur 1861, Koch's work, why it was a turning point
• Public Health (Topic 42) — Chadwick, 1875 Act, cholera outbreaks — 6/5 sittings!
• Penicillin (Topic 45) — Fleming 1928, Florey and Chain, WW2 mass production
• NHS (Topic 46) — Bevan, 1948 launch, free at point of use, opposition and support

Tier 2 — SHOULD study (appear frequently):

• Black Death (Topic 34) — causes believed, responses, what it reveals about medieval thinking
• Jenner and Vaccination (Topic 39) — smallpox, cowpox, opposition, long-term impact
• Surgery Revolution (Topic 41) — anaesthetics, antiseptics, Lister, Simpson
• War and Medicine (Topic 47) — WW1 and WW2 as accelerators of medical progress

Tier 3 — IF TIME (appear less often but still valuable):

• Church Role (T35), Renaissance (T36), Harvey and blood circulation (T37), Great Plague (T38), Nightingale (T43), Magic Bullets (T44), Modern Medicine — this topic (T48)

Time guide: 5 hours of revision → focus on Tier 1 only. 10 hours → Tiers 1 and 2. 15+ hours → all topics. For thematic essays, always practise connecting topics across time periods — the factor framework (individuals, government, technology, war, chance) applies to every era.