Lambeth College Access to Medicine assessment day and what shocks were in place lol

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Good luck with getting the results.

For the sake of other people thinking about applying to college to study an Access course, I feel I should take the opportunity to stress that entry tests for standard courses (IE: not medicine) are nowhere near this difficult. With the standard humanities/science type courses they will just be testing very basic maths/english/science knowledge. When I did my application I'm not sure I even had a question as difficult as 283.34 - 323.45 = x!................... and the english part was simply spending 10mins writing about why I wanted to return to study.

I attended the assessment day on 10/02/11 and at first it seemed that their were at least 100 people from all age groups lined up across the wall of the main entrance. The people seated at the reception area confirm your name and course and provide a sticker and room number.

10 mins later we were all called in well those looking to study Access to Medicine/Dentistry and Medical Sciences and split again into those studying different access courses.

We were then taken to a biology room, split into two groups as it was a large group and told we would have from 5:10pm to 7:00pm for two assessments, the maths and the literacy as you may already know. I can tell you now that everyone was in shock in the room when they saw how difficult the maths was, I myself am not brilliant and I knew it would be better for me to start on the literacy test first.

The first question was "choose a topic of your choice and write an essay on it" they provided two pages of lined paper in the booklet to do so, The woman came round the tables whilst we were getting on with this and she was suprised to see I had started my literacy test, turns out I was meant to do the maths first but she said it was okay. The next piece of the English assessment was on HPV (virus) taken from Cancer Research UK, we were asked to answer questions relevant to the text.

I then turned to my maths and it was at first basic questions, 283.34 - 323.45 = x etc etc then it started to get harder and not at all basic. There was a sub section called Maths applied to Medical practice and the question were getting much more harder. They wanted the ratio of ml and mg of two drugs however the wording is quite hard to understand and I have decent A-levels in English. the maths was out of 20 marks, and the applied to medicine was out of 10 or 20 can't remember.

I did notice that when the woman called out that it was time to start on the literacy (remember I went the other way round lol) she took everyones maths and was marking this.

At the end of the test the head of Science and another lady were very blunt in saying that the Maths was particulary poor amongst the group, the highest mark being 15 (i hadn't yet had mine marked so I dont know) and that it was unlikley that anyone would be called in for medicine as you need from 18 - 20 in the maths. She said everyone should look towards other professions in Medical Science - Nursing, etc and I will tell you now people were upset one guy gave the reason for poor marks to not having time to recap on things as being adults we have not done such things in a long time.

The woman at the front merely aknowledged this and asked for feedback, I gather this to be unprofessional as they should have done this prior to giving out the assessments.

So everyone started to leave the room when I came across someone I spoke to earlier, I asked him what he wrote for his essay in the literacy exam and he said "smoking, what did you do?" I replied with my own one, he had an odd expression on his face and said "the essay was on the board everyone did the same one" !!!!!!****!!!!!! I ran up and spoke to the young girl at the front, she was assisting the main woman and told her that for my literacy test I wrote my own essay, she was laffing and I couldn't help but not join in lol!
Apparently it was okay as they were testing our essay writing skills and the marker would be the other woman as she was an A-level English teacher in the sixth form. She asked me what I wrote my piece on and it was "does social status affect educational attainment" (I got B for sociology lol!) so I knew I did a good piece she said it was fine and would be interested in reading it.

Well at least I stood out and haven't yet been told I will not gain entry as they haven't yet marked my paper. We have to wait 2-3 weeks for our results and if you havent passed you will being given 5 choices , progression diploma level 1, 2 , access to nursing ect ect just not Medicine or Dentistry.

I hope I did well and that they call me in for an interview, I read on several other posts of how people went to Lambeth with no assessments or interviews, I rekon it was a load of *******s, Just waiting on City & Islington College now.

It seems some individuals who went like you to this college werent prepared for these assessment tests Shamzmix_34 and hadnt prepared for them.As i read all this m8 it sounds vaguly familar to other assessements i have had myself For Access To He diplomas.
I am sure you will hear some good news come results day Shamzmix_34 whether you have got in for The Access course you want to do. I was very surprised and shocked that you had to do some drug calculations you dont cover things like that until you are doing degrees as i know someone who did Nursing.
Did you have to work out drop rates for IV injections and other medicines? M8
How can you be expected to know all this at this particular stage Shazmix_34

Yes! we were asked a question about the drip rates of a certain drug administered over 24 hour period at 2 hour intervals. From what we were all told on the assessment invitation letter and the online prospectus, there was nothing to inform us of the nature of the two tests, quite frankly I had little problem with the literacy test and if it were even more complex I would like to think I could have still handled it confidently. It was the complexity of the maths tests that kinda pissed everyone off as the way they informed us of them was in a very vague and basic manner.

I'm currently a student on the Access to Medicine and Medical Bioscience course at Lambeth. I was deliberating between Medicine and Pharmacy at the time of evaluation but have opted for Pharmacy.

I found the assessment at Lambeth tough, however I scored highly in all areas. With the abilities of my current classmates in Pharmacy in mind, I would say the majority would have scored well on the assessment. The drug dose calculations and drip rate questions don't really require prior medical knowledge, just basic problem solving. So not having time to recap because you're all adults is a poor excuse. Majority of us on the course (and this is the Pharmacy group) hadn't studied years but were still able to manage.

Also the main reasoning behind the assessment, really is to assess you. I took my assessment on the day of enrolment and many of us got our results a few hours after the test. I remember the three people before me being refused a place because the tutor said they wouldn't be able to handle the course, which at the time I thought was harsh, but now I would have to say the tutor was right.

If you found the assessment difficult and you are applying for Pharmacy, you're going to have difficulty with the Pharmacology subject on the course, together with some of the math and chemistry required for the course. If you're applying for medicine or dentistry then you are going to have an even tougher time with the UKCAT and the BMAT. And if, as you said, you think it was all a "load of *******s", then wait and see what they'll ask of you for medical and dentistry schools entry requirements.

At least a quarter of us on the Pharmacy course considered doing access to medicine, but opted for Pharmacy, not because of the academics, but more due to the requirements for medical school and the sacrifice needed for a career in medicine. I think you need to do some research on what is required for medicine, especially as a mature student and prepare yourself for some harsh realities. And also if you think Pharmacy sounds like an easy substitute to medicine, get back on google and do some more research.

The best place in London for an access course is Kensington and Chelsea College.
I would urge everyone to go there (however, they specialise in social sciences rather than natural sciences)
You'll be taught by some of the best teachers, oxbridge graduates too.

Your missing the point here, you're missing the fact that I have yet to receive my results so I could be on the same boat as yourself. I have my GCSE's in English, Maths and Science as well as holding A-levels.
I understand how intense and difficult such a degree would be, I have spoken to current Doctors, Pharmacists, Consultants when I previously worked in the NHS and I am grateful I have done so and most recently with Dentists studying at post-graduate level in Eastman Dental Institute in London as I currently work alongside them as a Dental Assistant, they are much harsher than you believe that, they don't sugar coat it for you, and if I were to get advice from someone I'd rather it be them then you.

Have to go in for interview soon, called them up and they've resent the letter, it probably got misplaced in the post.