Access to medicine glasgow

Thanks for your reply. I will try that now.

Reply 3

Hello,

I have also applied for the Access to Medicine course at Kelvin College for this years intake. I had been rejected last year and so will hopefully be more successful this year. I can't say I know too much about the course but I guess some camaraderie at the application stage is always good :smile:

Can I ask how you have got on with your application?

Cassi

Reply 4

Hi Cassi,

I received an email today to let me know I have an interview on the 7th of June.
Did they give you any reason for rejecting your application last year? Did you make it to the interview stage?
I think my lack of experience might trip me up as I haven't been able to shadow any UK docs due to work. I've got some shadowing experience in India though.
Camaraderie is always good :smile:

Reply 5

Hi,

Yes they were very kind last year and gave me some constructive criticism - I had studied physics, chemistry and maths some time ago in school and thought they would not be so concerned about my lack of study in the field of biology, that was not the case!

Kenneth, who takes a great deal to do with the SWAP courses emailed me with a list of things I could do to improve my application. I had enrolled in the Open University as a back up and studies human bio. I changed jobs and now work in healthcare, I volunteer and I managed to get a few placements (thank goodness as they will give me a great deal to discuss at the interview stage).

I have heard its awful gaining experience in regards to shadowing, I have been extremely lucky as I know no one in the profession. Your exoerience in India should be enough, I do not think they look for heaps lol.

I also have my interview on 7th June at 1.30pm, I will possibly see you there :smile:

Cassi

Reply 6

Congrats on the interview! Fingers crossed for you. I'm really nervous about the interview now and what questions they might ask. Do you know if anyone from last year's class got into uni?

Reply 7

Thank you, I hope your interview goes well also. I can only focus on the interview after the 2nd June as exams are looming (one upside of exams). So I am just excited for it at the minute. I am not sure about last year in particular, but over the course of the last few years there have been successful applications to Glasgow uni. It seems a few get an interview for medicine, vetmed and dentistry and one or two have been successful. There are forums on the old Stow community forums where other students have discussed the prospects of progressing on to uni after the course and there is always one or two successful applicants from previous intakes giving advice.

Great info from James on a thread:
http://www.medstudent.org/threads/access-to-medical-studies-2014-2015-swap-stow-college.63518/

This thread on TSR has applicants to 2013 entry to medicine, various unis, and some have been on access courses.
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2101031&page=3

Reply 8

Wow you must be so busy! thanks for posting those links.
I wonder when they will let us know whether or not we have a place after interview I need to give my work at least 4 weeks notice to leave. Have you started practicing for the UKCAT yet?

Reply 9

I do like to keep busy, I may have a slight A type personality lol. I have heard you can hear whether you receive a place on the course up to a few weeks - around three - later.

I was wondering about work myself, so you have decided you will not work throughout the academic year? I am unsure about this, although, it would be a rather sensible way to approach the course. I am torn between working two days a week for experience, financial obligations and future university application purposes. At the same time I do not want to run into difficulty managing a high volume of course work/studying around work.

I have not started studying for the UKCAT yet, I have sporadically in the past so I am familiar in the content and structure. My test is booked for the second week in August. I plan to begin studying for it on the 15th of June after exams, the access course interview and a short trip along the west highland way have been completed.

Have you made a dent in the preperation for UKCAT? I think 6-8 weeks is reasonable although, others might warn against this.

Cassi

Reply 10

I will definitely be giving up work to concentrate on the course. I have an almost 4 year old child so trying to juggle work and college would be too much. Luckily my husband is super helpful.
I have the UKCAT 600 book and have just bought the UKCAT 1000 book. I've dipped into practice a bit and to be honest, I was shocked at how difficult the QR and AR section is. I can't do a maths calculation in 36 seconds!
I've not booked my UKCAT test yet but want to get it over with asap.
I wonder what sort of questions we will get asked at interview. It's so nerve racking!

Reply 11

I have always found the quantitative reasoning to be the most difficult by far. The 600 book was what I was looking at as has been highly recommended. I like to do them online as I need to improve my timing. I thought I would book the UKCAT for mid August and that was it out of the way, completed before the course starts and leave two months to prepare a personal statement for UCAS submission in October. I have heard the course starts off at a reasonable pace and then a few months in becomes really challenging, so hopefully my plan will all come together nicely lol!

I had a brief brainstorm of some questions (a little spider diagram or two) just to get me thinking, I can run a few by you if you like? It has just been from brief research online, and is not necessarily what they will ask. Other threads have mentioned that Kenny and Jill take the interviews and its quite informal. Despite this, I will be attending in a traditional suit :smile:

Cassi

Reply 12

Original post by kittylorelli

Cassi

Oh my word you are definitely the most organised person ever! You are totally ticking every box on the application requirements!
I'm the kind of person that can imagine what they might say, then I will think of an awesome answer in my mind but when it actually comes to the crunch and say 'so why do you want to be a doctor?' I'll be like 'potato'...
I thought they might ask a few of the 'can you think of a time when x y z happened and what you did to overcome it' questions.

:smile:

Reply 13

Hi there,

I have also applied for the Access to Medicine this year, last year I'd been rejected after being interviewed. The reason of that was, that I didn't held an English certificate. I made some progress and I gained enough score (Hopefully) from IELTS. Last week I have got an email where they arranged an interview for the 7th of June 10.45. I remember that the previous interview wasn't as bad as I thought. It was a simply conversation about myself, my work experience and my further plans regarding medicine. Obviously this year may be different. No idea at all. The only one tip I can suggest is to be yourself. They are seeking people whose know what they want. From 45 people (or more don't remember well) only 1 has got a place at the Uni. Half of them didn't survive 6 months. It must be very intensive course. I hope so that my theatre experience will be enough to be successful this year.
Feel free to ask some questions, I may be able to give an appropriate answer though.

Reply 14

Thanks for the advice Remi,

Where are you from? My sister in law is due to sit her IELTS again this year, her English is perfect but it's still very nerve wracking.

Only 1 person got a place? I wonder what's everyone else will do now.

Reply 15

Hi willowthewisp,

I come from Poland. You must remember that even if her English is perfect it means actually ''nothing''. I will explain to you why, because even native speakers sometimes do not ''pass'' or ''gain'' an appropriate score. While I was sitting my IELTS i had i my group 5 native speakers who were born in Scotland but they wanted to take some job in Australia, although they were native they still had sit this exam. The same exam seems to be very easy, but the questions are very tricky. For instance there was a passage about bee's hive and there was written that sometimes the queen eats eggs etc. Question to that passage was : If the queen eats eggs ?: yes/no/ not given. Answer yes is wrong because in the passage is mentioned that she eats eggs ''sometimes'' and the question means that she eats eggs every single time. So there was an example. So even if you are native and speak perfectly still you may not gain enough score. But I think that we just jumped over the main subject.

Reply 16

Willowthewisp,

I just looked at your answers and I want to ask you where u work ? If you work at a Hospital, don't give up this work. Try to keep yourself busy, Hospital (doing this course and medicine in future) is the best place to gain knowledge. Obviously we can say that it is too much and everything but if our brain is able to proceed million bytes in less than second it means that it is impossible to not doing work and college in the same time. You will do it just believe in yourself and your hidden skills. Linking back to your question about what sort of questions can u expect. Don't worry, you will never figure it out unless you attend the interview. If it's your life dream, thing you always wanted to do in you life than you will get a place, even if not don't give up.

Reply 17

I work in business sales so definitely want to give it up if I get a place as it is way too much to do this job and this course.
I fear my lack of UK hospital experience will trip me up as I have nothing. I only have shadowing experience from my holidays in India.
We will see what happens but I've a feeling the lack of experience will be a big downfall. We will see though. Fingers crossed!

Reply 18

Original post by willowthewisp

It's better having something than nothing. The shadowing experience is your key. Keep your head up. Sometimes wee things means more than the big ones. :-) We will see each other obviously don't know our names but will be fine. Just never give up :smile:

Reply 19