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Reply 20
Hi Guys

I am a current Graduate Entry Medical Student (Year 3) at Swansea University. If anyone has any questions feel free to get in touch on here.

Graduate Medicine Guide Team
I'm considering applying for 2018 entry - I'm about to start second year of psychology again (transferred university, so have to re-do second year). I've read that GEM courses may be discontinued in the future, or extended to 5 years (along with our ability to apply for student finance being removed) - does anyone know anything about this?
Reply 22
Original post by gmg2710
Hi Guys

I am a current Graduate Entry Medical Student (Year 3) at Swansea University. If anyone has any questions feel free to get in touch on here.

Graduate Medicine Guide Team


Hey, could you give us a rough background of your academic attainment? (degree type, what you graduated with etc) and how you went about preparing for the entry exams to GEM? also if you have any tips! much appreciated
Reply 23
Original post by juno96
Hey, could you give us a rough background of your academic attainment? (degree type, what you graduated with etc) and how you went about preparing for the entry exams to GEM? also if you have any tips! much appreciated


Hi Juno96. No problem at all. I graduated with a 1st class degree in Biomedical Science in 2012.

I then put off applying for medicine for nearly 2 years due to not thinking I would be able to get a space.

Prep wise i revised an hour an evening and a couple of hours on a Sunday for 6 months as well as seeing a tutor for chemistry once per week. But the main thing with GAMSAT is strategy.

If you want anymore information (applies to anyone), send me a private message on here and I will give you my email address so I can send some resources over to you.
Reply 24
Original post by DannyYYYY
I'm considering applying for 2018 entry - I'm about to start second year of psychology again (transferred university, so have to re-do second year). I've read that GEM courses may be discontinued in the future, or extended to 5 years (along with our ability to apply for student finance being removed) - does anyone know anything about this?


Hi Danny. As a current GEM student I cannot see this happening, as the UK still does not produce enough doctors each year to fill the number of training places. On top of this the numbers applying to GEM are greater per place than those applying to the 5-6 year courses.

Funding however, is a different matter. During years 2-4 on a GEM course you receive most of your funding through NHS bursary, which is currently under threat. Without this, the courses may dissolve due to people not really being able to afford to do them. Which is ironic as one of the reasons the GEM course was setup was to increase the socioeconomic diversity of doctors.

Hope the Helps Graduate Medicine Guide Team
Hi all :smile: I'm about to enter my second year GEP at Warwick, feel free to ask any questions.
Original post by MJK91
Hi all :smile: I'm about to enter my second year GEP at Warwick, feel free to ask any questions.


Hi there

Did you apply anywhere else? Did you receive any other offers? If so, what made you choose warwick?

A
Reply 27
Does anyone know if we have to write personal statements for GEM? They never seem to mention them on the course website but I might just be missing it? It seems a bit strange that we wouldn't have to but I'd be so happy if that is the case!
Applications are through UCAS, so I think so.

A
Reply 29
Original post by jka3
Does anyone know if we have to write personal statements for GEM? They never seem to mention them on the course website but I might just be missing it? It seems a bit strange that we wouldn't have to but I'd be so happy if that is the case!


You do, but most unis don't read or score them.
Hey, I'm just going in to second year of biomedical science. Just wondering do you think it'd be worth doing the GAMSAT as I'm not sure what Uni's to apply to yet?
Original post by Pa97_
Hey, I'm just going in to second year of biomedical science. Just wondering do you think it'd be worth doing the GAMSAT as I'm not sure what Uni's to apply to yet?


It's a lot of money to waste if you decide to apply for only UKCAT unis. If I were you I'd get my selection down of where I want to apply and then think about sitting the GAMSAT (coming from someone who has now decided to apply to UKCAT only unis and has lost the £300 😅)
Original post by MariaJade
It's a lot of money to waste if you decide to apply for only UKCAT unis. If I were you I'd get my selection down of where I want to apply and then think about sitting the GAMSAT (coming from someone who has now decided to apply to UKCAT only unis and has lost the £300 😅)


Thats true, I've been looking at non-GAMSAT unis so far so I'll make a list and see what I need for each uni. Thanks though and good luck!:smile::smile:
Reply 33
Hi everyone!
Just wondered if anyone knew the exact date for the GAMSAT in September 2017?
(I just posted this in the UKCAT thread. I'm trying again next year. I would starting preparing for the UKCAT now - a little bit everyday.)

I finished my UKCAT about half an hour ago. My performance was unimpressive (I'm applying for GEM):

VR: 540
QR: 720
AR: 670

Average: 643

I'm a non-science graduate with non-science A-levels. I was hoping to apply to Warwick and Newcastle (lol).
The dream is over for this cycle.

VR:

I should have flagged a lot more. The passages themselves weren't as challenging as I thought they would be, it was the options in the more challenging comprehension questions that took up a lot of reading time.

QR:

This section is easy compared to the others. Far easier than anything I'd encountered in prep books or online mocks.

AR:

I'm not sure whether I found this section less challenging because I'd practiced or because it was genuinely easier in the test. I was scoring 550 in mocks for AR and I got a 670 today.

All in all, an insufficient score was expected. I'm now going to the GEM 2018-entry thread to lick my wounds. Good luck to everyone who scored well, and even more good luck to those who didn't.
Hi! I'm a second year Biochemist from King's and I too am applying for GEM in 2018.Ideally I want to mostly apply for GEM UKCAT centric courses because they're 4 years, but none of them really appeal to me apart from Warwick . I think its because they have such a small number of places for graduates. Do you think I should suck it up and apply to GEM?Also how do normal 5 year courses regard graduates? Am I better off applying for 4 year GEM with higher competition or 5 year courses which dont have a est number of places for graduates?Side note, has anyone seen in the news lately that there are going to be 1,500 more medicine places from 2018 onwards? Talk about hitting jackpot for us! Do you think this is all talk by the tories or will they follow through? How do you think they will increase the number of places: by adding new places to existing med schools or by starting new medicine programmes at different unis? Its very interesting but a 1,500 is a LARGE number, it seems too good to be true that it will be implemented in two years. Please give your thoughts!Here's the link if anyone's interested:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37546360
I'm in a similar position, I literally only like Warwick though 😅 I suppose it comes down to personal preference, and how stubborn you are, but the course structure and teaching methods suit me at Warwick to a t so I'm considering only applying there. Financially I would never be able to afford a 5 year course and none of the other UKCAT unis appeal to me, especially since they have such small graduate student intakes. I want to get into medicine as much as the next aspiring medic, but I want a course I know suits my learning style and a cohort who are in similar positions to myself. It's a 4 year commitment and you'll be spending a damn load of money on it - just think about what kind of course and teaching method suits you and apply accordingly.
About the 1500 pledge, does that count for graduate places? We're normally left out of the good stuff 😪 Either way it'll hopefully reduce competition slightly, in addition to all the junior doctor talks that are happening. Let's just hope there's still an NHS come 2018 😂
Reply 37
Wonderful thread I'm a pharmacist hoping for a 2018 entry into medicine.. So far i'm considering Nottingham, Southampton, Warwick , I'm not sure about my 4th choice yet
Can anyone recommend a good learning resource for a hopeless scientist on essay writing for the GAMSAT?
Hey guys!

I am currently on my placement year in Singapore but study mathematics in the UK!
I intend to apply for graduate entry medicine for 2018!

Is there anyone else on here not coming directly from a bio science / health science degree?

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