The Student Room Group

Mature student med school

Hello everyone,

I am in my second year of doing a Biomedical Science degree, and smashing a first at this rate which is all well and good. I'm 26 at the moment so already a mature student and having spent the last 7 years with the army, I have decided to come to uni and go into a graduate job.

From schools/A levels, I wasn't too good at studying, but now it turns out that I'm fairly on the ball and really committed to studying, happily putting in the time etc and dedicating pretty much all my time to attaining grades and really pushing myself to do the very best I can.

So onward looking I have decided to give medicine a crack, it wasn't my original plan but I realised that I would have accrued 3 years + paid experience with doctors and nurses and other allied health professionals, as well as attending medical seminars as well as a few voluntary paramedic shifts here and there.

What really put me on this course is during a career interview putting out some feelers on what I wanted to do with the rest of my working life, the interviewer said I was the strongest candidate she has ever seen for medicine, which was a combination of military, personal and related work experience.

However, the problem is when I took my GCSE's (near a decade ago now) I only managed to get C's, obviously this will impact my application, however, do you think that due to experience, and getting a first in Biomedical Science they will still want me to re-take GCSE's? Or do you think as it is so long ago, that they won't really mind?

It is worth mentioning on my access course I did a maths module, as well as first year I took maths and stats, and stats again this year for the first semester.

Any feedback would be great.

Cheers all!
Tom
Reply 1
Original post by Tomw12345
Hello everyone,

I am in my second year of doing a Biomedical Science degree, and smashing a first at this rate which is all well and good. I'm 26 at the moment so already a mature student and having spent the last 7 years with the army, I have decided to come to uni and go into a graduate job.

From schools/A levels, I wasn't too good at studying, but now it turns out that I'm fairly on the ball and really committed to studying, happily putting in the time etc and dedicating pretty much all my time to attaining grades and really pushing myself to do the very best I can.

So onward looking I have decided to give medicine a crack, it wasn't my original plan but I realised that I would have accrued 3 years + paid experience with doctors and nurses and other allied health professionals, as well as attending medical seminars as well as a few voluntary paramedic shifts here and there.

What really put me on this course is during a career interview putting out some feelers on what I wanted to do with the rest of my working life, the interviewer said I was the strongest candidate she has ever seen for medicine, which was a combination of military, personal and related work experience.

However, the problem is when I took my GCSE's (near a decade ago now) I only managed to get C's, obviously this will impact my application, however, do you think that due to experience, and getting a first in Biomedical Science they will still want me to re-take GCSE's? Or do you think as it is so long ago, that they won't really mind?

It is worth mentioning on my access course I did a maths module, as well as first year I took maths and stats, and stats again this year for the first semester.

Any feedback would be great.

Cheers all!
Tom


hi Tom,

I think many medical schools would not care about your GCSEs. Actually a lot of them do not really consider GCSEs when selecting graduates for interviews. However, just to make sure, you could call up the unis you are interested in and ask since you have these particular circumstances. How were your GCEs/ ALevels? Those seem to be requirement more often than GCSEs. What could cause a problem is a really bad GCSE in maths or English, but then again, due to your special circumstances it would be best to discuss this with universities directly.*
Reply 2
Hi there,

Well, I only really did AS levels before joining the army, simply due to the fact that I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life.

I got C's in Maths and English, I mean I don't mind taking them again but I don't really want to spend the money on doing them.

I got into uni through an access course which I did OK in, or well enough to go to uni at least, and I was going to do the 5-year route anyway.

It has occurred to me to contact the medical schools directly, but I thought they would be rather busy with actual applicants so I was planning on doing this later on in the year, or do you think it is worth doing it now just to see if I got a response?

Thanks very much,
Tom
Reply 3
Original post by Tomw12345
Hi there,

Well, I only really did AS levels before joining the army, simply due to the fact that I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life.

I got C's in Maths and English, I mean I don't mind taking them again but I don't really want to spend the money on doing them.

I got into uni through an access course which I did OK in, or well enough to go to uni at least, and I was going to do the 5-year route anyway.

It has occurred to me to contact the medical schools directly, but I thought they would be rather busy with actual applicants so I was planning on doing this later on in the year, or do you think it is worth doing it now just to see if I got a response?

Thanks very much,
Tom


Well if you are not applying for this cycle, you can do it whenever you feel like. I think it shouldn't matter when you do it. If you are not too bothered about when you get an answer you could send an email out and then they can answer whenever they can :smile:
Reply 4
Original post by alkyone
Well if you are not applying for this cycle, you can do it whenever you feel like. I think it shouldn't matter when you do it. If you are not too bothered about when you get an answer you could send an email out and then they can answer whenever they can :smile:


Awesome! Thanks very much for your help! Lastly, where would I find their e-mail addresses? Just on the UCAS site for admissions or is there a specific directory for them? :smile:
Reply 5
Original post by Tomw12345
Awesome! Thanks very much for your help! Lastly, where would I find their e-mail addresses? Just on the UCAS site for admissions or is there a specific directory for them? :smile:


Usually they are on the university's medical admission websites. Good luck!

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