Year of Entry: 2016
Deferred?: No
GCSEs: 8A* 2A
AS Grades: AAAA (chem, bio, maths, psychology)
A2 Results: A*A*A*Aa (chem, bio, Welsh Baccalaureate, maths, psychology)
UKCAT (if applicable): 635 Band 1
Work Experience:1 week children's nursery
1 week tertiary care cardiovascular hospital (number of different departments)
1 week GP practice
1 week secondary care district hospital
1 week private dentist
Volunteering:5 days in the cafe with RVS
1 yr St John Ambulance first aider (at the time of application)
10 months youth leading assistant with St John Ambulance
Fundraising for charity Gafael Llaw
1 year mentoring yr 8&9 pupils in science
1 year improving the literacy of a yr 7 pupil in a reading scheme
Assisting in the organisation of a party for a local special needs school
3 days assisting in the running of children's events at a national trust property
Extra Curricular:Hiking
Reading (New Scientist, fiction, fact, etc)
Learning to speak Dutch (Self taught)
Writing
Universities applied to and decisions:Birmingham - post-interview rejection
Bristol - post interview rejection
Aberdeen - pre-interview rejection
Keele - offer, firmed
AdviceHave as many people look over your PS as you can, do as much work experience and volunteering as you can squeeze in, and don't worry too much if you don't get AAAA at AS. As far as personal statements are concerned, be honest, and don't let people tell you what to write in it. Emphasise what you learnt from your experience, this is far more important than listing things you've done; it doesn't matter if you have one month in a clinic in a third world country or spent a week at a nursing home, it's how you reflect on it that matters. When you write your personal statement
you do not need spaces after punctuation or paragraph breaks. That was in bold because I was told by everyone your grammar has to be perfect, but if it weren't for my UKCAT I would have had four interviews based on my PS and the online form for Keele, neither of which had spaces or paragraph breaks, it saves so many characters. Apply to universities that you want to go to, with courses that suit you, and who's selection process works in your favour. If you got no A* at GCSE, don't apply to a uni that favours applicants with higher GCSEs, if you get a low score on your UKCAT, don't go for a university with a high threshold. But above all else, apply to places you think you will be happy.If you don't get AAAx at AS, don't worry, just apply to unis that put a lot of emphasis on AS grades, and I know plenty of applicants who didn't do as well at AS and resat during A2 and got in. If you don't get an offer, don't panic too much; you can always reapply. What's more
medicine is in clearing. There are very, very few places, and even fewer medical school, but it does happen; this year there were two, Plymouth and St George's, but you need to be fast. As for interviews, I was terrible at them, but I would definitely recommend getting ISC's Medical School Interviews book, and get as much practice as you can with doctors, teachers, other applicants, people you did work experience with, etc. If you're in your last year of school, focus more on your studies; you can always reapply to university, you can't resit your exams if you want to go into medicine.
Best of luck everyone