Hey, sorry to barge in on the thread, first of all congrats on getting places, and I was wondering if anyone had an advice for someone who wanted to apply to St. Andrews in October ?
I imagine a couple of people are re-applicants, anything you would've done differently the 1st time around?
Would appreciate any advice ?
I'm a reapplicant, although I didn't apply to St Andrews the first time around. I would just say general advice: make sure you get good grades or predictions. Ideally A*s if you're doing A levels as those who have their grades already will get more points so to be as competitive as possible you want high predictions. Next is writing a good personal statement that shows a variety of evidence and reflection upon said evidence that you know what medicine entails but it's what you want. You want a decent UKCAT - I don't think there's a cutoff but the higher the better. A low score won't go down well. Practice interview is the last bit should you get one. General interview questions like why medicine but also specific to St Andrews is make sure you know their course inside out.
Hey, sorry to barge in on the thread, first of all congrats on getting places, and I was wondering if anyone had an advice for someone who wanted to apply to St. Andrews in October ?
I imagine a couple of people are re-applicants, anything you would've done differently the 1st time around?
Would appreciate any advice ?
I'm a re-apper! Basically everything Kingbradley said This is just a general bit of advice rather than St A specifically but apply to the right places! Do your research and apply to the places that best suit your application. I basically wasted most of my choices last year because I didn't really do all that much research and it didn't help that I didn't do much prep for ukcat either. Although tbh I was glad I applied stupidly cause it meant I got to have a great year off
Hey, sorry to barge in on the thread, first of all congrats on getting places, and I was wondering if anyone had an advice for someone who wanted to apply to St. Andrews in October ?
I imagine a couple of people are re-applicants, anything you would've done differently the 1st time around?
Would appreciate any advice ?
Hi, I'm not a re-applicant, but I'm happy to give advice I'd go to an open day if you possibly can, the talks are really good.
If you're doing A levels, when I went I was told by admissions that they don't look at predictions much, because everyone has pretty much the same and they tend to be unreliable, however they will look at AS results. So if you don't put them on your UCAS form your chances of an interview are greatly decreased. Though, they can't be that picky on AS results, I got a B in Chemistry AS and I still got an offer .
They seemed to indicate that they really liked people who knew the course well and spoke very well about the article, so reading New Scientist and being good at analysing texts really helped me. St. Andrews look at everything on your UCAS form, and if they really like you at interview you'll probably get an offer. My advice would be to make sure your personal statement really stands out from the crowd, and spend as much time making it as perfect as you possibly can. I think it was my obsessiveness of getting my PS perfect that got me all my interviews.
Thank you all, very helpful advice, my only concern at the moment is getting those A* predictions, but hopefully that won't play a huge part in selection.
Thank you all, very helpful advice, my only concern at the moment is getting those A* predictions, but hopefully that won't play a huge part in selection.
I'd say getting your A* predictions is pretty much entirely in your hands, so just work hard for them and don't worry too much about it in the big scheme of things, it's a very straightforward thing. St Andrews takes many aspects of your application into account, so as long as you look like a strong all-rounder (good academic track record, PS, reference and UKCAT score), I believe that will be enough to get you to interview stage. Good luck!
I read from the handbook on St Andrews' website that there will be about 16 hours of scheduled lectures, workshops and practical classes per week. Can someone please help clarify how many hours from these 16 are spent on lectures? I'm also still a bit confused about what the guided study is. Do we do it in our own time, or will there be tutors in charge to watch over us? Finally, what exactly do the tutorials encompass? Are they like sessions to consolidate stuff learnt over the week or where new things are taught? Thank you
I read from the handbook on St Andrews' website that there will be about 16 hours of scheduled lectures, workshops and practical classes per week. Can someone please help clarify how many hours from these 16 are spent on lectures? I'm also still a bit confused about what the guided study is. Do we do it in our own time, or will there be tutors in charge to watch over us? Finally, what exactly do the tutorials encompass? Are they like sessions to consolidate stuff learnt over the week or where new things are taught? Thank you
Depends on the week. Sometimes we have 9 lectures, sometimes we have 12... But most of the times there are 10-11 lectures per week. We also have 2 hours of dissection, 1-2 hours lab (might change from week to week), 1 hour of clinical skills and 2 hours of communication skills every other week. We generally have an extra hour here and then when we go through clinical scenarios (i think these are the tutorials you are talking about) - for these you have to do the research at home and then come and talk about it with you peers, while a member of the staff is only supervising. These scenarios are generally constructed on things you have already learnt so yes, they do help to consolidate knowledge.
The guided studies are "homeworks" - they can be in a lecture format, or they can be a series of articles and then questions to answer. No one "forces" you to do them, and the tutors have no responsability to check on you. But bear in mind, on the exam, at least one of the short written answer questions (10 marks) will be a guided study. And trust me, those are a lot of points to loose, if you don't answer it at all.
I'd say getting your A* predictions is pretty much entirely in your hands, so just work hard for them and don't worry too much about it in the big scheme of things, it's a very straightforward thing. St Andrews takes many aspects of your application into account, so as long as you look like a strong all-rounder (good academic track record, PS, reference and UKCAT score), I believe that will be enough to get you to interview stage. Good luck!
OK thanks, yeah i'm going to try, but it's a fairly realistic possibility that i won't get them, and i'd still like to think applying to St. Andrews would be realistic
Yup, you can practice anywhere in the UK. If you are on Manchester route you complete your degree in England.. and even if you complete it in Scotland, you can still apply for foundation years anywhere in UK.
The difference in training kicks in when you're a doctor - the training in Scotland is slightly different to England. I think it's more difficult to switch between Scotland and England when you're in postgrad training.
who else got the 'unconditional offer' email, had their hearts jump out of their chests thinking maybe the exams have already been marked/the university decided to let us all in, and then read the next email, and felt majorly disappointed???