[Dr.Wannabee]

Basically, my ambition is to become a Dr, preferably at Oxford but i don't mind too much! I'm not yet in Sixth form (just finished GCSEs) but I wanted to see if there was anything I could do now to make me a better candidate in the future. (e.g. Work experience/books to read etc.) I have secured 2 work experience placements in hospitals but they are only for a few days, would they suffice or do I need more? What would you suggest? Also, do I need to do all my work experience now or is there time to do it before personal statements etc are written next year?

Why the negs? It's a genuine query that I have!

[colabottles]

(Original post by Dr.Wannabee)
Basically, my ambition is to become a Dr, preferably at Oxford but i don't mind too much! I'm not yet in Sixth form (just finished GCSEs) but I wanted to see if there was anything I could do now to make me a better candidate in the future. (e.g. Work experience/books to read etc.) I have secured 2 work experience placements in hospitals but they are only for a few days, would they suffice or do I need more? What would you suggest? Also, do I need to do all my work experience now or is there time to do it before personal statements etc are written next year?

You definitely don't need to do too much just yet. Just focus on your AS year and maybe get some voluntary work but it sounds like you're doing well on the work experience front already You definitely don't need to do it all this summer!

[purplefrog]

Be attentive on work experience to observe the professional side of medicine and the skills needed - don't bother too much/at all with the clinical science or underlying conditions.

Keep a general tab on current affairs (surrounding the NHS) and general landmark developments in biomedical sciences. BBC Health is a good place to start, and then you can follow commentaries on some broadsheet newspapers should you be really intrigued on the political side of things. There's no need for you to read any journals (Student BMJ, New Scientist or any professional ones e.g., BMJ, Lancet, NEJM)

On the work experience front, you ideally want it done before you apply so that you have something to reflect upon in your personal statement. Though bear in mind, work experience need not be in a clinical context. Given the struggle to find work experience in my surrounding area (most of London), the Dr/hospital only replied to me saying I got shadowing just after my AS exams, so I didn't complete my clinical work experience until halfway through the Y12-13 summer holiday.

Other than that, don't worry too much - when your AS courses start, make sure you do well in the exams and that's pretty much it

[Dr.Wannabee]

If I just did the 2 placements I already have this summer,would getting a longer standing voluntary job at a care home or something be beneficial as well? Or would you say wha I have done is enough?

[myyrh]

(Original post by Dr.Wannabee)
If I just did the 2 placements I already have this summer,would getting a longer standing voluntary job at a care home or something be beneficial as well? Or would you say wha I have done is enough?

Definitely get the voluntary experience, it's just as important. It's good to have an insight in to the profession but it's also important to show you have and are developing the necessary qualities for a doctor like empathy and a good bedside manner.

[TheMedicBarbie]

Consider something more long term like st John ambulance

[Normandy114]

(Original post by Dr.Wannabee)
If I just did the 2 placements I already have this summer,would getting a longer standing voluntary job at a care home or something be beneficial as well? Or would you say wha I have done is enough?

I managed 3 interviews and one offer from just one week shadowing a doctor and one week teaching assistant; although I have to admit I was scraping the barrel. It's not so much how much you get, it's how much you can learn and take in from the work experience. What they're looking for is for your insight on medicine and ability to reflect on your experiences, not just that you were lucky enough to get lots of work experience placements. Definitely try to get a long term care home job as that would look good and is exactly the sort of thing you can talk about at length in an interview, but no need to panic if that's all you can muster together.

[Girl.]

(Original post by Dr.Wannabee)
If I just did the 2 placements I already have this summer,would getting a longer standing voluntary job at a care home or something be beneficial as well? Or would you say wha I have done is enough?

That's pretty much the same amount as I had. Try and do a variety of things, 2 similar placements won't be as useful as two completely different ones.

[Iaso]

(Original post by Dr.Wannabee)
Basically, my ambition is to become a Dr, preferably at Oxford but i don't mind too much! I'm not yet in Sixth form (just finished GCSEs) but I wanted to see if there was anything I could do now to make me a better candidate in the future. (e.g. Work experience/books to read etc.) I have secured 2 work experience placements in hospitals but they are only for a few days, would they suffice or do I need more? What would you suggest? Also, do I need to do all my work experience now or is there time to do it before personal statements etc are written next year?

You should definitely look at long-term voluntary work, maybe in a hospice or care home.

[pi=3]

You want some advice, eh? Well here it goes...
When you apply for Medicine -

1) You will be under constant pressure to do well in AS/A-Level and GCSEs, and just when you get your results and are quite happy about them, you will hear rumors about kids with 9A*s GCSEs and 6 A-Levels getting rejected, leaving you to feel hopeless all over again.

2)You will get pointless tests thrown at you. You probably imagined that Medicine has something to do with applying scientific principles. However, put this notion to rest, because based on the UKCAT, a test apparently designed to test 'skills' that would make good future medics, Medicine is all about spotting non-existent patterns in crudely drawn diagrams, calculating things on crappy on-screen calculators and trying to decipher what you have written on your own white board in a mad rush.

3) You will spend hours and hours preparing your PS and interview technique, believe that might actually have a chance at this thing, and will walk into the interview room, and within the first five seconds, realize the interviewers(s) is a douche. He will cut you off, be rude, won't make eye-contact (despite you family and friends saying eye-contact is EVER so important) and will generally piss you off. Do you know what the worst thing about this is? You tell this to someone, and they say 'Well, he was probably doing it to see how you would react under pressure!'. Bull****. The truth is, the interviewer realizes he has another twenty applicants to interview within the next hour and the tea they provided him at the Med School has too little sugar in.

4) You will come out thinking you did okay. You friend will say he did absolutely terrible. Your friend will get an offer. You won't.

5) You will attempt to 'reflect' so much on your experiences in the interview - the end result being something the experience you describe, without you knowing it, will have become fictional.

6) You will hate the candidate that comes out of the interview room and whispers 'good-luck' to the rest you in an ominous way, before sighing and walking off.

7) You will throw the computer out of the window when you get an email saying 'SOMETHING' has changed on your UCAS status, and just when you log in to Track, the computer freezes.

8) Your 'friends' who are also applying to Medicine probably won't be your friends after all this. This applies whether you were successful and they were not, or the other way round.

9) After you get an offer, and decide to express your frustrations on a open forum to help the poor sod that has his turn in the year after you, you will be negged. Brutally.

[Alexandra's Box]

That was a good post, pi=3

Very good

(Original post by pi=3)
After you get an offer, and decide to express your frustrations on a open forum to help the poor sod that has his turn in the year about you, you will be negged. Brutally.

[twelve]

(Original post by Iaso)
You should definitely look at long-term voluntary work, maybe in a hospice or care home.

This definitely. Now is the perfect time to apply for this - you need to demonstrate that you are a caring person; work experience doesn't say that, whereas volunteering does.

Also, don't worry too much about work experience for this summer - obviously do the placements that you've arranged, but I'd really suggest trying to get something in the summer after AS's, or in the easter holidays of your AS year. This is just because that way the experience will be more fresh in your mind, and you'll be able to talk more definitely about them at interviews. And with work experience, you can't have too much. I did two placements, as well as a load of different volunteering things - but I only spoke about one of my placements in interview. If you have more placements, then you can do that if one turns out to not teach you as much.

[pi=3]

(Original post by Alexandra's Box)
That was a good post, pi=3

Very good

Awww, thank you

[Dr.Wannabee]

(Original post by pi=3)
You want some advice, eh? Well here it goes...
When you apply for Medicine -

1) You will be under constant pressure to do well in AS/A-Level and GCSEs, and just when you get your results and are quite happy about them, you will hear rumors about kids with 9A*s GCSEs and 6 A-Levels getting rejected, leaving you to feel hopeless all over again.

2)You will get pointless tests thrown at you. You probably imagined that Medicine has something to do with applying scientific principles. However, put this notion to rest, because based on the UKCAT, a test apparently designed to test 'skills' that would make good future medics, Medicine is all about spotting non-existent patterns in crudely drawn diagrams, calculating things on crappy on-screen calculators and trying to decipher what you have written on your own white board
in a mad rush.

3) You will spend hours and hours preparing your PS and interview technique, believe that might actually have a chance at this thing, and will walk into the interview room, and within the first five seconds, realize the interviewers(s) is a douche. He will cut you off, be rude, won't make eye-contact (despite you family and friends saying eye-contact is EVER so important) and will generally piss you off. Do you know what the worst thing about this is? You tell this to someone, and they say 'Well, he was probably doing it to see how you would react under pressure!'. Bull****. The truth is, the interviewer realizes he has another twenty applicants to interview within the next hour and the tea they provided him at the Med School has too little sugar in.

4) You will come out thinking you did okay. You friend will say he did absolutely terrible. Your friend will get an offer. You won't.

5) You will attempt to 'reflect' so much on your experiences in the interview - the end result being something the experience you describe, without you knowing it, will have become fictional.

6) You will hate the candidate that comes out of the interview room and whispers 'good-luck' to the rest you in an ominous way, before sighing and walking off.

7) You will throw the computer out of the window when you get an email saying 'SOMETHING' has changed on your UCAS status, and just when you log in to Track, the computer freezes.

8) Your 'friends' who are also applying to Medicine probably won't be your friends after all this. This applies whether you were successful and they were not, or the other way round.

9) After you get an offer, and decide to express your frustrations on a open forum to help the poor sod that has his turn in the year after you, you will be negged. Brutally.

This has rather scared me! However, I might as well give it a go, even if I don't get into my preferred Uni, any medical degree at any Uni is leading to a good career! Thanks for making the situation realistic as I know how competitive medicine is, but hey, nothing ever came of not trying

[pi=3]

(Original post by Dr.Wannabee)
This has rather scared me! However, I might as well give it a go, even if I don't get into my preferred Uni, any medical degree at any Uni is leading to a good career! Thanks for making the situation realistic as I know how competitive medicine is, but hey, nothing ever came of not trying

Oh sorry dude, don't let me put you off. I'm just a bit bitter. Seriously though, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, nor was my situation usual, so I had a slightly harder time than most applicants. Seriously though, if you wanna do Medicine and you do okay in your exams, go for it!!

[muzakir]

Make sure you get at least 8 A*'s at GCSE's and do not resit. If you want a chance at oxford

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my MT15i

[Dr.Wannabee]

(Original post by muzakir)
Make sure you get at least 8 A*'s at GCSE's and do not resit. If you want a chance at oxford

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my MT15i

I'm only doing 11 so this might be hard, but I'm predicted 9a* so hopefully I get my predictions

[Dr.Wannabee]

(Original post by pi=3)
Oh sorry dude, don't let me put you off. I'm just a bit bitter. Seriously though, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, nor was my situation usual, so I had a slightly harder time than most applicants. Seriously though, if you wanna do Medicine and you do okay in your exams, go for it!!

No problemo, I just want to give it a shot if possible! My GCSe grades might count me out anyway ( I'll find out on the 23rd August I guess )

[GabbiWS]

i only had 2 and a half days of clinical experience but did volunteer for a while for my local WRVS hospital shop.
its not really how much you do that counts, its what you learn from it!
Take a notepad with you to your placements and write down everything you think of about how the doctors reacted/behaved/communicated - you will get grilled on this stuff in interviews (they like to ask about things you thought weren't so good so look for negs you can turn into positives!)
I didnt get in first time round and looking back its because i didn't do any of this ^ i just listed what i saw on work exp. and that was about it, so as long as you can analyse it and hold a decent conversation about it then you'll be fine!

also good luck with your GCSE's! if its not what you were expecting just do some research on which unis dont hold such a heavy weighting on them, there's plenty that will overlook them for other things!

[TheMedicBarbie]

(Original post by Dr.Wannabee)
No problemo, I just want to give it a shot if possible! My GCSe grades might count me out anyway ( I'll find out on the 23rd August I guess )

Just apply to uni that dont consider your GCSE or are happy with the grades you do get if theres one thing ive learnt going down the grad route its "you can do crap at GCSE, crap at Alevel but aslong as you get that 2:1 or even a 2:2 theirs always a route into medicine"