Is medicine for me? Advice from students please.

This is the first issue you need to address. The rest of it is pointless if you don't actually want to do the job.



As a mature student coming back into full-time ed, I can say that this is great advice. Uni is not like the real world - for any course. Not to mention it's 5 years versus the rest of your working life. It's a means to an end.

I know of several docs who loved being med students but hated/struggled being F1/F2s. Some people even leave medicine at that point. This is why med school places such a huge emphasis on making sure you know what you're getting into. Think about it - most of the interview is based on this.

So get out there and get some work experience. Go talk to to professionals. Not just medicine but everyone who you can get a chance to talk to. Remember, there is absolutely no shame in not knowing what you want to do with your life.

I know of only one person (my fiancee) who is truly 100% enamoured with their job, and incapable of thinking up anything else they could ever be. The rest all fall into varying degrees of satisfaction. The trick is to choose a path which will give you the best balance of satisfaction/money/pension/security etc...

The worst place to be is way down a career path with no option to change, so think long and hard before you jump into medicine. I was lucky that I had built in some options which helped me to change careers but very few people have that luxury. You don't want to be a final year med student dropping out because your heart isn't in it, or a miserable foundation year doc who dreads the alarm clock on a morning....

This is the first issue you need to address. The rest of it is pointless if you don't actually want to do the job.



As a mature student coming back into full-time ed, I can say that this is great advice. Uni is not like the real world - for any course. Not to mention it's 5 years versus the rest of your working life. It's a means to an end.

I know of several docs who loved being med students but hated/struggled being F1/F2s. Some people even leave medicine at that point. This is why med school places such a huge emphasis on making sure you know what you're getting into. Think about it - most of the interview is based on this.

So get out there and get some work experience. Go talk to to professionals. Not just medicine but everyone who you can get a chance to talk to. Remember, there is absolutely no shame in not knowing what you want to do with your life.

I know of only one person (my fiancee) who is truly 100% enamoured with their job, and incapable of thinking up anything else they could ever be. The rest all fall into varying degrees of satisfaction. The trick is to choose a path which will give you the best balance of satisfaction/money/pension/security etc...

The worst place to be is way down a career path with no option to change, so think long and hard before you jump into medicine. I was lucky that I had built in some options which helped me to change careers but very few people have that luxury. You don't want to be a final year med student dropping out because your heart isn't in it, or a miserable foundation year doc who dreads the alarm clock on a morning....

Hello, I just finished my AS year with results for Maths, Biology, Chemistry, and History. I'm going back to school next Thursday and I really do not know what to apply for at University. Could somebody please offer me some advice?

1) I really don't know what the medicine course is like because university websites don't go into enough detail. I did go on a St George's medical summer school which I really enjoyed. I enjoyed the clinical practicals (pathology practical, PBL, and communication skills). Do you think that I shouldn't base it on this since it's likely to be glammed up?

There were no lectures there so i'm curious about what the course is like. I was looking at a biomedicine course : http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/ugprospec...medicalscience which I thought looked quite interesting. A part of my problem is that I want to do so much (biochem, pharmacology, chemistry). But maybe this is a good thing since medicine is so diverse? How much is the medicine course like the imperial biomedical sciences course?

Also, is the medicine course all about remembering symptoms, etc. Or is there a lot of explaining why a disease happens (in detail, going to genetics)

2) My favourite subject is chemistry, second being biology. How much chemistry is in medicine? I might not really like completely losing it. Part of what I love about chemistry is the applying your knowledge to a situation or problem, which is what sort of draws me to medicine as well.

3) I haven't got work experience yet. A GP practice manager cancelled on me quite late and a doctor agreed to take me but has stopped emailing me. I will send her a reminder. I feel as if work experience might show me what I could do?

4) Currently, I haven't done a lot. No extra curricular reading, no work exp, no UKCAT. what I have done: 1 month of volunteering, 4 day medicine taster course, part time job in retail(where I really enjoy working with customers). Do you think I'm deciding too late and that I should just apply safely to something else? I really really want to apply to cambridge but my grades aren't good enough for medicine but possibly good enough for Biological NatSci (92% average ) (which has a bit of everything! ). Then I could take a year to mull it over and take a gap year if I decide I want to do medicine. Because, right now, I feel as if I will get all rejections.

As you can see, I have so much going on my mind and I'm so confused. Help. Please!