Medicine Help

I was wondering if anybody could help me with this:

I'm an EU student from Malta and we have our own A Level Board of Examinations which unfortunately isn't accepted by any of the Universities I wanted to apply to (King's, Imperial, Bart's, UCL and a lot of other universities). I only decided I wanted to study abroad around January after visiting a couple of universities, and I had already registered to take these exams which I'm currently studying for, which meant that it was already too late to consider any other route to take the UK A Levels.

We have a British Council here in Malta which can help me take the UK version of A Levels but I'll need to wait another year; till June 2015. As for subjects, our syllabi, and to an extent, the format of the exam papers, are identical to the UK ones so it wouldn't be a problem to take the UK A Levels.

My question is: Would universities still consider my application for medicine if I would have already spent two years of sixth form on the Maltese version of A Levels which are not accepted, or would they consider only the year I would have spent to take the UK A Levels?

Thanks again :smile:

Reply 1

em.d_4

Contact unis directly as id say it's a fairly unique situation but be prepared to branch out, Medicine here is competitive so we really do take what we can get!
At a guess id say they wont accept it especially if the content of the exams is the same, youd effectively be doing the sAme exam but over more than 2 years which would give you an advantage

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Reply 2

Zorg

Contact medical schools asap and also pose the question if withdrawing from the current non-UK exams and subsequently sitting the UK A levels would mean you are considered a first time sitter.

Reply 3

oscartales

Original post by Zorg

Contact medical schools asap and also pose the question if withdrawing from the current non-UK exams and subsequently sitting the UK A levels would mean you are considered a first time sitter.

I contacted most of the medical schools and they said that sitting for any exams which they do not consider (i.e. my A Levels) will not affect my application given that they are two different examination boards. However if I am to apply, it would mean that I'll need to sit for the IGCSEs as well besides the UK AS and A2 Exams and the thought of sitting for all these exams is already making my dizzy to be honest but I'll need to decide later on.

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Reply 4

nurharith

I would advise you to ask the university directly. I think some of the university will consider case by case entry. Which means they will look into your syllabus and everything.

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Reply 5

oscartales

Original post by nurharith

Unfortunately they don't seem to accept them :frown:

and those that do don't seem to have looked into it too much i.e. we study 2 Advanced subjects and four Intermediate subjects here at A level and can only be awarded the full certificate if we finish our studies in all 6 subjects but it seems like the medical schools do not consider any of the other four subjects and require a third A level instead which isn't possible unless studied privately :/

Most of the medical schools advised that any qualifications which they do not consider will not be used to off-set any other qualifications which they can consider, which means I'll probably need to sit for the UK A Levels in June and unfortunately, the IGCSEs since I only achieved a local version of GCSEs which are not accepted (dang our qualifications for not being accepted anywhere!). It sounds highly impossible but I guess it's all about motivation/determination in the end.

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Reply 6

oscartales

With regards to the post above, I'm still awaiting a response regarding whether or not sitting for IGCSEs and A Levels together is even accepted so I'll need to look into it more :/ I'm definitely sure they've never had a case like this haha I guess it's my fault for deciding on studying in the UK extremely late.

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(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 7

nurharith

Sorry to hear that bro. I got the same problem. Here in Malaysia we usually go for Foundation in Science. Unfortunately almost all university outside Malaysia do not consider is. Some even asked if that was a real course.

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