Imperial College Medical Applicants 2015 entry

Anyone know how Imperial select for interview. Do they care about grades etc after meeting cut offs. Most importantly does achieving the BMAT cut off guarantee an interview or will the application get looked at further? Imperial gave a very vague response when i phoned up. Struggling with the BMAT section 1, but 2 seems easy enough. 3 is a bit of a hit and miss.

Hi everyone! International student from Bangladesh here. My stats are:

GCE O levels: 10 A*s, 2 distinctions
AS Level: AAAAA
Predicted A2: 5 A*s

I'm worried about section 1 and 3 in the BMAT though. How are you guys preparing for the essay? Is arguing in rhetoric good enough to get a decent score or are we expected to use a lot of factual examples?

I would defo check out the section 3 banding criteria on the website for clarification on marking, but decent examples to support points are key I think. Ultimately, if you've got a pretty fluid essay answering ALL aspects of the question you'll get 3, which is adequate.

I would defo check out the section 3 banding criteria on the website for clarification on marking, but decent examples to support points are key I think. Ultimately, if you've got a pretty fluid essay answering ALL aspects of the question you'll get 3, which is adequate.

You're right. To get a 3 in BMAT essay, you need to have covered all parts of the question asked - usually explain the statement, for and against argument, and conclusion, with relevant examples to support your points. I have attached how BMAT essay is marked from official BMAT book.






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Thanks a lot! This is a big help since the BMAT book isn't available here. =D

No problem! What are you getting right now in sections 1 and 2, what have you done to prepare so far and what at your plans up to exam date?


Also do you have any tips/resources for section 1 which is my weakest section?

Thanks




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I'm averaging around 6.5 in both sections right now. Not really sure how I'll do under exam conditions though.
I've only been practising papers from the admission testing services websites and going through the BMAT threads on TSR for prep. Although I haven't prepared as much I'd like to since I have applications to other countries that I'm working on as well.

What about you? How are section 1 and 2 going? And other than the book, are there any other online resources you would recommend?

Ah not really. Honestly, I think a lot of how you do on Section 1 depends on the exam conditions and how mentally prepared you are on the day. Basically, a lot of luck. :P But I think for me at least, practice is doing the trick. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. :P

(:

You're doing very well in section 1. I'm getting around 4 but my target is to exceed 6. Since you're clearly doing very well, how have you been preparing/ what techniques have you been using when doing papers/ reviewing answers? Could you give me tips on how you tackle section 1 questions please? Seems you've been practicing in a good way so how are you practicing?

You mentioned BMAT threads? It'd be great if you could link them for me please.

I haven't really been using online resources to practice, have you? I've been using the official book, 400 questions book and How to Master BMAT book.

Good luck to you too!


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I'm not sure how much help I'll be. Can you finish all 35 questions on time? That's one of my biggest issues thus far and I've found that if I can't find a method to work out my answer in the first half a minute or so, the best option is to leave it. Also, more often than not, most answers will be given in the question itself. For the passages that ask you to find a flaw or draw a conclusion, usually, the trick is to only use what's stated explicitly in the passage itself instead of inferring from prior knowledge we might have on the topic. The math are difficult, especially matching the answers to the approximations but practice is the best way to get around it, imo. I don't do more than about two papers a day since it messes with my head.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2629211&page=47

That's one of the BMAT threads. There are others for other years that you can find fairly easily on TSR though this is the only one I've checked so far. It's tedious but going through it helped me figure out some of the problems.

Ahh,I can't compare the relative effectiveness of online resourced versus the book because there is literally no BMAT book available here. If there is, I haven't found it and I've looked pretty extensively. So
http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/for-test-takers/bmat/preparing-for-bmat/

This website is pretty much what I'm relying on for the most part.

Good luck and thank you. (:

Imperial is my top choice and I have mixed feelings on the BMAT... guess I'll just have to wait and see.

My stats are:

GCSEs: 7A*s and 3As (my school is not brilliant and only allows us to do a maximum of 9 GCSEs. I chose to do ICT privately. However it's the only comprehensive school in the place where I live 😣)

AS: AAAB ( in Biology, Chemistry, French and Physics respectively)

A2 predictions: A*A*AB

I've also applied to UCL, Bristol and Southampton.

Good luck to all out there!!

My stats are:
GCSE: 7A* 3A
AS: AAAA
A2 predicted: A*A*A*A*

So worried about BMAT!!! I dont think i did well tbh.
Unis i chose r Cambridge (anyone else here applying/got an interview?), imperial (obviously), Kings and Queen Marys.

My stats are:
GCSE: 7A* 3A
AS: AAAA
A2 predicted: A*A*A*A*

So worried about BMAT!!! I dont think i did well tbh.
Unis i chose r Cambridge (anyone else here applying/got an interview?), imperial (obviously), Kings and Queen Marys.