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Reply 1
I'm thinking about having Scotland top of my list for the regular FPAS, good luck with it!

Top of the list for AFP for me is Northern - the AFPs at Newcastle look pretty good. May try for Mersey or York for the other slot.
Reply 2
Excellent stuff! What sort of specialist area are you interested in?

I really want to do dermatology, and the only AFP including a rotations I can find in this are Edinburgh and Oxford. I don't think I have any chance in Oxford and I preferably want to stay in Scotland anyway so fingers-crossed! Any particular areas in Scotland that appeal to you for regular FPAS?

Northern looks good, good luck! :smile:
Is it similar to Scotland in that your application consists of a CV and white space questions?
Think I'm going to apply to Thames for AFP, not sure how much of a chance I've got but better to have tried and failed than not tried at all! There seems to be a lot of choice in the AFPs and I'm mostly interested in Paeds, rheumatology, cardiology or medical education. Fingers crossed!
Hey everyone,

Was wondering if anyone has any info on the shortlisting criteria for Northwestern and Yorkshire & Humber? I've had a look at different UoAs' websites and it seems that only Thames publish their longlisting and shortlisting criteria for interviews.

Cheers
Reply 5
Next year for me, but subscribing to the thread anyway :p:
Reply 6
Original post by KF99
Excellent stuff! What sort of specialist area are you interested in?

I really want to do dermatology, and the only AFP including a rotations I can find in this are Edinburgh and Oxford. I don't think I have any chance in Oxford and I preferably want to stay in Scotland anyway so fingers-crossed! Any particular areas in Scotland that appeal to you for regular FPAS?

Northern looks good, good luck! :smile:
Is it similar to Scotland in that your application consists of a CV and white space questions?


Ah I loved doing derm, I could definitely see the appeal - all the best with it :smile: Edinburgh is south-east, right? I'm thinking west - there's a little less competition, and I'd love to live on the coast again so Inverclyde ticks all the boxes.

Radiology for me, would love to end up in academic radiology. A resp or cardio academic programme would be ideal as there's lots of scope to put a radiology spin on it.

I think that's how the application works but it's tricky to find any more information than that at the moment, I guess it'll be a nice surprise when the applications open... :wink:
Original post by jco91
Think I'm going to apply to Thames for AFP, not sure how much of a chance I've got but better to have tried and failed than not tried at all! There seems to be a lot of choice in the AFPs and I'm mostly interested in Paeds, rheumatology, cardiology or medical education. Fingers crossed!


That's exactly what I'm doing to do. Give it a shot. 90% certain I won't get it because I have no full PUBMED publications at all and score 44 on EPM.

This sounds like a really silly question, but for AFP, all of London is "Thames" right?
Original post by divinelord


This sounds like a really silly question, but for AFP, all of London is "Thames" right?


Yep it's all the thames foundation schools together. This has some useful info http://www.stfs.org.uk/student/tfs-academic-foundation-programme-recruitment
Reply 9
Original post by Tech
Ah I loved doing derm, I could definitely see the appeal - all the best with it :smile: Edinburgh is south-east, right? I'm thinking west - there's a little less competition, and I'd love to live on the coast again so Inverclyde ticks all the boxes.

Radiology for me, would love to end up in academic radiology. A resp or cardio academic programme would be ideal as there's lots of scope to put a radiology spin on it.

I think that's how the application works but it's tricky to find any more information than that at the moment, I guess it'll be a nice surprise when the applications open... :wink:


Yes Edinburgh is South East Scotland- I'm studying in Glasgow so fancy a bit of a change! :smile: but if not Edinburgh then hopefully I would get a place on the Glasgow AFP.


Ah yes, I've seen that lots of the AUoA have "themed" programmes. For the Scottish one you get to choose from a list of 4 month rotations and make up a programme based on your interests - so hopefully some paediatrics and maybe respiratory for me in addition to the dermatology! I think my interest is a bit niche to fit into a "theme" as such. The only other programme I can find with derm is Oxford AFP, but that is probably WAYYYY above me, but I might give it a shot just to see what happens.
Reply 10
Original post by divinelord
That's exactly what I'm doing to do. Give it a shot. 90% certain I won't get it because I have no full PUBMED publications at all and score 44 on EPM.

This sounds like a really silly question, but for AFP, all of London is "Thames" right?


That's a great EPM and if its anything like last year you should be above the cut off to be looked at in more detail! :smile:

When you say no "full pubmed" publications - do you know if an abstract published with a PUBMED ID as 'conference proceedings' or 'author information' counts for anything? I've heard rumours that the latter counts for points but can't get this confirmed anywhere.
Original post by KF99

When you say no "full pubmed" publications - do you know if an abstract published with a PUBMED ID as 'conference proceedings' or 'author information' counts for anything? I've heard rumours that the latter counts for points but can't get this confirmed anywhere.


On page 16 of the applicant handbook it says: "If the PMID number does not link DIRECTLY to the paper where it can be confirmed that you are an author, it will not gain any points. Therefore, if your abstract is published as part of conference proceedings that have a PMID number, but the PMID does not link directly to a paper listing the title and author which you have recorded in the previous boxes, you will not gain a point for the publication."
What I think they mean is that your name must be listed as author on the page that the PUBMED ID links to. This is probably just because they don't want to have to look for the abstract within the journal.

Not sure what you mean by 'author information'?
I just wondered what people thought of the "day release" AFP programmes. I've heard that on paper they sound very good, but in reality, you are not always going to have that time off to fulfil the AFP requirements, say if your ward is particularly busy that week/someone is ill or whatever. Obviously very valid reasons to stay on the ward, but just wondered what people thought of that, vs a 4 month block to fulfil the AFP requirements.
Reply 13
Original post by The Only Rivo
On page 16 of the applicant handbook it says: "If the PMID number does not link DIRECTLY to the paper where it can be confirmed that you are an author, it will not gain any points. Therefore, if your abstract is published as part of conference proceedings that have a PMID number, but the PMID does not link directly to a paper listing the title and author which you have recorded in the previous boxes, you will not gain a point for the publication."
What I think they mean is that your name must be listed as author on the page that the PUBMED ID links to. This is probably just because they don't want to have to look for the abstract within the journal.

Not sure what you mean by 'author information'?


Thanks for your input. I wasn't sure what 'author information' was supposed to mean either - as I am unfamiliar with the term. I was just wanting to check on here that it isn't something I've somehow never heard of!
Seems like it might just be a silly rumour then!

I had been under the impression - as you have confirmed - that the PUBMED ID needed to link to an original article with your name listed as an author, not to a list of abstracts. So sadly for me it looks like I won't have any points for publications! Worth checking though! :smile:
Just a question to those who have applied to Northwestern AFP in previous years. Were you able to rank different programmes (tracks) from different trusts or do we have to rank trusts first? In other words is it possible rank a certain track from Central Manchester as 1st choice then a track from Salford as 2nd then another track from Central Manchester as 3rd? or do we have to rank all the tracks from 1 trust before ranking tracks from other trusts?

The reason I'm asking is that the local matching process for normal (non-academic) FP in Northwestern consists of a 2-stage process. After allocation to NW foundation school you first rank trusts and once you're allocated to a trust you can then rank programmes only from within that trust. This is the reason why I'm not applying to NW for normal FP because I'm more interested in getting a track that includes a rotation in my specialty of interest than I am in which trust I'll based at.

So if anyone has applied to Manchester AFP before and knows how this works, I'd really appreciate it if you could shed some light on it. Thanks :smile:
Does anyone know whether the EPM cut-off score for Thames refers to the national EPM, or the Thames scoring system? It seems like Thames scores applications differently. Also, 44 is a good score!
Reply 16
Original post by robodahobo
Does anyone know whether the EPM cut-off score for Thames refers to the national EPM, or the Thames scoring system? It seems like Thames scores applications differently. Also, 44 is a good score!



From what I have read its the national EPM and then they look at the scoring system for those above the EPM cut off to choose those who shall be interviewed.

In other words, if you are below the EPM cut off they won't look at anything else. :frown:

I think it was 43 last year, but could vary a lot depending on who applies and averages ect.
Original post by KF99
From what I have read its the national EPM and then they look at the scoring system for those above the EPM cut off to choose those who shall be interviewed.

In other words, if you are below the EPM cut off they won't look at anything else. :frown:

I think it was 43 last year, but could vary a lot depending on who applies and averages ect.


43 including intercalated/extra degrees and publications, right? And not just people in the first decile...

:lolwut:
Reply 18
Original post by Medicine Man
43 including intercalated/extra degrees and publications, right? And not just people in the first decile...

:lolwut:


I'm fairly sure the cut off of 43 was for the "Total EPM Score" including publications and extra degrees, so not just those in the first decile. :smile:
Does anyone have any examples of previous white space questions? Kind of scary that we don't really have that long to fill them in so was hoping to do a bit of preparation beforehand!

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