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Anyone considering 2016 entry for Medicine?

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Original post by panda14
Get yourself on Cadet Leadership 1 course with St John, incredibly useful skills there, and good for interview I think. :P

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Done it :smile: its was so much fun!! wanna go to cadet leader 2 in june hopefully
Original post by hukdealz
My advice as a 2015 entry offer holder, take it if you want, but you're more than welcome to leave it.

For some reason, everyone on TSR thinks that having a page long list of work experience gets you offers. The only work experience I did was a week at a hospital, and the only volunteering was 3 hours a week combined at a school for children with SLDs and nursing home.

This particularly applies to you. The average UMS for successful cambridge applicants is 96% in each subject. Really, you should be aiming for 100% UMS. Focus on getting that, instead of dedicating however many hours you currently are on your volunteering and extra curricular.

However, if you're seriously considering going to Bristol, you really need to get some sport in the mix. Speaking from experience (a family friend who's on the interview panel at Bristol), Bristol literally just want people who are going to make their university look good from a sport/society point of view. You need to have a really strong extracurricular profile to get an interview at Bristol (as an example, one of the few people who got an interview from Bristol at my school-which has around 100 med school applicants each year-sailed for Team GB).

I don't know about the other unis, but I hope that I was of some help.


I was wondering if the UMS thing matters for other unis like imperial or UCL etc and if so would 92-95 be good enough?
Original post by prerana123
I was wondering if the UMS thing matters for other unis like imperial or UCL etc and if so would 92-95 be good enough?

universities don't actually get UMS through UCAS, so the only way they can find out your UMS is by asking you directly. I believe (although don't quote me), oxbridge are the only unis that ask for your UMS so for imperial and UCL, it doesn't matter whether it's a high A or a low A (but this will, of course affect your predicted A level grades, which unis look at).

My advice- aim as high as you can regardless of where you're applying!
Original post by prerana123
Done it :smile: its was so much fun!! wanna go to cadet leader 2 in june hopefully


ahaha, leader 2 is so different! You do come out handling teams like a boss at the end of it (excuse the pun) which is an amazing feeling! Youth First Aid and peer ed are both great too!

To be honest SJA is the only reason I'm actually going to apply for medicine! Before that I'd just say I wasn't good enough. :biggrin:

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(edited 9 years ago)
Ooh just found this thread- looks really useful ^-^
I got 10A*s and an A at GCSEs (+a distinction in ICT ocr nationals, but idk if those even count :')), but I'm panicking about work experience and volunteering. I did badly in my mocks, so my parents won't let me do any more WE or volunteering till summer.
So far I've only volunteered a week in an elderly day care centre, a week in a nursery, about 6 weeks in a primary school, 6 months in a charity shop (For bronze D of E) and had 2 days work experience in hospital wards.
Is it too late to leave the rest of my work experience and volunteering till summer? I'm hoping to get more hospital work experience somehow (at least a week), maybe a week in a genetics lab, and hopefully a few days with a gp. I also hope to spend the whole of summer volunteering at a hospital or a care home (or both!). I haven't organised any of this yet but will do in Easter.
im just wondering what you guys think- would this be enough? bc everyone seems to have done a billion weeks already, and I haven't....yet. I just really want to get the grades first, but this volunteering/ WE thing is stressing me out!
We have to start our personal statements straight after exams, but I can add stuff about my experience after the holidays right? I'm just worried about giving a draft of my statement to my teacher before the holidays, and she'll kill me bc it's going to be pretty empty at that time!
Is anyone else in a similar position? I just feel very underprepared.
Oh and I'm doing maths, further maths, biology, chemistry and physics and I have absolutely no frees, so can't fit stuff in during school time.
Sorry for the essay, thanks!
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by panda14
ahaha, leader 2 is so different! You do come out handling teams like a boss at the end of it (excuse the pun) which is an amazing feeling! Youth First Aid and peer ed are both great too!

To be honest SJA is the only reason I'm actually going to apply for medicine! Before that I'd just say I wasn't good enough. :biggrin:

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woooow what rank are you? Whats are yours grades btw... the thread is kinda long, dont really wanna look through... I am sure you are good enough i think the main thing is being confident tbh
Original post by aliciaa1997
Ooh just found this thread- looks really useful ^-^
I got 10A*s and an A at GCSEs (+a distinction in ICT ocr nationals, but idk if those even count :')), but I'm panicking about work experience and volunteering. I did badly in my mocks, so my parents won't let me do any more WE or volunteering till summer.
So far I've only volunteered a week in an elderly day care centre, a week in a nursery, about 6 weeks in a primary school, 6 months in a charity shop (For bronze D of E) and had 2 days work experience in hospital wards.
Is it too late to leave the rest of my work experience and volunteering till summer? I'm hoping to get more hospital work experience somehow (at least a week), maybe a week in a genetics lab, and hopefully a few days with a gp. I also hope to spend the whole of summer volunteering at a hospital or a care home (or both!). I haven't organised any of this yet but will do in Easter.
im just wondering what you guys think- would this be enough? bc everyone seems to have done a billion weeks already, and I haven't....yet. I just really want to get the grades first, but this volunteering/ WE thing is stressing me out!
We have to start our personal statements straight after exams, but I can add stuff about my experience after the holidays right? I'm just worried about giving a draft of my statement to my teacher before the holidays, and she'll kill me bc it's going to be pretty empty at that time!
Is anyone else in a similar position? I just feel very underprepared.
Oh and I'm doing maths, further maths, biology, chemistry and physics and I have absolutely no frees, so can't fit stuff in during school time.
Sorry for the essay, thanks!

welcome to the thread.

first of all, just to introduce myself. I'm actually in the year above you, and am currently an offer holder for medicine 2015 entry.

With regards to work experience and volunteering, instead of going for just one great long list, you need to choose a few placements and really focus on them. The problem is, if you have a great big long list, unis won't even hear about 80% of the things on the list, so from an application point of view, they're essentially pointless. With the work experience/volunteering you do do, be sure to keep a diary of the things you see/experience/do, as this will be really helpful when it comes to writing your personal statement/interview. Reflection is the key to success!

Back to my advice about the types of work experience you might thinking of undertaking. You should class this into two categories
1) Short term placements- e.g. a week at the local GP surgery
2) Long term placements-e.g. helping out for x hours a week at your local nursing home.

Generally speaking, the short term placements should really only be limited to clinical care settings. From my experience, it's pretty much pointless doing a week at a nursery, as unis only use work experience, generally speaking, to a. show that you understand what a career in medicine entails
b. to show that you are dedicated enough to commit yourself to a task and see it through to the end.
So, my advice- get as much short term hospital/GP short term placements in, but don't bother with short term placements which aren't directly linked to medicine

In terms of long term placements, these are generally volunteering placements and unis look for this to show that you have the motivation to dedicate a set amount of hours per week to giving back to your community. These are where things that don't directly link to medicine can come in. As the very minimum, you should have at least 9 months of a continuous long term voluntary placement. Personally, I had two long term placements which I did for a year, 2 hours a week each. This is all you need. What you choose to do is up to you, do something you enjoy and something that you will actually do every single week, as med schools often ask for references.

However, above all of this. You need to make sure you get those straight As in your ASs. These will really help strengthen your application, a lot more so than spending a week in a nursery. Your priority should be grades.

I hope I was of some help.
Original post by hukdealz
welcome to the thread.

first of all, just to introduce myself. I'm actually in the year above you, and am currently an offer holder for medicine 2015 entry.

With regards to work experience and volunteering, instead of going for just one great long list, you need to choose a few placements and really focus on them. The problem is, if you have a great big long list, unis won't even hear about 80% of the things on the list, so from an application point of view, they're essentially pointless. With the work experience/volunteering you do do, be sure to keep a diary of the things you see/experience/do, as this will be really helpful when it comes to writing your personal statement/interview. Reflection is the key to success!

Back to my advice about the types of work experience you might thinking of undertaking. You should class this into two categories
1) Short term placements- e.g. a week at the local GP surgery
2) Long term placements-e.g. helping out for x hours a week at your local nursing home.

Generally speaking, the short term placements should really only be limited to clinical care settings. From my experience, it's pretty much pointless doing a week at a nursery, as unis only use work experience, generally speaking, to a. show that you understand what a career in medicine entails
b. to show that you are dedicated enough to commit yourself to a task and see it through to the end.
So, my advice- get as much short term hospital/GP short term placements in, but don't bother with short term placements which aren't directly linked to medicine

In terms of long term placements, these are generally volunteering placements and unis look for this to show that you have the motivation to dedicate a set amount of hours per week to giving back to your community. These are where things that don't directly link to medicine can come in. As the very minimum, you should have at least 9 months of a continuous long term voluntary placement. Personally, I had two long term placements which I did for a year, 2 hours a week each. This is all you need. What you choose to do is up to you, do something you enjoy and something that you will actually do every single week, as med schools often ask for references.

However, above all of this. You need to make sure you get those straight As in your ASs. These will really help strengthen your application, a lot more so than spending a week in a nursery. Your priority should be grades.

I hope I was of some help.


Thank you so much for the advice!! I'm a little worried about getting volunteering done, but I'll do as much as I can, and learn as much as I can from the experience so I can reflect upon that in my ps.
Good luck with everything!
Hey guys,
I'm a final year medical student so I have been through the application process and remember it well! I managed to get 4 offers so I must have done something right!

I just was browsing and I'd just like to say that you all sound great. Having a good personal statement is obviously important - it's how you get selected for interview - but that's not just about how much work experience you have or how many things you've achieved. Having some is good because it shows that you've actively tried to gain experience about the subject that you're thinking of entering into, but quantity isn't the same as quality, and it isn't the same as getting an offer. I know people who were rejected who had more, and people who were accepted with less.

I think the main thing with personal statements and all this work experience/voluntary work/achievements etc is to think why you are writing this stuff on there. What are you trying to tell the medical school? For example, I did my D of E (only for the personal statement glory!), and then I wrote about how it was a good way of developing leadership and team-working skills. Or I wrote about my volunteering with disabling children, then wrote about how "their diverse needs and personalities required me to develop my abilities to respond appropriately to the individual" (direct quote! :P )

Ultimately, almost everybody who is applying to medicine is going to have some work experience, some voluntary work, something interesting on their statement. What's important is trying to stand out as somebody who is suited to a medical career. Once you get to interview, it's all about you as a person and how you come across!

Just a couple more things...

1) Don't lie!! I've heard horror stories about someone who said they read Gray's Anatomy in their spare time, and then was quizzed about anatomy! Don't do it!
2) Don't worry if you think you embarrass yourself in an interview... I know somebody who walked into the cupboard when trying to leave the interview, and still got a place!
3) I recommend reading the document "Tomorrow's Doctors" by the GMC. It shows you what the GMC want doctors to be like... and that in turn will show you what they are looking for in a potential candidate. The main 3 are "doctor as a professional, doctor as a scientist, doctor as a practitioner." Read it and see if you can show that you have or are aspiring towards these characteristics.
4) Read the medical news, I got asked at 2 of the 4 interviews about something interesting I'd recently read about medicine!
5) Know the things you put on your personal statement. 2 of my interviews used the personal statement and 2 didn't. The ones that did picked up on conditions I'd mentioned (e.g. I met a child with Down's Syndrome at my work experience) and asked me a bit about them. Not loads, but a bit!
6) Big yourself up... but also be yourself! I cringe reading my statement back, partly because of all the self-promotion that you have to do but also because I sound so super keen. That's what they want though - training you up is a big investment for them so they want to know that you're committed and really interested!

Any more that I can think of, I'll edit and add to here as I go. Tell me if this wasn't helpful and I'll stop! Also feel free to message me if you have any questions. My finals are in 4 weeks so I'll be a bit busy until after then but I'll still reply if I'm able to!

Rachel
(Brighton and Sussex Medical School)




Edit 1: Also, having re-read my post, I'd just like to add that I know it's hard to find clinical placements sometimes. I had real difficulty getting any hospital work-experience and in the end I only managed it through a friend of my parents who worked in the hospital. Universities understand this, and will respect attempts you've made to get into similar work experience. So although hospital/GP would be ideal, if you can't manage it, then care homes are a great place for experience, or even my year 10 work experience was in a vet which was still vaguely medical!
(edited 9 years ago)
Hey guys, my school is going to a ucas convention on friday, and with 5A*s 7 A's and 2B's at GCSE, and 4A's predicted at A2, which universities would be the best to go and speak to, I would like to go to UCL, but I don't think my grades are good enough and as for everywhere else, I am super unsure...

Anyway, tell me what you think guys???
Hey guys can I apply to King's and perhaps get an interview with 1A*, 1A, 7B's... Target grade is 3A's and 1B at end of A2 Really want to go into King's for medicine... Do I stand a chance?
I am going to the UCAS convention on monday.
Original post by exoticmedgirl_2017
woooow what rank are you? Whats are yours grades btw... the thread is kinda long, dont really wanna look through... I am sure you are good enough i think the main thing is being confident tbh


L.Cdt and former DCOTY. I got 8a*, 2a, 1b and c in short course written Japanese (plus an SJA pilot btec) :P

Confidence is definitely the main thing. :biggrin:
Original post by magnusbane
Hey guys, my school is going to a ucas convention on friday, and with 5A*s 7 A's and 2B's at GCSE, and 4A's predicted at A2, which universities would be the best to go and speak to, I would like to go to UCL, but I don't think my grades are good enough and as for everywhere else, I am super unsure...

Anyway, tell me what you think guys???


Original post by Elhamm
Hey guys can I apply to King's and perhaps get an interview with 1A*, 1A, 7B's... Target grade is 3A's and 1B at end of A2 Really want to go into King's for medicine... Do I stand a chance?
I am going to the UCAS convention on monday.


Go and have a chat with as many as you can, you won't know unless you ask - or at least that's what I'm going to be doing when we go to a ucas convention in April. :tongue:

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Original post by Elhamm
Hey guys can I apply to King's and perhaps get an interview with 1A*, 1A, 7B's... Target grade is 3A's and 1B at end of A2 Really want to go into King's for medicine... Do I stand a chance?
I am going to the UCAS convention on monday.


I have extenuating circumstances (2A*s 7As 2Bs) and when I spoke to her she said 8A/A*s+... Basically the chances are slim. You should definitely email them
Original post by panda14
L.Cdt and former DCOTY. I got 8a*, 2a, 1b and c in short course written Japanese (plus an SJA pilot btec) :P

Confidence is definitely the main thing. :biggrin:


Woah 😱😱 that's gotta look good on your application ☺️☺️ i did japanese at GCSE too and got an A*. your grades are pretty good 👍👍 have you got any duty hour badges?


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Original post by exoticmedgirl_2017
Woah 😱😱 that's gotta look good on your application ☺️☺️ i did japanese at GCSE too and got an A*. your grades are pretty good 👍👍 have you got any duty hour badges?


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No because non-clinical doesn't count apparently. :wink:

How did you manage that in Japanese?! That's amazing!

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Hey guys! Thought I'd just give a heads up and say good luck to all my fellow AS medicine hopefuls.
I'm not sure about you guys but I'm starting to feel the pressure of getting those A's.
The thought of a nice long summer break is keeping me motivated.
How are you guys all coping with the stress?
Original post by panda14
No because non-clinical doesn't count apparently. :wink:

How did you manage that in Japanese?! That's amazing!

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You can still show dedication and leadership through it :smile:
I watch anime and stuff so I kinda learnt through that i guess!
I feel like my application is kinda complete but I need more supercurricular academic stuff like essay competitions or Olympiads...
No offence but to do medicine I'm pretty sure you need A* and/or A grades. It's really competitive to get into! Which sucks as in my opinion the most academic of people did not always make the best doctors. I'm not hating it's what all my research has told me. Defo agree that you should go talk to unis but you also consider other career paths that you would be equally as happy with. What attracts you to medicine? Often people (I'm not saying you are one of them! No hate lol) just pick medicine because everyone knows about being a doctor and it's an pretty well paid and respected profession. People who say these factors are not important when picking a career are out of their minds! Of course they are! But you also want to pick a job which you'll be happy to do for the rest of your working life at the same time :smile:

Look into personalised/stratified medicine! Good money and lack of graduates AND you can devote your time to something which will have a meaningful impact on everyone's lives in the future


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UCL is one of the best medical schools in the world at the minute so it's very competitive to get into


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