Anyone considering 2016 entry for Medicine?

Reply 760

username1183574

7

Original post by nurav11

"Fitting a family" jeez I feel so young and childish...

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God no not now! But wouldn't be fully qualified until I was like 30!

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Reply 761

sarahmac89

Original post by Ebbsy

Haha nothing develops your patience like dealing with children 24/7! I'm worried about fitting a family into my studies so you're lucky that you're already there! So are you doing all these qualifications this summer?

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I am doing my 5 highers after the summer holidays, and yeah it is really hard fitting it all in, im a retail supervisor as well, so don't have much time for revising for exams, im just hoping that my 5 highers will be enough as the people still in school do advanced highers as well, so ive got some heavy competition for a place at uni

Reply 762

nurav11

2

Original post by Ebbsy

God no not now! But wouldn't be fully qualified until I was like 30!

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Ahah ok fair enough

Reply 763

username1183574

7

Original post by sarahmac89

I am doing my 5 highers after the summer holidays, and yeah it is really hard fitting it all in, im a retail supervisor as well, so don't have much time for revising for exams, im just hoping that my 5 highers will be enough as the people still in school do advanced highers as well, so ive got some heavy competition for a place at uni

Well I think as your circumstances are so different from the average school leaver then they will accept slightly different qualifications - have you spoken individually to the medical schools that you're interested in? There's so much competition for everyone - at least you will stand out, most applicants look exactly the same on paper!

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Reply 764

username1183574

7

Have people already started/written their first draft of their personal statement yet?

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Reply 765

AnnekaChan173

18

Original post by Ebbsy

Have people already started/written their first draft of their personal statement yet?

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Yep, my school asked for one in February. Mine is pretty awful but I guess we have some time to do things and add them on!

What's your structure so far? Not sure if I should move mine around or not...

Reply 766

username1183574

7

Original post by AnnekaChan173

Yep, my school asked for one in February. Mine is pretty awful but I guess we have some time to do things and add them on!

What's your structure so far? Not sure if I should move mine around or not...

Started replying but realised it's going to be a reeeally long post so will pm you

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Reply 767

FemaleBo55

17

Original post by Ebbsy

Have people already started/written their first draft of their personal statement yet?

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No, my school advised us not to write a draft until september, instead note down key points that you would consider to write in your personal statement before september.

Reply 768

emem2011

OP

8

Original post by AnnekaChan173

Yep, my school asked for one in February. Mine is pretty awful but I guess we have some time to do things and add them on!

What's your structure so far? Not sure if I should move mine around or not...

Woah that's so early :O I had to write one for the Oxford Summer School although that was pretty awful, so let's hope my actual personal statement is better than that was haha!!

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Reply 769

username1183574

7

Original post by Elhamm

No, my school advised us not to write a draft until september, instead note down key points that you would consider to write in your personal statement before september.

I would definitely advise at least starting it over summer - they take a LOT of editing, and the more you change it, the better the final draft will probably turn out! I agree now is far too early - we won't have done half the stuff we are going to end up including in the final draft! - but never to early to start thinking about it!

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Reply 770

AnnekaChan173

18

Original post by Elhamm

No, my school advised us not to write a draft until september, instead note down key points that you would consider to write in your personal statement before september.

Original post by emem2011

Woah that's so early :O I had to write one for the Oxford Summer School although that was pretty awful, so let's hope my actual personal statement is better than that was haha!!

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I thought I was applying last year, so I already had a base PS, I just rejigged it a little and added the things that I do this year :smile:

of course it'll change since I have things I'll do in the summer etc. September I'd say is a little late to start, considering you send it off in October. Starting in August will give you the opportunity to speak to people and ask for corrections/advice without having this huge time pressure. As my school puts Early bird applications ASAP, we did our draft when we came back after AS

Reply 771

Lainathiel

5

Original post by exoticmedgirl_2017

Life sciences at imperial... I think it's around April time... Have you booked open days yet?

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Oooh, awesome! :smile:

I hope it goes well for you! And thanks for the info about replies: I'm too eager to find out, haha! I've booked Cambridge for the 3rd (I think?) of July; every time I have a look at booking others though, they aren't taking any yet. I'm hoping to have a look at Imperial and UCL, and maybe Bristol as well. Have you booked any yet? :smile:

Reply 772

DurianTurtle

1

Original post by ebruxoxo

GCSE; 1A*, 1A, 9 B'S (Bad I know, but it doesn't mean i cant try)

A levels im doing currently; Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Psychology

Voluntary work; 2 hospitals both for 2 weeks, charity shop, hospital abroad for a week, pharmacy/chemistry for 2 months, science club for children to help them out.

Maybe i need to do more.

Uni's ive looked at are; UCL, Keele, Leichester, KCL, UEA (Med with foundation course), Queens Belfast

Someone help me out with what else i should do?

Hey!

I see that you're looking to apply to Queen's. Queen's judge applications and put points according to GCSE and UKCAT scores. With your GCSEs I'm afraid you'll be at a disadvantage as you will only get 7/36 points (1A*=4 and 1A=3). The UKCAT makes up 6 points and you could only get a maximum of 13 which is far below the usual threshold to obtain an interview.

However, if you wanted to or if you are unsuccessful applying in your upper sixth year, you could reapply to Queen's. They give gap year people the full 36 points as long as you have achieved AAA at A level and a further A in your AS level. You'd have a much better chance of getting past the threshold if you really want to go there!

Make sure to study the prospectuses well so you know you're not at a disadvantage when it comes to applying.

Hope this helps! :smile:

Reply 773

DurianTurtle

1

Original post by Elhamm

No, my school advised us not to write a draft until september, instead note down key points that you would consider to write in your personal statement before september.

Try and draft it as soon as you can if you have spare time. I'm not sure why your school would advise you not to write it until September. Maybe that's when the teachers are available to help you? Start planning what you want to write like you said. You don't want to be running out of time in September/October! You'll have plenty of other things on your hands like actually picking your universities and courses or going to any last minute open days.

Get a head start if you can! :biggrin:

Reply 774

nurav11

2

Original post by DurianTurtle

Try and draft it as soon as you can if you have spare time. I'm not sure why your school would advise you not to write it until September. Maybe that's when the teachers are available to help you? Start planning what you want to write like you said. You don't want to be running out of time in September/October! You'll have plenty of other things on your hands like actually picking your universities and courses or going to any last minute open days.

Get a head start if you can! :biggrin:

Hi, are you a current medical student? If so, how was the process for you? :smile:

Reply 775

DurianTurtle

1

Original post by nurav11

Hi, are you a current medical student? If so, how was the process for you? :smile:

Hi!

I'm on a gap year at the moment and I'm going to study Medicine at Glasgow in September.

Applying was relatively straightforward because I just had to pick the unis I was interested in.

I felt that I did spend a lot of time on volunteering and work experience and if I was going to do it again, I would have done a bit less and studied more!

The personal statement took a lot of my time. I think it's good to start drafting it after your exams in June. I ended up doing almost 10 drafts (many with only minor chances though)!

With the UKCAT, I just got the 600Q book and did them from start to finish. I also paid for the online Medify UKCAT course because I wanted to practice getting used to the format of the test.

I also felt that revising early for the A level exams helped me a lot because when it came to exam time, I could spend less time learning the material and more time applying my knowledge.

:smile:

Are you looking to apply?

Reply 776

nurav11

2

Original post by DurianTurtle

Hi!

I'm on a gap year at the moment and I'm going to study Medicine at Glasgow in September.

Applying was relatively straightforward because I just had to pick the unis I was interested in.

I felt that I did spend a lot of time on volunteering and work experience and if I was going to do it again, I would have done a bit less and studied more!

The personal statement took a lot of my time. I think it's good to start drafting it after your exams in June. I ended up doing almost 10 drafts (many with only minor chances though)!

With the UKCAT, I just got the 600Q book and did them from start to finish. I also paid for the online Medify UKCAT course because I wanted to practice getting used to the format of the test.

I also felt that revising early for the A level exams helped me a lot because when it came to exam time, I could spend less time learning the material and more time applying my knowledge.

:smile:

Are you looking to apply?

Oh wow congratulations! Best of luck to you for next year then :smile:

. Were you re-applying or going for a deferred entry?

Haha well I feel that so long as it doesn't adversely affect my studies, doing as much experience as possible can only be a good thing as it is often very rewarding and fun. But I guess all that is in the past for you now.

Personal statement and UKCAT yes that's good advice thanks, it's what I'll plan to do. I was a little worried about the cost of those courses but having looked at some of the questions, I'll definitely have to go for it. Our school do also give a lot of help preparing PS/BMAT/UKCAT in June so can't afford to slack off after AS!

Fair enough, hopefully I'll motivate myself to revise a bit earlier. Yes I'll be applying start of next year, thinking of a few med schools at the moment but Cambridge, UCL and Birmingham are the ones which are standing out the most :smile:

.

Reply 777

username1183574

7

Original post by DurianTurtle

With the UKCAT, I just got the 600Q book and did them from start to finish. I also paid for the online Medify UKCAT course because I wanted to practice getting used to the format of the test.

Glad you recommended the book, it just arrived today! I'm also on a gap year and looking to apply in October so should have plenty of time to perfect my technique - would you agree with others that more practice will improve your score? (to an extent, obviously some people are naturally better at it)

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