Cambridge Medicine Students and Applicants

Can anyone give any more information on the practical side of the course. Is it difficult, how is it assessed etc?

What do you mean by the practical side of the course? Are you talking about the practicals you have during your first 3 years (i.e. histology, experimental physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, neurobiology etc).

Or are you talking about the clinical component of the course (i.e. 4th year - 6th year)?

The former, because at the moment I am a bit of a flop when it comes to practicals especially under time pressure!

Oh, the "practical exams" are really theory papers based upon practicals you do throughout the year - you don't have to do any practical experiments.

Anatomy has a "steeplechase" where you go round a room with various prosections with labels in and you have questions based upon that.

Histology has a practical exam where you have to look at prints of slides, rather than using a microscope IIRC.

They are generally not too much to worry about.

Oh that's good, so you are never assessed on writing up a lab report- like an evaluation of the practical itself like error analysis you do at school.

What about the experiments themselves are they difficult/assessed.

For first year experimental physiology you have to fill in some short answer questions about the experiments as you go throughout the year, but then submit all of that in one go at the end. It's pretty simple stuff to be honest.

Experiments are not really very difficult, and usually quite fun, i.e., what happens if you put a blood pressure cuff round your arm for 40 minutes - 1B neuroscience - is a favourite


Experiments are definitely not something to worry about

Thanks. A bit dangerous, no?

For first year experimental physiology you have to fill in some short answer questions about the experiments as you go throughout the year, but then submit all of that in one go at the end. It's pretty simple stuff to be honest.

Experiments are not really very difficult, and usually quite fun, i.e., what happens if you put a blood pressure cuff round your arm for 40 minutes - 1B neuroscience - is a favourite


Experiments are definitely not something to worry about

I did my AS this jan
I'am planning to apply for medicine at cambridge this year that is for the year 2011.
I'm currently doing bio chem phy and maths should I do A2 this june or doit later which is better?
my problem is I did my O levels in june 2008 and got only AAAABBBBBC
and then took gap year so i have wasted one yearwhat should I do please help???

O levels? Surely you mean GCSE's??
Its up to you - however be aware that you will need atleast A*AA at A2, so its whatever u think you can manage

Heya mate,

First of all - Chin up. You are not a failure and you are probably just as good or better than a lot of medical applicants with offers.

Second of all - did you really want to do Medicine? The likely answer is yes, but the rejections will be making you doubt yourself. However I reckon you probably did really want to do it so lets not give up on that dream.

Thirdly - Rejections aside, you are in a quality position for next years applications for a number of reasons -

1) You can get some more work experience or preferably even a medically related job like a HCA (this is what I did on my gap year). This gives you so much to talk about at interview and just so much experience with patients and talking to other healthcare professionals. It gives you a great appreciation of what a hospital will be like to work in.

2) You have more time to research uni choices, write your personal statement, prepare for interviews etc.

3) You have the time to earn money for uni and to go abroad or do something crazy if you'd like.

4) Any offers you get would be unconditional

5) You get to ask for feedback on your application so you can avoid making any mistakes/improving on weaker areas of your application this time round.

6) Very few things show admissions tutors grit and determination for a career than re-applying after 4 straight rejections.

If I were you I'd first get straight onto trying to get a HCA job ASAP, you may not start until September, but seriously - start apply for jobs straight away because if your trust is anything like my local one it'll take a lot of time for the Human Resources department to plough through things!

Secondly, the obvious one - knuckle down and get good UMS grades, especially if you want to apply to Cambridge second time round. Definitely make sure you get all A's so you have your choice of every Medical School to apply to.

Thirdly, but most importantly - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not call yourself a failure. I've been through exactly the same thing and it does knock the stuffing out of you. I applied to Oxford, St. Andrews, Bristol and Edinburgh first time round and I have to say I was quietly confident, I guess I wasn't really used to not succeeding at stuff, I had -

10A*'s, 3A's at GCSE, all A's at AS level (UMS around 90%), a good UKCAT (670 I think) and BMAT (21.2)

I got two interviews and four straight rejections.

However I refused to believe that I was inferior - it's easy to but please don't, for your sake, I'm sure you are better than that. It just so happens we are applying for one of the most competitive subjects there is. I'm not saying I should've got a place last year, I have faith in the admissions tutors that there were better people but the gap year I'm on at the moment has given me the advantages (that I listed above) that I think have given me better success this year.

I got my 4A's at A-level, did better in my UKCAT and BMAT, and got 3 offers and an interview (which I didn't go to!), including the Cambridge offer which I've taken.

I really can't encourage you enough to try to get back into gear, get your chin up and sieze the opportunity of this gap year. I didn't plan to take mine but I'm actually so glad I've done it now. The HCA'ing will just be so useful to me as a med student and beyond, and plus I get the chance to bugger off to China for 4 months (in less than 60 hours I might add, argh!).

Hang in there buddy, it does get better after the initial low, I promise you, and it can be done.

When Winston Churchill was invited to take a school assembly after WWII he got up onto the stage and all he said before sitting down again was this,

"Never, ever, ever, ever give up".

Cheers,

--Dave

I'd like to know if there are any colleges that interview an unusually large amount of applicants, and place more emphasis on the interview?

Thank you