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How hard realisticaly to get an offer for medicine?

Reply 40

Philosoraptor

18

I did two weeks, one in the hospital Urology ward, one with a Psychiatrist in a community clinic/hospital.

Reply 41

Chocolate AssCream

Hood

What is true is that the norm is simply something not visible from your point of view.
lots of people get in with all sorts of grades to most of the medical schools, as long as they meet minimum requirements.

i dont know how much more plain that can be made.

OK...let's see: people in my year, people in other schools, current medics i talked to at open day, admissions tutors, even the people on this forum who list their grades and offers in their sigs. In what way is the norm "not visible" from my point of view? ffs, you don't need to be in medical school to spot the trend.
I'm not saying there are no applicants who got in with the minimum grad, i'm just saying the few who did get in are giving false hope and raised expectations.

vb07

Finally, I completely disagree with the approach that people on this forum take. They just don't like telling it as it is. Someone appears with say 1 or 2 A* and asks what their chances are. Some bored medical student comes along, talks about how they ‘got in with less' (5 years ago) and complains about people 'showing off :rolleyes:

'. Then some current applicant, with fantastic GCSEs, promptly posts about an anecdotal case at their school and tells the poster than they'll be 'absolutely fine :biggrin:

'. People don’t like saying that the average applicant has a 33% chance, and 1 or 2 A* is below average, because that would be upsetting. Well its better found out now (when the poster can maybe work a little harder on their application or readjust their medical school choices) than in March of next year with 4 rejections.

Thank you. My point exactly.

EDIT: Btw, don't know about the rest of you guys, but work exp was a bitch to find (no medic relatives :frown:

)

Reply 42

person 34

9

I agree that someone with not so many A*'s is "below average" in comparison to other medical students, but if they stand out in every other aspect i.e are precited 3A's and have all the work experience, right qualities etc, they will have just as good a chance of getting in. Not that many people actually have perfect grades AND everything else, and those that do will get what they desreve by going to a very academic/prestiegious medical school. So basically, you just have to work your choices around you.

Reply 43

insparato

15

Yep work experience was hard to find and hard to fit into my life. I live 18miles from school so im out at 7am and dont get back till 5pm. I couldnt really just take 2,3,4 weeks chunks out of school to do work experience nobody can.. So i did two weeks in a hospital in the easter holidays 9-5. Then id come home and do some revision and chemistry open book. I then did 5 weeks at a nursery during the summer, yep not related but its something, its a different environment working with people.

This is what pissed me off, my liverpool interviewer said to me

"Ofcourse you'll have done more work experience since then"

Reply 44

Hood

Chocolate AssCream

OK...let's see: people in my year, people in other schools, current medics i talked to at open day, admissions tutors, even the people on this forum who list their grades and offers in their sigs. In what way is the norm "not visible" from my point of view? ffs, you don't need to be in medical school to spot the trend.
I'm not saying there are no applicants who got in with the minimum grad, i'm just saying the few who did get in are giving false hope and raised expectations.

and in saying that people like you are giving false messsages of doom to those who would get in if they didnt listen to you, and so the prophecy self-fulfils.
I dont believe for a minute that admissions tutors would contradict their own websites, so why dont you give me the names of the admissions tutors you spoke to and we'll put your claims to the test?

And if you're using the 'what are my sources?', then for the record, I used to work alongside the admissions team in a medical school. ok? (actually make that two medical schools admissions teams, one as a temp). If you believe for a minute that the majority of people on the TSR forum reflects the suceess of the average college student then you're sorely mistaken.

Reply 45

arpeggio

12

Sorry if this is slightly off-topic, but I was wondering if it was really necessary to get work experience with a GP surgery? I've written round to loads of places and they've all said they're too busy to take on a work experience student :frown:

I have 3 weeks in my local hospital but nothing in any other kind of medical environment! Should I keep asking round places (although they'll probably all say no) or give up and find something else?

Reply 46

Revd. Mike

17

It's not necessary to get it in a GP surgery or a hospital, Unis do appreciate how difficult it can be. Try volunteering at a hospital or care home or similar.

Reply 47

Chocolate AssCream

Hood

false messsages of doom

Maybe I'm just extra paranoid? or cynical?
Or maybe you should read over the posts again before you reply.

(btw, which universities were you part of the admissions team for? just curious)

Reply 48

Johnny C.

9

xemmajanex

Sorry if this is slightly off-topic, but I was wondering if it was really necessary to get work experience with a GP surgery? I've written round to loads of places and they've all said they're too busy to take on a work experience student :frown:

I have 3 weeks in my local hospital but nothing in any other kind of medical environment! Should I keep asking round places (although they'll probably all say no) or give up and find something else?

I didn't have any work experience in a GP surgery and it didn't seem to affect me. The only place I know where they expressly state that you should have work experience in a community setting (e.g. GP surgery) is Leeds.

Most people who do work experience in a GP surgery seem to end up sitting in reception for a week doing filing, so I don't think you're missing out on much anyway

Reply 49

insparato

15

Hood

and in saying that people like you are giving false messsages of doom to those who would get in if they didnt listen to you, and so the prophecy self-fulfils.
I dont believe for a minute that admissions tutors would contradict their own websites, so why dont you give me the names of the admissions tutors you spoke to and we'll put your claims to the test?

And if you're using the 'what are my sources?', then for the record, I used to work alongside the admissions team in a medical school. ok? (actually make that two medical schools admissions teams, one as a temp). If you believe for a minute that the majority of people on the TSR forum reflects the suceess of the average college student then you're sorely mistaken.

Thank you someone who agrees with what i was trying to say.

Reply 50

geared

how long do you need to spend for work experience??? i can only spend during summer holidays. which seems too short to get into london unis

Reply 51

Chocolate AssCream

You're looking at it all wrong, work exp isn't about how much time you put in, it's about what you gain from the time you are there.

I did work exp at a hospital for a week. That was it. That was all I needed to see.

(from what I heard, work exp at GP surgeries are boring as hell, you can't sit in because of patient confidentiality, and all you end up doing is paperwork, i.e. you become an unpaid secretary/general gopher for a week)

Reply 52

insparato

15

geared

how long do you need to spend for work experience??? i can only spend during summer holidays. which seems too short to get into london unis

Do as much as you can without it effecting other things. What do you mean by specifically London Uni's?

Quality not quantity, Its better to have gotten something out of 2 weeks of work experience than to do 10 weeks and learned nothing.

Just make sure you have something you can say on it once it comes to interviews.

I did two weeks at a psychiatric unit. That was it medically.

Reply 53

geared

med skls in london i mean... they are most overcrowded med skls :biggrin:

i thought u need to spend months... i need to know what sort of questions to ask at placement though!

Reply 54

insparato

15

geared

med skls in london i mean... they are most overcrowded med skls :biggrin:

i thought u need to spend months... i need to know what sort of questions to ask at placement though!

Every Medical school is competitive, admissions tutors at any university arent going to go "Oh wow look at this candidate he did 6 months of work experience"

Its about what you get out of the work experience you have been able to get that they will be interested to hear about. As long as you are able to get something medically linked for a period of time enough so you can say something about it, thats fine.

Reply 55

Johnny C.

9

geared

how long do you need to spend for work experience??? i can only spend during summer holidays. which seems too short to get into london unis

You're confusing work experience with voluntary work.
Work experience is shadowing a doctor for a week or similar

Voluntary work is helping out with something e.g. at a care home, hospice, hospital, youth centre etc.... normally once a week over a long period of time

Most uni's want to see you've committed to doing voluntary work for at least 6 months. Why can't you do voluntary work during term time?

There's nothing different about London uni's (in fact, imperial and ucl seem to put quite a lot of emphasis on the BMAT/ other academic requirements, so voluntary work may not be as important if you're applying to those two)

Reply 56

Hood

Chocolate AssCream

Maybe I'm just extra paranoid? or cynical?
Or maybe you should read over the posts again before you reply.

I've read the select TSR posts that support your view, thanks, but I prefer to trust the figures and experience of admissions first hand, if its all the same with you.
You asked where I worked. I was at Barts and Georges (plus a post spent mostly wandering corridors and drinking mochas at a dubious postgrad med college for a while, for some reason I havent yet worked out....).

There is no denying that is some truth in your stance, but your argument needs to hit its salient points rather than avoid them. For instance, those universities that would use gcses as a predictor for A levels would of course admit those with better gcses in favour of those with worse ones, but the ones with worse ones would not lose out once they'd obtained the necessary A level grades - they're re-applications would carry equal weight and they would get in next year. I would suspect the observations of your associates miss out on this because they emphasise the percentage who got in out of a particular school year, rather than the percentage who got in eventually including consecutive applications. But I'm just guessing - if this has been mentioned already then my apologies for bringing it up again!

Spot on about the work experience though.

Reply 57

Hood

insparato

Thank you someone who agrees with what i was trying to say.

All in a day's work, Insparato. thank you!

Reply 58

geared

Johnny C.

Most uni's want to see you've committed to doing voluntary work for at least 6 months. Why can't you do voluntary work during term time?

tried asking for that at nursing home last year, but i was told that i needed to be at least 17, which is a week after my AS exams have finished :biggrin:

am i missing something??? :confused:

Reply 59

Providence_

btw, academic scores make out of only 20% of the total selection scores from the admissions tutor.
the other 80% is your work experience, volunteer work, reflection on your work, extra-curricular, etc.

out of that 20%, about 90% is your A-levels or IB or scottish higher scores (% depends on which course you take as they follow UCAS tariff points). then the ohter 10% is your IGCSE.

as for the UKCAT scores, since this is the 1st yr of implementation, most unis are using it as a differentiation between 2 candidates with same selection scores. so obviously the candidate who scores higher will be prefered. However, this only applies to certain unis.

i know KCL, Queens, and few others, weigh the UKCAT scores very highly. so if your get only an average of 600, it will be hard for you to enter (i'm speaking for international students, i'm not sure about candidate with EU status).

How hard realisticaly to get an offer for medicine?

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