TSR Med Students' Society Part VI

Yeah, my uni said their cut off was 39. Just me or is that not quite high? And I don't understand why they don't factor in intercalation or

I don’t think many people apply without wanting a place - the application can be a bit labour intensive for some deaneries, to just do it for fun.
The cut offs are normally quite high but it’s different for each place, in deaneries that it’s lower they might have white space questions or then look at publications etc, or be more focused on interviews . Yorkshire is more interview based I remember
where you thinking of applying?

Northern Ireland, maybe Scotland.

Im doing a paper that is hopefully going to get a poster presentation/possible publication atm... I am trying to build up my CV as best as possible, I just keep being told i can never be a gynaecologist/surgeon/XYZ if i Don’t intercalate as if it is the end of the world if i dont. Why do people have this attitude? It must stem from something real

Also can i ask why you chose not to intercalate?

Hey guys i wanted to ask all those who have already done their ukcat exams if their results were comparable to what they got on the ukcat and medify mocks. any answers appreciated

I don’t even know what medify is...

The Najeeb lectures, imo, are more indepth than what you need - since they are aimed at the basic science expected for Step 1, which is more that we're required to know in the UK.

I'd recommend the osmosis channel on YouTube
A basic medical sciences like "Medical Sciences" is good - you don't need anything more indept.

Then for clinical resources:
A major text of your choice of Davidson's, Kumar & Clark, Harrison's, Oxford Textbook of Clinical medicine - whatever you choose.
Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine + Clinical Specialties

Butting in but I thought Obs were doing interviewing all applicants? So... I'd have thought not intercalating wouldn't matter as much as the more comeptitive run-throughs where shortlisting is a thing?

Ukcat prep site

Update on the pathology-is-research mess (not that anybody asked, but still): told our year lead that the med school wouldn't be keen/wouldn't let me do an elective in pathology, in the hopes that he'd send a swift email off to the central med school - to which he replied "but why would you want to do an elective in something you'll do for the rest of your life?"

Update on the pathology-is-research mess (not that anybody asked, but still): told our year lead that the med school wouldn't be keen/wouldn't let me do an elective in pathology, in the hopes that he'd send a swift email off to the central med school - to which he replied "but why would you want to do an elective in something you'll do for the rest of your life?"

Doesn't make much sense. I really don't understand the logic behind the position that your medical school is taking.

When you say your "year lead", do you mean the year lead for pathology?

Im doing a paper that is hopefully going to get a poster presentation/possible publication atm... I am trying to build up my CV as best as possible, I just keep being told i can never be a gynaecologist/surgeon/XYZ if i Don’t intercalate as if it is the end of the world if i dont. Why do people have this attitude? It must stem from something real

Also can i ask why you chose not to intercalate?

Most of the time the people that tell you that you won't get into xyz specialty without intercalating don't know what they're talking about and almost universally haven't been through the application process to xyz specialty.

I don't know about obgyn but in CST there were 5 points available for presentations/publications compared to just 2 points for a masters and then at interview the portfolio still only accounted for 1/3 of the overall score.

Thanks for the insight - i really appreciate it.

I have to say those telling me XYZ is inaccessible without intercalating were F1/2s or med students above me. I also got it from a doctor who wanted to go into research and hadn’t intercalated - so maybe i am getting my information from the wrong source.

It is understandable that you get fewer points for not intercalating, but to totally exclude you from a speciality - definitely not worth doing just for the points at all.

Again though, most will not have been through the application process and you'd be surprised how many people will not know what will be used as part of their selection to specialty, even those in FY2. Medicine is full of so much hear-say regarding recruitment (often to make people feel like their specialty is the hardest to get into) but most specialties will publish their selection criteria and are pretty open about it.

The best people to ask will likely be the ST1s on your placement as they will have the most up to date information and can signpost you to the relevant documents provided by their college. Looking at the data the most recent competition ration was 2.11:1 which was less than CST and i know loads of people who didn't intercalate yet still had no problems getting in CST and getting the job of their choice.

There is so much more to applications including teaching, audit, commitment to specialty, courses, exams etc. I honestly wouldn't worry about intercalation if it's something you aren't going to be able to do, just concentrate on ensuring you make up the points with the rest of your application. The best thing to do in med school is to find a solid mentor who can help guide you regarding the above whilst also affording you a good look into the specialty to ensure that it's definitely for you.