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did work experience at KCL, forgot what i did.

hello, i did work experience at kings london, when i was in year 10. at that time i was very interested in the sciences but unsure of doing medicine.

anyway i basically shadowed a post grad researcher (not a medical student) and enjoyed it very much. i put this down in my perosnal statement, however after going over it tonight (got an interview at magd, cambridge) i realised i have no recollection of what it was that the student was researching (not even waht field!) all i know is that we did some lab work and i got to ask him some questions.

how do i explain my experience at interview? (if they ask me what i did there)

i also put down that from then on i started to consider academic research serriously blah blah blah, but if i'm not even sure why that 'experience' made me want to do research (i.e., i can't even remember what i did) doesn't it suggest i'm somewhat flaky or uncommited?

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Reply 1

Renal

Is it even relevant to medicine?

Reply 2

kazi

i suppose not, but i put down that i started thinking of going into research after that point (it's true) then at a mock interview at school a teacher asked me what i actually did at kings and i just started stammering. then during the feedback session the teacher said that she thought i was lieing about my work experience :mad:

Reply 3

Renal

Well, to be fair, if you can't even make up a good story about what you did on work ex, I'd say you were a crap liar.

Reply 4

Wangers

Renal

Well, to be fair, if you can't even make up a good story about what you did on work ex, I'd say you were a crap liar.

Or he was chucked in deep water and diddn't make any effort. In your situation OP, I'd rather not say anything - you wont get the "so what did you do" - err umm err well err...followed by awkward silence and laughs at your expense...maybe at least try and understand some of the background, otherwise it'll come across as a royal waste of an opportunity and you'll look like a tit.

Reply 5

Fluffy

You have no records of who the person was/the lab head was?

I'm not sure what to suggest, but on the basis of this thread, and if I were an interviewer (to be honest) I'd think you were lying too. I'm ancient and still remember my lab work experience I did at 15... How can you forget what you were doing/did???

What daily tasks did you do while there?

Reply 6

kazi

it was two weeks long. during that time i helped this guy that set out the equipment for the "OSCE's" (this was 3 years ago, dont know if they still do them). so basically providing the actors with food, and helping set up the stations.

it was only on my last day my supervisor suggested i shadow a post grad (the acess to medicine lady) and so on that day the post grad actually did no work but just showed me around the lab and answered any questions i might have. however in my haste to sound interesting on my PS, i omitted the "helping out in the clinical skills department" stuff and put in the lab stuff.
regret it now though :frown:

Reply 7

Speedbird2008

We were told to do work experience diaries for that very reason.

Erm... As Renal said, I would just make it up- but do it well! :p:

Reply 8

manderton

I did my work experience at Linde Materials Handling - in 2nd yr of college & can still remember exactly what i did most days - working on assembly line making Fork Lift Trucks :biggrin:

)

Just try & think of a believable activities you could of done, and hope the post-grad u saw isn't around :biggrin:

Reply 9

*tink*

Maybe get delete which college you have applied to??? Just in case anyone is watching! It wouldn't be too hard to work out who you are I don't reckon

Reply 10

kazi

i thought of that...but i am new to tsr...and havnt really said anything contreversial or something that could harm my appliccation so i dont think it matters tht much.

also im sure the tutors have better things to do

Reply 11

Fluffy

kazi

You would be surprised... People who use TSR got warnings from Cambridge a few years back (especially where people had discussed interviews etc) - if you do a search, I'm sure the relevant posts will come up. It rattled a lot of people as their on screen personas were related back to their real life names!

Reply 12

arpeggio

kazi

So it was a bit of a lie then? You didn't actually shadow a post grad researcher, you just got a tour of the lab :s-smilie:

Just think of anything that came up in your conversation - any keywords or anything - then look them up on wikipedia or something and see whether it jogs your memory. Do you remember any of the equipment you saw?

Reply 13

ph9

ah well you got yourself into that mess and it's probably very likely they'll ask you about it. i suggest you start doing some research and make your story sound good and believable (i.e make it up)

Reply 14

*tink*

kazi

i thought of that...but i am new to tsr...and havnt really said anything contreversial or something that could harm my appliccation so i dont think it matters tht much.

Well surely saying that you made up work experience will harm your application

Reply 15

Wangers

*tink*

Well surely saying that you made up work experience will harm your application

haha, you think? The OP has dug themselves an unfortunate hole. To get out of it needs work - at least you'll learn something.

Reply 16

kazi

i remember doing this experiment over the course of a day, where we used gels, and checked to see if coloured dots appeared. they were purple/violet.

someone help, please?

Reply 17

kazi

also kazi is not my real name, it's an online alias the name does not appear once on ucas, so for all the tutors know i am one of 50 applicants (hopefully i never divulged anytihng else)

Reply 18

Cool Cat

kazi

i remember doing this experiment over the course of a day, where we used gels, and checked to see if coloured dots appeared. they were purple/violet.

someone help, please?

gel electrophoresis?

Reply 19

kazi

we did it in some dark room, also im not sure if this is related to the procedure but there was a camera attached to a computer (probably some unrelated memory).

googling your word now.