The Student Room Group

My back up to medicine?? (mature student and 26 years old)

Hi guys I wanted some help and advice on what I should do.

I studied politics at uni ( at the time of picking my a levels I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do so I just chose anything to get a degree .. worst descisoon ever I know)

After five years after uni and working I decided to become a doctor. A lot happened, I had an abusive relationship. My ex would see my gcse results at the time and just laugh at me or even bully me and call me autistic. I have dyslexia which was diagnosed at college when I was 18.

After all that happened I went back to college and studied access to medicine and I achieved all distinctions in 2023(so this year)
My gcses from ten years ago; additional science (foundation) C,D
Maths B
Sociology B
English lit B
English lang C
R.E B
French B
Drama D
Geography D
I worked in a charity and I’m also a volunteer at the hospital in the acute medical unit

I’m currently retaking my science gcse, and English language. I studied for the UCAT for two months and did over 2000 questions I also got extra time but sadly I left the test centre with 2300 and UCAT score of band 1 SJT . I’m worried I will try UCAT again in august but I am a sen student I feel it’s impossible for me to do it. I’m a hard worker but this exam feels impossible.. people advise not to revise for a year but in my case is it possible to resit my triple sciences, resit English language, go to the hospital for work experience once a week, study UCAT, help my family with chores. Is medicine impsosinle for me to get into.
I’m so depressed over this. I gained a lot of weight due to all this studying all this stress is this normal for pre med students? I stopped going gym

My mum tried convincing me to apply to do bio med (I need to find this degree myself) and then do PA studies after. I felt upset but I agreed. Is PA studies hard to get into also? Do I have any alternatives to medicine. She said I’m wasting my time trying and medicine is about luck because even at interview stage if i make it to that I could be rejected

I didn’t think this through clearly because medicine is all I wanted.the day before my UCAT I was crying I just put so much into that exam and I got such a low score.. please let me know if any alternatives
(edited 7 months ago)
Reply 1
Original post by aspiringmedic26
Hi guys I wanted some help and advice on what I should do.

I studied politics at uni ( at the time of picking my a levels I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do so I just chose anything to get a degree .. worst descisoon ever I know)

After five years after uni and working I decided to become a doctor. A lot happened, I had an abusive relationship. My ex would see my gcse results at the time and just laugh at me or even bully me and call me autistic. I have dyslexia which was diagnosed at college when I was 18.

After all that happened I went back to college and studied access to medicine and I achieved all distinctions in 2023(so this year)
My gcses from ten years ago; additional science (foundation) C,D
Maths B
Sociology B
English lit B
English lang C
R.E B
French B
Drama D
Geography D
I worked in a charity and I’m also a volunteer at the hospital in the acute medical unit

I’m currently retaking my science gcse, and English language. I studied for the UCAT for two months and did over 2000 questions I also got extra time but sadly I left the test centre with 2300 and UCAT score of band 1 SJT . I’m worried I will try UCAT again in august but I am a sen student I feel it’s impossible for me to do it. I’m a hard worker but this exam feels impossible.. people advise not to revise for a year but in my case is it possible to resit my triple sciences, resit English language, go to the hospital for work experience once a week, study UCAT, help my family with chores. Is medicine impsosinle for me to get into.
I’m so depressed over this. I gained a lot of weight due to all this studying all this stress is this normal for pre med students? I stopped going gym

My mum tried convincing me to apply to do bio med (I need to find this degree myself) and then do PA studies after. I felt upset but I agreed. Is PA studies hard to get into also? Do I have any alternatives to medicine. She said I’m wasting my time trying and medicine is about luck because even at interview stage if i make it to that I could be rejected

I didn’t think this through clearly because medicine is all I wanted.the day before my UCAT I was crying I just put so much into that exam and I got such a low score.. please let me know if any alternatives


Do you have any a levels ? Have you looked at entry requirements for the universities for medicine as it’s usually based on these
Reply 2
Original post by aspiringmedic26
Hi guys I wanted some help and advice on what I should do.

I studied politics at uni ( at the time of picking my a levels I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do so I just chose anything to get a degree .. worst descisoon ever I know)

After five years after uni and working I decided to become a doctor. A lot happened, I had an abusive relationship. My ex would see my gcse results at the time and just laugh at me or even bully me and call me autistic. I have dyslexia which was diagnosed at college when I was 18.

After all that happened I went back to college and studied access to medicine and I achieved all distinctions in 2023(so this year)
My gcses from ten years ago; additional science (foundation) C,D
Maths B
Sociology B
English lit B
English lang C
R.E B
French B
Drama D
Geography D
I worked in a charity and I’m also a volunteer at the hospital in the acute medical unit

I’m currently retaking my science gcse, and English language. I studied for the UCAT for two months and did over 2000 questions I also got extra time but sadly I left the test centre with 2300 and UCAT score of band 1 SJT . I’m worried I will try UCAT again in august but I am a sen student I feel it’s impossible for me to do it. I’m a hard worker but this exam feels impossible.. people advise not to revise for a year but in my case is it possible to resit my triple sciences, resit English language, go to the hospital for work experience once a week, study UCAT, help my family with chores. Is medicine impsosinle for me to get into.
I’m so depressed over this. I gained a lot of weight due to all this studying all this stress is this normal for pre med students? I stopped going gym

My mum tried convincing me to apply to do bio med (I need to find this degree myself) and then do PA studies after. I felt upset but I agreed. Is PA studies hard to get into also? Do I have any alternatives to medicine. She said I’m wasting my time trying and medicine is about luck because even at interview stage if i make it to that I could be rejected

I didn’t think this through clearly because medicine is all I wanted.the day before my UCAT I was crying I just put so much into that exam and I got such a low score.. please let me know if any alternatives


If you’re struggling with the UCAT, maybe look at GAMSAT unis (notts, Swansea, liverpool etc) and study for that instead. It’s a much longer exam (5+ hours spread over a day) but it’s much less time pressured, more varied and you can play to your strengths eg. My strength is humanities over chem and physics so I pulled my mark up considerably by scoring well on the humanities compared to slightly less on the science section. You could also look into Medicine with a foundation year with a lower ucat score, but this might mean funding the degree yourself.

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Trending