[Hygeia]

Credit to FFCrusader for the suggestion

So, lots of people come into this forum believing certain myths about medical school applicants and he thought it might be a good idea to collect them all together for a wiki page.

First biggie: You must have maths to do medicine. (nicely proven wrong by this linky)

what myths have you come across?

[randdom]

Well the obvious one (to me anyway) being you have to have 10A*s (insert other ridiculously high result here also) to get into medical school and if you don't have these results then you won't get in.

Another related on is that just because you have amazing results you should get and offer (this is less common now than it was, however some people who haven't really spent much time talking to applicants etc do seem to think that grades are all important).

[dances_with_lamposts]

oxbridge and the london unis are better.

[Phalanges]

That certain Uni's can be used as backups.

[FTC199]

that the unis talk to each other so that most applicants will only get 1 offer if they are successful

[smflesh]

You can't just do work experience / voluntary placements because it will look good on your personal statement. Just stating you did something doesn't look good. Fine, maybe if the placement was at some prestigious location then it will look good in terms of prestige, but apart from that, it's worthless unless you say how that has helped you gain an insight into medicine / doctors etc. Apologies if it's not one but I still think it's good advice.

[NissanMicra]

that you can't revise for the UKCAT

[Phalanges]

That all the companies charging extortionate rates for interview/PS help must be good, otherwise they wouldn't charge so much.

Originally Posted by NissanMicra

that you can't revise for the UKCAT

How is that a myth?

Sure, you can familiarise yourself with the questions but apart from that there's very little you can do.

[Hygeia]

Originally Posted by jonnyofengland

That all the companies charging extortionate rates for interview/PS help must be good, otherwise they wouldn't charge so much.

good one! free services can be just as good if not better

[motiv3]

That you have to go on MedSim/Medlink to get into medicine.

[Phalanges]

Originally Posted by Hygeia

good one! free services can be just as good if not better

The internet remains the best tool I have used to find out most of my knowledge.

[smflesh]

Originally Posted by jonnyofengland

That all the companies charging extortionate rates for interview/PS help must be good, otherwise they wouldn't charge so much.

*cough* medlink *cough* Would never recommend it to anyone

[crazylemon]

PMS is not as good as the other med schools
The UKCAT needs no preparation/months of preparation

[nnnomi]

Originally Posted by motiv3

That you have to go on MedSim/Medlink to get into medicine.

This

And, that going on MedSim/Medlink will count as suitable work experience.

[NissanMicra]

Originally Posted by jonnyofengland

That all the companies charging extortionate rates for interview/PS help must be good, otherwise they wouldn't charge so much.



How is that a myth?

Sure, you can familiarise yourself with the questions but apart from that there's very little you can do.

Revise was the wrong word...prepare is better. But you can do a lot of preparation from pseudo-tests and psycho-analytical tests on the internet. Also prepare ur technique and timings. And of course, if maths isnt ur strong point, you can do a couple of maths qs from ur gcse book.

[FFCrusader]

That any medical school is "better" than any other one

That prestige of the university matters

That you don't need to prepare for interviews

[Phalanges]

Originally Posted by NissanMicra

Revise was the wrong word...prepare is better. But you can do a lot of preparation from pseudo-tests and psycho-analytical tests on the internet. Also prepare ur technique and timings. And of course, if maths isnt ur strong point, you can do a couple of maths qs from ur gcse book.

You can do a bit, but once you've done a couple of tests it's arguable whether doing any more will improve your score.

[NissanMicra]

Originally Posted by smflesh

*cough* medlink *cough* Would never recommend it to anyone

I enjoyed medlink and medsim! I know its not work experience but it was a whole 3 days dedicated to what im interested in- i see it as like a summer camp or a weekend activity done by YG&T. The "uni" experience was great, i met a lot of like-minded people, talked to real doctors in different fields and wrote an independently researched paper (then published) on an up-and-coming field of medicine.

It was good, a'ight!

ATOM course in London was MUCH better though (much more scientific and factual)

[NissanMicra]

Originally Posted by jonnyofengland

You can do a bit, but once you've done a couple of tests it's arguable whether doing any more will improve your score.

Well, i would argue that the more preparation you do, you can push ur score up. Yes some people can 'naturally' get over-700 scores, but i saw in my school there was a clear correlation between scores and preparation-time (and not necessarily scores/intelligence).
see http://www.newmediamedicine.com/forum/ukcat/34306-ukcat-advice.html and this amount of preparation
http://www.newmediamedicine.com/foru...tml#post624982

[Phalanges]

Originally Posted by NissanMicra

Well, i would argue that the more preparation you do, you can push ur score up. Yes some people can 'naturally' get over-700 scores, but i saw in my school there was a clear correlation between scores and preparation-time (and not necessarily scores/intelligence).
see http://www.newmediamedicine.com/forum/ukcat/34306-ukcat-advice.html and this amount of preparation
http://www.newmediamedicine.com/foru...tml#post624982

I'm afraid I have to disagree. For my preparation I did the practice tests and looked through the official book and got a score of 725. I know someone though who did a lot more preparation than me, attended a £70 lecture and only came out with a score of 585.

Now I am not more intelligent than him, and I hadn't done more preparation. It's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Once you've got used to the questions, there's very little point in doing anything else, imo. Your time would be better spent on almost anything Medicine related - Work experience, PS, whatever.

Originally Posted by NissanMicra

I enjoyed medlink and medsim! I know its not work experience but it was a whole 3 days dedicated to what im interested in- i see it as like a summer camp or a weekend activity done by YG&T. The "uni" experience was great, i met a lot of like-minded people, talked to real doctors in different fields and wrote an independently researched paper (then published) on an up-and-coming field of medicine.

It was good, a'ight!

I think that the gripe most people have is this: how much did you actually pay for that experience?