Medics and Applicants Profiles - NO DISCUSSION

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roughly 1 week of hospital work experience in total: I did a variety here and there at different hospitals, including shadowing a gastro consultant, attending a haematology clinic, A&E, oncology.

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Volunteering at a nursing home for 7 months at the time of application (Oct 2012), now I'm approaching my 14th month and loving it! =D

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teaching assistant/student teacher in maths

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Summer research internship

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various roles of responsibilities at university including being a committee member for a few societies, welfare team and etc, also as an ambassador.

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Student campaign caller - raising money for scholarshps and funding at uni

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illustrator (used to actively do it competitively and semi-professionally)

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BBO medal winner

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interest in languages + self taught in piano

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1 week with GP, 1 week in hospital (2 different specialties), 1 week in specialist surgical unit

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1 year with Riding for the Disabled (they take 17-year-olds - some charities won't)

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1 year with a charity shop (from age 16 onwards)

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School prefect

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Various responsibilities at school - organising clubs, events, competitions and charity fund-raising

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Mentor in 'science clinic' for GCSE students

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Duke of Edinburgh (bronze)

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World Challenge trip (3 weeks)

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Red Cross course

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Sheffield - offer - firm

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Nottingham - offer - insurance (why not? I decided I didn't want to do my 5th choice)

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Newcastle - offer - declined

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Leeds - rejected without interview (I assume they didn't like my PS)

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Educate yourself on the process. Every med school does things its own way, and you'll be more likely to apply successfully to some than to others. Familiarise with the content of TSR's 'medicine wiki' and the medicine FAQ, and use the PS library and PS helper service.

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Subjects and grades. Be sure you are studying the right AS/A2 subjects. "Chemistry plus Biology at A2" will get you into most med schools. Your third A2 and fourth AS subjects don't matter much (except at Cambridge), but make sure you get good grades. IMO, doing more than 4xAS/3xA2 is pointless (unless you are desperate to apply to Barts) and could distract you from achieving the grades you need for your offer. For the same reason, I'd advise against doing an EPQ.

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Busy year ahead! Identify key dates in the application process and figure out your personal schedule. There are some hard dates like UCAS deadlines, Open Days, and AS exam days. Identify windows when you can do clinical placements, prepare for and sit the UKCAT, draft your PS, and research/shortlist med schools. Do your UKCAT earlier rather than later (IMO, schedule it ~4 weeks after AS exams). Don't forget to schedule some downtime

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Work experience is important. You'll need to demonstrate some insight into a medical career when writing your PS, so try very hard to get experience in a caring setting. Recruit all your relatives, friends and contacts to help your search. Try GP clinics in the next town, as your local GP will (rightly) be concerned about confidentiality (you may know some patients, or v.v). I did a GP placement 150 miles from home! If phoning, ask to speak to the practice manager, and don't call at times at busy times when they're dealing with people who are actually ill - receptionists are experts at saying 'no'. Also, ask specifically about shadowing in nurse-led clinics - I found they were easier to get into than GP consulting rooms, and you have more time to interact with staff and patients. But ultimately it's about what you get out of the experiences that counts, not what you did - quality, not quantity, matters.

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Asking for a clinical placement. Although med schools say clinical placements aren't mandatory, try very hard to get some. When asking for shadowing placements (NB, "shadowing" or "clinical placement", not "work experience"), keep the core letter/email very short, and include a short (1 page) CV covering your background and qualifications. In the core letter, introduce yourself as a prospective medic, tell the consultant his/her field is fascinating , and say you're looking for a shadowing placement of 3-5 days. Give the exact dates you're available ("half-term" won't appear in consultants' diaries) and give your DOB (in case they have 17+ policies), so that the consultant can check his/her diary and offer some dates without the hassle of negotiating with you. They are busy people - give them all the info they need to make an instant YES/NO decision and fix the dates. If they do say YES, they'll probably refer you to someone in HR to sort out the details.

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Personal Statements. TSR has a wiki article on medic PS's - follow its advice (and beware of ill-informed teachers suggesting anything different). If you're having trouble drafting your PS, try this... First, write a list of everything you want a med school to know about you (achievements, talents, experiences, personal qualities, etc). Then allocate each item to one of the paragraphs in the recommended PS structure (you can reallocate things later if you decide there are better fits). Next, write each paragraph so that you cover all the items allocated to it, but without worrying too much about phrasing or character/line limits. Don't worry if the intro and/or conclusion are hard to write - just get something down on paper (you can improve it later). Now start hacking - combine sentences, reorder sentences, shorten sentences, delete anything that doesn't add much, or anything. Every word, phrase and sentence should be helping to build the case for giving you a shot at studying medicine. Keep it formal, and focussed (save every character - the lines will take care of themselves, almost), and flowing nicely (don't strain the rules of English grammar). Don't get people to review it until you're near (within 10%) the character limit, but do explicitly ask what they would drop (they'll tell you to add stuff without prompting ). Use this handy online tool to help you organise your PS. And keep all your drafts (PS01.docx, PS02.docx, etc) as good stuff gets lost during endless rounds of editing.

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UKCAT. Don't approach UKCAT as a bizarre test of skills which have no relevance to medicine. You are confronted with a test unlike any you'll face in school, and successful candidates will develop strategies that will help them to succeed, for example, being able to make rapid and accurate assessments of whether a question is easy or hard (they aren't all equally difficult). It isn't about answering all the questions in the time available (virtually impossible, IMO) - it's about getting the best score you can in the time available. Keep your mental maths sharp, as the on-screen calculator could slow you down. Also remember that UKCAT changed for 2014 entry, so some advice in TSR forums may be out-of-date (e.g., scores, thresholds, SJT).

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Apply to your strengths. It's OK to have ambitions about where you want to study, but in the final analysis your GCSE/AS grades and UKCAT score should guide you about where you should/shouldn't apply. If you've made some tentative choices, validate them by running through the following steps, otherwise make a list of med schools and start crossing them off... (1) where can you apply? minimum GCSE grades? right AS/A2 subjects? right AS grades? - see wiki articles on GCSE and A level requirements. (2) where should you apply? how will your UKCAT scores be used? where will your application be competitive? - see wiki articles on UKCAT and applying using your strengths. (3) where do you want to apply? do you like the course? the campus? the city? etc

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Prepare for interview. Any activity that helps you communicate confidently will stand you in good stead at interview. Use BBC Health and NHS Choices to gen up on hot topics and how the NHS ticks - check those sites before each interview! Also, gen up on the Four Principles of medical ethics - see the GMC website for some examples, and the podcasts from the BBC series Inside the Ethics Committee for case studies. The BMJ also do podcasts on interesting subjects. Interviews vary in format, but it's not unreasonable to expect an ethical dilemma, a topical issue, and "Is there anything you'd like to ask us?" - for the latter, try to avoid asking something that is on their website.

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Week residential at Vitalise volunteering

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1 week gastro

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1 week Cardio

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1 week cardiovascular surgery

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10 weeks (hour/week) volunteering at residential home

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1 week respiratory ward

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1 Day A&E

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1 week primary school

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Couple of days special school

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Liverpool - Interview - Rejected

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Aberdeen - Rejected

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HMYS - Rejected

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Keele - Rejected