Medicine 2012...(hopeful entrants) !!

and me please

sent!

You may as well just write it out here, before people start spamming you for your advice

Haha yeah
Just want to help people because I'm one of the very few people who have applied to medicine from my school in a good few years and they didn't help me at all. I went into the whole process totally blind and I didn't even know what the UKCAT was until my dad happened to find out about it! Managed to learn alot through applying !

I'm not saying you need to do all this but this is what I did, and it worked!

I got unconditionals for Edinburgh and Dundee. And a conditional for Glasgow (BB Advanced Higher, C Higher) and I withdrew from St.Andrew's as it was my last choice.

I got 722 in UKCAT.
6 As at Scottish Higher; Biology, English, Maths, French, Chemistry and Geography.

Advice I'd give would be:
Get in contact with your local NHS Trust or any doctor you know and try to get work experience. I wrote out 50 letters to GPs and hospital departments asking for work experience with my name, my age, why I was looking for work experience, what I hoped to learn etc. Try your best to get experience in at least 2 different environments, although don't worry too much if you don't. Just remember to write and talk about what you learned from the experience (e.g I learned that there was alot more paperwork involved than I thought, but I said that this still would not put me off or I said that I learned that teamwork was absolutely essential in hospital and GP work, and everyone uses their best skill to provide the best possible care for patients.) Don't feel bad if you can't get much experience, just talk about your enthusiasm for what you did do and see and what you learned. The unis know that its difficult to find work experience!

Do voluntary work for as long as possible before you apply in any kind of environment but a nursing home/elderly group/hospice/youth group would be great. I had volunteered at an equestrian centre for four years and although its not medically related it showed dedication and I used it to say I had increased my communication skills in dealing with people and people who have difficulties communicating (I worked with Riding for the Disabled Association). I also mentioned in my personal statement that I had applied to volunteer in a hospice however Disclosure Scotland had not come through. However, at interviews, I spoke about my experience there and how it had helped me learn to cope with my emotions.

Try to apply strategically. Look into which unis put most importance on which factors (UKCAT, work experience, non-academics etc.) look at your strong points and apply accordingly. Applying to medicine is as much strategic as it is luck and grades etc.

Do as much at school as you can. Get involved in any projects, fundraising, head girl etc. And use this in your personal statement to show what you learned. Everything in applying for medicine is what you gained and learned, not what you did! (e.g I was in the yearbook committee, it developed my teamworking skills and helped me to express my opinions more clearly) Also try to make sure you have some hobbies to write about. They like to know that you're a well rounded person!

I'd definitely advise buying the ISC books for the UKCAT test and Medicine Interviews. The Medicine Interviews book gives you lots of questions to look at and you can prepare some things in advance (Why do you want to do Medicine? Why that uni? What do you know about PBL? Modernising Medical Careers? Ethical Questions etc.) They cost quite a bit but definitely worth it! So save up and get them. The UKCAT book questions are so much harder than the actual test but they really prepare you well seen as if you do a selection of the questions, you've done wayy more that is in the test.

Make sure you dress appropriately for any interviews, a smart suit or a pair of nice trousers and a blouse are fine.

Try to do a mock interview with a family member or teacher to be more prepared.

Put BBC Health news (http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/news) as your internet homepage. I'd advise picking a condition (I chose Alzheimers as my gran has it and I wrote about it in my personal statement) and researching it in depth to be able to speak about it in detail at interview. Don't ignore everything else though, look at any news as all interviews asked me if I had looked into the news about medicine.

Keep a notebook and write out anything you think of. (e.g answers to common questions, details or medical news)

Most important! Be yourself, especially at interview! And don't give up! I was lucky enough to get in first time round. But many amazing applicants are rejected and need to re-apply. If it happens, take a gap year, get more work experience, find a job and don't worry, it'll happen!

Good Luck and if you need any more advice, just ask!

I suppose that would be me then! The angst begins here

I'm taking chemistry, biology, religious studies and English lit - dropping English at the end of this year.

Edinburgh and Bristol are the only two places I'm 99% sure about applying to, the other two will be decided on my non-stop whirlwind open day tour of the country in the Summer.

Try to apply strategically. Look into which unis put most importance on which factors (UKCAT, work experience, non-academics etc.) look at your strong points and apply accordingly. Applying to medicine is as much strategic as it is luck and grades etc.

Oh god open days, no idea how I'm going to get to most of mine

Also does one have to take Maths to read Medicine at University

How many are you planning on going to??

Not quite sure how important they are as it would cost a lot to get to quite a few of them..

Not sure at the moment, I expect I'll go to two or three, depends on method of transport.



Maths was 256/300; Chemistry 202/240; Biology 190/240 and psychology 78/100. Resitting a couple to get all A's in summer.

how is that you did all of units in jan?

Did you start early?

Yeah, my school does GCSEs from Years 9-10, then A levels from years 11-13. Works fine for me, but our psychology teacher still took 18 months to teach us unit one psychology, so I've only done half of that AS so far.