Medicine 2012...(hopeful entrants) !!

Hey all!! Hoping to apply for med for 2012 entry, so worried LOL!!

I was hoping if my GCSE's are any good enough:
7A*s, 3Bs ... AND A BIG FAT D!!! I'm scared the D might just bring me down. I got the Bs in History, RE and IT. Got the D in German (we didn't have a teacher for the whole second year due to teacher shortage!!)

Also, done some GP shadowing, got some hospital shadowing lined up for the summer hols, I've organised and led some fundraising, volunteered in a charity shop and in a few weeks about to start volunteering in a hospital helping patients. There's loads i can already talk about these stuff to put on my personal statement...
Predicted 4 As at AS Level ( in Bio, Chem, Maths & Phys)
Hoping to apply for KCL, Southampton, Nottingham and Barts...

Just hoping if someone could help me if I'm a good enough candidate, because i see people with enough A*s to blind someone that get rejected... btw, king's is my first choice

Tbh, I'd more or less forgotten all thoughts of a gap year until just recently when I started revision and the thought of going to uni for more education straight after sixth form makes me feel kinda sick. My ideal after sixth form jobs would be: some kind of lab assistant, or working for a small and local charity, or working in one of those school trip escape places... I dunno what they're called. Like Robinwood and stuff. But not going to uni just to have a full time job? Not much of a break. And I can imagine getting caught up in the routine of a job and just never leaving. If I manage to find good gap year ideas I might opt for deferred but otherwise I'm just going to apply for 2012 entry.

It really is. I wish I had done so

How bigger step up is it in academics/work load to A level?

What from A-level to medicine or GCSE to A-level?

The former isn't that much of an increase in difficulty, but is a significant increase in volume. You have so much new knowledge thrown at you every day that it can easily overwhelm you I find I have to do 2-3 hours a night to cement things.

I find I have to do 2-3 hours a night to cement things.

I think you're a first year, so you might not be able to answer to my satisfaction as the issue may not concern you (yet...), but do you have trouble remembering things from the beginning of the year? I'm thinking remembering things from earlier years might be a problem- ie. if you're a fourth year it seems quite likely that you would've forgotten things you learnt in first and second years. Maybe it's just me, but I can't remember most of the last unit I did 4 months ago.

Damn!

Do you reckon from year 2 onwards you become more used to the volume of work/difficulty - or does it (the volume of work / its difficulty) increase every year?

I would seriously consider applying for deffered entry this year, then take a gap year. It is so hard to get a place for medicine, its best to have two shots at it. Even if you do get an offer this year for defered entry you dont have to take it if you decide after your gap year medicine isnt for you. You may end up taking the gap year and decide that you really want to do medicine, and apply then not get a place, then youve got to wait another year and have another gap year. It just an option. Xx

Oh no it gets worse We have about 15-18 hours teaching a week and the staff expect us to at least that at home in order to do well.

Some do less and are fine, some do more and still struggle. It is down to the individual I am settled into it now I would say and I find that putting the effort straight after we are taught it helps me to learn, some have other approaches. The students in the year above say that the work load is usually about constant (with the exception of exam time)

Oh right that makes sense! You definetly don't want to waste 5 years doing something you don't really want.
A break from education is a good idea, its been a long old slog haha

Ah man, now i'm scared again

We're supposed to do that for A Levels as well right now - 1 hour for 1 hour.

We have a total of 19 hrs 50 minutes teaching time per week at our school (at AS), and we're supposed to do 19 hrs 50 minutes (or so) at home as well.

But I guess you guys have a lot more content to cover in a similar amount of time

Yeah but don't actually need that much in school

Of course...

*and now I've run out of things to say *

lol, well anyway the course is challenging but you will learn to adjust

Btw, I think you've spelled Ghandi wrong (in the thing below your user name) - it's meant to be Gandhi from what I gather

pfft I'm not paying for new team shirts

Another one of your weird sayings?

Yeah, that's true. You'll have more to talk about at interviews for 2013 cycle as well.

I really don't know.. I'm thinking of deferred but I don't like year 11s the thought of living at home for another makes me and I don't know where I'd go otherwise. Back when I enjoyed French I used to want to au pair for a year but I've been rapidly going off French this school year.

Tbh, I'd more or less forgotten all thoughts of a gap year until just recently when I started revision and the thought of going to uni for more education straight after sixth form makes me feel kinda sick. My ideal after sixth form jobs would be: some kind of lab assistant, or working for a small and local charity, or working in one of those school trip escape places... I dunno what they're called. Like Robinwood and stuff. But not going to uni just to have a full time job? Not much of a break. And I can imagine getting caught up in the routine of a job and just never leaving. If I manage to find good gap year ideas I might opt for deferred but otherwise I'm just going to apply for 2012 entry.