Medicine 2012...(hopeful entrants) !!

i'm keeping away from PBL...

i'm sorry but i want guidance, i want deadlines, i want someone who is an expert to teach us all.

no. we wil pay 9000 a year plus living costs, and all we want is to be guided, to be set deadlines, given lots of practicals.

we don't want to see patients when we barely have ANY medical knowledge, THOUGH, we want to have SOME contact.

any uni that does PBL is out of my list.


kele = pbl i heard?
uae = pbl also?

FORGET THEM.


"ok, apply to oxbridge"

lol, i don't want EITHER end of the extreme!

i don't want balance!

all i want is someone to guide me teach me, and let me do the rest of the work, like i am doing now.

Thanks a lot for the re-assurance But my C1 mark isn't too great either But it annoys me how if I read the question I would have been fine, but because if it dropped me by about 25 UMS Provided C1 and C2 as I predicted, I should have my A* prediction (our school requires an average of 90 in the 2 core modules), but just worried if Cambridge see it as bad as they look at your UMS scores.

Ah I do that all the time too, its a right pain :/ Stuff like "answer to 2 decimal places" and then I'd answer it to three. What was really infuriating is that I did that in my summer Chemistry exam last year and I ended up with a B, 2ums off an A which I probably woulda gotten if I'd read the question properly :/ I wish I could say I learnt my lesson, but in my latest Biology exam there was a question and it said something about Hedgehogs eat Wader eggs. I didn't read this but I luckily assumed right and am hopefully fine. Thats why I didn't apply to Cambridge, I was worried my ums wouldn't be good enough, for Bio and Chem I was right, but for maths I woulda been fine Just try not to think about the exam, whats done is done, and if needs be you can always resit

At least now you know it's a problem you can try to fix it

I asked this in the Oxford 2012 hopeful applicants forum, and I'll ask it here too just to be sure...
Basically all med schools explicitly say that some form of work exp is necessary and is a must (understandably)... however, whilst looking at Oxford, there isn't a mention of this; it says:
"All candidates are free to make reference to skills or experience acquired in any context to date to illustrate compatibility with the selection criteria for Medicine at Oxford; sometimes candidates refer to voluntary work and other extracurricular activity, but many forms of evidence can help demonstrate to tutors that a candidate has made an informed decision regarding their own suitability to study Medicine. "

So it doesn't mention an actual requirement for work exp... this is a bit strange, don't you think?

It probably carries less weighting on the Oxford application (I wouldn't know for sure as I didn't apply there), but remember you're applying to three other universities that would probably want some experience, with that same personal statement.

Thanks a lot for the advice But I only slipped up in Maths, I think I am being paranoid but after the exams I thought I'd get between 275-280/300, but now am thinking what if it goes under 270 Say absolute worst case I got like 265/300, but the other 3 subjects (Chem, Bio and Physics) were all 280+/300, you think it is worth applying to Cambridge? Thanks

Yeahhh I wasn't implying that I'd do no work experience, cos that'd be silly haha, plus I've got some sorted. I just found it strange that one of the top unis don't put as much weighting on it! Maybe it's something to do with the fact that they do the whole pre-clinical then clinical way of teaching it... just a guess really!

Erm I guess so, I'm not sure thought cause after I realised I probably wouldn't get in I just didn't look into it anymore. I know someone who got an interview and all their ums were betwen 265 in all subjects. Best thing to do would be to go on an open day or to ring up and ask

You're quite possibly right though. Tbh, work experience is so random - you basically just follow a consultant around and listen in on stuff you don't even have the slightest clue about. Haha. I remember falling asleep once in a clinic during my work experience. The consultant I was with felt so bad and drove me halfway home aftwerwards. Haha. I still see him sometimes though and he still remembers it - he's based at one of our hospitals in Newbury Park. Absolute legend!

Wait, your do OCR right, did you do the one with the impossible question? Lol well iA it went fine! Hopefully we'll get our 4A's.

That was D1, doubt anyone did D1 instead of S1 at AS level.

Did you do the D1 exam? How are first year exams going? (If you're first year) Have OCR been screwing up many other exams? Loads of people hated our Biology and Chemistry ones too

Ooh, all I knew is that it was an OCR maths paper.

I'm a year 13 who has seen many very capable people in my year apply to do medicine. I understand that medicine is a dream for many people and Im not aiming to influence anybody here.
From my year (120 people) about 50 at the start of the year 12 intended to be aplying for medicine, by the start of year 13 it was down to 18, due to their results, and eventually 16 applied. I'd say that at least 14 of these people had 4 A's at AS and their predictions were relatively high.
However, in the end, only 2 people actually got offers. A friend of mine had 4 interviews, already had an A* in further maths and was predicted 3 more in the three sciences.

I've read people on here citing that they will apply for all of the best universities, which I quite frankly view as idiotic. In medicine, even the most able candidates get rejected and the number of people I saw that presumed they were easily going to stroll into medicine that have now got no offers and are quite frankly 'lost' is greater than most people realise.

Dont presume just because of your pefect grades and lots of work experience, you will be accepted in any university, never mind the most reputable e.g Cambridge, UCL etc

Most of all, dont feel the need to apply for medicine based on the influence of parents. When interviewed the interviewers can see the people that have the desire and those that dont, (speaking as someone who has had an interview at Cambridge) it was clear they probed for genuine desire for the subject.

Not trying to get people to change their minds, just think there are quite a few people here who over estimate themselves.

Well that's their official number on the prospectus, so we can't complain yet.. I feel sorry for people about 5 years down the line

"We only interview candidates with 15 A* at GCSE. You must have at least 3 years work experience at 10 different places. You must be predicted 9 A* at A 2 Level and you must at least play 6 muscial instruments (to grade 8+ standard), play 13 different sports (to at least county level) and have a UKCAT score of 899...

Please note... just because you have all these does not mean you will get an interview."

*Sigh*

This makes me feel so much better lol. Don't get me wrong, there have been bits of my work experience that I've really enjoyed but sometimes I was honestly so bored, and I actually felt bad, I thought I was doing something wrong

You have given a thoughtful any good approach

but it seems the conclusion to your argument if it can be called that, is that we should not apply to 'competitive' universities. Let me say, ALL universities are competitive, - check the admissions statistics. All of them are more or less the same.

What you should be advising is for people to choose the course they most want, and for people to prepare and choose wisely according to their strengths.

Bit random but can i say how funny this is, i literally couldnt stop laughing - it really made my day