2014 Medicine Re-Applicants

Hi Guys,

I am looking to apply to medicine once again this year after failing to get an offer after two interviews, but oh well hopefully this year it will change! I wanted to ask whether we have to state why i am taking a gap year as its clearly obvious as to why or do i state it, and also i have applied to health care assistant jobs but dont know whether i will get it or not so unsure about stating that. Also i am currently volunteering at two different hospitals, since jan 12.

Thanks in advance

I got an A* in A level maths and still couldn't handle QR! Everyone hates it, don't worry.

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90% of the doctors tell me quite clearly, "Don't. Do. It. Get out while you can. Turn around and never look back," and it seriously crushes me inside. I was talking to a nurse last week though, and she said take no interest in it, as the F1's job is one of the worst she's ever seen. But from F2 onwards, it gets so much better. Apparently.

I agree that volunteering and hardcore long term stuff is a great insight into a career in medicine, and hence we have all made an informed decision about our careers, but it still unnerves me. I'm sure at least some of the doctors I am speaking to made an informed decision too and got lots of experience, particularly the grads and yet they loathe it. One F1 said to me yesterday, "You get to a point, where you don't give a **** how interesting your job is. You just want to go home at a decent hour one day a week. Make the wise decision. Pick dentistry,". I'm just like

Lmao there's gonna be good days and bad days. I shadowed a junior doc and she worked twice as hard from what I could see compared to my shadowing of a registrar(who had time to sit in the cafeteria and buy me lunch )

Perhaps GP/health clinics will be much more relaxing

Lmao there's gonna be good days and bad days. I shadowed a junior doc and she worked twice as hard from what I could see compared to my shadowing of a registrar(who had time to sit in the cafeteria and buy me lunch )

Perhaps GP/health clinics will be much more relaxing

Beg to differ, well from my experience I found GP a real eye opener. There is so much pressure on them now, to see so many patients in such little time. Deal with all different kinds of people (drug addicts other social issues). They work long hours as well, I used arrive at 9am they were there way before that like 7;30 maybe 8am, I finished at 5pm and was getting tired, they still continue till like 6pm, Rushed lunch is not uncommon, having to see medical reps, catch up with their paper work during lunch. They are also business people and barely get time to do that aspect during working hours. They do however get the week end of which is nice, but with the recent A+E crisis, it looks like some surgeries will have to do more out of hours. Gets quite boring as well see the same stuff constantly, the same dude who last week said he broke his leg now this week broke his eye so still wants a sick note. I don't think there is such a safe choice in medicine, just have to pick what you like. Except maybe Dermatology

I didn't think about that properly, you're right!
Oh and radiography too, they just sit in the rooms

Beg to differ, well from my experience I found GP a real eye opener. There is so much pressure on them now, to see so many patients in such little time. Deal with all different kinds of people (drug addicts other social issues). They work long hours as well, I used arrive at 9am they were there way before that like 7;30 maybe 8am, I finished at 5pm and was getting tired, they still continue till like 6pm, Rushed lunch is not uncommon, having to see medical reps, catch up with their paper work during lunch. They are also business people and barely get time to do that aspect during working hours. They do however get the week end of which is nice, but with the recent A+E crisis, it looks like some surgeries will have to do more out of hours. Gets quite boring as well see the same stuff constantly, the same dude who last week said he broke his leg now this week broke his eye so still wants a sick note. I don't think there is such a safe choice in medicine, just have to pick what you like. Except maybe Dermatology

I think you mean radiology (the medical specialty), radiography is a completely different course, they're the people who actually do the scans (the labour intensive part) I think the dermatologists job could be stressful, some skin conditions are really awful and some patients have very unrealistic expectations. I'm trying to find an argument to defend radiology but I'm struggling




Good to hear from someone with a useful insight into general practice.

I think you mean radiology (the medical specialty), radiography is a completely different course, they're the people who actually do the scans (the labour intensive part) I think the dermatologists job could be stressful, some skin conditions are really awful and some patients have very unrealistic expectations. I'm trying to find an argument to defend radiology but I'm struggling




Good to hear from someone with a useful insight into general practice.

Oops
Radiology looks pretty dull...

Its a common mistake
I'm still thinking about the difficulties of radiology, give me time I'll get back to you

This is an interesting case study. As is this. Who knew radiology would be so competitive (you can probably tell I have a lot of time on my hands atm )

Edit: Radiology has an on call commitment and interventional radiology looks like it could be quite stressful/interesting.

Whilst working as a HCA, and even more commonly while I was on work experience: was I the only one constantly told by doctors / healthcare professionals how much they hate their jobs and then went on to advise you on doing dentistry? It's constant. Makes me really want a sit down and think about this all, when thats all they ever tell me.

One consultant laughed at me because I was considering medicine, he was like "don't do it, you don't know what you're getting yourself into" another doctor told me to do dentistry. It's common but if we don't try, we never know!

I'm having a real hard time deciding where to apply! I thought I could do it but I can't!!

Which schools do you think favours reapplicants? I'm already thinking of applying to Exeter and Plymouth but I don't know anywhere else.

Btw I can't do group interviews (I.e. Manchester) or mmi interviews (I.e. Leicester or Leeds). I just don't think I could do it and I had an interview with Leicester last year but was rejected.

GCSE: 4 A* 5 A 2 B
A levels: A*AA
UKCAT: 687.5

Thanks in advance!!!

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Well from reading that to me it seems UEA aren't considering the STJ, have no cut-off for the UKCAT, look at the sub-scores and the overall scores with the overall score being the main thing they're looking at. I say that with a simple logic that for them to analyse and scrutinize 4 individual sections for every applicant is going to take billions of years I'm sure they'll have a glance at them and will probably notice a) VR is commonly the lowest and b) DA is commonly the highest but at the end of the day mate I truly believe it's your overall UKCAT score they will be considering unless they have specifically stated: 'we use the sub-components and score you on each individual section...' which they haven't so it is safe to assume the big picture is your UKCAT average. However definitely call them on this to ease your nerves, nothing worse than to put a choice down on UCAS with clouds of doubt in mind.

Instead of just dismissing the school based on interview style, could you think about how you could deal with it? MMI replicates the OSCE style of medical school exams; you need to learn to make a good impression anew every 5 minutes and not let each station affect the next one.