Barts and The London medicine applicants 2014

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I just want to say as a Barts student that one of the nicest things about this medical school is that it's typically not as cut-throat competitive as some other ones. People will often help each other out in the run-up to exams or share useful resources, often to the whole year and not just to their friends either. People do it knowing that it will in all likelihood affect their ranking which will ultimately impact on their future. To do otherwise would probably make for a miserable 5/6 year experience and take away some of the camaraderie.

Some of the questions posted here are really just about interview technique or something similarly general and here I'm only talking about such questions. These are questions that the first batch of interviewees (or anyone) could have conceivably asked and received an answer from current students. Thus all previous interviewees have had the opportunity to gain some extra insight on this particular matter. Of course, nobody who has had an interview already is duty-bound to answer future interviewees' questions, it would be out of your own sense of charity. But to call for everyone to refuse helping future interviewees on such general questions would be to pull away a ladder you yourself had the opportunity to climb. It means that it's the early interviewees who gain the advantage over the later ones. The opportunity to ask these questions has so far been equally given to everyone.

Yes, questions about the article itself shouldn't be answered because at no time should anyone have discussed it on this forum. Discussing it now would provide some with an unfair advantage. But the opportunity to ask questions about general things like interview technique, which as somebody else has already said can be reasonably asked on another forum (but if you can ask it there why not just ask it here?), confers no additional advantage to anyone in itself.

Those who are pestering others for specifics on the interview are not making any friends here and be aware that admissions tutors have been known to haunt these forums.

Reply 2321

Webmasterx12

Original post by blah_blah2345

Not as bad as this! You are sorted once you are in medical school. Medicine is ridiculously competitive I just want everyone to be on a level playing field. Because even the slightest advantage could distinguish between an offer or rejection!

Get where I am coming from, bro?

Aah i see, I guess so!

Reply 2322

lucey

Exactly. I was happy to give advice post-interview to all the people who asked me about it.
I'm NOT limiting my chances, I believe my scores are good enough to get me in.
I'm helping others because that's really what medicine is all about. I'm wondering how on earth did all of you, who are hoping that others will break their legs on their interviews, end up choosing medschool?
If its for the salary and prestige go for law, so that you could convict people instead of helping them.
Seriously, those posts just make me really sad. I'm starting to doubt the nobility of the MD profession.

Reply 2323

games211

Original post by lucey

that is so unfair on those who have already done their interviews..
Would be funny if you do not get an offer coz you were one point off :biggrin:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2324

games211

Like a current medical student has already said (barts do look a this thread) .. :biggrin:

justice!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2325

hello101

Ok guys changing the topic a lil bit , do Bart's make a decision there and give offers at the end of the cycle ( I presume they score candidates there and then on a set criteria and once they have interviewed all, do they decide what scores to give an offer post interviewing ? ) which is pretty reasonable or do they decide on the spot kind of a thing if they are going to give an offer or not and then just let us know later ...
It would be great to have this mystery resolved ....... Lolz

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Reply 2326

blah_blah2345

Original post by lucey

Let's see if your opinion changes when you get rejected! And please do not try and belittle us. We are just as compassionate and passionate for medicine as you are!

Reply 2327

Matthew150

Original post by hello101

My guess would probably be a mixture of both, if you said anything which sort of scared them, like a 'red flag' type of comment, you probably get ticked as 'Inappropriate for a place' style of thing, which would probably take you out of the pool, and then apart from that I think it is just scored and the top X amount get offers.

Just a guess, but seems reasonable.

Reply 2328

Origami Bullets

Note from the mod team: do not, under any circumstances, either ask for or divulge specific information from the interview, either by PM or by posting on the forums. The reason for this is that it gives later interviewees an unfair advantage.

If you do see someone asking for or divulging specific information about the interviews, please click the little 'report post' button that's towards the top right hand side of every post and PM. This will allow the mods to deal with it appropriately. Unfortunately, there aren't that many mods and there are an awful lot of posts, so we can't read everything, so we do rely on you guys to help us out.

Anyone thinking of asking for or divulging specific information about the interview should be aware that the mod team take a very dim view of these things. If Barts is one of the med schools that tells applicants not to divulge information, then they will also take a very dim view of these things.

For the avoidance of doubt, "specific information" means things such as "they asked me what I would do if ___ happened" or "they asked me some maths questions". You are, however, still allowed to say "my interviewer was lovely" or "I think my interview went terribly" as those sorts of comments do not contain info that other applicants could use to gain an advantage.

Reply 2329

FFCrusader

Original post by Moo321

Hi guys,

quick question - sorry if a bit random.

do universities, like barts, ever give unconditional offers or are the offers generally based on everyone getting AAAb?

Thank u

As a general rule, the standard offer they state in prospectuses will be the offer universities give out. If I recall correctly, Barts can be AAAb or AAAC if you take a 4th A2 subject (well it's something along the lines of if you have an extra full A Level, you might need a minimum grade on that). Some medical schools have been known to have a lowered offer but those are exceptionally rare and I'm not entirely sure if they even do them any more.

Since I applied in my gap year and had my grades already, UCAS told me I had a "conditional offer" and that was solely on health checks, which I suppose is an unconditional offer :tongue:

Original post by Webmasterx12

If people are this competitive on TSR that they don't want to help others with some general advice, God knows how bad they will be in a medical school setting!

You'd be surprised at how varied people can be on the competitiveness level. Some people will help you with everything, others can be pretty cut throat... You'll just learn to know who to trust I suppose, and the fact is you'll get all sorts of people regardless of what you do so may as well get used to the idea :tongue:

Reply 2330

Neostigmine

Original post by lucey

There is also the issue that a lot of universities ask candidates not to share information. If they wanted everyone to have prepared for questions, they would release them. It's not about not helping people, it is about helping yourself (regardless of what you think your scores are,medicine is highly competitive and you would be devastated to be wait-listed while someone else got a place thanks to you) and perhaps more importantly its about being professional in a situation where clearly it is better to not share valuable and sensitive information - something that is highly relevant to medicine. In addition, it is against TSR rules to post anything sharing interview details.

Reply 2331

inesx

I know it says nothing about it in the email but we definitely don't need to bring any certificates or copies to the interview? Thanks

Reply 2332

ladams

Original post by inesx

I know it says nothing about it in the email but we definitely don't need to bring any certificates or copies to the interview? Thanks

Read the email again:

Please bring your passport to the interview as this is required for registration. If you do not possess a passport then one of the following can be used as an alternative:

- A current signed photo card driving licence (full or provisional)
- A current original European Union (EU) government-issued ID that carries your photograph and signature

Reply 2333

MS Miz

Original post by PG593

Sorry for being nosey but was that for medicine too? :smile:

Yep the kings interview was for medicine too.

Reply 2334

MS Miz

Original post by ak395

I HAVE AN INTERVIEWWWWW!!!! :biggrin:

26th feb

Same! What time is yours?

Reply 2335

inesx

Original post by ladams

Yes so no GCSE certificates etc then, just the ID! Thanks

Reply 2336

Clarinet

Sorry, a bit unrelated to all of the interview stuff.

Could someone explain the UCAS points and how they're used. I'm in year eleven and I've done music exams, so hopefully by next August I'll have 440 UCAS points. How are they used, and, could getting AABB but having the music be okay? Thanks

Reply 2337

ladams

Original post by AdaamCarter

Wow... That's a lot already! Well done for researching early too; Have a look here for a brief introduction:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/ucas_tariff

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Reply 2338

Clarinet

Original post by ladams

Wow... That's a lot already! Well done for researching early too; Have a look here for a brief introduction:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/ucas_tariff

Posted from TSR Mobile

So they make offers based on grades but select you for interview based on UCAS points and UKCAT?

What's the average successful UCAS points for an applicant?