Cambridge Medicine applicants 2015

GCSE's - 13A*'s

AS Level: (+ A in General Studies)
- Biology 95.7%
- Chemistry 93.7%
- Physics 94%
- Maths (and further maths) 96.1%
All four: 94.9%
Best 3: 95.3% (A bit worried it may not be high enough :L)

Does anyone know what kind of BMAT score I would need to stand a decent chance of getting in? Also what combination of subjects would they use to calculate an average for my UMS? Thanks

College: Liked Emmanuel and Christ's (as well as most of the one's I've looked at) so hard to choose where to apply!

Work Experience: GP Surgery, Shadowed Orthopaedic Surgeon, Genetics Laboratory, Care home
Doing an Essential and Basic First Aid Course soon

So what made everyone choose Cambridge

So what made everyone choose Cambridge

Just wondering whether Cambridge look at your top 3 subjects or most relevant? I'm guessing Biology is a relevant subject along with chemistry. Which is more relevant out of maths and physics? I really like Emmanuel College; the ducks are awesome!

GCSE's - 13A*'s

AS Level: (+ A in General Studies)
- Biology 95.7%
- Chemistry 93.7%
- Physics 94%
- Maths (and further maths) 96.1%
All four: 94.9%
Best 3: 95.3% (A bit worried it may not be high enough :L)

Does anyone know what kind of BMAT score I would need to stand a decent chance of getting in? Also what combination of subjects would they use to calculate an average for my UMS? Thanks

College: Liked Emmanuel and Christ's (as well as most of the one's I've looked at) so hard to choose where to apply!

Work Experience: GP Surgery, Shadowed Orthopaedic Surgeon, Genetics Laboratory, Care home
Doing an Essential and Basic First Aid Course soon

Hola peeps. My name's Callum, and I am going to be a cambridge fresher this october, studying medicine at Downing. I remember how student room helped me a great deal, so I feel like I should give back somehow, so if anyone has any questions about the application process for medicine at Cambridge, quote reply me here or send me a pm, and I'll get back to you. Whether that be the god-awful BMAT or interviews, I'll try my best.

Firstly, congratulations on your offer! Do you mind posting your stats?
Also, for the BMAT how far in advance do you recommend preparing? Are there any books which you think are particularly good? Which section did you find the most difficult/needed the most preparation?
Sorry for all the questions

Why don't you apply to Oxford? Your GCSEs are extraordinary which will help a lot there, and can make up for a lower BMAT.

Yeah I did think of that, but the head boy in the year above me at my sixth form got 13A*'s as well and all A's at AS and still got rejected from Oxford for Medicine. I prefer Cambridge as well and its a lot closer to where I live. Also I decided I'd probably apply to Cambridge if I got about 95UMS average or above (would have preferred a bit higher though haha). What did you like about Christ's College? cause I also liked it and thinking of applying there.

Stats, argh. I got 10 A*s GCSE, 4 As at AS, and ended up with 2 A*s and 2 As after my A2s. In my BMAT I got 6.8, 7.2, and 4A for the essay.

I spent most of my time right now preparing for the UKCAT. (Make sure you get into A medical school as opposed to NO medical school) Then when that was done then I sorted out my BMAT. I went to one of those BMAT crash courses for a day in London, but if I'm being honest, don't just give your money away to these. Some of the tips they gave me I found to be not very helpful. I did learn more about time management and specific questions, but there's no real way to predict what will come up in the BMAT. Time management is the main thing you need to prepare for. I got the BMAT book that everyone gets (400 BMAT questions), and worked through those.

I'll warn you, the BMAT is god awful. So damn stressful. One thing I'll say is for the essay, choose the question carefully, don't end up writing the essay and realising you have nothing to say. And don't answer an essay question where you don't understand the question. Too much of a gamble.

I'd say, if you haven't written an essay in a while, brush up on that. But you should focus mostly on time management for the first two sections. I thought the first section was the hardest, but really, what preparation can you really do?

Ask anything else if you want!

Odd that Emma seem to be using Best 3 UMS, and Best 4 UMS on their spreadsheet. I thought 3 most relevant UMS was used for medicine...

Ok fair enough
I don't know I just drew up a list of criteria and ruled colleges out based on them until I got to a shortlist of 6. Then I just tried to find out about them a bit more, contacted the admissions departments and now I think I've decided on Christ's. I like that you can stay in college accommodation for all 3 years, the location etc. Which other colleges are you considering?

Wow your stats are incredible! What was your SUMS average at AS?
I've booked a BMAT crash course in London which wasn't too expensive so I hope it will be at least a bit useful! Ok I'll have a look at getting that book then - did you find it helpful and representative of how difficult the actual questions were in the exam?
Also did you do physics A level? If not how did you prepare for that part of the BMAT?

Also how did you choose Downing?

Thanks for all of your help!

Can't remember my UMS scores, sorry, but I think I got around 93% average across all modules?

The crash course should be helpful, don't get me wrong. Just don't accept every piece of advice they give you just because they say it, see what works for you. I've seen some people give really bad advice about getting into medical school.

The BMAT book, well I'd say the individual questions were pretty similar to the test. The questions however will not prepare you for the difficulty of the paper as a whole. What I'm trying to say is, yeah, the questions are hard, but it's the fact that you don't have any time which really screws you over.

I did not do physics A level (no thank you). Now that you reminded me, I actually used a separate book to learn the physics, which was a book called how to master the BMAT. It's red. And it's on amazon. The book contains (I think) all of the content you need to know. However all it is, is a revision guide. It's really badly written and you can't actually learn anything from it. Just use the book as like a checklist of stuff to learn off of the internet and your friends that do physics. You'll realise the book makes little sense on some topics.

How did I choose Downing? You won't believe me, but I flicked through the prospectus, and saw that Downing had a basketball hoop, and then decided on that. I found that I didn't want to get my hopes up on going to Cambridge, so I read the prospectus as little as possible, and spent as little time looking at pictures of Cambridge, haha. Turns out Downing was an amazing choice.

One thing I do want to say is don't get caught up about which college to choose. Yeah take your time and see what's best for you, but focus more on banking as much UMS as possible on your AS's and the BMAT and your interview.

That sounds like a good way of deciding I've just looked round them tbh and tried to get a feel for the colleges. As well as Christ's I also liked Emmanuel and Pembroke. I've heard Gonville and Caius is nice but didn't get a chance to look at it when I was in Cambridge as it was closed.