Graduate Entry Medicine: 2016 Entry

I can't recommend enough the whole just "be yourself" bit. I bombed my first MMI station by running completely out of things to say, and even confessed as much. For the others, having thought I'd messed up the pressure was kinda off and I just acted like myself and answered honestly. The last woman on my MMI was determined not to laugh but I got her there in the end :wink:

I'm not saying you should prepare a list of one liners but being able to relax and communicate effectively is the single biggest hurdle.

Reply 782

DoeADeer

9

Original post by lcsurfer

I still wouldn't say you'e interested in surgery specifically, it's risky as they can spin it in the interview massively! Especially when they ask why? (trust me I was grilled when i said I was interested in paediatrics). Dissection is good to mention but don't go down the surgery route, It's not a beneficial part of your personal statement in any way, save the word count for other things.

MMI's nothing out the ordinary, just be yourself to stand out, no unusual questions all very much the usual suspects you'd expect in any interview. I.e. why medicine? What W/E you've done? other careers considered other than medicine. But mostly be yourself and don't give them the standard cookie cutter answers. I made some ridiculous comments in my MMI and made them laugh - but it probably helped to show i had a personality.

Thank you! Really helpful response!
Okay, that's a relief that the MMIs are fairly normal. Whereabouts was your MMI at King's btw? Just curious haha. I would imagine the MMIs would need to be in a hall or something kinda big to fit everyone in? Also, is it just one interviewer at each station? Sorry for all these really specific questions.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 783

lcsurfer

Original post by DoeADeer

Thank you! Really helpful response!
Okay, that's a relief that the MMIs are fairly normal. Whereabouts was your MMI at King's btw? Just curious haha. I would imagine the MMIs would need to be in a hall or something kinda big to fit everyone in? Also, is it just one interviewer at each station? Sorry for all these really specific questions.

It was in the clinical skills centre at Guyss (did it 2.5 years ago now though!). All in one room... it is essentially speed dating and each booth had 1 person in and a chair for you to sit in.

Reply 784

Brachioradialis

Original post by lcsurfer

All in one room... it is essentially speed dating and each booth had 1 person in and a chair for you to sit in.

God if that analogy is correct then older, bitter people are really not into me...

Reply 785

Original post by DoeADeer

I have another question, apologies...
My ultimate goal is to eventually become a surgeon. Is it a good idea to mention this in my personal statement and give reasons for why I want to be one (e.g. I play the flute and piano therefore I have good manual dexterity which is a trait surgeons need). Or should I just leave this out?

no its not a good idea , i considered this as an answer to the why doctor instead of nurse question in interview and realized it was a bit get out and narrow minded... consider that you have no idea what you want to do until you really experience/learn it

Reply 786

Original post by DoeADeer

I'm not sure.. I shadowed a plastic surgeon and did an anatomy module in the year that just went and we dissected the whole body during the course of the year. Would that not be relevant to mention why I think I'd enjoy surgery?
Thanks for your reply btw! I noticed on your profile that you're a graduate medic at KCL... I'm at KCL doing biomed atm and am apply for the graduate entry programme here. Do you have any tips on the application/MMIs by any chance? I'm pretty terrified of the sound of the MMIs. Are all the questions they ask involve trying to figure out what you'd do in certain situations? Do any involve acting out anything... It's just that I read somewhere a question could be imagine that you've run over your neighbour's cat... how would you tell your neighbour? Something like that anyway...
Thanks!

That cat question is just something random created by the 600 questions book i think, don't worry about anything like that for kings .. if youre applying for kings really work on your ukcat practice because their ukcat threshold is higher than most unis... i did the kings interview this year and as lcsurfer says it is all fairly standard.. some graph reading , why medicine , some case reading before ... it still allows you to draw on your work experience, maybe not as much as Warwick for example , but it still gives a chance to be individual

Reply 787

DoeADeer

9

Original post by H-W-T

no its not a good idea , i considered this as an answer to the why doctor instead of nurse question in interview and realized it was a bit get out and narrow minded... consider that you have no idea what you want to do until you really experience/learn it

Did they actually ask that question in an interview? I've heard that's a good question to prepare for...
Yeah, that's true. So, in my personal statement I'm assuming it would be fine to write that playing the flute since age of 7 gives manual dexterity?

Reply 788

Original post by DoeADeer

Did they actually ask that question in an interview? I've heard that's a good question to prepare for...
Yeah, that's true. So, in my personal statement I'm assuming it would be fine to write that playing the flute since age of 7 gives manual dexterity?

i think i would avoid talking about manual dexterity , my ps was focused on

reasons why I chose the career (particular life event or reason)
what i learnt from work experience - in particular :
Resilience (emotionally tough HCA work)
Compassion
Communication skills (adult support worker)
What it takes to be doctor (following surgeon - work life balance etc)
Whats else is involved and whether it suits you (teaching - suits me because i coach cricket etc)

I think if you want to talk about extra curricular focus more on how they develop virtues like team work , respect and diligence ... i talked about how my sport did this ... that sort of stuff seems better received than manual dexterity and you can avoid dodgy questions in interview

Reply 789

DoeADeer

9

Original post by H-W-T

i think i would avoid talking about manual dexterity , my ps was focused on

reasons why I chose the career (particular life event or reason)
what i learnt from work experience - in particular :
Resilience (emotionally tough HCA work)
Compassion
Communication skills (adult support worker)
What it takes to be doctor (following surgeon - work life balance etc)
Whats else is involved and whether it suits you (teaching - suits me because i coach cricket etc)

I think if you want to talk about extra curricular focus more on how they develop virtues like team work , respect and diligence ... i talked about how my sport did this ... that sort of stuff seems better received than manual dexterity and you can avoid dodgy questions in interview

Thanks for that! Do you know if we have to state the dates we carried out the work experience? I'm aware St George's asks for evidence of work experience, including dates, when called for interview although don't think I'm doing the GAMSAT so won't be applying there. It's just that I did the majority of my volunteering about 2 years ago as I was planning to do medicine before this degree... D: Although, of course I've been doing some, but not a lot, of volunteering during my degree.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 790

Original post by DoeADeer

Thanks for that! Do you know if we have to state the dates we carried out the work experience? It's just that I did the majority of my volunteering about 2 years ago as I was planning to do medicine before this degree... D: Although, of course I've been doing some, but not a lot, of volunteering during my degree.

i wouldnt bother ... if they want specific dates they will send work experience forms later on

Reply 791

Torel

4

Hello Everyone,

I'm new here. Been considering applying for medicine for a very long time but finally got the opportunity.

I've done an awful lot of reading round things but still unsure as to if my experiences and background make me a suitable candidate, so any guidance would be appreciated.

33 year old Law grad here and postgrad. Worked briefly as a lawyer (family) and now work in finance.

Going to be applying to Warwick and Newcastle, as KCL seems to have changed their entrance this year to require a science degree unfortunately.

I'm just commencing volunteer work within the NHS as a ward helper.

I lost my fiancée 4 years ago to stage 4 cancer and although I've always wanted to be a Doctor in some nebulous ill-defined wish kinda way, it was this that solidified my intent.

I gave up law to take care of my partner until they passed and then took a year off to grieve. Afterwards I went into finance as it allowed me to build up savings quicker to help finance going back to university.

I desperately want to be an oncologist, as I want to spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help people beat cancer. (Yes I'm aware that this is very clearly a personal driving factor and not very professional but thus far Cancer has taken my partner, my father, my best friend and a childhood friend and I genuinely want to try and help minimise those losses for other people)

I'm also late diagnosed dyslexic and thus was diagnosed via an official adult intelligence test (WAIS-III). I've read some general anecdotal debate concerning the relationship between IQ and UKCAT scores and have yet to take the UKCAT (next month) but have an IQ score of 145.

I'm not really sure how to sell myself to universities, as ultimately I'm from a very working class background. (under the poverty line) and I was the first person in my family to get to university; so a lot of peoples experiences volunteering in the middle east and other such things, are massively out of my scope.

Any suggestions?

Kind Regards,

Ciaran

Reply 792

Brachioradialis

Original post by Torel

x

I'm so sorry to hear of the circumstances that led you to the choice to study medicine, that's tragic.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be an oncology, and to be fair you clearly have very personal connections to the speciality and I'm sure it would convince any interviewer (so long as you say the token line of "I'd keep my options open").

Your dyslexia shouldn't be too much of an issue. There is an extended-timing UKCAT option for you since you have proof of dyslexia. I would ignore any correlations with UKCAT scores and IQ unless they're published somewhere? Nevertheless with a high IQ and a high work ethic I'm sure you will have few problems if you prepare thoroughly. Have a look into the usual 600Q book, and Medify as an online resource which I found really useful. Practice really is everything.

I wouldn't worry too much beyond getting a good UKCAT score so far. It's the single biggest determinant of whether you get an interview and for all your choices but KCL, personal statement doesn't factor in until post-interview (at Warwick it's ignored completely).

You don't really need to sell yourself to universities, just your experiences. You have a great deal of personal care experience from your circumstances which will count for a lot if you articulate it well. At Warwick you do need to demonstrate non-personal caring experience but you can cover that with your voluntary ward work that you mentioned.

Have a chat with a user on here called Am1992. He graduated from Law and is studying at Warwick with me from this September.

If you have any questions feel free to give me a shout. All the best :smile:

Reply 793

am1992

6

Original post by Torel

Hello Everyone,

I'm new here. Been considering applying for medicine for a very long time but finally got the opportunity.

I've done an awful lot of reading round things but still unsure as to if my experiences and background make me a suitable candidate, so any guidance would be appreciated.

33 year old Law grad here and postgrad. Worked briefly as a lawyer (family) and now work in finance.

Going to be applying to Warwick and Newcastle, as KCL seems to have changed their entrance this year to require a science degree unfortunately.

I'm just commencing volunteer work within the NHS as a ward helper.

I lost my fiancée 4 years ago to stage 4 cancer and although I've always wanted to be a Doctor in some nebulous ill-defined wish kinda way, it was this that solidified my intent.

I gave up law to take care of my partner until they passed and then took a year off to grieve. Afterwards I went into finance as it allowed me to build up savings quicker to help finance going back to university.

I desperately want to be an oncologist, as I want to spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help people beat cancer. (Yes I'm aware that this is very clearly a personal driving factor and not very professional but thus far Cancer has taken my partner, my father, my best friend and a childhood friend and I genuinely want to try and help minimise those losses for other people)

I'm also late diagnosed dyslexic and thus was diagnosed via an official adult intelligence test (WAIS-III). I've read some general anecdotal debate concerning the relationship between IQ and UKCAT scores and have yet to take the UKCAT (next month) but have an IQ score of 145.

I'm not really sure how to sell myself to universities, as ultimately I'm from a very working class background. (under the poverty line) and I was the first person in my family to get to university; so a lot of peoples experiences volunteering in the middle east and other such things, are massively out of my scope.

Any suggestions?

Kind Regards,

Ciaran

Hi,
I'm a law grad and I'm starting at Warwick in September. Never practiced but you're not alone coming from that kind of background. It's def. not a disadvantage.

I'd say there's two things I had to sell myself on coming from law. First, why medicine, not law/finance? For you, you have clear incentive for making the change with your partner, and while that won't be enough alone it's a good way of showing a specific moment that made you change career path and helped you start seriously thinking about medicine. For me, saving a young boy’s life while volunteering with the Red Cross ambulance crews at a music festival was the turning point from law to medicine and it helped explain why I was prepared to give up what was looking to be a possibly lucrative career if I carried on down that path.

Once you explain the change, the second thing is just about selling yourself against all other candidates from a non-academic background. You have real world, proper career experience which in itself is more than many applicants and will help. You’ll have gained the kind of teamwork/dealing with challenges/discipline type stuff they like just from that.

The ward work is great, gives you a real insight into hospitals and doctors roles.Try to get into theatre and tail a couple of consultants in various wards while there. You obviously have a specialty in mind but be open to other options –they want to know you’re interested in medicine per se and not just driven because of personal loss, however understandable. Focus on cancer too much and they’ll question why not just research, which does more in the long run to beat it. You also have 2 junior years and 2 core years where you won’t necessarily be practicing in the area you want to be in so have to have some general interest in being a doc, not just beating cancer.

A volunteering role, medical or non-medical, is valued, as are sports. Again it shows teamwork and that you have a life outside work. I volunteer as a children’s magistrate, for example, which is good for showing responsibility etc. and was also in the TA (now Army Reserve). Both of those helped at interview.

International travel isn’t necessary. I’ve done the standard trips to Africa/Europe etc. that most people from my school did, plus a couple of uni trips, but I didn’t really use it in my interview. Paying thousands of pounds to travel to make bricks/give money to locals who know what they’re doing and don’t need you doesn’t show much in itself and you can gain more skills from UK based activities.

Can’t help with UKCAT (guessed my way through :tongue:

) though I’d look at the extended version if you have dyslexia.

That’s just a summary, give a shout if I can help with anything else.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 794

-inspired-

10

Original post by DoeADeer

How much do they focus on work experience for graduate entry?
I've only got 6 months at a care home (which I did back in 2013) as well as shadowing a plastic surgeon and I may be shadowing another doctor soon. Would this be enough? It's just that I know others who have way more work experience and I've struggled enough already to get the shadowing experience.
Not done the UKCAT yet, but did it a couple of years ago and got 707.5 so hopefully that will run smoothly again...
Also, I'm only being predicted a 2.1...
Cheers!

It's more about how you reflect on your experience than how much you have, and yours looks fine to me. A 2:1 is absolutely fine, grades seem to be more of a tick box so as long as you have a 2:1 any higher isn't particularly advantageous (although this depends on where you're applying). The only University you might have trouble with (from the ones I'm aware of) is Warwick because they require 70 hours experience within the last two years and I think they measure it January-January so that would be from January 2014 which excludes your care home experience, but I would email them to double check that :smile:

.

Reply 795

laura143

2

Hey guys! I've been following this thread for a few months but haven't posted until now. I sat my UKCAT this morning, and was really happy with my score of 790. I was wondering if anyone could confirm which universities place emphasis on UKCAT score when deciding who gets called to interview? I know of Southampton, Warwick and Kings but wasn't sure on others. In considering both GEM and normal 5 year courses at the moment. I hope you are all well!

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Reply 796

wl1

8

Just did my UKCAT and scored 715. I had been considering retaking the GAMSAT or giving the BMAT another go if my UKCAT was a disaster but hopefully the UKCAT score will be enough for Warwick, so I won't bother. I've done enough admissions tests for a lifetime.

Now I have to figure out where to apply to. I'm going to use my GAMSAT score of 61 from March which will hopefully be enough for Swansea, but is borderline for Notts and St George's. 715 is probably only enough for Warwick. What do people think will happen to the King's cutoff after their change to science graduates only?

Reply 797

somethingbeautiful

I'm curious about something. Why do some unis require all grads to sit the GAMSAT regardless of degree subject? I'm from an arts background and it's perfectly understandable why they'd want arts grads to sit it (to prove ability in the science) but if someone has, for example, a Biomed degree and science A-levels, why do they need to sit the GAMSAT? Or at least, why do they need to sit section 3 or why do arts grads need to sit sections 1 and 2? There's one particular uni which only accepts science grads and they also require GAMSAT - is it basically just another hoop to jump to whittle down the numbers because in the case of this uni I don't see what value it adds and if they require GAMSAT then I don't see why they don't take applications from arts grads.

Reply 798

lcsurfer