Graduate Entry Medicine: 2016 Entry

How do you get a HCA job or similar if you don't have an NVQ in Care and experience?? Finding it quite difficult to get a job for this next year.

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Relate other skills to the work of a carer. My previous experience was of pub work and retail sales, with one week of volunteer work in a care home some 7 years before.

Do the unis value hospital HCA work over nursing home caring or home-to-home care work? I've loads of experience as a carer but none in a hospital environment. I have done some GP shadowing however..#.

Do the unis value hospital HCA work over nursing home caring or home-to-home care work? I've loads of experience as a carer but none in a hospital environment. I have done some GP shadowing however..#.

At my interviews they were more interested that what I'd done than where I'd done it. It's more about the ability to show empathy, though obv if you do work in a hosp you may be able to bring things up you saw there than inspired you etc. Some work shadowing in a hosp is valued though, work experience issues came up at all my interviews.

Relate other skills to the work of a carer. My previous experience was of pub work and retail sales, with one week of volunteer work in a care home some 7 years before.

Wow a lot of experience! What sort of HCA job do you have?
I have 6 months carer experience but it was 2013-2014 so Warwick won't take all of it as it crosses over the 2 year mark, and I've shadowed in A&E, MAU, obstetrics and gynaecology, antenatal, podiatry, neonatal, urology, podiatry surgery and urology surgery. I'm just wanting GP!

I've been applying to HCA jobs in my area through the nhs website for a month now but I only have had one invitation to interview which I couldn't attend and haven't heard from any of the others which is really annoying me, how hard can it be??

What did you change your technique to? :-)


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How did you relate your pub/retail work? Did this work for you for ones where they said an NVQ was essential?

No, I only bothered apply to realistic position. Those that require an NVQ were obviously a waste of time.
Pub/retail sales is people facing, if you've ever tried to refuse serving a drunkard at 11pm on a Friday night you'll see some startling similarities to the people skills used in the hospital.

This may not be the response you're looking for but I have a few questions! Firstly, congrats on your place and good luck! Hope it all goes really well.

Do you know what the UKCAT cut off was for GEP last year? What did you score? I'm considering kings but need to wait and see what my UKCAT is like!

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We have a 2015 thread somewhere. They'll be able to help more.
You need to be income assessed, even if you get none of the income assessed loan, to get the extra weeks allowance. It is also based on your household income.

Hey, I just finished graduate entry medicine at Cambridge and started my FY1 job. Congrats on your offer! TBH I think it looks about right, I think I only got about 2.5k in my first year. It would be a good idea to get income assessed anyway as for the NHS bursary in year 2-4 they require that and maybe you will get the extra weeks allowance.

Hi, just out of curiosity, what did you get on your UKCAT? Kings is my dream uni, how was your interview also lol


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It's about the right money. Am getting similar amount as well though I don't live in London

"@emmaaa88 Thanks! I'm not sure, I think it was around 750 for 2015 entry but it may have been a little lower. I think in 2014 the lowest offer holder had a score of 780, but that was a freak year as we know. My score was 767.5. Best of luck! "

Thanks! 780 in 2014! what that is mental, that is so high. So basically I wont be applying to Kings unless i get 750+. Your score is great well done! I know you did it ages ago, but you do you have any general tips, especially with QR and long style VR?

I think some people with 740 might possibly have been interviewed for 2015 (I'm struggling to remember based on what people posted on TSR at the time :P maybe scroll through the Kings A102 2015 thread?). I think if you get below 750, getting an interview wouldn't be a safe bet, but it might still be worth it! And if you get above, unless you have a crazy year like 2014, it should be fine.

Medify is what people always say! I was quite bad at QR/AR but ended up getting in the 800s for QR and 600s for AR IIRC. For VR, keep a clear head, and remember that it will be easier in real life than on medify because there are four answer options rather than 5. Also, when you take the actual test, don't get thrown off part way through because you think you've done badly in a section - I thought QR had gone really badly and I skimmed the last few questions, but obviously it hadn't. I always found DA pretty easy, I think even if you find it difficult it's one to approach calmly given how long you get for it as a section. Also, make sure you time your preparation well enough - I probably spent maybe 2.5 weeks on mine and when I went for the test on the day I wished I'd done more. It ended up being fine but it would have been nicer if I was more comfortable about it. Hope that helps a bit

Hi everyone! Good luck with all your applications this year, I know how gruelling the whole process can be. I'm starting at Nottingham next month so if any of you have any questions about GAMSAT or the general process feel free to ask away

Loads of help! Thanks so much. If I email Kings will they be forthcoming with their information about cut offs or is it best to scroll?


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All they'd be able to tell you would be the cutoff for the previous year - that might be worth finding out, however, as it will be more precise than what I've said! It might be worth phrasing it as asking what the lowest score that received an interview/offer was, rather than asking what the cutoff was, as some medical schools don't like to explicitly admit that they have a cutoff even if clearly they do.

Had my UKCAT today and scored 640!
Not sure if its even worth applying to GEM anymore

If you done mind me asking what were scoring in mocks?

And which practice resource did you find most representative to each section?

It's good enough for 5 year!


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