I was successful for Clinical Biochemistry last year, and I've just had a look through this thread out of curiosity, so thought I'd add a couple of pieces of advice:
- Practice the online tests as much as possible - the time limit for each question was ridiculous, but if you can get a bit quicker at working out what you think is a ballpark figure for the answer it will help. There were about 30 options for each answer last year & I didn't work out any of the questions properly so I reckon it marks you based on how close to the actual answer you were.
- Not having loads of NHS experience doesn't matter, but bear in mind that they want to see that you've done your research and you know what you'd be getting into, not just for the STP, but in terms of career progression too, as they want people who are committed. At the end of the day a lot of money is invested in one trainee so it pays to show you understand where it leads to.
- If you're applying straight from undergrad, where questions want you to give examples, try to use examples from outside of your degree if you can. My supervisor has been involved in shortlisting & interviewing before and she said she likes to see that someone does things outside of their studies.
- You've got nothing to lose by putting down a second specialism as neither specialism will be aware that you did. But with only 250 words per question it is difficult to demonstrate your passion for two different specialisms, so if there is one in particular you want to do, it's better to focus on that one. I put down Immunology as my second specialism and got 45/69 at shortlisting because I'd focussed so much on Biochemistry in my answers, but because I'd done that so well I got 66/69 for Biochemistry shortlisting. So it can pay off to focus on just one specialism...if you are going to put a second specialism down and you have equal preference for both, choose two that are closely linked as it will make writing the form a lot easier.
I'm happy to answer any questions, this thread was really useful when I was applying last year