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GAMSAT 2016 (2017 entry)

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Original post by neuromeg
I'm just really hopeful that Swansea is 59 or below and Notts isn't above 60 (my score is 61.666 calculated the Notts way, 59 the science way). If SGUL is 60 then I guess that's it for me! Hopefully they release the cut-off this week - the wait is killing me!

Will we get the cut-offs emailed to us?


Notts go with whichever works out higher for you... or so their website seems to suggest previously. 61 is the highest mark they've ever needed so long as you got a 2:1 or above, fingers crossed for you :smile:
Original post by ben91
Notts go with whichever works out higher for you... or so their website seems to suggest previously. 61 is the highest mark they've ever needed so long as you got a 2:1 or above, fingers crossed for you :smile:


Hah thank you! I hope so, I'm really keen on Notts :smile:
Sarb from Nottingham said "The scores have not yet been set and may take up to a week. Once confirmed we will send email notifications and advertise the scores of the university web site." We should know them by next week then.

Also, which of the two cut-off scores at Nottingham are used for people who haven't finished their degree yet? Do they use the predicted grade? I'm predicted a 1st, then would they use the lower cut off score or for whatever reason use the one for those who have a 2.2 degree?
Also to add onto the previous post that she said they round scores both up and down, not just up as has been suggested in the past. So on 60.33, my score will be rounded down to 60. If you had 60.5 it would be rounded up to 61.

Even though I feel pretty confident that cut offs will be 60 this year I have refused to celebrate at all since receiving the results and the wait for cut offs feels 1000x longer than before!

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Original post by Themightylaa
Also to add onto the previous post that she said they round scores both up and down, not just up as has been suggested in the past. So on 60.33, my score will be rounded down to 60. If you had 60.5 it would be rounded up to 61.

Even though I feel pretty confident that cut offs will be 60 this year I have refused to celebrate at all since receiving the results and the wait for cut offs feels 1000x longer than before!

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Oh nice! So my 61.666 will be rounded up to 62 :biggrin: I'm now slightly more confident for Notts, huge relief. Thank you for finding out.

I've also not celebrated yet. I have a bottle of champagne I won in a raffle earlier this year but I won't open it until I get an offer haha.
The wait is killing me! What are you all doing this year, then? Personally I just gained my masters degree and am working part time as a tutor and about to start volunteering at a hospital :smile:
Original post by puddleduck
The wait is killing me! What are you all doing this year, then? Personally I just gained my masters degree and am working part time as a tutor and about to start volunteering at a hospital :smile:


I'm working in diabetes research and have been since I finished my masters a few years back. I technically work in a medical school/hospital but I don't think it would count as clinical experience since it's not patient based - which is a shame!
I'm also continuing my hospital volunteering once a week, and trying to save loads of money. Hopefully gonna need it haha!

How did you get into tutoring? I think it's a good thing to try and sort as a part time job.. possibly during medicine.
Original post by neuromeg

How did you get into tutoring? I think it's a good thing to try and sort as a part time job.. possibly during medicine.


Sounds awesome! I'm worried about my amount of work experience (or lack thereof)- I did a load in y13 and then haven't really repeated much.... I'm hoping that the hospital stuff I start next week will be enough, plus I'll try to get in a bit of shadowing before the work experience forms start! :O I actually tutor with a company based in London :smile:
I've been doing HCA full time in a great hospital since graduating in the summer and as I've been doing it through the bank system I've literally covered every ward in the hospital including surgery and A&E. Got a new job starting in 2 weeks as a full time phlebotomist and clinical support worker at another hospital. I'll. Keep my weekly volunteering up at the same hospital that I've been doing since 2014 as well probably.

Basically just spending the next year living in the NHS! Good preparation I guess haha.

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Original post by Themightylaa
I've been doing HCA full time in a great hospital since graduating in the summer and as I've been doing it through the bank system I've literally covered every ward in the hospital including surgery and A&E. Got a new job starting in 2 weeks as a full time phlebotomist and clinical support worker at another hospital. I'll. Keep my weekly volunteering up at the same hospital that I've been doing since 2014 as well probably.

Basically just spending the next year living in the NHS! Good preparation I guess haha.

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:O Amazing! You're freaking me out though :P
Original post by puddleduck
The wait is killing me! What are you all doing this year, then? Personally I just gained my masters degree and am working part time as a tutor and about to start volunteering at a hospital :smile:


Finished my masters degree in the summer, and carrying on with my HCA work, I have just moved onto a new ward that works closely with A+E. Should be getting my venipuncture and ECG training sorted within the next month or so, so I am looking forward to that.

Alongside that I am carrying on with my part time job of caring for an adult with learning difficulties, something I've been doing for coming on 3 years (or is it 4? :/)

After seeing what happens regarding any potential interviews and how they go will either see me going back to GAMSAT/UKCAT revision, or working my arse off to get in plenty of overtime and save as much as possible haha.
have any uni's apart from SGUL sent rejections yet?
Original post by blondyn
have any uni's apart from SGUL sent rejections yet?


Not that I've heard :s-smilie:
Original post by Themightylaa
I've been doing HCA full time in a great hospital since graduating in the summer and as I've been doing it through the bank system I've literally covered every ward in the hospital including surgery and A&E. Got a new job starting in 2 weeks as a full time phlebotomist and clinical support worker at another hospital. I'll. Keep my weekly volunteering up at the same hospital that I've been doing since 2014 as well probably.

Basically just spending the next year living in the NHS! Good preparation I guess haha.

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Wow - super prepared! You'll know the NHS inside out by the time of interviews.
Original post by Marathi
Finished my masters degree in the summer, and carrying on with my HCA work, I have just moved onto a new ward that works closely with A+E. Should be getting my venipuncture and ECG training sorted within the next month or so, so I am looking forward to that.

Alongside that I am carrying on with my part time job of caring for an adult with learning difficulties, something I've been doing for coming on 3 years (or is it 4? :/)

After seeing what happens regarding any potential interviews and how they go will either see me going back to GAMSAT/UKCAT revision, or working my arse off to get in plenty of overtime and save as much as possible haha.


Your work experience sounds great though, I hope your GAMSAT is good enough to get an interview! :smile:
Do you guys think that work experience done now (after application) counts?
Original post by neuromeg
Your work experience sounds great though, I hope your GAMSAT is good enough to get an interview! :smile:


Thanks! I know my academics aren't as strong as many other applicants so I want to make sure my work experience excels. I've been a HCA for nearly 2 years now, before that I was a volunteer on a ward for around a year, and I have also had a weeks worth of shadowing various doctors in different departments too (although that now falls outside of experience within the past 2 years)!
Original post by neuromeg
Wow - super prepared! You'll know the NHS inside out by the time of interviews.


Cheers but the real trick will be articulating everything I have learnt from my experience within a 5 minute interview slot! Otherwise it's all useless. If I was being brutally honest I'd tell the interviewer that far too many juniors have an ego problem (any other HCA workers within hospitals can likely to attest to this) but of course I won't be saying anything like that! :smile:

Regarding WE that you do now, I asked about this from a previous applicant and they said you can include such things right up to the date you submit your WE forms. I'm shadowing a consultant and his juniors for a week on the 21st of this month in the ICU so definitely would like that on my form also.

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Original post by Themightylaa
Cheers but the real trick will be articulating everything I have learnt from my experience within a 5 minute interview slot! Otherwise it's all useless. If I was being brutally honest I'd tell the interviewer that far too many juniors have an ego problem (any other HCA workers within hospitals can likely to attest to this) but of course I won't be saying anything like that! :smile:

Regarding WE that you do now, I asked about this from a previous applicant and they said you can include such things right up to the date you submit your WE forms. I'm shadowing a consultant and his juniors for a week on the 21st of this month in the ICU so definitely would like that on my form also.

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JD's are so hit and miss. Some are absolutely incredibly helpful, have let me practised taking bloods from them, shown me really cool stuff, and explained the reasons behind what they're doing.

Others, like you say, have huge egos. I've seen F1's walk around the place as though they are some consultant with decades of experience. They talk down to you and smirk at your dreams of pursuing medicine.
Original post by Marathi
JD's are so hit and miss. Some are absolutely incredibly helpful, have let me practised taking bloods from them, shown me really cool stuff, and explained the reasons behind what they're doing.

Others, like you say, have huge egos. I've seen F1's walk around the place as though they are some consultant with decades of experience. They talk down to you and smirk at your dreams of pursuing medicine.


Yeah I've found the same - there are a couple of juniors who are absolutely lovely, and others that I just don't even bother approaching. I volunteer in A&E and, weirdly, the consultants sometimes have more time for me than the juniors. I think the receptionists are my faves though, they're so funny in my local hospital.

I've never understood why people would talk down to you though - especially as a graduate. It's not like you've flippantly decided to do medicine, and in some cases you might actually be academically more accomplished than some junior doctors!

But yeah, I haven't got nearly as much experience but hopefully I'll be okay at reflecting on my experience, which is the main thing. It's not how much you did, but what you learned from it! OR so they kept saying at the Notts open day haha.

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