Road to med school! (and 3A*s + 1A)

Hello! I'm Steph! (pardon my lame username hehe)

Thought this GYG seemed like a really meaningful initiative so I'm gonna use it as a platform to document my progress to (hopefully) 3A*s & 1A.

Background:
2013 - Singapore-Cambridge GCE O levels:
Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics: B3
English, Higher Mother Tongue (Chinese), Mother Tongue (Chinese): A1
Pure Geography, Elective History & Social Studies: A2

2014-2015 (July) - Singapore-Cambridge GCE A Levels Programme:
I studied History, Economics, Literature and Mathematics in junior college but realised that this wasn't the path for me.

2015(July) - 2016 (Nov) - CIE A-levels Programme:
I did Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Psychology back in my home country, Malaysia. I completed the 1.5 year programme (in school), but decided to not take my A-levels in school so I registered as a private candidate for this May/June. (I did take my AS, but I'm not satisfied with them so I'm redoing them)

I did fairly well in Psychology AS, alright-ish for Biology AS, and am very much weaker in Mathematics and Chemistry. Chem just doesn't click with me it's always chemistry chemiscry chemisdie :banghead:

Current status:
On a gap year, waiting to complete my CIE A-levels in May/June 2017 and to do my UCAS as an international applicant this October. (so yes, tons of self-discipline required)

I'm retaking my Biology/Chemistry/Mathematics AS + taking BCMP A2 for the first time!

This May 2nd will be my first paper! :ahhhhh:

Weakness:
I find myself losing focus and on certain days I slack off because I "didn't feel like studying." Am trying to improve my daily routines and I hope to get better as time passes by!

Goals:
3A*s + 1A in my A-levels, and excellent grades in UKCAT & BMAT. I want to get into medical school and hopefully if everything turns out okay, become a surgeon.
(edit: there are of course so many more things that make a good med student/doctor, but this thread is just going to be mostly focused on the academics aspect)

Other stuff about me:

Spoiler

Would love to hear relevant tips! : )) Good luck to everyone else on your journey!

Or really, just drop by to chat hahahaha

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

stefunnylim

University stuff:

I'm not done with my research for med school - but here's a post reserved for that!

I'm looking for schools which are not super strict on GCSEs (I didn't do fantastic at my O levels), have good anatomy teaching (preferably dissection) and less PBL is preferred. (just a personal preference)

I'm also looking to do an intercalated degree, so a school with many options for that sounds good.

Reply 2

stefunnylim

It's currently 1.49am here in Malaysia and this is my goal after I wake up:
It's going to be my first official day of revision so let's hope this goes well! :run:

Goals

Attempt 1 paper from 2010 - AS Math (2 h, including marking)

Attempt 1 paper from 2010 - AS Biology with reference, to check understanding and application (3 h, including marking)

Refreshers- Physical Chem: Atomic Structure & Chemical Bonding & States of Matter (1 h each, maybe less if I pick up fast)

Refreshers- Math: Vectors (1-2 h)

Practice French on Duolingo (20 mins)

I'm not employed at the moment, and there's not much I do at home - so I sure hope these are achievable! :teehee:

When I'm doing normal studying (ie. refreshers, making notes etc.) I usually do 50 minutes and take a 10 minute break!
When I'm doing papers, I usually will myself to finish the entire paper before taking a break.

Edit:
Some stuff happened at home (right after I started this GYG thread, so I didn't get much studying done these 2 days. I did keep up with my French, and attempted 1 and 2 (didn't mark 2).

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

wolfmoon88

Good luck! :smile:

What medical schools are you thinking about? :tongue:

and any in Singapore or elsewhere other than the UK?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4

stefunnylim

Original post by wolfmoon88

Good luck! :smile:

What medical schools are you thinking about? :tongue:

and any in Singapore or elsewhere other than the UK?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Thank you!! Good luck on your GYG journey too :h:

Truth be told I've still not narrowed down the med schools. still going through all the reviews etc etc haha! :colondollar:

I MIGHT apply to NUS, but it's highly unlikely. I've stayed in SG for a couple of years and I would like a change in environment!

I'm also looking at some Aussie universities, but because many of them are gradually removing the undergrad medicine course, so I don't have a lot of options there. One school I'm looking at would be the University of Adelaide!

I'm also applying to the medical schools in Ireland. : )

Reply 5

stefunnylim

As aforementioned - Day 1/2 didn't go as planned because some stuff happened at home!

So I'm just going to start again. :colonhash:

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for me because I'm going back to Singapore to:
1. Visit my best friend
2. Have a steamboat gathering with another group of friends(which lasts till 6pm)

I've decided to stay in Singapore to study in one of the libraries until 10pm (that's when they close) so in the limited 2-3 hours, I'll be attempting 2 AS Math papers (2010) (and marking them).

By the time I reach home it'll probably around 1145pm or so, thus I don't think it's possible to study then.

Update: WAS SO TIRED AT THE END OF THE DAY I DIDN'T DO MY PAPERS SOBS

But I did have a lovely time with my best friend. :u:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 6

wolfmoon88

Original post by stefunnylim

Thank you!! Good luck on your GYG journey too :h:

Truth be told I've still not narrowed down the med schools. still going through all the reviews etc etc haha! :colondollar:

Thank you

Coool

I considered applying to Australia and Ireland for Medicine too.

The universities I considered were Trinity College Dublin in Ireland (the admissions officers told me 40 overall with 6-7s in relevant IBHL subjects was basically a guaranteed admission in to Medicine this year if you are interested :tongue:

) and Monash and UNSW in Australia.

Also considered UK medical schools as well when I was planning on doing medicine :rofl:

but then I decided not to because I didn't like it :tongue:

Reply 7

stefunnylim

Original post by wolfmoon88

Thank you

Coool

) and Monash and UNSW in Australia.

Also considered UK medical schools as well when I was planning on doing medicine :rofl:

but then I decided not to because I didn't like it :tongue:

I'm also considering TCD! I have a senior there studying actually. But I wouldn't mind the other Ireland Universities like UCD and UCC as well. Oh yes I'll probably be applying to Monash too! I'll check out UNSW. Thanks for the extra information :biggrin:

Ah! So what did you eventually decide on doing then?

If it's not too personal would you mind me asking was it a gradual thing that you eventually realise that you didn't like med anymore or did it come to you all of a sudden? :colondollar:

Reply 8

stefunnylim

Haven't been too up to date with my thread :colondollar:

and my studying.
I've been procrastinating! I'm also really not used to doing daily updates so I've decided to just update when I feel like it... :embarrassed:

I only did a bit of French + watched some Biology lectures from MIT (since the last I updated)

Tomorrow (I'm going to try to be more focused!!):
Topic revision (refreshers): Vectors
Topic revision (refreshers): Chapter 1 in Biology
Complete Week 2's lectures for MITx 7.00
And a AS Math paper from 2010.
If i have time, I'll do the refreshers from Chem I didn't manage to do last week!

Reply 9

stefunnylim

Just started intensely checking out other people's GYG threads, and *to my horror* I realised mine's kinda messy so I might revamp the layout and make things more pleasant to the eye. (i've never really been a TSR addict but this GYG thing is turning me into one :colondollar:

)

Reply 10

wolfmoon88

Original post by stefunnylim

Coool

yeah all good unis! No problem, happy hunting for unis :tongue:

Human Sciences and related subjects :lol:

More like I've never thought that I could dedicate myself to Medicine for 5 years or more yet at this point in my life. I've always felt that way, but parents wanted me to do med lol. Then I found a legitimate excuse not to do med cuz my advisor told my parents that I wasn't good enough for medicine :rofl:

Reply 11

my.med.journey

Original post by wolfmoon88

Thank you

Coool

) and Monash and UNSW in Australia.

Also considered UK medical schools as well when I was planning on doing medicine :rofl:

but then I decided not to because I didn't like it :tongue:

Hey! Not sure how far you got with your applications to UNSW and Monash, but I'm keen on applying to med schools in Australia. Was wondering if you could help me out on anything you know about where students usually go during holidays, what type of accommodation undergrads opt for and if you know anyone doing undergrad medicine in Australia at the moment?

Reply 12

wolfmoon88

Original post by my.med.journey

In terms of your questions, I didn't get really far with my application to Monash and UNSW because I decided not to apply to medical school before the part of the application process that requires heavy administrative work. Therefore I haven't personally experienced many of the processes that are required to apply to medical school in Australia (the UMAT, the interview etc...)

In terms of the two universities as a whole, I am more familiar with UNSW as my best friend is going there this summer for the July 2017 cohort and I got an offer from them (which I rejected) for Bachelor of Adv. Science (Hons) and Arts for the July 2017 cohort. Many of my friends who are currently in Australia go on trips around Australia during their holidays or go abroad (because most of my friends are international students), In terms of what internship opportunities (in hospitals and care settings) you can gain, you would be better off asking individual universities because I didn't apply to study medicine at both universities. (UNSW Admissions is quite unhelpful from my experience- although I got my offer within a couple of days. Individual departments might be more helpful though.)

Accommodation-wise, most people I know in UNSW opt for university accommodation such as residential colleges in their first year then look for outside accommodation after the first two years. (Again, I do not know much about Monash) For these residential colleges, there is often an additional fee that is associated with them and therefore it might not be completely economical to live in them (most of my friends are either 1. Australians who live at home so they do not encounter such a problem, 2. International Students whose families have money to spend 3. International Students on Scholarships so money isn't that great of a factor anyways). In the case that you want to live in residential colleges, you need to complete an external application. The application process is not that complicated and honestly quite chill. If you have more detailed questions about the application process to residential colleges just quote me as I am quite familiar with this process (I contributed to my friend's recommendation letter) I know of a person who is currently doing undergraduate medicine in Australia but I do not know her really well.

I hope this helps and if you have any more questions just ask!

wolfmoon88