Stress about applying for medicine..

But yeah that’s my rant.. anyone else feel like this? Better yet, anyone else felt like this and got into medicine??

Maybe you should come up with a plan and also get off social media. Ultimately, you'll only have yourself to blame if your lack of motivation costs you the chance to study medicine. Your goal is to get into medical school but to have that goal is not enough. You need to turn yourself into the person who has a chance at achieving it.

On a side note, most people receive 4 rejections in their first application cycle. If that happens and medicine is still what you want, you need to pick yourself up, figure out what went wrong, and reapply.

I am also applying this year and I feel exactly the same way! Everyone else I have talked to is stressing out too. I would say the most important thing atm is to focus on your grades. Also try and get your volunteering set up - it is good to have a long term placement. Maybe think about some work experience and extracurriculars.
Imo, a good foundation would be one:
One longterm volunteering role - ideally in hospital, care home or hospice. People have different ideas of longterm (I would say 6 + months, others would say 2 +).
A week work experience placement in hospital or GP - ideally both but universities understand how hard work exp can be to get.
A couple of extracurriculars to show a work-life balance and transferrable skills.
Some sort of wider reading to show motivation to study medicine: medical books, student BMJ, BBC health, lectures etc.

Don’t worry about the UKCAT just now, most people say you only need anywhere between 2-5 weeks for practise. Hopefully this calms you down a little - focus on grades, organising volunteering and maybe start contacting hospitals for work experience during the summer. When it comes to the summer you can focus on wider reading and the UKCAT.

Don’t worry - every one is in the same boat

I applied this year, I take bio chem and french and I have 2 offers. I honestly thought I had wasted my time and was nowhere near good enough but take things one step at a time. focus on looking at unis and sorting volunteering now, focus on UKCAT over summer then focus on a levels. you can do it!!

Not once in my life have I felt like I had my **** together yet I applied this year (2018 entry) and have one offer (am waiting to hear from 2 more universities). You have got good GCSE's so that keeps your options fairly open. I struggled loads with work experience and voluntary work because I wrote to so many places and they all said they wouldn't take me but at the end of the day it's not about how much you have it's about what you learnt through them - at interview questions are normally based around talking about specific experiences which could happen if you had 2 days experience or 2 weeks.
I also frequently feel disorganised and a bit lost but it helps me to write out a list of things that I need/want to do and then prioritise and work from that. At this point last year I think my list was mainly organising work exp., researching different unis (looking at entry requirements) and mock exam revision. Basically just take things one step at a time and try to relax a bit - unfortunately it doesn't get less stressful!😂

Yes and almost out the other end too. Your GCSEs are better than mine (think i had 6A*s, 5As), so definitely good enough. Try not to stress otherwise you'll really struggle with the stresses of medical school! (which i'm sure is nothing on the stresses of being a doctor which I can't comment on just yet). Just trying to give you a bit of hope that its not the end of the world even if you get 4 rejections (which I did... then got in the following year and now start as a doctor in July). Keep going - you've got this

Well done on the offer! It must feel so relieving, especially after knowing how most people get rejected! Yeah, it’s pretty stressful getting volunteering and work exp sorted out. So many emails and phone calls.. and anxiously waiting for replies.

The way the Medicine application process works in this country is totally messed up. They force students to waste their time pursuing voluntary work and extracurricular stuff that gains them nothing. I have 20 year-old students in my year who have resumes that put adults with 30 year long careers to shame...that's how hard they worked to get into medicine and you know what? they do not in any way shape or form perform better than any of the rest of us..quite the contrary many of them perform bad in exams...

Students should not have to go through so much to get into this career. Gauge student eligibility on their grades and grades alone...take the students with the highest grades in the country ....that is the way its done in every other country and you know what most foreign doctors that I come across blow me away.....they stand out. Most of them are light years ahead of us ....medicine is broken in this country and that is i think thanks in large part to its take over by liberals....the take over of the GMC by liberals who have changed medicine to a career who's focus is not the pursuit of true merit but rather political correctness.....in this world of liberal medicine extra curricular stuff, being a white woman, coming from a wealthy background and knowing people up top is what makes you special not your grades/hard work....

Congratulations on the offers! It’s nice seeing someone else applying for medicine with a language A-level too Is it okay to ask what predicted grades you got? Also how much volunteering/work experience did you do?

Well, as the title says.. I’m stressed about applying for medicine. I have this feeling that I’m just not good enough and that all this effort is going to be for nothing and I’ll end up with 4 rejections at the end. My GCSEs were not bad, I got 7A* 1A and a B(in textiles). I’m currently doing Bio, Chem and German for A-levels. I’m in year 12 so obviously haven’t got predicted grades yet but I know my science a levels are going really tricky... and I still haven’t got voluntary work set in place yet (I contacted loads of care homes and only one replied, we are still sorting out details). I just feel so lost and disorganized and dumb. I keep getting distracted by messages, social media and friends.. I don’t do as much as I need to for medicine. And I just feel like everyone else applying for medicine actually has their **** together?

But yeah that’s my rant.. anyone else feel like this? Better yet, anyone else felt like this and got into medicine??

Thanks! Seeing everything summed up like that was rather reassuring! I’ve already done one week at a hospital, one week at a dentist’s and one week at a pharmacy. And I’ve literally just bagged the opportunity to volunteer at a care home extremely close to me, which I will keep volunteering at until the time comes to apply. That will be at least 6 months I should think. And as for extra curricular things, I have some science-related ones as well as for German.. I also have my EPQ. And i guess I’ll focus on UKCAT later then, thanks for the tip!

The way the Medicine application process works in this country is totally messed up. They force students to waste their time pursuing voluntary work and extracurricular stuff that gains them nothing. I have 20 year-old students in my year who have resumes that put adults with 30 year long careers to shame...that's how hard they worked to get into medicine and you know what? they do not in any way shape or form perform better than any of the rest of us..quite the contrary many of them perform bad in exams...

Students should not have to go through so much to get into this career. Gauge student eligibility on their grades and grades alone...take the students with the highest grades in the country ....that is the way its done in every other country and you know what most foreign doctors that I come across blow me away.....they stand out. Most of them are light years ahead of us ....medicine is broken in this country and that is i think thanks in large part to its take over by liberals....the take over of the GMC by liberals who have changed medicine to a career who's focus is not the pursuit of true merit but rather political correctness.....in this world of liberal medicine extra curricular stuff, being a white woman, coming from a wealthy background and knowing people up top is what makes you special not your grades/hard work....

The way the Medicine application process works in this country is totally messed up. They force students to waste their time pursuing voluntary work and extracurricular stuff that gains them nothing. I have 20 year-old students in my year who have resumes that put adults with 30 year long careers to shame...that's how hard they worked to get into medicine and you know what? they do not in any way shape or form perform better than any of the rest of us..quite the contrary many of them perform bad in exams...

Students should not have to go through so much to get into this career. Gauge student eligibility on their grades and grades alone...take the students with the highest grades in the country ....that is the way its done in every other country and you know what most foreign doctors that I come across blow me away.....they stand out. Most of them are light years ahead of us ....medicine is broken in this country and that is i think thanks in large part to its take over by liberals....the take over of the GMC by liberals who have changed medicine to a career who's focus is not the pursuit of true merit but rather political correctness.....in this world of liberal medicine extra curricular stuff, being a white woman, coming from a wealthy background and knowing people up top is what makes you special not your grades/hard work....

The way the Medicine application process works in this country is totally messed up. They force students to waste their time pursuing voluntary work and extracurricular stuff that gains them nothing. I have 20 year-old students in my year who have resumes that put adults with 30 year long careers to shame...that's how hard they worked to get into medicine and you know what? they do not in any way shape or form perform better than any of the rest of us..quite the contrary many of them perform bad in exams...

Students should not have to go through so much to get into this career. Gauge student eligibility on their grades and grades alone...take the students with the highest grades in the country ....that is the way its done in every other country and you know what most foreign doctors that I come across blow me away.....they stand out. Most of them are light years ahead of us ....medicine is broken in this country and that is i think thanks in large part to its take over by liberals....the take over of the GMC by liberals who have changed medicine to a career who's focus is not the pursuit of true merit but rather political correctness.....in this world of liberal medicine extra curricular stuff, being a white woman, coming from a wealthy background and knowing people up top is what makes you special not your grades/hard work....

My advice to any medicine applicant in your position would be that please just let yourself be mentally and emotionally prepared to get 4 rejections - even though we hate to think about it, it's really important that you'll be able to pick yourself back up if it happens. If it is going to happen, it will happen and it can happen to any applicant!. It's important that you understand that getting 4 rejections the first time round is not the end and that you have an alternative plan set in route (Even if that alternative route is just to take a year out and reapply). I used to feel exactly the same way as you last year, I had no work experience in a hospital setting, I had only just started volunteering in a hospital and I was not dong great in my A level sciences. Now, after 4 medicine rejections this year, I feel closer to medicine than ever before (surprisingly). I have drastically improved my grades, have much more voluntary and work experience and am happy that for the rest of my duration of A levels I can just focus on getting the best grades I can get. Getting 4 medicine rejections is hard for anyone to deal with, and although there are many happy and positive replies to this thread, just remember that it is not the end if it happens! Not really sure if this helped relieve your stress but I think its really healthy that you are not going into medicine with the thought that you will get all your offers. Keep going and I am sure success will come to you, in some form or another

This certainly has helped relieve my stress ! I’m in year 12 and hopefully apply for medicine if my UKCAT and predicted grades are good ! If you don’t mind me asking , what advice would you give in terms of applying for medicine?