Cambridge Medicine - 2019 Entry Applicants official thread

An interview was indeed a nice experience!

I applied to Leicester, Birmingham, and UCL. I had an interview at Leicester, withdrew my application from Birmingham (personal reasons), and am yet to hear back from UCL!

My interviews were both purely scientific. I cannot discuss the details (signed a form and all), but there was little of the typical interview questions you'd hear. I had to discuss scientific concepts and ideas, and for this a very thorough background knowledge is needed. According to their feedback I was quite confident in my interviews, and I think the only reason I did come across as such was because I revised all of biology and chemistry that we have covered at school.

I did a lot of random stuff to be honest I did a sort of an EPQ on medical synthesis and its implications on pharmaceutical costs, volunteered with disabled children, volunteered with kindergarten kids, and did a few placements (a bit over 2 weeks total) with plastic/hand surgeons (my personal interest). The type of interviews you receive differs depending on the college you apply to, so make sure to check out what the college you're interested in says. You might not be asked about your PS if the college doesn't have a general interview. For my ECs I talked a bit about my passion for languages (I speak four) and my interest in literature Nothing super crazy on that side, really.

Work on your BMAT and just try to enjoy the thing would be my overall advice. I didn't get in, but I met so many cool and nice people both on TSR and during my interviews - I talk to some of them almost daily and they're such amazing people. I think it's easy to get caught up in the idea of getting into Cambridge, but it's honestly not be-all-end-all. For me Cambridge was a bit of a stretch, and I always wanted to go to UCL, so if I had gotten offers from both the decision would've been hard. But still, I put all of the effort I had into my application, and I don't regret a thing. The feedback I got from my college was positive, and was (ironically) a confidence boost - it's not I was awful and an absolute waste of their time ,it's just that others were a bit better here or there
Also, wearing a huge smile always helps. Honestly the time flies so quickly in these interviews, it's crazy. I had such an amazing time and wouldn't mind going through the process again if I could (well, the interviews at least - they were seriously my favourite part!).

Good luck guys! If I do take a gap year I might see you around. Who knows where this year will take me

I currently volunteer at a local hospital as a Discharge Support Volunteer and it’s fantastic work experience as you have direct contact with patients, so it trains your communication skills as a doctor. Work experience can simply be found by applying through a hospital’s work experience page, or if you don’t have one, find a consultant’s email address and request some work experience. I managed to get both Plastic Surgery and Endocrine, Thyroid & Parathyroid Surgery by doing this - start an email by formally introducing yourself, what you do at school, what you want to do in the future (Medicine, obviously) and making yourself available to their schedule, i.e. something like “If I am able to do work experience in this field we can arrange timings and dates”, and overall just seem polite and welcoming, but also enthusiastic.

In terms of extra-curricular, I help run an Anatomical and Physiological society at my school and make presentations on the basis of that, and I also write articles for my school’s medical magazine. Do whatever opportunities you can find to include in your personal statement, but remember quality and not quantity - they’d rather 3 fantastic things over 10 okay things.

Good luck and I hope this helped!

Although it is good experience, Cambridge don't significantly care about Anatomical et al societies, simply because some schools provide the opportunities and some don't. Same with medical magazines, they're easy to write, and don't contribute to weighing. It is unfortunate. It is down to supercurricular and experience, I see you have this. Again, it is dependent on circumstance and if you're lucky;. The majority of hospitals don't provide medical work experience.

1) You need 3/4 A*s for medicine at A level
2) Average number of A*s at GCSE is 10/11
3) Minimum 6 months volunteering, however in some places it is hard to find
4) A diversity in medical work experience, it doesn't matter which ward you work in, you're shadowing in a hospital and you'd be doing the same repetitive things.
5) Essay competition
6) Socities and other minor school stuff aren't important. Unless you're a student supporter or do some sort of mentoring.

Ahhh, that’s fair enough. Although, I’m reading the Kings College Cambridge website and it states and I quote “For students applying from October 2017 onwards, there are no GCSE requirements for Medicine” so I don’t think the number of A*s at GCSE applies anymore. To be honest, I don’t see why they’d care since the majority of students have shown immense improvement at A Level compared to their GCSE grades. Ibz Mo, a current student at Cambridge and a YouTuber, got something like BBCCCCDD at GCSE (i think) but got A*A*A and studies PBS and another YouTuber called Courtney Daniella got 4 A*s 5 As and a B (I think, again lol), got A*AA at A Level and does HSPS there, so I think A Levels win in the application category. This is just from what I’m reading, otherwise I’m sure you’re 100% correct

In terms of volunteering, thankfully I’m only able to volunteer for at least six months so that works to my advantage! My job isn’t practical surgery whereas try work experience placement are polar ends of practical surgery, so hopefully that’s diverse enough.

I mentor a little, but I mentor Art and Language GCSEs because I do French A Level and got full marks in my Art GCSE - I’ll ask my head of year if I can start a science revision club with someone, maybe that’ll be good.

Thanks so much for the advice otherwise!

Thank you so much for all your advice!
Four languages?! I can only speak English (and sometimes not v well!)
Good luck on hearing back from UCL, I’m sure you’ve done brilliantly!
One more thing - have you read any good books?

No problem Glad I could help at least a bit (though actually having an offer would probably give me more credibility lol).
Yeah well I'm fluent in three, and French is only slightly above iGCSE level so perhaps not that great of a 4th language But it's something I'm working on ^_^


Well, I've read quite a few books (both medical and 'regular'). My favourite two medical books are "When Breath Becomes Air" and "This is going to hurt". The first one is rather sad but very wise, and the second one is a bit more... banter-y. Some other honourable mentions are "Being Mortal", "Complications", and "Do No Harm". Though "Being Mortal" is probably similar in its main topic to "When Breath Becomes Air" (mortality and how being aware of it changes our views and needs).
Other than that I recently reread "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" which I had to read for English Lit, but it's an amazing book and I really love it. If you're into scientific literature I recommend "what if?" - it's really funny! And the last book I read was "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August"... a weird book, but if you dig stuff like Inception it might be for you as well.

No problem Glad I could help at least a bit (though actually having an offer would probably give me more credibility lol).
Yeah well I'm fluent in three, and French is only slightly above iGCSE level so perhaps not that great of a 4th language But it's something I'm working on ^_^


Well, I've read quite a few books (both medical and 'regular'. My favourite two medical books are "When Breath Becomes Air" and "This is going to hurt". The first one is rather sad but very wise, and the second one is a bit more... banter-y. Some other honourable mentions are "Being Mortal", "Complications", and "Do No Harm". Though "Being Mortal" is probably similar in its main topic to "When Breath Becomes Air" (mortality and how being aware of it changes our views and needs).
Other than that I recently reread "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" which I had to read for English Lit, but it's an amazing book and I really love it. If you're into scientific literature I recommend "what if?" - it's really funny! And the last book I read was "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August"... a weird book, but if you dig stuff like Inception it might be for you as well.

I actually have just started reading ‘when breath becomes air’! I’ll keep reading and see how I find it
Thanks again, i’ll add the rest to my list.

Thank you so much for these book titles! Will definitely add them to my reading list. My school is looking to get a medical section of their library so I'll let them know of these titles as well.

I've heard of Complications... it's by Atul Gawande, right? There are so many books it's actually amazing.

I've found by working in the NHS you can actually subscribe to NHE (National Health Executive) which is a free medical magazine subscription for those who work in the NHS (I technically work in the NHS as I'm signed to a hospital because of volunteering) so if you do get the chance to volunteer in the NHS I strongly suggest you apply for it

Honestly, I haven’t read many books yet - I really should get started! I am reading ‘a very short introduction to medical ethics’ which outlines the basics and I thought it might be quite helpful for the situational judgement part of the UKCAT and ethics questions when it comes to interviews (if I get any!). I will post on here if I find any rly good books though
I live in Edinburgh so, apart from Cambridge, I will be sticking to Scottish uni’s because they’re free! Honestly, I’m still wavering a little even when it comes to Cambridge because I could stay in Scotland and come out with the same qualification without having to pay a thing. I’ll have to go to all the open days and do some more research, and then decide nearer the time (there are only five medical uni’s in Scotland so there isn’t much of a choice!)

Hi all,

I'm an applicant for 2018 entry and have had an offer from Pembroke, so I might be able to help out with a few questions!

(although I'm not exactly an expert, as I haven't actually studied there xD, but might be able to help with questions about the application process etc.)

Congrats on the offer!
I’m in year 12 and getting a bit stressed out about applying!
In general how did you find the application process - do you have any tips?
How/why did you pick Pembroke?
Also, what did you do in terms of work experience/volunteering/EC’s? Out of everything you did, what did you find most valuable/talk about most when it came to your PS/interviews?
Do you have any books that you would recommend reading?
How did you revise for the BMAT?
What was the interview like?

Thank you so much in advance! (I know there are a lot of questions there - I’m pretty clueless)

Thanks! No worries, I'll take it from the top!

How did I find it: In summary very stressful ngl. I thought I'd blew it with my BMAT score, so I was stressing over interviews a lot. I would definitely say to not underestimate the BMAT and to start revising early - I did my UKCAT in mid September leaving me around 2 weeks to prepare!!!

Why Pembroke: Overall it just felt very homely. The grounds are lovely, I was happy with the accomodation and it's literally right next to Downing Site and New Museums site, which is where most lectures/ labs are based. I also liked that they have a gym on site. I picked it after visiting a load of colleges on the main open day in the summer and picked the one that felt right!

Experience: I did a couple of shorter week long placements (none of which were actually shadowing a doctor lol), but my most important one was my year long volunteering placement - I learned so much from it and loved talking about it on my ps. A good 70% my ps was about my experience and volunteering.

Books: My favourite is "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks, but I've heard that Atul Gawande is great as well (going to pick up a few of his books soon!)

BMAT: Start early. Don't let it get in the way of your UKCAT, so I would recommend doing this as early as possible. I had to go and revise my GCSE physics again - I would use the assumed knowledge guide that they provide on the website, it's basically the spec for the science section. Get a question book and practice, practice, practice!

Interview: Strangely enough I really enjoyed my interviews - my interviewers did well to settle me in and were very nice throughout. They try to mimic the supervision system to see if they can teach you the Cambridge way, so I actually ended up learning a fair bit! Mine were heavily science based, so I would brush up before you go for interview. They will ask you comfort questions to start off with and then ask you stuff on bits of science that you will have rope learned, but then comes the interesting bit - they'll drag you out of your comfort zone to see if you can work around a problem; to see if you think like a scientist basically!

As scary as they might seem, they are an amazing experience!

Hope that helps

Hi there!
I’m a Scottish student in S5. I am doing five Highers: biology, chemistry, physics, english and maths (the majority of scot medicine applicants do the same). I am applying to Cambridge over Oxford because I’ve been told that oxford are very prejudiced against Scottish students, and I don’t want this to affect my chances.
I am getting rly stressed out now - I can’t believe that we will be applying this year!
I have ordered a couple of books from the library and am subscribed to the sBMJ - I will let you know if I find any good books! I know Cambridge don’t put much weight on the PS, but what work experience/volunteering/EC’s do you do? I have been putting a lot more work into this than I put into wider reading

I am also a Scottish student, thinking about applying to Cambridge. I am doing 5 higher in Chemistry, Maths, physics, geography and english. I also attend a state school and everyone is advising me to NOT apply. Are you attending an open day in the summer? Also what were your national 5 grades like, mine weren't that great at AAAABB.

I am still worried at the fact that I have no prior biology background (apart from my own research) so i'm not doing human biology unit next year. Plus the Cambridge interviews are heavily science based so I don't think i would do too well in them unless it was about chemistry or physics.

I think I'm pretty set for work experience and volunteering but its just the extracurriculars I'm worried about - everyone else I know applying to medicine, seem to be like coaching something or head of their team for something.

Hey,
I'm in S5 at the moment too and honestly, am getting so stressed with all the applying to medicine. I'm studying 5 highers, english, maths, physics chemistry and biology. I'm from a state school too although at my school it's like half the year wants to apply to medicine. I want to apply to only Scottish universities (mainly because they're free and close to home) - edinburgh, glasgow, aberdeen and dundee but might switch one out for Cambridge if i feel more confident with my application nearer to the time.