What should I do to get a headstart?

Hey guys n girls,

I'm a tiny lil year 11 student, and i'm just wondering what I should be doing now to get a headstart. I hear a lot of people get to end of lower 6th and find out they missed out on lots of opportunities to boost their application.

i've got all the normal work experince, etc lined up. what can i do to make my application stand out? any hints, tips, tricks, ideas much appreciated!!

Reply 1

rahmed

positions in school, prefect, member of a club, society etc. Good rapport with the teachers, so they write a good reference. In biology or chemistry ask really medic style questions (i should have done this), this way you will get good comments from the subject teachers. Volunteer. Revise like hell. Get A's. Read up about interview techniques. Be prepared for the upcoming exams for uni e.g. BMAT, UkCAT etc. Start revising for those in the summer. Read posts on here. Get off TSR until the exams are over - i mean it. Seriously. Stop going out so much. Do something extraordinary!

Reply 2

aSian_cUtY

Heyyy...1 thing that i think really stood out about my application was that i did 6 weeks work experience in an orphanage/hospital in Pakistan. Best experience ever!! It's pretty hard/rare to do work exp in another country, but if you can do it then that's awesome..because at ALL of my interviews that work experience was the main talk of conversation, they seemed proper interested in that! Good luck

Reply 3

michaela_banana

9

Any sort of long term volunteering is really appreciated. My manc interview was on the first day and everyone there had stacks of volunteer work, in hospices, old peoples homes and hospitals. It shows commitment and in my opinion it helps you grow as a person.

Reply 4

Excalibur

15

When people say volunteer work, what specific work did you do? At 16 years old, it seems that all they'd let you do is paperwork/making coffee etc....

Reply 5

Madprof

12

That's more the case if you're 16 and in a clinical setting.
(Paperwork/coffee making is valuable too! It's not all rushing about in white coats, as I'm sure you know.)

W/r to volunteering, be as imaginative as you can. It doesn't just have to be helping at your local (hospital that is, not pub!). Any clubs at school you can help at or run? An Amnesty International Group perhaps? Whatever takes your fancy and shows your caring/socially responsible attitude. Any school trips to a partner school over the other side of the world? (This is what I did, and used it as the beginning of my personal statement to make it 'stand out' a bit - though obviously it wasn't the reason I went!)

If you go to a church/synagogue/mosque/temple etc, are there any children's groups you can help with? Groups in the wider community would be good too, though they amy be more formal with age requirements - over 16s only or something. Any playschemes you can help with over the summer? Either locally or further afield if they do accommodation. Wait until the summer of year 12 if you aren't 16 this summer or everywhere's booked up and see if you can go abroad and build mud huts or something equally worthwhile (seriously, a lot of these projects are really good - sorry if I sound like a cynic, it's unintentional)

Any unusual sports, music, or hobbies you do? You're not the world champion at tiddlywinks or something? They're not going to take you because you'll lead their tiddlywinks squad to victory, but it shows you are interesting and can organise your time. (I hear after the weekend, Cambridge are looking for rowers... :wink:

)

This sounds like terribly mercenary box-ticking - only stuff because you're interested, not wholy as the means to an end.

Reply 6

rahmed

Excalibur

When people say volunteer work, what specific work did you do? At 16 years old, it seems that all they'd let you do is paperwork/making coffee etc....

Marshalling at marathon walks, organising events, working in an elderly peoples care home - there are loads of these around.

Reply 7

iceman_jondoe

18

I did a mentoring scheme at school which also helped i think. Not sure if this is already mentioned by YE is good aswell

Reply 8

michaela_banana

9

Some people have done things like Brownies/Scouts? Barnardos do summer schemes that my cousin always used to help with?

I had no problem getting a hospital volunteering placement at 17. In fact my co-ordinator seemed happier that I was under 18 because I didn't need to be passed by criminal records.

Reply 9

Scipio

13

Join the Red Cross or St. John's Ambulance. I can not stress how much this will benefit your application. Do it.

Reply 10

Madprof

12

michaela_banana

I had no problem getting a hospital volunteering placement at 17. In fact my co-ordinator seemed happier that I was under 18 because I didn't need to be passed by criminal records.

I needed a CRB check and I was only 16! Perhaps there are more juvenile delinquents round my way...

Reply 11

rahmed

yeah i had to do that too, but it is an extremely good way off getting rid of the wrong people

Reply 12

simac

Write a damm good ps, and get it looked at. Theres no point doing lots of great things if you end up writing about them as one big list, noones going to have interest in reading that.

Reply 13

friendlyneutron

11

Pav27

Join the Red Cross or St. John's Ambulance. I can not stress how much this will benefit your application. Do it.

I volunteer for the Red Cross as well, I dont know what kind of impact it made on my application though, considering how I wasn't asked about it at interview, but you certainly learn a lot! It's really worthwhile.

Reply 14

Hygeia

14

definately st johns... i was asked a bit about it at one of my interviews
anything you can talk about that is vaguely relevant to medicine would be useful, when you do work exp. keep a diary/journal that you can read through just before interviews to remind yourself of what you did

Reply 15

friendlyneutron

11

Oh, and if you're going to talk about a procedure or the like that you saw on WE, make sure you know what it is that you're talking about! It'll look very bad if you don't. Expect to be asked a lot about work experience.

Reply 16

rahmed

I volunteer for the Red Cross as well, I dont know what kind of impact it made on my application though, considering how I wasn't asked about it at interview, but you certainly learn a lot! It's really worthwhile.
__________________
Medicine 2006:
Firm - Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (AABa)
Insurance - St. Andrews (unconditional)

Well obviously it made an impact!

Reply 17

cramnotes

Hey,
Another good point is, that you may do incredible amounts of work experience, and put it all on your ps, but at the interview, they may not even ask about it.

That happened to me at imperial, so above all this, make sure you hone your interview techniques. Make sure to get a few practice runs in. I found doing it with teachers you are vaguely scared of helps.

Reply 18

marshmallow_mayhem

Can anyone recommend any specific organisations? I mean, I've written to Action Cancer, Oxfam, etc..Phoned and so forth-but they never reply.

Oh, and it's St John(without the "'s")-My leader's very particular about that. And yes-definitely join, you learn First Aid, Essential Care, Communications, etc..Good for your application and also a lot of fun.

Sorry if I double-post this-my computer's having an attitude problem.

Reply 19

michaela_banana

9

I got my volunteer work by writing to the voluntary services department at my local hospital. Then there were lots of phonecalls chasing them up. I also got my GP shadowing by just writing to a load of practices (9).

What should I do to get a headstart?

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