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Warwick gem (a101) 2016 entry applicants

Hello All,

I have some questions that I hope will be answered by future applicants Warwick GEM (for 2016). So I'll get started.

- Who is applying?
- Have you booked your UKCAT test?
- How are you preparing/planning to prepare for it? (E.g. Medify, 600 UKCAT QUESTIONS book)
- Have you got work experience?
- How many hours have you worked for in total?
- If not, where are you planning to work?

It would be great to hear from everyone!

Scroll to see replies

I am. Current 2nd year biomedical scientist at Warwick.
I haven't booked UKCAT yet.
I have two practice UKCAT question books.
I have 28 hours work experience shadowing a GP. Volunteering in a hospice over summer.
Reply 2
Hey
Lots of questions
-Yeah Provisionally booked for the 11th July
-Ive just spent a **** load on prep. £100 on books £315 on kaplan prep course, £45 on medify. (Gone massively overboard i know)
-I was in the army for 6 years as a combat medic and now work for the ambulance service on the front line so must be pushing 20,000 hours experience lol
Loughborough sport science grad and doing my masters at St Barts in Trauma

All that mean absolutely nothing, because quite frankly, I suck at UKCAT.

What about yourself?B
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Lethorio
I am. Current 2nd year biomedical scientist at Warwick.
I haven't booked UKCAT yet.
I have two practice UKCAT question books.
I have 28 hours work experience shadowing a GP. Volunteering in a hospice over summer.


That sounds great, have you started on your UCAS form yet? All the best of luck!
Reply 4
Original post by B1525
Hey
Lots of questions
-Yeah Provisionally booked for the 11th July
-Ive just spent a **** load on prep. £100 on books £315 on kaplan prep course, £45 on medify. (Gone massively overboard i know)
-I was in the army for 6 years as a combat medic and now work for the ambulance service on the front line so must be pushing 20,000 hours experience lol
Loughborough sport science grad and doing my masters at St Barts in Trauma

All that mean absolutely nothing, because quite frankly, I suck at UKCAT.

What about yourself?B


Wow that's a lot of money but hey at least you're organised. I've got the 600 questions book for now that's all. My test is for mid September because I still haven't finished my Uni exams.
Reply 5
Original post by B1525
Hey
Lots of questions
-Yeah Provisionally booked for the 11th July
-Ive just spent a **** load on prep. £100 on books £315 on kaplan prep course, £45 on medify. (Gone massively overboard i know)
-I was in the army for 6 years as a combat medic and now work for the ambulance service on the front line so must be pushing 20,000 hours experience lol
Loughborough sport science grad and doing my masters at St Barts in Trauma

All that mean absolutely nothing, because quite frankly, I suck at UKCAT.

What about yourself?B


Oh and for work experience, I had about year of volunteering a few years ago at a hospital in a maternity ward, but sadly when I went to Warwick they said that any work experience prior 2 years of application will not be considered. So now I'm volunteering at a hospital again. They require 72 hours minimum, so I'll be working during the summer I guess.
Original post by lucky11
That sounds great, have you started on your UCAS form yet? All the best of luck!

Not yet. Focusing on exams at the moment. Good luck to you too.
Reply 7
Original post by lucky11
Hello All,

I have some questions that I hope will be answered by future applicants Warwick GEM (for 2016). So I'll get started.

- Who is applying?
- Have you booked your UKCAT test?
- How are you preparing/planning to prepare for it? (E.g. Medify, 600 UKCAT QUESTIONS book)
- Have you got work experience?
- How many hours have you worked for in total?
- If not, where are you planning to work?

It would be great to hear from everyone!

- Second year psych student.
- Not yet , waiting to hear back re bursary.
- Medify, 600 UKCAT and Kaplan.
-Yes: befriender for a dementia charity, SJA first aider, hospice volunteer, soup kitchen volunteer, and work experience in primary and secondary care.
-No idea, definitely more than 100 hours

I'm glad this thread was created. I started my UCAS application yesterday, lol I've only filled in my personal details.
(edited 8 years ago)
Hi All,

- Graduated Physiologist (2014 with 2.1) and Recent Healthcare Assistant
- UKCAT is on August 18th
- Using Medify, Kaplan book and Online course (may get emedica 2 week course as well).
- 10 months working as HCA from August 2014 - May 2015. Volunteering with Children last summer for 2 weeks as head leader.
- Looking to do more volunteering work this year, maybe with MDA in Israel.

Will apply to Wawrick if my UKCAT is high enough. 700+ at least.
Reply 9
Original post by Ebuwa
- Second year psych student.
- Not yet , waiting to hear back re bursary.
- Medify, 600 UKCAT and Kaplan.
-Yes: befriender for a dementia charity, SJA first aider, hospice volunteer, soup kitchen volunteer, and work experience in primary and secondary care.
-No idea, definitely more than 100 hours

I'm glad this thread was created. I started my UCAS application yesterday, lol I've only filled in my personal details.


My ukcat is mid September, I haven't got enough hours but I'm still working so hopefully I'll get above the 70 hours minimum that they want by the time I send off my application :/. I/m using the 600 ukcat practice q book and medify and that's all.
Reply 10
Original post by HCAssistant93
Hi All,

- Graduated Physiologist (2014 with 2.1) and Recent Healthcare Assistant
- UKCAT is on August 18th
- Using Medify, Kaplan book and Online course (may get emedica 2 week course as well).
- 10 months working as HCA from August 2014 - May 2015. Volunteering with Children last summer for 2 weeks as head leader.
- Looking to do more volunteering work this year, maybe with MDA in Israel.

Will apply to Wawrick if my UKCAT is high enough. 700+ at least.


Well you seem pretty organised and you have great work experience too, I'm slightly slacking in that area. I'm going into my final year still don't have a degree, it'll have to be predicted. Best of luck to us all I say
Hey,
I'm applying. (Graduated English Lit 2:1 2013)UKCAT is in 2 weeks :/
Very nervous!I've bought almost every UKCAT prep book available and exhausted them all. I am now currently on the Medify website doing mocks and practice Q's. Not too sure what I think about the site tbh.

I have stacks of work experience since my first degree, worked in a hospital and orphanage in Tanzania, Africa, mentored fostered children for 10 months and I am currently working in a caring role whilst also doing some voluntary work.
I also have some GP shadowing for 3 weeks coming up in September too.

Desperate to just get an interview for Warwick as I think I interview well. Just getting this darn UKCAT done and dusted!
Reply 12
Original post by Josh-Love
Hey,
I'm applying. (Graduated English Lit 2:1 2013)UKCAT is in 2 weeks :/
Very nervous!I've bought almost every UKCAT prep book available and exhausted them all. I am now currently on the Medify website doing mocks and practice Q's. Not too sure what I think about the site tbh.

I have stacks of work experience since my first degree, worked in a hospital and orphanage in Tanzania, Africa, mentored fostered children for 10 months and I am currently working in a caring role whilst also doing some voluntary work.
I also have some GP shadowing for 3 weeks coming up in September too.

Desperate to just get an interview for Warwick as I think I interview well. Just getting this darn UKCAT done and dusted!


I am doing the same prep as you, except my exam is about 6 weeks away. I'm using medify too, to be honest I feel like it' s a great way practice since it has tonnes of questions. I also have the 600 q book, I heard from a guy who already done his ukcat about 2 weeks ago that the format and difficulty is very similar to medify so I'm quite happy about that. He said that the 600 q book is much harder than the actual exam so that's good news. And wow your work experience is amazing if you do well in this exam I'm assuming it will be a piece of cake for you :biggrin:
Original post by lucky11
I am doing the same prep as you, except my exam is about 6 weeks away. I'm using medify too, to be honest I feel like it' s a great way practice since it has tonnes of questions. I also have the 600 q book, I heard from a guy who already done his ukcat about 2 weeks ago that the format and difficulty is very similar to medify so I'm quite happy about that. He said that the 600 q book is much harder than the actual exam so that's good news. And wow your work experience is amazing if you do well in this exam I'm assuming it will be a piece of cake for you :biggrin:


I've heard from so many people that the Medify is the closest to the real thing but is still at times more difficult. For example, I find the AR so difficult and silly at times.
Yeah the 600q book is so hard, especially the QR and AR.
I hope so, I just really need to nail this exam. How's your revision going? Do you feel confident?
And what work experience do you have? What uni's are you applying to?
Reply 14
Original post by Josh-Love
I've heard from so many people that the Medify is the closest to the real thing but is still at times more difficult. For example, I find the AR so difficult and silly at times.
Yeah the 600q book is so hard, especially the QR and AR.
I hope so, I just really need to nail this exam. How's your revision going? Do you feel confident?
And what work experience do you have? What uni's are you applying to?


Yes we all need to ace this exam. My revision is going well so far. I'm not 100% confident because i haven't really finished all the practice q's. But so far so good. Trust me the AR gets easier with practice. The one I'm having trouble with is the code translation one, i find that one ridiculous.

Also just a tip that may be interesting to you or anyone reading, after stalking the whole of last years application process and etc, warwick in particular really look into the verbal reasoning section, and the majority of the people who were invited to interviews were people who had 680+ on the VR section. So i suggest more practice on that.

Other than warwick i'm planning on applying to newcastle and kings and one undergrad course but not decided which yet.

For work experience I currently with the NHS, volunteering in a liver ward (been 3 months so far) and a mental health unit. I got more work exp from the past but unfortunantly it wont count because on the open day they said the only work exp we take into account is the one you have 2 years prior to applying.

Your exams soon though right? How are you feeling now? A little more prepared? And what about you? Where are you applying?
Original post by lucky11
Yes we all need to ace this exam. My revision is going well so far. I'm not 100% confident because i haven't really finished all the practice q's. But so far so good. Trust me the AR gets easier with practice. The one I'm having trouble with is the code translation one, i find that one ridiculous.

Also just a tip that may be interesting to you or anyone reading, after stalking the whole of last years application process and etc, warwick in particular really look into the verbal reasoning section, and the majority of the people who were invited to interviews were people who had 680+ on the VR section. So i suggest more practice on that.

Other than warwick i'm planning on applying to newcastle and kings and one undergrad course but not decided which yet.

For work experience I currently with the NHS, volunteering in a liver ward (been 3 months so far) and a mental health unit. I got more work exp from the past but unfortunantly it wont count because on the open day they said the only work exp we take into account is the one you have 2 years prior to applying.

Your exams soon though right? How are you feeling now? A little more prepared? And what about you? Where are you applying?



Aghhhh VR may be my weakest section! I just can't see what I can do to improve! The reading comprehension (which I now believe is the majority of Qs) is just baffling me. Do you have any tips on the VR or strategies? Yeah the DA is ridiculous and I've read they are scraping it next year and replacing it with something else!

It's so annoying that you can't use work experience from further back than 2 years! I can't use so much! I might still put it anatomy PS though.

Yeah my exam is 9 days away :eek: I'm feeling confident with some but not all. Today I'm going to do a full mock :/ So I'll keep you posted with news on that!
I'm applying to Warwick, newcastle and one undergrad course too. Possibly Leicester.
(edited 8 years ago)
When will we know if Warwick are going to use a VR cut off? 680 is pretty high! Safe to say that if I don't top 650 in VR then I am not applying. Don't want to waste a spot for the sake of that stupid section!!


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by HCAssistant93
When will we know if Warwick are going to use a VR cut off? 680 is pretty high! Safe to say that if I don't top 650 in VR then I am not applying. Don't want to waste a spot for the sake of that stupid section!!


Posted from TSR Mobile


I read on their website that they definitely used VR as a cut off last year. Perhaps they'll change it and make their cut off a different section? Here's hoping!
Reply 18
Original post by Josh-Love
Aghhhh VR may be my weakest section! I just can't see what I can do to improve! The reading comprehension (which I now believe is the majority of Qs) is just baffling me. Do you have any tips on the VR or strategies? Yeah the DA is ridiculous and I've read they are scraping it next year and replacing it with something else!

It's so annoying that you can't use work experience from further back than 2 years! I can't use so much! I might still put it anatomy PS though.

Yeah my exam is 9 days away :eek: I'm feeling confident with some but not all. Today I'm going to do a full mock :/ So I'll keep you posted with news on that!
I'm applying to Warwick, newcastle and one undergrad course too. Possibly Leicester.


Oh yeah let me know how you do. I'm not even ready to do full mocks yet afraid to try without finishing my practices lol.

YES the reading comprehension is difficult with all the time restrictions and that. Honestly the best advice i can give you for that is don't read the text. Go straight to the questions, pick out the key words and look for them in the text through skimming it. Reading will just waste time and by the time you finish you probably will have forgotten most of the text and may need to re-read to answer the few questions. And obviously just more and more practice. But 9 days is enough time for more practice and mocks so don't panic!

Hmm leicester, i thought about it, but they want 1 year full time work exp and i don't have that :frown:.
Reply 19
Original post by HCAssistant93
When will we know if Warwick are going to use a VR cut off? 680 is pretty high! Safe to say that if I don't top 650 in VR then I am not applying. Don't want to waste a spot for the sake of that stupid section!!


Posted from TSR Mobile


I know it's quite ridiculous but there was a pattern everyone who said they were rejected had mostly around 500-600 in their VR even though their average was not bad and their total mark was quite high. So VR is a must.

They wont tell us about the cut off. Which is annoying but at least we know now. Last years applicants were pretty pissed because this info was only given when someone got rejected and when they asked why they replied saying there is a weighting so they look more into VR because it is a great way to determite future progress or something similar to that.

I would still say apply with anything like 600+. This info is according to the people on tsr last year so there may have been people who were accepted with low 600's

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