Imperial College- Medicine 2017 entry

Haha yh, I didn't go to any S&H or epidemiology lectures last year, I did 2 all nighters before the exam and then absolutely banged it, got like 90% overall (well I assumed it was good, it might not be!). But yh, I don't remember any of it...

Do you not have to attend all lectures then? I thought it was compulsory to sign in or something

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Haha no not at imperial, we're one of the most relaxed medical schools ever. They rarely check attendance and we never get tests or essays to do. It can be a good and bad thing. Attendance is horrendous though and they're starting to get quite annoyed with it, so they are looking for a way to make attendance more compulsory I think.

But the stuff we were talking about before was stuff taught in first term, and personally I was going out a lot and doing a lot of sport, so I went to almost no lectures. Lectures are a massive waste of time though imo, I probably had a 50% attendance record last year (and I didn't pay attention in most of them) and still did sick in my exams so...

Haha no not at imperial, we're one of the most relaxed medical schools ever. They rarely check attendance and we never get tests or essays to do. It can be a good and bad thing. Attendance is horrendous though and they're starting to get quite annoyed with it, so they are looking for a way to make attendance more compulsory I think.

But the stuff we were talking about before was stuff taught in first term, and personally I was going out a lot and doing a lot of sport, so I went to almost no lectures. Lectures are a massive waste of time though imo, I probably had a 50% attendance record last year (and I didn't pay attention in most of them) and still did sick in my exams so...

what was your interview at imperial like?

How do they determine who fails if there aren't many tests?

Mine was very chilled, and they asked a lot of very classical medical school interview questions like "Why medicine" "Why not nursing" "What can you contribute to imperial" "How have you demonstrated working in a team" "When on your work experience did you witness such and such happening" etc etc. I then got a few tricky questions regarding harold shipman (the opening question was asking if I knew who he was) and then they asked me what I though could be done to avoid another harold shipman happening, and I of course whipped out "revalidation" and all the other safety measures that are now in place because of harold shipman, so that went really well. And then I think they did ask an ethics question, but it wouldn't have been anything weird.

I know I was joking before about not knowing the answers to all those questions about CQCs and stuff, but honestly I'd really recommend reading up about how the NHS works. Learn about the structure, who's in it, safety protocols that are in place, the educational structure of a doctor's career (ie F1, F2, core training, specialist training etc), confidentiality etc etc. It looks really impressive if you know your stuff, I got a couple of scholarships for my interview performance. You want to know your stuff and look classy doing it

Do you mind posting your stats? it`s just id like to have some idea of scholarship student`s stats ( out of curiosity) and also ask if scholarships are granted solely on interview performance

Yh sure,

GCSEs: 8 A*s 1 A
AS levels: 4 A's (average 90ish%)
A2 levels: 3 A*s (average 97ish%)
BMAT: 5.9 6.3 3A
UKCAT: 630 (wasn't great haha)
3 interviews, 2 offers

The president's scholarship claimed that it was for academic excellence, but it is based entirely on interview performance, not your academic record

Yh sure,

GCSEs: 8 A*s 1 A
AS levels: 4 A's (average 90ish%)
A2 levels: 3 A*s (average 97ish%)
BMAT: 5.9 6.3 3A
UKCAT: 630 (wasn't great haha)
3 interviews, 2 offers

The president's scholarship claimed that it was for academic excellence, but it is based entirely on interview performance, not your academic record

Hi are you a home applicant or international?

Those are some great stats, well done, what exactly is the president`s scholarship?
( i have no expectation of getting a scholarship, id be over the moon with an offer at this point!, just out of curiosity)
also what other unis did you apply to?
thanks for answering my many questions

It's just awarded to students who have "academic excellence", but like I said, they're awarded to people who are exceptionally impressive in their interviews. Nothing really comes out of it, you just get given money, which is great! I thought it was a scam at first, but it is legit haha. And I applied to imperial, bristol, birmingham and BSMS. I got absolutely rekt by bristol and birmingham, bristol rejected me straight away and birmingham were savage in their interview. BSMS was also a very tricky interview, lots of weird questions that required lots of thinking. Imperial was definitely the easiest interview, and the most friendly and relaxed.

Mine was very chilled, and they asked a lot of very classical medical school interview questions like "Why medicine" "Why not nursing" "What can you contribute to imperial" "How have you demonstrated working in a team" "When on your work experience did you witness such and such happening" etc etc. I then got a few tricky questions regarding harold shipman (the opening question was asking if I knew who he was) and then they asked me what I though could be done to avoid another harold shipman happening, and I of course whipped out "revalidation" and all the other safety measures that are now in place because of harold shipman, so that went really well. And then I think they did ask an ethics question, but it wouldn't have been anything weird.

I know I was joking before about not knowing the answers to all those questions about CQCs and stuff, but honestly I'd really recommend reading up about how the NHS works. Learn about the structure, who's in it, safety protocols that are in place, the educational structure of a doctor's career (ie F1, F2, core training, specialist training etc), confidentiality etc etc. It looks really impressive if you know your stuff, I got a couple of scholarships for my interview performance. You want to know your stuff and look classy doing it

Haha no not at imperial, we're one of the most relaxed medical schools ever. They rarely check attendance and we never get tests or essays to do. It can be a good and bad thing. Attendance is horrendous though and they're starting to get quite annoyed with it, so they are looking for a way to make attendance more compulsory I think.

But the stuff we were talking about before was stuff taught in first term, and personally I was going out a lot and doing a lot of sport, so I went to almost no lectures. Lectures are a massive waste of time though imo, I probably had a 50% attendance record last year (and I didn't pay attention in most of them) and still did sick in my exams so...

What's the social life like?

Also, I heard the competition is so high that students keep notes and things to themselves and don't like to help each other as much. Scary...

Social life's great, it starts off a bit cliquey, but once you find people you like then things are great. There are a lot of social events that happen like every week too, it's the same as any other medical school. I'd be tempted to say that imperial itself isn't that great for social life, but the medical school is like a whole different uni tbh. And nooo that's definitely not the case. Infact we even have a website called "Notebank" where people share their notes haha, everyone is very helpful, we all teach eachother, that's the best way to learn. The competition is high though, but that's what you'd expect though in medical school, but it's not ruthless competition, it's a friendly self perpetuating kind of competition, everyone improves from it

Not sure if you would know this but is there a disadvantage doing the interview early March than, say feb or jan? Or do they still have plenty of offers to give out

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