Graduate medicine 2018 entry

Original post by Bio.Sam

Thanks. Yeah for the 2nd set of hours i'm hoping to sort out some shadowing because the rest has all been in one place. I shadowed a district Nurse as well but that was within a care home setting so i'm not 100% of whether i can take it forward as it's the same but different if that makes sense aha.

Booked mine for July 14th. Booked a week off work for it, will change if i have to but hopefully I won't need to. I was thinking about those courses as well but haven't made my mind up yet. My AR and VR aren't great so was looking at them for that as I think it might help being in a group for some of it to see how others do it. AR just never clicks in my head no matter how much I look at them.

Ooo slowly creeping up. Ah well if you do postpone your ukcat, I'll be happy to let you know how the course went! I've always noticed that the more analyse the patterns, the harder it gets. Sometimes it's such a simple pattern!

Reply 142

Bio.Sam

Original post by Ain0208

Ooo slowly creeping up. Ah well if you do postpone your ukcat, I'll be happy to let you know how the course went! I've always noticed that the more analyse the patterns, the harder it gets. Sometimes it's such a simple pattern!

That would be great thanks. Who are you doing the courses with? I know Kaplan and TheMedicPortal run them, not sure about who else.

I get the same with the AR questions. Sometimes I will look at the answers and it's something really simple but I think the pressure of timing and things in the test make my brain freak out and miss them.

Reply 143

The Medic Portal

Original post by Bio.Sam

Thanks. Yeah for the 2nd set of hours i'm hoping to sort out some shadowing because the rest has all been in one place. I shadowed a district Nurse as well but that was within a care home setting so i'm not 100% of whether i can take it forward as it's the same but different if that makes sense aha.

Booked mine for July 14th. Booked a week off work for it, will change if i have to but hopefully I won't need to. I was thinking about those courses as well but haven't made my mind up yet. My AR and VR aren't great so was looking at them for that as I think it might help being in a group for some of it to see how others do it. AR just never clicks in my head no matter how much I look at them.

Hi there!

Just thought we'd share some resources on Abstract Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning to help you in your revision:

- Verbal Reasoning Top Tips
- Abstract Reasoning Top Tips

Hope this helps a bit with your prep! :smile:

The Medic Portal

Reply 144

hopefuldoctor

Original post by Ain0208

Who's booked their UKCAT?? Booked mine for september! Only because I have a bunch of stuff going on before that, so didn't want to jeopardise my performance. OH and call me crazy, but I've booked myself for 2 ukcat courses! I'm really hoping I get some tips and tricks for verbal reasoning! my worst bit

Which course are you going on? I went on the uni admissions one last year and it was hmm :/ to say the least aha.

Reply 145

sunnysideup12

8

Hi everyone! Ended up falling down the internet rabbit hole - began procrastinating revision for my exam day after tomorrow and 3 hours later, I am thoroughly terrifying myself with the competition for GEM! Nice to see everyone is in the same boat though :smile:

I am in my final year of a Psychology degree, on track for a 1st, and got a place on a health related MSc at Oxford Uni next year (although it won't be complete at time of application so won't be considered by unis as part of my application). I'm applying to Newcastle and Warwick; I'm a mature student (well, 26!) and don't have the science A Levels required everywhere else as I wasn't in school, which I guess has at the very least made the option of where to apply very easy!

Mostly worrying at the moment about the updated/clarified requirements for Warwick's work experience. Does anyone know whether prior examples they used to give would still be relevant? E.g. I know they used to say food bank volunteers would count, however their new guidance specifies "caring", so would that now be seen as not relevant?

I will have the minimum hours but only just - lots of experience I thought would be relevant actually isn't direct caring (so not basic needs); for example, I have run a youth club for young adults with learning disabilities including autism, and provided self-test STD testing for 3 years along with sexual health advice and info about the tests and STDs.

Reply 146

Ain0208

Original post by hopefuldoctor

Which course are you going on? I went on the uni admissions one last year and it was hmm :/ to say the least aha.

Oh no really??? I've booked one with uni admissions and one with medic portal! Why didn't you like the uni admission one?

Reply 147

hopefuldoctor

Original post by Ain0208

Oh no really??? I've booked one with uni admissions and one with medic portal! Why didn't you like the uni admission one?

It was good don't get me wrong, but I didn't 100% feel like I got much from it. Like a lot of the tips I already knew (considering I've done the UKCAT before) and as it's only a one day course it did feel rushed. A lot of the tips you get you can easily get the same tips from Medify online course (which I also signed up for) and felt like the tips are just the same everywhere. The book they gave was good and I do intend on using that this year for my revision prep too.
The cheeky thing is they also increased the price this year. Last year I only paid £100 for the course and I've checked and this year its £195. Not sure what extra they're adding to justify increasing the price. :dontknow:

That's just my take on it. By all means if you think it'll help you should deffo go for it. i did learn a few things but just not as much as I thought I would've. This year I'm planning on sticking with Medify.

Reply 148

xJessScott

Original post by sunnysideup12

Hi everyone! Ended up falling down the internet rabbit hole - began procrastinating revision for my exam day after tomorrow and 3 hours later, I am thoroughly terrifying myself with the competition for GEM! Nice to see everyone is in the same boat though :smile:

I am in my final year of a Psychology degree, on track for a 1st, and got a place on a health related MSc at Oxford Uni next year (although it won't be complete at time of application so won't be considered by unis as part of my application). I'm applying to Newcastle and Warwick; I'm a mature student (well, 26!) and don't have the science A Levels required everywhere else as I wasn't in school, which I guess has at the very least made the option of where to apply very easy!

Mostly worrying at the moment about the updated/clarified requirements for Warwick's work experience. Does anyone know whether prior examples they used to give would still be relevant? E.g. I know they used to say food bank volunteers would count, however their new guidance specifies "caring", so would that now be seen as not relevant?

I will have the minimum hours but only just - lots of experience I thought would be relevant actually isn't direct caring (so not basic needs); for example, I have run a youth club for young adults with learning disabilities including autism, and provided self-test STD testing for 3 years along with sexual health advice and info about the tests and STDs.

hi,
i hold a 2:1 in adult nursing and reapplying for 2018 after being rejected for 2017 entry. when you read warwicks selection process it must include hands on experience, caring for patients with activites of daily living and can include other things like shadowing but for 20 hours only there must be 2 episodes. i would say the youth club would count but i dont think the food bank one did, not sure though its very individual basis and warwick state they wont answer emails regarding it because they would get so many basically, so its difficult. i would suggest just re-reading everything to clarify what is accepted

Reply 149

Fabrique

Booked my UKCAT for 8th July so then can cram for September's GAMSAT!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 150

Ain0208

Original post by hopefuldoctor

It was good don't get me wrong, but I didn't 100% feel like I got much from it. Like a lot of the tips I already knew (considering I've done the UKCAT before) and as it's only a one day course it did feel rushed. A lot of the tips you get you can easily get the same tips from Medify online course (which I also signed up for) and felt like the tips are just the same everywhere. The book they gave was good and I do intend on using that this year for my revision prep too.
The cheeky thing is they also increased the price this year. Last year I only paid £100 for the course and I've checked and this year its £195. Not sure what extra they're adding to justify increasing the price. :dontknow:

That's just my take on it. By all means if you think it'll help you should deffo go for it. i did learn a few things but just not as much as I thought I would've. This year I'm planning on sticking with Medify.

Ah man! I'm in two minds now :frown:

were their tips very basic? If there tips are similar to medics, I might not do it.

Reply 151

xJessScott

Original post by Ain0208

Ah man! I'm in two minds now :frown:

were their tips very basic? If there tips are similar to medics, I might not do it.

ive always been tempted to attend courses, but i think for the money that they are and as stated above you get the same tips, from books from medify etc and wouldnt really say it was worth it, but it depends on the person though, some people really need a classroom and be taught techniques rather than teaching yourself them

Reply 152

hopefuldoctor

Original post by Ain0208

Ah man! I'm in two minds now :frown:

were their tips very basic? If there tips are similar to medics, I might not do it.

I wouldn't say they were basic no, but maybe a lot more helpful for people who hadn't done any ukcat prep at the time of the course. Does that make sense? I wouldn't defer you from doing it because it did help but like I said I just don't think it helped me as much as I thought it would do.

The advantage of going on the course is that you're able to ask questions on things you're unsure about and it does give you some confidence on being able to tackle the ukcat.

Reply 153

Min77

Hey guys! Noticed a few of you discussing UKCAT stuff so I thought I might just share my own experiences :smile:

I've done the UKCAT three times now and lol, hated it every time but I feel like the last time I did it, it went better than the previous times. And I strongly believe it was down to how I used what I had.

There are loads of books, resources and courses available out there so it is very very easy to end up buying everything/signing up for lots of prep courses! But if I could share some advice with you all, it would be to limit the resources you use.

I don't really count the first time I did the UKCAT because it was like a trial run. But I went to the two day classroom Kaplan course and used the online Kaplan resources, the 600 UKCAT book, the Kaplan Score Higher book and a bunch of other random books. The second time I did the UKCAT, I used the same resources but didn't go to the Kaplan classroom course. Instead I used their online classroom course thing, with the videos to watch in your own time. I also added Medify to the mix.

I used way too many resources and it ended up stressing me out! I honestly think it's best to find one or two resources and use them to the max.

The last time I did the UKCAT, I decided to change everything and not use as many resources. I went to a Medic Portal classroom course, used the Mastering the UKCAT book they have created and Medify. I really felt like my revision was so much better than the previous two attempts and in turn, it paid off.

Obviously everything I have said is based on personal experience and it may not necessarily work for everyone, but I definitely stand by using very few resources! And also - I'm NOT saying Kaplan isn't good. I know their resources worked amazingly for some of my friends, but it just wasn't my cup of tea :P

If you guys are struggling or know that you need to work on a particular section, Medify is great. I booked my test for July last year and I knew that I sucked at QR and AR so I bought a Medify subscription at the end of May and started to do like 30 mins of AR and QR almost every night. As time went by I increased the time spent on these sections and slowly started revising for the other sections too, before going to the Medic Portal course the week before my UKCAT and then having an intense week of revision. So by the time my intense revision period came around, I had already done some work on my weakest areas. Oh and definitely use the official mock UKCAT content on the UKCAT website! I didn't have time to do questions but I did two mocks just before my exam.

Sorry for this long message, but I used to get a lot out of reading about other people's experiences so I hope my message might help someone reading it! Good luck!

Reply 154

Hey,

Anyone heard about the BlackStone Tutors UKCAT Course??

Reply 155

Original post by Kittt

Hey guys! Noticed a few of you discussing UKCAT stuff so I thought I might just share my own experiences :smile:

I've done the UKCAT three times now and lol, hated it every time but I feel like the last time I did it, it went better than the previous times. And I strongly believe it was down to how I used what I had.

There are loads of books, resources and courses available out there so it is very very easy to end up buying everything/signing up for lots of prep courses! But if I could share some advice with you all, it would be to limit the resources you use.

I don't really count the first time I did the UKCAT because it was like a trial run. But I went to the two day classroom Kaplan course and used the online Kaplan resources, the 600 UKCAT book, the Kaplan Score Higher book and a bunch of other random books. The second time I did the UKCAT, I used the same resources but didn't go to the Kaplan classroom course. Instead I used their online classroom course thing, with the videos to watch in your own time. I also added Medify to the mix.

I used way too many resources and it ended up stressing me out! I honestly think it's best to find one or two resources and use them to the max.

The last time I did the UKCAT, I decided to change everything and not use as many resources. I went to a Medic Portal classroom course, used the Mastering the UKCAT book they have created and Medify. I really felt like my revision was so much better than the previous two attempts and in turn, it paid off.

Obviously everything I have said is based on personal experience and it may not necessarily work for everyone, but I definitely stand by using very few resources! And also - I'm NOT saying Kaplan isn't good. I know their resources worked amazingly for some of my friends, but it just wasn't my cup of tea :P

If you guys are struggling or know that you need to work on a particular section, Medify is great. I booked my test for July last year and I knew that I sucked at QR and AR so I bought a Medify subscription at the end of May and started to do like 30 mins of AR and QR almost every night. As time went by I increased the time spent on these sections and slowly started revising for the other sections too, before going to the Medic Portal course the week before my UKCAT and then having an intense week of revision. So by the time my intense revision period came around, I had already done some work on my weakest areas. Oh and definitely use the official mock UKCAT content on the UKCAT website! I didn't have time to do questions but I did two mocks just before my exam.

Sorry for this long message, but I used to get a lot out of reading about other people's experiences so I hope my message might help someone reading it! Good luck!

Thank you

, this is really helpful.

Reply 156

Hey,

Which UKCAT courses??

Original post by Ain0208

Who's booked their UKCAT?? Booked mine for september! Only because I have a bunch of stuff going on before that, so didn't want to jeopardise my performance. OH and call me crazy, but I've booked myself for 2 ukcat courses! I'm really hoping I get some tips and tricks for verbal reasoning! my worst bit

Reply 157