Official Thread: Graduate Entry Medicine 2020 Entry

Hi everyone, this is my first post on TSR, so please be gentle with me.

I know, I'm well in advance here, but I'm a mature student currently partaking in an Open Uni Natural Sciences Degree with a heavy biology part..... My degree title will be BSc Natural Sciences-Biology.

Basically, although academically bright, I didn't do well with my A levels as I was suffering through a huge bout of depression at the time (2007-2008) and went trough a self destructive phase, but my dream has always been medicine.
After having my two children, I decided to try and pursue the dream and started doing the above mentioned degree in 2015....I am expected to graduate in Aug 2020..... I'm aiming for a 1st, and have no reason to suspect I'll get anything less.
So, now, I'm battling through this degree and looking at Med schools for GEM, looking at the current and previous year entry points and have narrowed it down to 5 that will accept students based purely on academic results at degree and don't include A level (obviously interview, work experience, GAMSAT or BMAT or UKCAT withstanding).

After totally botching up my A-levels 10 years ago, I am absolutely determined to flourish as I should have done in order to get a place for GEM, which means I'm studying and planning everything in advance (literally talking 3 year plans now), to try and succeed.

My questions are:
-Will doing a degree with the OU have a negative impact on my application, even if I end up with a 1st? (I know for instance with the Imperial C London, they require a checklist to be completed and signed to say that the required topics have been studied etc)
-When should I be sitting the UKCAT, GAMSAT and BMAT? If I apply by October 2019 deadline, do I sit the exams in the Summer of 2019? Or by the summer of 2019? As I think the GAMSAT/ BMAT results don't come back until after the October 2019 application deadline?
-Is it too early to buy the GAMSAT gold books? Is each edition only relevant to the year you plan to test? Or will I find it beneficial to order previous year textbooks? I'm just cringing at the £200 price tag and will buy it if it helps, but if its pointless until the actual test year, its an awful lot of money to throw away.
-Has anyone else been in a similar situation to me and been successful? Am i doing this OU degree with absolutely zero hope of making it into medicine? Bearing in mind that I'll be 31 by the time my course starts, so haven't exactly got loads of time on my hands, particularly if I choose to go down a surgical route..... It would be nice to make consultant before I'm due to retire

I'm sorry for the complicated post, I'm just feeling a little panicked that I won't make it

Another potential 2020 GEM applicant. Maybe 2021 as I might get a years experience which would allow me to work as a bank nurse.
Studying adult nursing.
A levels ABA*
GCSEs 8A 1B

So far considering:
Swansea
Warwick
Birmingham
Dundee/St Andrews

Would go anywhere, but can't afford London

Really need to hammer ukcat and gamsat

Placements so far:
Nursing home
Discharge planning
General surgery

Also work as a care assistant and play worker and plan to carry on til end of degree

I would definitely suggest working for a year. It makes life so much easier (financially) but also gives you experience which makes the course easier.

Hiya! Also looking to start in GEM in 2020. I'm just finishing by BA (Humanities subject and will probably get a 2:1) this year and will be starting an MSc (Humanities though some Med students may be on my course) this September. My GCSEs were good but my A-Levels leave much to be desired for and I come from a non-science background. I really want to get in at Nottingham as I already live up north and the area is beautiful.

My mother used to 'pester' me to give Medicine a go again after I initially gave up my dreams of studying medicine at 17. Found out about Graduate entry so here I am! I'm hoping to get some work experience between this summer and next summer, sit the GAMSAT next March (and retake in September if I do poo), save plenty of money.

Hope I can find some other people in the same boat as I, who do not have a science background and whose grades are not amazing. I have this constant fear of being rejected for not being good enough and the lack of non science background GEM entrant experiences is giving me a bit of a head ache. I'm just glad my family is mostly supportive of my plans!

List of all the 4 year graduate courses:
https://www.themedicportal.com/application-guide/graduate-entry-medicine/

See which ones you can/want to apply to and which you don't. That will determine if you have to sit the UKCAT, BMAT, GAMSAT or all three. How you apply depends on the entry requirements.

The main difference between the 4 year and 5 year courses (bar the length) is that the 4 year courses are fully funded except the first ~£3500, whilst the 5 year courses have to be paid out of your own pocket except for the 5th year. The 4 year courses are more competitive than the 5 year courses. So it's a rather bittersweet situation.

Hey guys,

Just starting to consider and properly look into GEM for 2020. I'm literally at the very start of the journey, only just starting to look into which universities so any general advice would be fantastic.

I have a high 2:1 non science degree... Currently working on getting some work experience while juggling a 9-5. Must be loads of people in my situation so it would be great to speak to some people.

I've seen some people mention about applying for 3x GEM's (4 years) and one 5 year, just wondering how that works. Are you applying with A-levels or your degree, etc...


Also, where the hell do you start with your GAMSAT? Just seems like a wall....

Thanks!

Hey! 👋🏻 I’m in the same situation as you! I hold a 2:1 in a non-science degree, however I’m currently completing a MA at the moment (finish in June 2019) so I’m looking at starting the GEM in 2020!

Unfortunately due to having a degree in a non science subject this does limit us to what universities we can apply to, and it all depends if you prefer the UKCAT entry exam or the GAMSAT to which you apply to; the GAMSAT has a whole section on the sciences, so coming from a non-science background this would take a lot of preparation but considering you’re not applying until 2020 that will give you plenty of time to prepare! I’ve been told that looking over a-level resources is good for GAMSAT prep and even some 1st year of uni material, there’s some GAMSAT materials you can purchase as well I believe, I’m sure if you search the forums someone will have posted which is best to use 😊

You can apply to both 4 and 5 year courses, but like Volibear says you have to self-fund the 5 year course which is a huge financial undertaking! But this does make the 5 years ‘less competitive’ compared to the 4 year course for graduates, so if you could self fund then applying to 5 year courses opens up more universities you can apply to.

Luckily for work experience I hold a position at my local nhs trust so plenty of patient care and involvement! However, I understand that fitting it around a 9-5 job may be difficult; all universities have different amounts of work experience they require so maybe have a look into this too before deciding on what experience is right for you? (For example Warwick requires a minimum of 70 hours in a minimum of 2 different settings and only 20 hours of shadowing counts towards this total of 70 hours)

I hope some of that helps, but I understand the situation you’re in coming from that pesky non-science background!!

Hey there, thanks for the reply and the advice, I appreciate it. Which universities are you thinking of applying to?

Warwick, Nottingham, Swansea are in the top 3 I’m not sure about the 4th choice at the moment (this is based upon what I’ve read online) However, I’m going to Nottingham’s open day in a couple weeks to hopefully get a better insight into the uni and the course 😊 it all depends on GAMSAT and UKCAT of course!