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Bristol

Is this competitive enough for Bristol (Personal Statetement wise)
4 months volunteering after school helping years 7's
2 weeks care home
1 week pharmacy
1 week hospital including 1 day shadowing lead surgeon. and viewing a live surgery
Captain of school tennis team and play tennis and badminton weekly
Competed in swimming and chess competitions
Vice President of MedSoc
Thanks :smile:
I'm sure you've heard this a lot but it isn't about the amount of work experience but the quality of the experience. If you can't reflect upon all that wonderful experience then you won't have learned anything.
Reply 2
Original post by ArcaneMists
I'm sure you've heard this a lot but it isn't about the amount of work experience but the quality of the experience. If you can't reflect upon all that wonderful experience then you won't have learned anything.

Okay thats true. Thanks :smile:
Original post by 12345John12345
Is this competitive enough for Bristol (Personal Statetement wise)
4 months volunteering after school helping years 7's
2 weeks care home
1 week pharmacy
1 week hospital including 1 day shadowing lead surgeon. and viewing a live surgery
Captain of school tennis team and play tennis and badminton weekly
Competed in swimming and chess competitions
Vice President of MedSoc
Thanks :smile:


This is what they're looking for in your ps:

"Realistic interest in medicine; life skills; wide range of interests; acts of
altruism and voluntary work; communication and interaction skills."

For Work Experience:

"Minimum of two weeks in a care environment."

All from page 10, https://www.medschools.ac.uk/media/2032/msc-entry-requirements-for-uk-medical-schools.pdf

You meet what they're looking in terms of what you've done but if you can't evaluate this relevantly then it doesn't count for much, so you just gotta work on nailing your PS. As Arcane has said, quality not necessarily quantity :smile:
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 4
Original post by JaredzzC
This is what they're looking for in your ps:

"Realistic interest in medicine; life skills; wide range of interests; acts of
altruism and voluntary work; communication and interaction skills."

For Work Experience:

"Minimum of two weeks in a care environment."

All from page 10, https://www.medschools.ac.uk/media/2032/msc-entry-requirements-for-uk-medical-schools.pdf

You meet what they're looking in terms of what you've done but if you can't evaluate this relevantly then it doesn't count for much.

Okay thank you :smile:
Dont just list the work experience. You need to use examples of what you saw to show that you have the right qualities to be a doctor, and that you understand what the job is about, and you understand the reality of health care. Use 'I thought', 'I realised', 'I was surprised by', and give examples- ie. an example of your Care Home experience is useful to show you understand about end-of-life care, dementia etc
Reply 6
Original post by returnmigrant
Dont just list the work experience. You need to use examples of what you saw to show that you have the right qualities to be a doctor, and that you understand what the job is about, and you understand the reality of health care. Use 'I thought', 'I realised', 'I was surprised by', and give examples- ie. an example of your Care Home experience is useful to show you understand about end-of-life care, dementia etc

Thanks for all the advice, Ill be sure to use it :smile:
Original post by 12345John12345
Is this competitive enough for Bristol (Personal Statetement wise)
4 months volunteering after school helping years 7's
2 weeks care home
1 week pharmacy
1 week hospital including 1 day shadowing lead surgeon. and viewing a live surgery
Captain of school tennis team and play tennis and badminton weekly
Competed in swimming and chess competitions
Vice President of MedSoc
Thanks :smile:



I applied last for 2016 and 2017 entry and got rejected both times due to the personal statement as my UKCAT grades and achieved A Levels pretty much achieved full marks. I know this as I received detailed feedback. As follows:


Your overall score was 72.57% and the threshold to be invited for interview was 76%.

The breakdown of scores for your personal statement were as follows:
Realistic Interest in Medicine (3 out of 4)
Life Skills (2 out of 4)
A wide range of interests (3 out of 4)
Altruism/Voluntary work (3 out of 4)
Communication skills (2 out of 4)

SO based on the above I only got 13/20 for my PS which equates to 45.5/70 for the PS section. Last year the PS was worth 70%

As I have 8A* at GSCE I reckon I got the full 8% there

My A Levels were AAAA and UKCAT was 660.

I think I must have been close as if I had got one more mark in the PS (ie 3/4 for life skills) then this would have given me 3.5% more and would have secured an interview.

I note that this year the PS is only worth 50% so I may have had a better chance this year. I don't regret it as I got other offers.

To be honest 2/4 for life skills - I am not sure what they are looking for here. On the 2016 application I did get the 3/4 for life skills. I thought this year that I would have got more as I wrote a lot about my full time job as a carer in community.

A friend of mine got an interview after getting a firm in London to tailor her PS for Bristol. I looked at the PS and what I gathered that they were looking for is matching skills learnt to being a doctor. For example when talking about your team working skills mention something like "due to the importance of multidisciplinary teams all medical staff need to be strong team players. IE link your skill to how/why it is important for a doctor to have. Even if you may be stating the obvious. Another buzz word they love is "recognising your professional limitations" . My friend brought this up in her successful PS too in connection with her volunteering - calling a nurse when a patient split tea on herself. To be honest it is admin staff that read and score the applications on a set scoring grid. The scoring is subjective. Will be easier this year as the PS is only 50% , last year it was 70% and the year before it was 80%!

My friends PS was written in paragraphs to suit Bristols marking scheme

Realistic Interest in Medicine
She wrote about why medicine, how her work experience cemented her career choice.

Life Skills
She wrote about her fundraising, travelling, responsibilities , team working. Linking them to being a doctor.


A wide range of interests
Sport, music, drama - again linking to being a doctorAltruism/Voluntary work
She mentioned a couple of incidents in the care home and how she handled them. she did not mention how much time she actually volunteered.

Communication skills - She talked about speaking in assembly debating etc. Communicating to the elderly etc

When I got my feedback and found out the sub sections that they scored it was so obvious that her PS was tailored to Bristol. Her teacher was worried that it did not flow and therefore was not an interesting read as it was too robotic. It failed to get an interview at 2 other PS heavy universities (Liverpool and Keele).. She failed the interview at Bristol but was successful in Cardiff.

Reply 8
Thanks for the detailed reply. Its much appreciated :smile:

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