General TSR rules: (1) Please don't ask for or post group chat links. (2) Please don't ask for or post interview questions. (3) Please don't offer to buy and sell items.
Hi, What work experience do they look for in the personal statement, for them to offer an interview. I am hoping to apply for 2020 entry? I am however struggling to get hospital work experience. I do however have a prospective GP shadowing opportunity. Will this limit my chances of getting an interview? My GCSE results are good. I got 5 A* (3 sciences, English and maths) and 4 grade 7s.
Indeed it was (although scoring changed last year and would be interesting to know what the cut off was, but getting information out of Birmingham is like getting blood out of a stone - took reporting them to the ICO to get them to release anything!). They don’t know the change will drop thresholds (or they didn’t last year and have not openly published that it did so people applying this year can make an informed decision). It may be that more people with a higher UCAT score will apply and they will go up. Birmingham have also been telling people that anything over 7 is “likely” to get an interview for the last 2 years, despite knowing the cut offs were over 8! When I played around with things last year, similar stats to those that would have given 8 the year before gave about 7.88, I think. However, scores change every year and people need to make their own decisions
Indeed it was (although scoring changed last year and would be interesting to know what the cut off was, but getting information out of Birmingham is like getting blood out of a stone - took reporting them to the ICO to get them to release anything!). They don’t know the change will drop thresholds (or they didn’t last year and have not openly published that it did so people applying this year can make an informed decision). It may be that more people with a higher UCAT score will apply and they will go up. Birmingham have also been telling people that anything over 7 is “likely” to get an interview for the last 2 years, despite knowing the cut offs were over 8! When I played around with things last year, similar stats to those that would have given 8 the year before gave about 7.88, I think. However, scores change every year and people need to make their own decisions
To be fair, it’s not just Birmingham that encourages applicants who unlikely to get an interview based on previous thresholds. I’ve sat in about 4 medicine talks this year where in response to questions on this area, the message from speakers has been to definitely apply even if very few A*’s, disappointing UCAT etc as can’t predict future years based on historical stats. This even where it’s clear from threads on here that actually sometimes we don’t have any chance at all unless we at least close to thresholds from previous years. I suppose it’s up to applicants to do their own research and make up their own minds but seems a bit disingenuous when admissions people recommending students apply when clearly a waste of a choice. It’s a big reason why we go to the expense of attending open days, to get first hand whether we a good match for a particular organisation. I realise that medical schools want to be competitive and get as many applicants as possible but still...
To be fair, it’s not just Birmingham that encourages applicants who unlikely to get an interview based on previous thresholds. I’ve sat in about 4 medicine talks this year where in response to questions on this area, the message from speakers has been to definitely apply even if very few A*’s, disappointing UCAT etc as can’t predict future years based on historical stats. This even where it’s clear from threads on here that actually sometimes we don’t have any chance at all unless we at least close to thresholds from previous years. I suppose it’s up to applicants to do their own research and make up their own minds but seems a bit disingenuous when admissions people recommending students apply when clearly a waste of a choice. It’s a big reason why we go to the expense of attending open days, to get first hand whether we a good match for a particular organisation. I realise that medical schools want to be competitive and get as many applicants as possible but still...
I 100% agree. I believe they should all be held to Sheffield's standards and have to publish their processes and cut offs in recent years and then you could all make up your own minds - it is what we try to do on here (though often just becomes a list due to lack of time, sorry!). There are plenty of applicants to go around and if they did this, then med schools would get people whose strengths suited their wish list and get the best people for them to choose from. Particular shout outs go to Southampton, Cardiff, Kings, Manchester holisitc route, Aston, UCL as well as Birmingham for doing their best to confuse and hide their selection process and cut offs, even refusing to reply to FOIs a lot of the time and when they do giving bland, non-information that does not answer the questions asked - do they think they are above the law? The ultra good guys are Sheffield (obviously) but Leicester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, SGUL, Barts, Imperial, Oxford, Plymouth and QUB all have all the info you need to know fairly well what your chances are before you apply. I know which ones I think are likely to have the better ethos when you get there: I would pick the open, honest, transparent, look-at-the-evidence-and-choose-for-yourself places over the we-are-so-important-you-should-be-honoured-to-apply-to-us guys any day!
Particular shout outs go to Southampton, Cardiff, Kings, Manchester holisitc route, Aston, UCL as well as Birmingham for doing their best to confuse and hide their selection process and cut offs, even refusing to reply to FOIs a lot of the time and when they do giving bland, non-information that does not answer the questions asked - do they think they are above the law? The ultra good guys are Sheffield (obviously) but Leicester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, SGUL, Barts, Imperial, Oxford, Plymouth and QUB all have all the info you need to know fairly well what your chances are before you apply. I know which ones I think are likely to have the better ethos when you get there: I would pick the open, honest, transparent, look-at-the-evidence-and-choose-for-yourself places over the we-are-so-important-you-should-be-honoured-to-apply-to-us guys any day!
I nearly had a stroke until I saw you were listing King's as a bad example, not a good one.
I think it exists on every level - website, official events, unofficial advice at open days, advice on here - that people aren't really willing to say 'actually your chances aren't great you shouldn't apply'. Official bodies like to keep their applicant numbers high, and unofficial bodies don't like the awkwardness. The truth is... a passive observer.
I nearly had a stroke until I saw you were listing King's as a bad example, not a good one.
I think it exists on every level - website, official events, unofficial advice at open days, advice on here - that people aren't really willing to say 'actually your chances aren't great you shouldn't apply'. Official bodies like to keep their applicant numbers high, and unofficial bodies don't like the awkwardness. The truth is... a passive observer.
I agree. Med schools should respect their applicants enough to be honest and up front. I try to give accurate info regarding options, both positive and negative. Took a major rant and threatening to involve the ICO to get Kings to give anything up. Birmingham it actually took a complaint and prolonged investigation by the ICO. Southampton are so arrogant they generally just ignore FOIs. Manchester have literally said "the holistic criterion is based on the academic judgement of the staff who review an application" and "We do not assign ‘points’ or ‘weightings’ to GCSE or A Level grades, additional qualifications or UCAT scores". So they are either telling us that an assessor just totally subjectively decided to interview an applicant or not, with no points or weighting system to guide them, or they are deliberately being obstructive. It is totally unnecessary and does not show the institution in a very positive light
Hi am an international student with predicted grades of 7 7 6 in IB HL subjects Chem Bio and English and my UCAT composite score is 680 Band 1. When i tried Birmingham calculator i got the response 'offer unlikely' so how accurate is this? Should i leave this uni out from my list? if anyone has information on this pl share
Hi am an international student with predicted grades of 7 7 6 in IB HL subjects Chem Bio and English and my UCAT composite score is 680 Band 1. When i tried Birmingham calculator i got the response 'offer unlikely' so how accurate is this? Should i leave this uni out from my list? if anyone has information on this pl share
In the past, Birmingham tend to overdo things with who they would give interviews too on their Offer Calculator, telling all those with a score over 7 it was "likely" despite knowing a score over 8 had been needed for 2 years! Do not know whether they have now amended its accuracy, sorry