Swansea GEM - Courses, Clearing and student life advice from current students

Original post by Swansea University Enquiries

Hi my name is Alex I'm a final year medical students studying at Swansea university and I'm on the student room today to help answer any questions you might have about Swansea, undergraduate courses, Graduate-entry medicine (GEM) or the clearing process at Swansea university.

I myself came to Swansea through clearing for my undergraduate degree of Medical Biochemistry after getting BBB at A levels. Coming to Swansea gave me another chance to pursue my dream of studying medicine, and now I'm 12 months away from becoming an F1 doctor!

If there is anything you would like to know, please get in touch and I will try to answer your questions.

Look forward to hearing from you.
Alex Ruddy

"I myself came to Swansea through clearing for my undergraduate degree of Medical Biochemistry after getting BBB at A levels. Coming to Swansea gave me another chance to pursue my dream of studying medicine, and now I'm 12 months away from becoming an F1 doctor!" Could you explain what this means please

Reply 3

u20mt0601

Original post by Swansea University Enquiries

Hi my name is Alex I'm a final year medical students studying at Swansea university and I'm on the student room today to help answer any questions you might have about Swansea, undergraduate courses, Graduate-entry medicine (GEM) or the clearing process at Swansea university.

I myself came to Swansea through clearing for my undergraduate degree of Medical Biochemistry after getting BBB at A levels. Coming to Swansea gave me another chance to pursue my dream of studying medicine, and now I'm 12 months away from becoming an F1 doctor!

If there is anything you would like to know, please get in touch and I will try to answer your questions.

Look forward to hearing from you.
Alex Ruddy

Does Swansea accept Science and Pharmacy Foundation in place of A -Levels

Reply 4

JMcGarry00

What is medical school like? I've always waxed to be a doctor. People say it's like drinking water from a fire hose as it's not difficult content it's just a lot to learn at once.

Reply 5

OP

Original post by uni2020

"I myself came to Swansea through clearing for my undergraduate degree of Medical Biochemistry after getting BBB at A levels. Coming to Swansea gave me another chance to pursue my dream of studying medicine, and now I'm 12 months away from becoming an F1 doctor!" Could you explain what this means please

Of course! I applied for undergraduate medicine and received offers conditional of three A's (AAA) at A-level. Unfortunately, despite studying hard and performing to the best of my ability, on results day I found out that I had received BBB. This meant I was not eligible for undergraduate medicine or for my insurance offer. After getting over the shock of this, I decided to ring up Swansea university clearing and found out that they had places available on the Medical Biochemistry course. This is one of Swansea's 'Pathways to medicine' courses, meaning that there are numerous opportunities on these courses to develop your knowledge of medicine and improve your chances if you should choose to apply to medicine again after graduating. So, despite not getting into undergraduate medicine, through following this pathway I was able to study medicine after finishing my undergraduate degree, and now I am in my final year of studying to become a doctor. It just goes to show that if you are really passionate about studying medicine then there is more than one way of achieving your goal.

I hope that clears up any confusion about my initial post. Thanks for getting in touch

Alex

Reply 6

OP

Original post by JMcGarry00

What is medical school like? I've always waxed to be a doctor. People say it's like drinking water from a fire hose as it's not difficult content it's just a lot to learn at once.

Hi JMcGarry,
This really made me chuckle, because that perfectly sums up what it's like (at times).

The GEM course at Swansea is 4 years, instead of the traditional 5 years, so you have a lot of content to cram in and it can be pretty intense. However the teachers and staff here at Swansea are incredibly supportive, they will help you in whatever way they can, and they are especially good at promoting an atmosphere of self-care to avoid the dreaded burnout. If you'd like more info I've written some blogs about life as a Swansea med student that you can find here - https://studentblogs.swan.ac.uk/author/alex/

Thanks for getting in touch.
Alex

Reply 7

OP

Original post by u20mt0601

Does Swansea accept Science and Pharmacy Foundation in place of A -Le

Thanks for getting in touch, i'm afraid i'm not sure what this means, but if you'd like to get more info you can contact the medical school admissions team via email or phone. You can also check out the website which has loads of information about the med school and requirements for courses (https://www.swansea.ac.uk/medicine/)

Alternatively, the general admissions team can be contacted at [email protected].

Hope this helps,
Alex

Reply 8

uni2020

Original post by Swansea University Enquiries

Of course! I applied for undergraduate medicine and received offers conditional of three A's (AAA) at A-level. Unfortunately, despite studying hard and performing to the best of my ability, on results day I found out that I had received BBB. This meant I was not eligible for undergraduate medicine or for my insurance offer. After getting over the shock of this, I decided to ring up Swansea university clearing and found out that they had places available on the Medical Biochemistry course. This is one of Swansea's 'Pathways to medicine' courses, meaning that there are numerous opportunities on these courses to develop your knowledge of medicine and improve your chances if you should choose to apply to medicine again after graduating. So, despite not getting into undergraduate medicine, through following this pathway I was able to study medicine after finishing my undergraduate degree, and now I am in my final year of studying to become a doctor. It just goes to show that if you are really passionate about studying medicine then there is more than one way of achieving your goal.

I hope that clears up any confusion about my initial post. Thanks for getting in touch

Alex

so basically you did an undergraduate degree in medicial biochemistry then did the post graduate root to medicine? if so, did swansea prefer you over other graduate applicants since you studied undergraduate there and also did you have to do the interview, personal statement and GAMSAT?

Reply 9

username3630830

1

Hi Alex,what is the meaning of clearing for undergraduate degree?

May be of interest

OP

Original post by michaelwahib

Hi Alex,what is the meaning of clearing for undergraduate degree?

Hi Michael,
'Clearing' is the process by which the university fills any spaces in undergraduate courses that are not filled by firm of insurance-choice offer holders. If you'd like more info, please have a look at Swansea's clearing page (here - https://www.swansea.ac.uk/clearing/) or feel free to ask more questions while i'm online.

Hope this helps, Alex.

Reply 12

OP

Original post by uni2020

so basically you did an undergraduate degree in medicial biochemistry then did the post graduate root to medicine? if so, did swansea prefer you over other graduate applicants since you studied undergraduate there and also did you have to do the interview, personal statement and GAMSAT?

Hi there,
https://www.swansea.ac.uk/medicine/pathways/ this should help you see how doing an undergraduate course at Swansea medical school can help you get into post grad entry medicine at Swansea. But to briefly summarise it averaging at least a 2:1 overall and specifically in a module called 'Doctors patients and the goals of medicine' reduces the GAMSAT entry requirement to a score of 50 overall plus 50 in paper II. Providing that requirement is met you will also get a guaranteed interview.

Sean

Reply 13

OP

Original post by uni2020

so basically you did an undergraduate degree in medicial biochemistry then did the post graduate root to medicine? if so, did swansea prefer you over other graduate applicants since you studied undergraduate there and also did you have to do the interview, personal statement and GAMSAT?

Yeah that's right. Swansea don't show preference for where you studied (i.e. you'll have no disadvantage if you've studied elsewhere), but it certainly helps to develop a network here and to have a realistic insight into what Swansea is like to study and work in. There are also a number of 'pathways to medicine' courses in Swansea (still available through clearing), which guarantee their students an interview for Grad-entry medicine if they reach certain requirements during their degree and attain the GAMSAT cut-off (which is set at a lower score for 'pathways' students). You still need to do the interview, GAMSAT and personal statement, but Swansea offer a number of resources (including student-lead workshops) which aim to support and improve your ability to succeed in these.

Alex

Reply 14

username3630830

1

Original post by Swansea University Enquiries

Hi Michael,
'Clearing' is the process by which the university fills any spaces in undergraduate courses that are not filled by firm of insurance-choice offer holders. If you'd like more info, please have a look at Swansea's clearing page (here - https://www.swansea.ac.uk/clearing/) or feel free to ask more questions while i'm online.

Hope this helps, Alex.

I am an international student, want to apply for a medical school in UK, I do not know which test should I have, MCAT, UCAT,GAMSAT, it is too confusing, what I should do ?!!!!!!!!

Reply 15

uni2020

Original post by Swansea University Enquiries

Yeah that's right. Swansea don't show preference for where you studied (i.e. you'll have no disadvantage if you've studied elsewhere), but it certainly helps to develop a network here and to have a realistic insight into what Swansea is like to study and work in. There are also a number of 'pathways to medicine' courses in Swansea (still available through clearing), which guarantee their students an interview for Grad-entry medicine if they reach certain requirements during their degree and attain the GAMSAT cut-off (which is set at a lower score for 'pathways' students). You still need to do the interview, GAMSAT and personal statement, but Swansea offer a number of resources (including student-lead workshops) which aim to support and improve your ability to succeed in these.

Alex

ah right i see, thanks for explaining all that to me!

Reply 16

OP