NHS Clinical Scientist Recruitment

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Hi everyone,

I am new on here and am in the process of writing my essay questions on the form for the Medical Physics stream. I think I will sit down to do the tests at the weekend though am a little apprehensive after reading the comments from those who took them last year. Do you think they will email straight away if the tests are failed, as they seemed to last year? Good luck to anyone else taking the tests at this time :smile:

Reply 4121

mitchell12

Hi,

I'm currently completing an application for the STP. Looking at posts by people applying in previous years, it looks like there was an "addtional information" section or similar on the application which allowed applicants to demonstrate how they met the person specification, which seemed really important for getting shortlisted.

On this years application there seems only to be the essay questions and I can't see how you could demontrate you fulfil the person spec and answer the questions with so few words... Could someone confirm I'm not being thick and somehow missing a whole section of the application?! and if it is all on the essay quesions, do you think it is most important to answer the question or comply to the person specification?

Good luck to everyone and thanks.

Reply 4122

tesco4life

Original post by mitchell12

Hey, yeah I was wondering that! It would be a lot easier to include stuff relating to your chosen specialism without having to tie it into an answer to a question. You haven't missed a section don't worry!

Reply 4123

mitchell12

Original post by tesco4life

Glad I wasn't missing anything! I suppose it wouldn't be a good idea to list all your skills and not relate anything to the questions so I guess it needs to be a balance between matching as much of the criteria as possible and giving a good answer. There's just not enough room to include examples of how you meet every point of the person specification so they surely can't be expecting you to?

Reply 4124

tesco4life

Original post by mitchell12

Yeah I tried to strike a balance. Are you applying for 1 or 2 specialisms, or are you undecided?

Reply 4125

sofiaparimehndi

Sorry to interrupt but I'm confused.. just spoke to someone who did the test n they said they had a test of 6 questions then only the numerical test of 20 questions n no logical... does that mean everyone gets different content...?

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Reply 4126

Minimalist__

From reading this thread, it seems that for audiology in the past you needed to have already applied for the MSc seperately from the STP application. Does anyone know if this is still the case? I can see the list of approved unis for masters courses for each of the specialisms, but I can't find any more info about when you apply for the masters, or if you automatically get on the masters programme by being accepted on the STP programme.

Cheers

Reply 4127

mitchell12

Original post by tesco4life

Yeah I tried to strike a balance. Are you applying for 1 or 2 specialisms, or are you undecided?

I'm just applying for genetics, I don't have any specific expertise in the other areas so am just trying to tailor my application around that. What about you? It seems a lot of people are undecided about whether to apply for 1 or 2 things.

Reply 4128

tesco4life

Original post by mitchell12

I applied for biochemistry and microbiology. Yeah it's hard to decide between potentially looking unfocused and maximising your chances, and looking focused and potentially limiting your chances.

The way I thought about it was that they give you the option, so I doubt it's just a trap to whittle numbers down. Plus I've heard on here people putting 2 and getting interviews, for one or both specialisms. I'll just have to hope that'll happen to me!

Reply 4129

tesco4life

Original post by sofiaparimehndi

What, that's weird?! Perhaps they are referring to the few practice questions before the real logical one. Apparently if you don't meet the minimum benchmark for the tests you can't progress- maybe they didn't meet it for the numerical, so weren't allowed to sit the logical?

What did their email say afterwards?

Reply 4130

sofiaparimehndi

Original post by Minimalist__

Wheres the list for the approved unis?

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Reply 4131

sofiaparimehndi

Original post by tesco4life

She said it said thank u for ur application... Oh well

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Reply 4132

Minimalist__

Original post by sofiaparimehndi

Wheres the list for the approved unis?

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Here you go

Reply 4133

FID10

Original post by Minimalist__

I don't get the impression that you have to apply for the masters before being accepted on the STP. For Medical Physics I have been told you apply to the masters after you have accepted a STP place, and they seem to want to standardise the training experience across specialties now, so would imagine Audiology would be the same?

Reply 4134

tesco4life

Original post by Jack7Richards

Or they are trying to lead us "up the garden path"

How do you mean?

Reply 4135

tesco4life

Original post by Jack7Richards

Because they are suggesting they had to do fewer questions than everyone else. Hence tricking those who haven't applied yet to practice at a lower level, cutting out their competition.

Haha that's a cynical way to look at it! I sincerely hope people wouldn't try and trick other applicants!

Reply 4136

mbdsslc5

Hello everybody. I was wondering if any of you could help me shed some light on what this question means at the end:

Team working and leadership. In no more than 300 words demonstrate how you have worked as part of a team and outline the skills you used to influence the outputs of that team. Please summarise your achievements in order to demonstrate you are a high achieving individual

The achievements its asking for...are these achievements relating to teamwork and leadership...or any achievements in your life/career? I'm a bit confused.

Thanks!

Reply 4137

sofiaparimehndi

Original post by Minimalist__

Here you go

Thanks...but I'm confused... wheres gastrointestinal physiology?

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Reply 4138

sofiaparimehndi

Original post by tesco4life

Haha that's a cynical way to look at it! I sincerely hope people wouldn't try and trick other applicants!

Loll... hahaha... very cynical... it made me think the content is different for everyone.. hence I asked..

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Reply 4139

Bread Roll

A few interesting questions here! I applied last year and was offered an interview but had to withdraw my application (had a baby in September). The questions were almost identical then only they've cut the word limit by 50 per question and added a new section asking what you've done to find out about the STP.

For the last one the answer they really want (at least for clinical biochemistry) is that you have been into a hospital to see the appropriate lab and meet someone in your specialist field. If you did not know this however you can at least state an intention of doing so.

In the questions basically you have to get your CV into prose while still answering the question. If you already have a generic CV a good place to start is to take each achievement/skill and match it up to the most relevant question before you start writing. Also you may wish to only include the best bits of your CV and emphasize them more rather than listing everything you have ever done.

For example teaching experience is an example of leadership, if you have organized any of your own research projects that demonstrates initiative and organizational skills, if you worked in retail as a student that shows experience of working with the public etc etc