Original post by Faisal101I’m going to copy and paste something that I’ve said before about gap years and advise re that.
basically I’m on a gap yr currently and have been successful in getting a med offer alhamdulillah. I was speaking with my mum and we both agreed that even if I was unsuccessful in that regard, this gap year has still otherwise been very valuable and beneficial. I despise when people call gap years as a waste of time, or something that makes you behind. Behind what exactly? If you can’t achieve anything non med related in a gap year then that says a lot about you as a person.
A gap year gives you free rein to advance yourself in so many facets, now that you aren’t restrained by school. During this time I have earned thousands of pounds, gained a lot of work experience which will hopefully give me an edge over my med student peers in clinical placements, which cancels out any academic advantage they may have on me, which is mostly irrelevant anyway and from my understanding not as big of a deal as some people who are scared to take a gap year make it seem to be. I have been able to teach children the Quran and about Islam at a madrasah. I have strengthened my hifdh ul quran. I have made a solid start in the Arabic language itself, using the madina arabic textbooks. That does not sound like a waste to me.
i haven’t even mentioned the med application side of it. Having alhamdulillah achieved aaa, I also massively improved my ucat from 2670 to 3040, and this is because I knew what to expect and where I went wrong, and I had a stronger motivation. I had way more time to do interview prep, using predominantly r/ucat discord server. I secured 4 interviews and have been accepted to med skl.
if I were you, I’d hustle and get aaa at least, no excuses. Work hard, don’t complain, don’t moan that you aren’t good enough to get aaa. Secure a hca job via nhs jobs or indeed as soon as you finish a levels. If you want more advice on why hca is important I can copy and paste something i said to someone else. Spend 2 months on u at so you can get a high score and get 4 interviews. If it’s below 2850 do Bmat and apply to a bmat uni. Start interview prep maybe 3 hours a week, then 2 weeks leading up to each real interview do a mock a day. Do your hobbies simultaneous to work and int prep.
Edit: in my gap year I have also been able to focus on the gym. I have also restarted karate after a 7 year hiatus
So with work experience, it’s not so much how much you do, what’s a lot more important is how you can reflect on it in interview. The main benefit I’ve found from hca is how much of a realistic insight it gives you into medicine, as all the challenges in the nhs will now affect you too. And as a hca you really learn a lot about the multidisciplinary team, in fact you become a part of it. And it is also a great opportunity to build on your patient communication skills, and will gives you lots to talk about re empathy, compassion etc. and you will also be able to make friends with young jr drs whove just graduated p, so will know the interview process very well, as opposed to drs who are older. And these jr drs might even be able to do mock interviews with you, and let you shadow them. The unique opportunity to do actual mock interviews with the very Same person you’ve shadowed is a massive help, as they will be able to help you know how to link things you’ve seen them do to the questions. And also working as a hca is actually decent money for our age group, I earn 9.50 ph on weekdays, and Saturdays and nights I earn 11.50, and the real big one, Sundays I earn 17.50. So that is a big bonus of working as a hca. How ever I must admit it is a very tough job, and I am seriously considering quitting, but I think if you’re able to stay in the job at least till you finish all your interviews, it will be a massive benefit.