Can i start preparing to apply for medicine so late into the year

I’ve built a fond attraction for Medicine and want to apply to University for it although i am rather insecure in applying as i have no medical work experience due to me previously not thinking i’d apply to medicine. I have received 5 A’s in my higher exams ; Eng, Maths, Physics, Chem, BusMan (no biology :/) UCAT deadline is also in september plus i dont know what i’d say in the interviews. can someone be realistic with me and give me some much needed advice on what to do, I really want to give applying medicine a go as its a dream but i dont want 5 rejections. all my siblings are in med school currently so i have a strong familial backing but I have nowhere near the amount of work experience they had up until now in the medical sector. If any more info is needed, please feel free to ask! Thank you so much

Reply 1

ebyrne2036

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Entertainment Forum Helper

If u put in the effort for the UCAT then u should be ok. I’d recommend watching lots of practice interviews/researching questions online as theirs a lot of materials available. Just get stuck in now and I wish you all the best

Reply 2

normaw

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Moved to Medicine forum to help you get more replies.

(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 3

Scotland Yard

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

You'd be for one hell of a ride but it's doable. So here's more or less what you need to do, everything as a matter of urgency.

1. Your first port of call is to register and book your UCAT sitting. You ideally need to book the UCAT as far in the future as you can so you have as much time to practice as possible. On the UCAT website there are practice resources. You'll probably only need those. You truly need to practice, understand how the questions work to do well.

2. Your next port of call is to talk with your family to understand more of the medical profession and also to try to arrange some work experience through them - quickly! You ideally want to mention it in your personal statement, to which we'll get to shortly.

3. Next up, you need to choose where you want to apply. Some places will require you to sit a separate test called the BMAT - find out if you want to apply to any BMAT university and if you do, register for that test with your schools exam's office come September. You'll also want to choose a university that plays to your strengths - if you got a good UCAT score, apply to places that value UCAT scores and if you don't, apply to places that don't give that much importance to UCAT. Only one or two universities will require you to have taken Biology at A-Level but some universities will look at people with Biology more favourably, so avoid those. How do you find this sort of stuff out? The university's website is a good place to check out, as is this forum. Also, beware that you can only apply to 4 medical courses. The 5th choice you'll need to either leave empty or apply to something else, like biomed. Again, lots of threads here that'll guide you.

4. Between now and interviews, you need to read as many books about medicine as you can. You'll find plenty of reccomendations on this forum and online. It's also imperative that you keep up with medical news - the BBC is a good place to do it. A browse through the BMJ wouldn't hurt you either and you can probably find a magazine subscription of medical news aimed at students. Also research the NHS, its constitution and core values.

5. Join medical societies. Your school probably has one. There are a few online. They are good places to be and to learn new stuff

6. The purpose of reading books, keeping up with the news and joining societies is so that you can write your personal statement and know your motivations and particular interests within medicine so you have something to say in the interviews. But first, the personal statement. You should start writing it up now and add stuff to it that you encounter on the books, news and your work experience. There'll be a gazillion threats here on writing medicine personal statements so give them a browse. And, don't worry too much about it. The importance of it varies from place to place and some places only look at it once you're called to an interview. And I'll let you into a little secret of mine - I wrote my medical personal statement basically on a day, at the end of the summer before year 13. I had an interview with Oxford that year so it mustn't have been bad (I then blew the interview but that's beside the point). This is more a case of do as I say, not as I do, but the point is, you don't necessarily need to dedicate great lengths of time to make a good statement, and there's very little point in worrying about it. Just do it with a clear mind.

7. Interview preparation. Hopefully you can use your family again to do a couple of interview mock-ups. Also research it online and think of what you want to say - chiefly, why do you want to study medicine. While you want to practice, you don't want to practice too much, you don't want to sound rehearsed. Also, don't worry if you're stunned by a question, they like putting people in the hot spot. Never say "I don't know", just say that you need to think about it and then approach the question as logically as you can, thinking aloud. That's what they want to see, not whether if you get the question right or not.

8. Ace your A-Levels next summer and prepare for any scenario. You can do a good application, but the balance of probabilities is that you could have done a better one had you started earlier. But that's alright, and almost irrelevant - there are some 30000 applicants for only a meagre 7500 medical school places. Most people will fail, so even if you make a killer application, there is still a real chance of not getting in. I'm not saying this to discourage you, just so that you're mentally prepared for that. The risk of not getting anywhere can be mitigated by applying strategically as I outlined all the way back in point 3, but that risk will always be there, so you need to plan ahead for every possible scenario. If you have an offer, congratulations, now don't be the idiot who didn't get in by missing the conditions of their offer. If you don't have an offer, ace your A-Levels anyway because you'll presumably want to reapply the year after. You can do things in your gap year to make your application all the more impressive and if you meet the grades and make good use of your gap year, your chances of gettinf in go up drastically. But gap years and next steps are something you need to decide and plan ahead on your own.

Apologies for this long long message. But hopefully you find it useful. Other things you need to do or can do will become obvious the further you do research and immerse yourself in the world of medicine. And take one final word of advice - chase your dreams. Good luck.