Veterinary medicine and Surgery BSc

1.

I think in the interview process you need to demonstrate you have a realistic understanding view of the profession. We have terrible mental health rates and retention problems in the profession, and many surveys are showing that huge proportions of vets are considering leaving the profession. You need to demonstrate that you understand the true role of a vet, not just the few roles you've seen on placement. Learn about small, farm and equine vets, but also vets in research, vets in public health, vets in legislation and abattoirs etc. The role of a vet is very broad and you will have so study all of these areas at vet school so you need to show that you actually know what you're getting into. Yes surgery is exciting, but show that you're prepared to deal with difficult clients and people with money problems. Many people go into the career because they like animals, but most of your time is actually spent working with people (colleagues and clients) - show that you understand the realities of veterinary medicine, not just what people think it is like to be a veterinary surgeon. Additionally, I showed an awareness in my interviews about the mental health problems with vets, and gave examples of why I would be able to deal with the stresses in the profession. I think this helped me. Some universities have PDFs on their websites about their admissions processes, and they basically explicitly say what qualities they are looking for in successful applicants. Go find these documents!

2.

It's difficult to answer this question because my freshers year began just 6 months after the first lockdown, so we weren't allowed to mix or have in person lectures etc. So the environment was weird, but now restrictions are gone, I can say that I love my course, university (Nottingham) and the campus. With complexity of the course learning, everyone struggles during the first term, but 'difficulty' of the content doesn't increase throughout the years (in my opinion). BUT, the workload does increase each year, if that makes sense? So once you've settled in after your first term, you'll have a decent idea of what you're doing and how to study at a university level, it's just the workload will increase over time.

3.

I'm not a sporty kinda gal, but I've recently joined the new yoga society. I'm involved in all of the vet societies as well as the art society. At Nottingham you pay for one VetSoc subscription and it gives you access to all events from Farm soc, Small animal soc, Equine soc. The only exception is Zoo soc and Surgsoc, which I'm also a part of.

4.

If your goal is to get into vet school, then do as much work experience as possible in every area available to you. I can give specific advice about that if you want, but your actual question was which work experience made certain modules easier to understand. For this, the answer is lambing, dairy, small animal vet. If I could have done farm/equine vet and abattoir as well I think these would really have been useful. The reason I say these placements is because vet school teaches you a lot of the theory before you go out on placement, but if you've already done these things it can kind of help you understand the classes a bit better? Like I went lambing before vet school so I knew all about colostrum and iodine etc, so when we had lectures on it I had an idea of what they were talking about and it wasn't just a 'theoretical' lecture - I could relate it to my own experiences. Then you have to go do lambing again during vet school, which means you understand everything a bit better and you're a much better student than you were the first time! Placements which were useful for getting into vet school but not very useful for helping me with my course were things like: dog kennels, cattery, horse riding schools, animal sanctuaries. You do still learn some stuff about animal care, but not as much as the other placements I mentioned. If you're not very confident with handling certain animals, then doing these placements as well will be useful to you, as you'll have to demonstrate at vet school that you can handle most domestic animals safely in order to progress through the course (at Notts during first year we have a minor exam where we are watched handling horses, dogs/exotics and farm animals).

5.

There are groups on Facebook you will be able to join once you are a veterinary student, where qualified vets hang out and give advice and offer placements and accommodation to us. Your uni will also have a database of places that other student have been to and they will help you find placements. Additionally you use the internet, and word of mouth from your friends. If you find a particular topic interesting, contact your lecturer for that subject and sometimes they will recommend places too to help you further that interest. The only difficulty is remembering to book placements throughout the year for your summers. When you have loads of coursework and revision piling up it's so easy to think 'ah I can wait a bit longer before I go placement hunting'. By the time you know it, your summer will have arrived and you need to find placements ASAP!

6.

Do one of those tests to figure out if you're a visual or auditory (or other) type of learner, and then research what methods will work best for whatever type you are. For anatomy, I like to draw out the animal on a white board and label it, then rub out the labels and re-label it. Rinse and repeat until I know the anatomy. For odd facts and short pieces of information, I use flashcards with a question on one side so I can test myself. For physiological processes... idk I use a mixture of methods and still don't really know what I'm doing! But it's working out so far!

1.

I think in the interview process you need to demonstrate you have a realistic understanding view of the profession. We have terrible mental health rates and retention problems in the profession, and many surveys are showing that huge proportions of vets are considering leaving the profession. You need to demonstrate that you understand the true role of a vet, not just the few roles you've seen on placement. Learn about small, farm and equine vets, but also vets in research, vets in public health, vets in legislation and abattoirs etc. The role of a vet is very broad and you will have so study all of these areas at vet school so you need to show that you actually know what you're getting into. Yes surgery is exciting, but show that you're prepared to deal with difficult clients and people with money problems. Many people go into the career because they like animals, but most of your time is actually spent working with people (colleagues and clients) - show that you understand the realities of veterinary medicine, not just what people think it is like to be a veterinary surgeon. Additionally, I showed an awareness in my interviews about the mental health problems with vets, and gave examples of why I would be able to deal with the stresses in the profession. I think this helped me. Some universities have PDFs on their websites about their admissions processes, and they basically explicitly say what qualities they are looking for in successful applicants. Go find these documents!

2.

It's difficult to answer this question because my freshers year began just 6 months after the first lockdown, so we weren't allowed to mix or have in person lectures etc. So the environment was weird, but now restrictions are gone, I can say that I love my course, university (Nottingham) and the campus. With complexity of the course learning, everyone struggles during the first term, but 'difficulty' of the content doesn't increase throughout the years (in my opinion). BUT, the workload does increase each year, if that makes sense? So once you've settled in after your first term, you'll have a decent idea of what you're doing and how to study at a university level, it's just the workload will increase over time.

3.

I'm not a sporty kinda gal, but I've recently joined the new yoga society. I'm involved in all of the vet societies as well as the art society. At Nottingham you pay for one VetSoc subscription and it gives you access to all events from Farm soc, Small animal soc, Equine soc. The only exception is Zoo soc and Surgsoc, which I'm also a part of.

4.

If your goal is to get into vet school, then do as much work experience as possible in every area available to you. I can give specific advice about that if you want, but your actual question was which work experience made certain modules easier to understand. For this, the answer is lambing, dairy, small animal vet. If I could have done farm/equine vet and abattoir as well I think these would really have been useful. The reason I say these placements is because vet school teaches you a lot of the theory before you go out on placement, but if you've already done these things it can kind of help you understand the classes a bit better? Like I went lambing before vet school so I knew all about colostrum and iodine etc, so when we had lectures on it I had an idea of what they were talking about and it wasn't just a 'theoretical' lecture - I could relate it to my own experiences. Then you have to go do lambing again during vet school, which means you understand everything a bit better and you're a much better student than you were the first time! Placements which were useful for getting into vet school but not very useful for helping me with my course were things like: dog kennels, cattery, horse riding schools, animal sanctuaries. You do still learn some stuff about animal care, but not as much as the other placements I mentioned. If you're not very confident with handling certain animals, then doing these placements as well will be useful to you, as you'll have to demonstrate at vet school that you can handle most domestic animals safely in order to progress through the course (at Notts during first year we have a minor exam where we are watched handling horses, dogs/exotics and farm animals).

5.

There are groups on Facebook you will be able to join once you are a veterinary student, where qualified vets hang out and give advice and offer placements and accommodation to us. Your uni will also have a database of places that other student have been to and they will help you find placements. Additionally you use the internet, and word of mouth from your friends. If you find a particular topic interesting, contact your lecturer for that subject and sometimes they will recommend places too to help you further that interest. The only difficulty is remembering to book placements throughout the year for your summers. When you have loads of coursework and revision piling up it's so easy to think 'ah I can wait a bit longer before I go placement hunting'. By the time you know it, your summer will have arrived and you need to find placements ASAP!

6.

Do one of those tests to figure out if you're a visual or auditory (or other) type of learner, and then research what methods will work best for whatever type you are. For anatomy, I like to draw out the animal on a white board and label it, then rub out the labels and re-label it. Rinse and repeat until I know the anatomy. For odd facts and short pieces of information, I use flashcards with a question on one side so I can test myself. For physiological processes... idk I use a mixture of methods and still don't really know what I'm doing! But it's working out so far!