Medicine: VOLUNTERING/WORK EXPERIENCE HELP!!

I’m in S5 currently and I have considered to maybe go for medicine, however it’s a BIG emphasis on the maybe as i am so unbelievably stressed about being HEAVILY unprepared.
I am very anxious as it’s currently February and I have no work experience or volunteering, except for a 4 week internship working at an office (so not a healthcare setting making this irrelevant) and the application deadline is this year in October. This is really scaring me as I would love to study medicine however I feel so unprepared as I had no idea I had to start volunteering months ago and now feel as though it’s too late.
Furthermore I took Higher Biology instead of Higher Human biology as I was told by all my classmates that it is really hard subject and so this put me off from taking it HUGE REGRET, because now I’m worried that Higher biology will not be valid for a medicine application as it’s not relevant. I’m getting really stressed all together, as I feel like this is a sign that I shouldn’t do medicine even though I really want to study it despite being so unprepared.
I was just wondering if anyone can give me any advice about my situation and whether I should continue to find work experience/volunteering or just stop all together as it’s way too late. I also wonder how much volunteering and work experience you need especially due to the personal statement change.
If anyone could offer any tips or assistance that would be truly appreciated.

Hii i’m a medicine applicant this year and i didn’t get work experience until the october when i applied!! So you definitely have plenty of time to find some; just email gps, hospitals, anyone you know who works in a hospital or is a doctor and even online work experience is good!! If you do any volunteering (which can be genuinely ANYTHING!! medicine related or not) it’s good, if not look for some, it doesn’t have to be anything major but maybe once or twice a month, then that’s good because you can say what skills you’ve learned from it that are important for medicine e.g teamwork. And for your biology situation, med schools accept either human or normal biology so don’t worry!! I also wouldn’t say that normal biology is extremely hard compared to human biology ( i think it’s easier tbh). So overall, do not worry!! you’ve got plenty of time to prepare, i didn’t commit to medicine until the august when i got my higher results tbh. If you need help in the future i’d be really happy to help with interviews, personal statement stuff and ucat stuff if youd like!!

I’m in S5 currently and I have considered to maybe go for medicine, however it’s a BIG emphasis on the maybe as i am so unbelievably stressed about being HEAVILY unprepared.
I am very anxious as it’s currently February and I have no work experience or volunteering, except for a 4 week internship working at an office (so not a healthcare setting making this irrelevant) and the application deadline is this year in October. This is really scaring me as I would love to study medicine however I feel so unprepared as I had no idea I had to start volunteering months ago and now feel as though it’s too late.
Furthermore I took Higher Biology instead of Higher Human biology as I was told by all my classmates that it is really hard subject and so this put me off from taking it HUGE REGRET, because now I’m worried that Higher biology will not be valid for a medicine application as it’s not relevant. I’m getting really stressed all together, as I feel like this is a sign that I shouldn’t do medicine even though I really want to study it despite being so unprepared.
I was just wondering if anyone can give me any advice about my situation and whether I should continue to find work experience/volunteering or just stop all together as it’s way too late. I also wonder how much volunteering and work experience you need especially due to the personal statement change.
If anyone could offer any tips or assistance that would be truly appreciated.

BSMS run an online work experience for medicine and there’s another online one called Observe GP (both free) that you can do at your convenience.
If you can start volunteering sooner as it’s better to have some reflection to write about in your PS plus it can take time to set up as you need a DBS check. It is best to volunteer with vulnerable people so a care home, disability centre, hospice or with children is ideal. Some med schools require large amounts of volunteering but most don’t. Do keep a diary of the things you see, hear feel and do, to reflect on in your PS and at interviews.
Your local big teaching hospital may run summer schools you could attend or have information days on medical careers. Email and ask now. If you know personally any medical person (parents of friends etc) then ask them for work experience as it’s usually easier to get that way. Shadowing a doctor isn’t actually necessary anymore though as med schools knows that disproportionately affects applicants from non medical families.
If you choose to apply for med, make sure you apply tactically so you do not waste any ucas choices. It is hard to get into so be focussed. There’s a megathread on here for which medical school should I apply to and it is worth looking though last years posts to see what kinds of UCAT/predicted grades/GCSEs/work experience is needed for each med school.
Perhaps also consider jobs with potentially less stress, better work/life balance, faster career progression and shorter degrees like radiology, orthoptics, podiatry, optometry, physiotherapy, nursing, pharmacology, dental hygiene, speech therapy, clinical science (route into pathology), midwifery, psychology etc
Good luck.

You categorically do not need work experience in a hospital or GP practice. Universities know how difficult these are to obtain. You can do voluntary or charity work or volunteer in other kinds of places. These experiences all count.
In some ways the more unique your work experience the better you will be able to shine because interviewers will want you to talk about it.

Thank you so much genuinely, this was so unbelievably helpful!! I now feel much more at peace knowing that I’ve still got time and that higher biology is just as valid. It would be really amazing if you could explain how the interviews work and how they were for you. As well as how you revised for the UCAT and prepared for the personal statement. That would be super helpful if so, but you’ve been very helpful anyways so you don’t have too. Thank you so so much for the advice!! )

Of course!! So *most* interviews are what are called MMI (multi mini interviews) so you meet different interviews at different stations which focus on different questions e.g maybe a personal statement station and then a qualities station. Each station is marked individually so if you do bad in one IT DOES NOT MATTER lol just try forget it for the next one. You may have a panel interview which is basically two interviews for the entire time where they ask you the same questions basically. My top tip; just be yourself! they already like your academic side so they’re seeing if you have the qualities to be a doctor. So make sure you know medical ethics, challenges to being a doctor, good qualities of a doctor (and examples of how you displayed them e.g playing piano = resilience) Be really friendly make jokes with them almost. I found that right after my interviews i felt they went awful, but then i reviewed them after a while and realised they were kinda ok, like i thought my aberdeen went horrendously then i ended up getting an offer and at andrews too tbh. For the Ucat, it’s a skill based test, so what i recommend is to gain a general understanding of what they’re going to ask what the the different sections are. Then, develop your techniques to get better at them. Like in the QR section it’s maths, so you want to be good at mental maths (you do get a calculator on the computer so do practice using the keyboard) for VR practice speed reading a long time before hand just so you’re used to it but VR is normally most people’s worst section. For the Personal statement, i kinda set it out as: intro = my why medicine, paragraph1 = work experience and *State what you saw e.g skills and why that made you want to pursue medicine. then the last paragraph was short basically saying i was committed to medicine. If you want i can dm you my personal statement 🙂 Omg sorry for this yap oh well hope it helps lol