Ask a current medical student!

Hi everyone,

My name is Frankie, I am a current final year medical student at the University of Leicester. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about medicine, Leicester or university in general and I'll do my best to answer!

Frankie (Final year med student)

(edited 1 week ago)

Reply 1

hnbbnnnn

Hello, I'm a first-year MBBS student and I have two questions:

I've found that when I try to take notes continuously during lectures, I struggle to keep up with the lecturer’s pace. Would it be better to focus on listening during class and then review the lecture recordings afterwards?

I currently need to buy three expensive textbooks, including Clinically Oriented Anatomy. The other two are also quite costly. If these books will accompany me for the next five years, I’d prefer to buy them new. But I’m wondering, do we need to buy a lot of textbooks throughout the course? If so, I might consider getting second-hand ones instead.

Reply 2

UoL Students

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by hnbbnnnn

Hello, I'm a first-year MBBS student and I have two questions:

Hi there,

I would say this is really personal preference. I preferred to really understand and take in what the lecturer was saying rather than copying everything down. I found annotating the lecture slides on my iPad very helpful as it didn't take much time.

In my experience, most people (myself included) haven't really used textbooks as you can find most information online. Your university library probably has copies you can borrow for free. Otherwise, second hand copies are definitely a good idea.

Hope this helps,

Frankie (Final year med student)

Reply 3

abenalovesgod

Original post

by UoL Students

Hi everyone,
My name is Frankie, I am a current final year medical student at the university at Leicester. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about medicine, Leicester or university in general and I'll do my best to answer!
Frankie (Final year med student)

Hi,

I’m thinking of doing medicine but I got a DDM so I’ll probably have to do an undergraduate related to medicine such as biomedical science or nursing etc. Any general advice for me please. Pros and cons anything that a lot of people don’t know etc.

Reply 4

UoL Students

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by abenalovesgod

Hi,
I’m thinking of doing medicine but I got a DDM so I’ll probably have to do an undergraduate related to medicine such as biomedical science or nursing etc. Any general advice for me please. Pros and cons anything that a lot of people don’t know etc.

Hi,

Doing an undergraduate degree gives you several options. Some people are able to transfer to medicine after one year of biomedical science or a related degree, although competition is fierce and some med courses will require minimum A level grades anyway. Alternatively, you could complete your undergraduate degree and then apply for graduate entry medicine. This is a very common route, a lot of people in my year are graduate-entry medics. You will find that people come into medicine from many different routes, take gap years, intercalate etc, so you'll find people in medical school are a range of different ages with a range of experience.

Alternatively, you could retake your A levels. This would probably mean you would have to take a few years out to get your results and then reapply to medicine. Some medical schools will not accept A level retakes but there are plenty that do.

Ultimately it's a personal decision. I would say the most common route is to try for graduate-entry medicine.

Please let me know if you have any more questions,
Frankie (Final year med student)

Reply 5

username7805784

Hello!
Extracurriculars that are genuinely useful or valued
for Medicine

Passion project ideas that can strengthen my
application

Personal statement tips (especially how to show
academic curiosity and reflection)

How to secure an interview and what factors usually influence interview invitations

Olympiads/challenges worth doing, both national
and international, that are relevant or respected for Medicine

Research opportunities and journals where students
can publish work

Whether it's worth publishing my EPQ research in a
journal, or if admissions tutors don't value that highly?

Any advice, suggestions, or resources would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

Reply 6

UoL Students

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Original post

by username7805784

Hello!
Extracurriculars that are genuinely useful or valued
for Medicine
Passion project ideas that can strengthen my
application
Personal statement tips (especially how to show
academic curiosity and reflection)
How to secure an interview and what factors usually influence interview invitations
Olympiads/challenges worth doing, both national
and international, that are relevant or respected for Medicine
Research opportunities and journals where students
can publish work
Whether it's worth publishing my EPQ research in a
journal, or if admissions tutors don't value that highly?
Any advice, suggestions, or resources would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

Hi there!

I will do my best to answer all of your questions 😊

Extracurriculars - Medical schools value long term volunteering roles in a caring or customer service role. Doing something long term shows commitment and resilience and working with people has a lot of transferrable skills for medicine. This is particularly important if you are struggling to get traditional work experience shadowing healthcare professionals. For example, I worked for 6 months in a community centre for people with learning disabilities. As for non-medicine related extracurriculars, just do something that you genuinely enjoy. This will make you seem genuine and show a bit of personality at interview, which can make you stand out. If you can get some kind of leadership role (e.g. captain of a sports team) this can be helpful.

Passion projects - To be honest I'm not sure I did anything that would count as a 'passion project'. I would say my general advice would be to get involved in things that you are genuinely interested in rather than just trying to fill up your CV.

Personal statement - This is a big topic, and I'll admit it has been a good few years since I wrote mine. Again, I think try to write genuinely and not what you think you 'should' write. Maybe you could write about your EPQ for academic curiosity? Anything you've read e.g. student BMJ or medicine-related books? For reflection have a look at the 'Gibbs' reflective cycle' which is a reflection technique they teach us at medical school.

How to secure an interview - Each medical school will be different. Interview offers for Leicester are based 50% on your GCSE grades (each grade is given a number) and 50% on your UCAT result, as long as you meet the minimum predicted A level requirements. You can find our full admissions criteria here. Some med schools will value UCAT a lot more, some a lot less. I recommend having a look at the Medical Schools Council website which has detailed entry criteria for each school. Generally, the best way to get an interview is to apply strategically - wait until you have your UCAT result and then apply to universities that suit the strengths of your application. There is no point wasting a UCAS place on a university that will automatically reject you based on minimum entry requirements.

Olympiads/challenges - I'm not sure what's out there for sixth formers but I'm sure you can find some by googling. These would be fantastic to have on your application but absolutely not essential (I did nothing like this!), so please don't stress too much about this.

Research opportunities/publishing - This will likely be very difficult as an A level student, even medical students can find it very difficult to publish. I would focus more on your exams, UCAT and extracurriculars. If you want to show an interest in research, which is a very important part of the doctor role, then maybe spend some time reading journals aimed at students e.g. the student BMJ. If you do have the opportunity to publish your EPQ that would be fantastic but again, I wouldn't stress about it. You could have a look at the Young Scientists Journal, who I think publish student work?

In general the most important things are getting some solid work experience/ volunteering, working hard for your mocks/exams, preparing well for the UCAT, and getting some good interview practice in if you get an invite. I know how stressful this application season can be so please make sure you're taking time to rest, see friends and family and do things you enjoy. Remember it's a marathon not a sprint, and building good time management and stress management skills now will serve you very well in medicine.

Let me know if I can help with anything else!

Frankie (Final year med student)

Reply 7

bleepblop29

Any interview advice for medicine?

Reply 8

UoL Students

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by bleepblop29

Any interview advice for medicine?

Hi,

I know prepping for interviews can be really stressful. I think the best thing you can do it practice as much as possible. If you have the opportunity to attend a formal mock MMI then brilliant, but if not even practising answering questions with friends/family can help. You can find lots of practice questions online. No matter how much you prepare there will be questions that will throw you off so getting used to that feeling of being uncomfortable and coming up with something on the spot is really helpful.

Make sure you have a solid reason for why you want to study medicine that is more than just 'helping people' and 'liking science'. Additionally, make sure you can describe why you want to be a doctor over other healthcare professions such as nursing - this is a common follow up question to why medicine! Look up the NHS core values (6 Cs) and make sure you can talk about why they are important and give an example for when you have shown each one in your volunteering/work experience/ extracurriculars. Reflect deeply on your work experience - what has it taught you about yourself, what skills have you developed and what has it taught you about the role of a doctor and the MDT.

Otherwise, as cheesy as it sounds, make sure you are smiling, have open body language and speak confidently. Your interviewers will subconsciously make up their minds about you very quickly! This really is half the battle as they want confident students who are great communicators. If you are nervous, fake it until you make it!

Let me know if I can help with anything else,

Frankie

Reply 9

bleepblop29

Original post

by UoL Students

Hi,
I know prepping for interviews can be really stressful. I think the best thing you can do it practice as much as possible. If you have the opportunity to attend a formal mock MMI then brilliant, but if not even practising answering questions with friends/family can help. You can find lots of practice questions online. No matter how much you prepare there will be questions that will throw you off so getting used to that feeling of being uncomfortable and coming up with something on the spot is really helpful.
Make sure you have a solid reason for why you want to study medicine that is more than just 'helping people' and 'liking science'. Additionally, make sure you can describe why you want to be a doctor over other healthcare professions such as nursing - this is a common follow up question to why medicine! Look up the NHS core values (6 Cs) and make sure you can talk about why they are important and give an example for when you have shown each one in your volunteering/work experience/ extracurriculars. Reflect deeply on your work experience - what has it taught you about yourself, what skills have you developed and what has it taught you about the role of a doctor and the MDT.
Otherwise, as cheesy as it sounds, make sure you are smiling, have open body language and speak confidently. Your interviewers will subconsciously make up their minds about you very quickly! This really is half the battle as they want confident students who are great communicators. If you are nervous, fake it until you make it!
Let me know if I can help with anything else,
Frankie

Thanks for the advice!!!
On the website it says there are information sessions with the students, do I just join the link at the time or is there somewhere to sign up?