Exam Stress

So, they have arrived.

Those strange things that rear their ugly heads around the months of May and June.

They are apparently called "Exams" but I am not so sure , a more accurate description would be "try to squeeze your brain a little harder than it's willing to go", or "regurgitate everything you're meant to know onto a piece of paper".

To most people, the mere mention of them brings on a sweat, hands shaking, head spinning, butterflies doing the conga in your belly. That horrible feeling of light headed sickness just as you walk in the room.

This is not helped if you suddenly realise you've forgotten that all important black pen, haven't put your mobile on silent, or are not wearing trousers.

Anyways here are my useful tips for those embarking on the exam period;

• Always bring Olbas scented tissues, not only are they good for nose blowing if you have a snuffle (which will be extremely annoying to your neighbour by the way...you constantly sniffing throughout an hour long exam), but merely breathing in their scented glory will soothe you head and calm you down, so you can attempt your exams with a fresh head. Also they're legal :D.


• Bring water. Now I don't know if anyone else suffers from this but I get exam fidgets, and exam boredom. Not only does a bottle provide me something to fidget with, possibly removing the label and sticking on it backwards so it reads Naive etc etc, but it also means I have water to drink and therefore something to do, hence removing the exam boredom. Plus I hear it's good for you :D, smiles all round!


• Bring a stash of pens and highlighters. This is so you can feel good about yourself by providing a less organised person with a much needed black pen (they will for ever be in your debt for avoiding the wrath of Miss. Scary X), this small ego boost that you will gain from feeling like your a good person will undoubtedly put you in a better mind frame for an exam. Also highlighters can be used to draw pretty pictures on the back of exam papers, yet again freeing yourself from exam boredom :) and, I guess, you could also use them for writing with :/.


• Bring all your notes with you, there's nothing like showing off to other people how much you've done :D, also last minute revision of that subject you were meant to revise while Casualty was on can take place :).


• Sleep loads the night before, no one wants to have to look at your saggy eyes when there trying to do an exam!!


• And finally, leading on from the above, set 2 alarms, being late to an exam run by Miss. Scary X has one punishment, death.

On a serious note, I know they're horrible and stressful and over-whelming, but we can do this guys!! *insert American-eqsue emotional speech* We've been in education for 14 years, this is just the final hurdle

(Before University... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)

Re-applying for Medicine

*EDIT: Remember applications for Medicine have an October deadline! This means you won't have an entire gap year to boost your application - just the months post exams, so get busy now! And maybe don't book too many holidays...*

First off, I am very sorry if you have no offers!
Butttt do not loose hope, many people do not get into Medicine straight after school, and it is perfectly common to re-apply and take a gap year.
Here are some things you can do to improve your chances next year:

• Volunteering - volunteering makes up a large chunk of many peoples applications, it can be very difficult to gain medical work experience, and the value volunteering adds to your application should not be undermined. Most universities request volunteering placements relating to healthcare, and (preferably) working with the elderly, the very young, disabled people or the very sick. This essentially translates to palliative care, care homes, hospitals and after-school clubs for the young. I did a post earlier with some volunteering websites , and often your local hospital / care homes and hospices will run their own schemes; in which case I turn you to the wonder that is Google. The more, the better, and remember breadth not depth. This will boost your application and expose you to different areas of medicine; however do not take up a placement just for UCAS! Volunteering should also be slightly altruistic haha, and if it is not it will quickly become a chore.
• Work experience - obviously this will aid your application. Do not be afraid to ring up hospitals and GP surgeries to ask for work experience. With hospitals, contact the human resources department or the volunteering department, these are usually little goldmines of information. With GP surgeries, ring the practice manager, many GP surgeries have websites with the practice managers details listed. They know the policy on work experience and will be organising it for you. DO NOT ring up the prescription line or appointment line, you are not a patient there! This will irritate the practice and may mean you are denied work experience. Many practices will not let your have experience in your own GP surgery, so look around for other practices in your area.
• UKCAT / BMAT - trying to improve your scores on the entrance exams can be a real booster. Identify any problems you had last time and learn from experience; if you know you didn't revise enough / were exceptionally nervous / went out the night before / bought the wrong revision guide etc. etc. than ensure these mistakes don't happen again! Easier said than done I know, but a few extra points can make such a big difference.
• Get a healthcare related job - not only will this relieve the financial pressures of having a gap year, but will provide work experience and put your CV one step higher than all the other junior doctors! You can look at NHS Jobs for related posts, from what I've heard, a lot of people become health care assistants or secretaries to Consultants.
• Improve interview technique - I did a massive post on interviews here and here and here. Not much else to say really it is all in there! If you did get any interviews, make sure to ask for feedback. Anything you can improve on will be really useful for the second time round. Also, the average medical applicants spends 40 hours preparing for interview, so if you didn't that much this time, it might be something to think about.
• Research medical schools - each university seems to have a perfect candidate. Look around on places such as the student room and new media medicine to see which kinda of candidates get in, and the specific qualities they have. I wish Medicine wasn't this way, but you do need to play the game to get in. Find and apply to at least one university which is perfect for you (e.g. GCSE's are your strengths = Birmingham, UKCAT your strength = Sheffield) this will hopefully ensure at least an interview.
• Finally, do not give up and work damn hard for them A-Levels!!!

Good Luck !!

Rejection: What to do next

If you have been rejected from everywhere, I want to start off saying this is not a reflection on you.

You can look at my last post to view some frightening figures in the world of UCAS this year, and (hopefully) you'll see that it's just been a pretty nasty year, and I'm certain that in years before, you all would have got in.

Right, so what next?

If you have a backup

If you have an offer from another University as a "back-up" (e.g. Biomedical sciences) seriously consider whether to accept this place or not. Competition next year will be nowhere near as severe as it was this year. Not many people can not stomach up to £9000 fees for 5/6 years, and many people who intended to take a gap year will have applied this year instead.

If you are on target for A's or perhaps A*'s, seriously consider re-applying for Medicine and taking a gap year.

Many people have to re-apply, and it is not at all uncommon.

If you do accept your back-up offer, you may want to think about whether or not you are going to apply for graduate medicine or re-apply for undergraduate medicine.

Graduate medicine is EXTREMELY competitive, and makes UG look like childs-play. But it you reapply for UG medicine, you will be doing 8/9 years at university.

However, you do have to take into consideration that if you took a gap year and re-applied you would then be paying the higher fees. Also, many people cannot afford / really do not want a gap year, and you would be forced to take one.

Sorry I am not trying to confuse people, just playing devils advocate and considering all the arguments.

If you have no back-up choice

If you don't have a back-up offer for whatever reason, there is UCAS Extra. This is a system open until July (June?) which allows candidates with no offers to apply for a course with spaces left. You are allowed to apply for one course at a time, and I would highly recommend calling / emailing the Universities you apply to if you have any revised targets / resit grades.

All the same arguments as above apply here, would it better to go on 3 year course with cheaper fees, or re-apply?

I think it is very much down to individual circumstance, but the option is there for you.

One issue I would raise is that science courses tend to become full fairly quickly, so there may be limited selection. However with an open mind I'm sure there is a course for everyone.

The battle field that is Medicine

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well

As I'm sure all medical applicants know first hand, this year has been exceptionally competitive. Many of my friends have just one offer, and some (unfortunately) have none. I only know a handful of people with more than one, so if you are one of these lucky few, give yourself a pat on the back!

I won't go into the politics of it but I think there are numerous reasons why Medicine has been so competitive this year, and if you have not managed to get a place this year, do not be dis-heartened. It is not a reflection of you, academically or personally, it's just one of the worst years yet.

Some figures to cheer you up / show how well you've done if you have a place:

• Less than 1% of medical applicants get all 4 offers
• Over 70% of medical applicants will not get a place this year
• 200,000 people will not get a place at University this year

So do not beat yourself up too much if you didn't do as well as expected! With rising fees, an unstable economy, and cuts to the public sector, "safe" vocations such as Medicine will always get an increased number of applicants, and most people intending to go on a gap year will have instead applied in this cycle, all resulting in increased competition.

I was fortunate enough to get an offer from a University I wanted to go to (YAY) so am pretty ecstatic right now :D

I can't believe I'm actually going to be a Doctor eeeee!!!! :D :D

I started this blog wayyy back before I'd even got my GCSE results, and to actually see this all come to fruition, is just well, really nice haha.

I've changed so much in these past two years and I can't quite grasp yet that I'm living the dream :) All the hard work and stress has paid off and I'm really grateful!

Good luck to everyone whose still waiting to hear! I really hope everyone has got a place

Interview prep 2

Hello, the interview season has been going on for a while now, and I hope you've all had some!
Here a few more links for useful books/websites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12177084
In keeping with current affairs, here is a very article explaining the NHS reforms and how there going to happen. Worth a read as it is very probable a question about it will come up (I recommend checking the BBC health news page daily anyways)

http://www.medical-interviews.co.uk/interview-questions-medical-school-interviews.aspx
Here is another batch of questions to help you prepare for interview, these ones are perhaps more relevant than the last ones I posted as they are all related to medical school,I think preparing an answer to every question would leave you very very prepared!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medical-School-Interviews-Practical-Questions/dp/1905812043/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297607078&sr=8-2
A very good book for interview preparation, the analysis of the questions is really useful and it covers a lot of topics. However, I went to an interview recently and practically everyone had this book! So try not to give word for word answers because the interviewers may start to notice a pattern.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Succeed-Your-Medical-School-Interview/dp/0749461381/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1297607078&sr=8-5
This is another good book, but I found it less useful than the ICS one. It went into technique and how to answer questions more in-depthly, but didn't cover as many types of questions as the previous book, it's up to you where your weaknesses lie.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Medicine_at_University#Interview_Preparation
I find the Student Room very useful anyway, but this page in particular has lots of information on applying and interviews.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/What_you_should_expect_at_a_medical_school_interview
If you have interviews coming up, then the page above will be invaluable. It has information on the way interviews are carried out at all the different medical schools, the people who will be on the panel, the types of questions they ask etc. Worth a look for your medical schools.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Medicine_Applicants_Stalking_Page_2011_Entry
Finally, here is the medical applicants stalking page. If you easily stressed don't visit here, but it essentially has all interviews, offers, rejections, BMAT/UKCAT scores and the such for every University.

Good Luck and I hope everyone gets an offer! :)