*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...*
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 !!
