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! :)

Useful Links

I thought I'd just do a general post of useful links for the BMAT, interview preparation, UKCAT and whatnot, so here goes:

http://www.medicalinterviewsuk.co.uk/medical-interview-questions.html

On this website there are A LOT of questions, however not all of them are relevant as this site is for general purposes, and includes questions for consultant posts etc. Make sure you can answer all of the questions relating to medical school, and if you scroll down there are topics on medical politics and clinical governance. You OBVIOUSLY will not need to be able to answer all of these, because you are not a real, working doctor! So don't panic, I'm just recommending them as something you might want to brush up on to impress interviews.

http://www.nice.org.uk/

What is NICE? Was a question I have seen pop up all over the place, well in short they maintain "clinical excellence" throughout the NHS. That may seem quite general but they do things such as produce new guidelines and protocols as medicine advances. They also make recommendations on how to reduce the costs on the NHS, and how to best to treat patients with certain conditions etc. Have a look around the website and especially the "About NICE" pages which explain what they do and how they do it. You can also bring in your knowledge of NICE if being asked about how you would improve the NHS, or how you would control the budget in this financial climate.

Check the page the week / day before you're interview as many big changes to the NHS will be posted here, and you are expected to know about them.

http://www.nhs.uk/News/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx

Now this is an EXTREMELY useful page, in fact I would recommend signing up for the weekly health news alerts. It provides the"truth behind the headlines" and basically shatters any budding news stories which aren't true, and stops you looking like a fool if you bring it up in interview. Also if you sign up to receive the 10 top news stories that week, than you don't have to worry about trawling round the BBC health website for stories of interest.

Interviewers will EXPECT you to know what is going on in the Media, in terms of the NHS, health guidance, new treatments, breakthroughs. Of course they're not expecting you to understand all the science behind, just keeping up.

http://www.gmc-uk.org/

GMC stands for General Medical Council, and you want there people as your friends, they get you jobs. After your F1 as a trainee (but fully qualified Doctor) you register with the GMC meaning you are officially a qualified (even though you kinda were before, NHS = bureaucracy). They maintain a good quality of clinical practice, and come up with reports such as "Tomorrows Doctors". They can also fire you if you show misconduct and advise on medical schools on whether to take you or not.

http://www.gmc-uk.org/education/undergraduate/tomorrows_doctors_2009.asp - this ties in with GMC, seeing as they produce it. PLEASE read this, it outlines what skills, qualities etc you need to a good doctor. You will most likely be asked about it or the GMC because it is to do with us, medical students. It may be long, but it's useful.

http://student.bmj.com/student/student-bmj.html

Everyone else is reading this, you need to as well. I chose the student part because apparently it is a bit easier to understand if you aren't fully trained yet. You don't need to memories any articles, just spool through it check it regularly. Also if you spoke about any topics in particular you were interested in on your personal statement, you might find some interesting stuff on it here. There's an app as well if your an iPhone freak like me.

http://www.mmc.nhs.uk/

This is where you apply for everyone job and all that jazz. Look through, look at how training for Doctors/ surgeons is structured. If you are interested in any particular specialities look at the training pages for that. Just use it, it will be good for interview, it will be good in interview if you know how the rest of your training is going to pan out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/

This has pretty much everything you need to know for GCSE science in preparation for the BMAT, and has little activities for most topics which makes revising less mundane.

Well I'm gonna go continue revising for the BMAT, so good luck for all those doing it on Wednesday, and if anyone has interviews.

Bye!

BMAT: Physics Equations

Q = charge, V = potential difference, P = power, I = current, R = Resistance, E = Energy, s = distance, v = velocity, t = time, u = initial velocity, a = acceleration, m = mass

Electricity and Circuits:

Q= I x t (Charge = Current x Time)

V= I x R (Potential Difference = Current x Resistance)

P = V x I (Power = potential difference x current)

P = I^2 x R (Power = current squared x resistance)

E = Q x V (Energy = charge x potential difference)

Motion:

s = v x t (Distance = speed x time)

a = (delta) v / t (acceleration = change in velocity / time)

avg speed = (v+u) / t (the average speed = final speed + initial speed / time)

v = u+at (final velocity = initial velocity + acceleration x time)

v^2 = u^2 + 2as

s = ut + 0.5at^2

s = (v+u)/2 x t

Energy:

P = F/A (pressure = force / area)

D = m/V (density = mass/volume)

Wave speed = frequency x length

KE = 0.5mv^2 (Kinetic energy = 0.5 x mass x velocity squared)

Wd = F x distance moved (Work done = force x the distance moved)

E = Wd / t (energy transferred = work done / timee)

BMAT Preperation

The BMAT (Biomedical Admission Test) is compulsory for those applying to:

• Oxford for medicine or biological sciences


• Cambridge for medicine or veterinary medicine


• UCL for medicine


• Imperial College London for medicine or biomedical sciences


• Royal Veterinary College for veterinary medicine

The date has been set for 3rd November 2010 at 9am, with deadlines for applying set at 30th September. Late entries can be given by 15th October 2010, but your school or college will need to contact Cambridge Assessment

It costs £42.50 to enter before the 30th September, and £72.50 to enter after the 15th October.

The test is 2 hours long, and consists of 3 sections. Only a pen and paper are allowed.

• Aptitude and Skills = this section consists of critical thinking-esque questions, focusing on your ability to understand an argument, your reasoning skills and in some ways, your ability to think concisely and logically under a time pressure. It lasts for 60 minutes is made up of mutiple choice and short-answer questions.
• Scientific Knowledge and application = this entails questions about "GCSE level" Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. I put the GCSE level in quotation marks because frankly the Physics is similar to AS mechanics, and there are questions on Ionic solutions which are A2 Chemistry and the depth of knowledge required about the heart and kidneys etc is definitely AS level Biology. This part lasts 30 minutes and is made up of multiple choice and one word answers.
• The essay = this will be on a moral, philosophical or debatable topic of Medicine. It gives you four (from 2010) statements to choose from and you must state what you think the author is implying, a for argument, an against, and come to a conclusion. You have 30 minutes in total and the essay itself must not exceed one side of A4. You are given space in the exam paper for rough work.

In terms of revision there are many good books available, and plenty of practice papers on the Cambridge assessment website:

http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/bmat/Test+Preparation

You DO NOT need to pay for an expensive course; a little bit of motivation and time will give you exactly the same for FREE.

Make sure you have a good knowledge of GCSE science topics, and there is a published specification:

http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/digitalAssets/119380_BMAT_specification_12-04-10.pdf

In terms of Physics, here are some equations you are expected to know but which are NOT GCSE level:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=60123&d=1225192528

If you do not have a Student Room account I recommend getting one, there's some really useful stuff there! However in the next post I will write out all the equations needed.

Practice and getting used to the question format is probably the most effective revision method for sections 1 and 3

Good Luck!!!!

And remember NO CALCULATORS