I’m applying to medical school but only have a few weeks of volunteering, do you think that’s enough?
I’d say medical schools expect you to have experience in a hospital setting, but also something that shows commitment i.e. has been done for a long period of time.
If you feel you have got everything out of your volunteering that you wanted, then I’d say a few weeks is enough. But if you can stick at it for a few months, then it would be a good example to show your commitment. All my friends who were successful applicants in medicine/dentistry did have at least 6 months of volunteering in a caring environment, so if you can find something that you enjoy doing then this would be great for your application!
Personally, I did mine in a rest home for 8 months, I went once a week for 3 hours and I enjoyed going! I spoke a lot about it in my personal statement and at interview so I’m glad that I found that opportunity. Many rest homes/other caring environments won’t advertise for volunteers, but if you phone them up and ask to speak to a manager, it is likely they will be more than happy to take you on.
How do you apply to medicine? In the UK, you apply to medicine using the UCAS website. If you go to sixth form in the UK, your sixth form will explain this to you and it’s likely that they will provide support and guide you through the process, so don’t worry about doing anything alone. Note that the deadline for medicine, dentistry and any course at Oxford and Cambridge is earlier than other courses, last year it was the 15th of October. If you aren’t from the UK and want to study medicine in the UK then honestly, I’m not entirely sure. Try and do some research online or ask parents/teachers to help. There are many international students who study in the UK, so it is possible if it is something you’re interested in! What did you get in your UKCAT? I got 660 overall, my best section was in quantitative reasoning (780ish) and my worst was verbal reasoning (590ish). I also got band 1 Situational Judgement. I was aiming for 700 overall so I was a little disheartened with my result, but it got me to all of my interviews for my medical schools. If you have a strong overall application, don’t worry about a slightly lower score! What was the hardest part about the application process? I’d say the hardest part was waiting for offers, then waiting for results. Applying to study medicine made me feel a lot of pressure because it feels like it’s your only chance- you can always reapply the year after or do postgraduate medicine- but medicine is hardly ever available in clearing, and there are so many other competitive applicants. It was also a little frustrating that some of my friends were receiving offers a couple of days after they applied, even some unconditional offers. I had to wait until mid-March to have all my decisions, where some of my friends had heard from all 5 before Christmas! But, year 12 goes so fast and it is so worth all of the waiting. If I had to start year 12 all over again, I wouldn’t change anything! In terms of personal statements, work experience, UKCAT, interviews etc, I’d say I found the UKCAT the hardest. The time pressure was a difficult part for me, and I often felt like my preparation wasn’t getting me anywhere. But in the end, I still got to all my interviews with a 660 overall score, so I wish I didn’t worry about it as much! Which website did you use to apply to medicine? The UCAS website (for UK applicants, I’m not sure if it is the same for students outside of the UK). I have weak GCSE’s; how else can I make my application strong? People often worry about GCSE’s holding them back when applying to medicine, but there are ways to make your application stronger! Yes, there are competitive applicants with all A*’s, but there are also applicants with weaker GCSE’s who are still just as successful. I will be doing a more detailed post on how to have a strong medicine application, but the following things are what I think are the most important:
Work experience, at least 2 weeks- writing down your observations and saying what you LEARNT from each one
Volunteering in a caring environment, develop your own communication/empathy skills during volunteering, and make notes if you see anything significant (these will be useful when writing your personal statement and when you go to interviews)
UKCAT/BMAT score- make sure to be as prepared as possible for any admissions tests. It’s often admissions scores that balance out weaker grades, most uni’s have a scoring system for academics
Predicted grades- work hard during year 12, even if you don’t have official AS exams that year. Revise throughout the year, do your best in small tests, be active in lessons, and show your teachers that you have the ability to achieve AAA or higher. As the standard offer for medicine is AAA, I’m pretty sure that you are required to be predicted minimum AAA to gain an interview.
Interview- once you have got to interview, often GCSE’s/UKCAT/BMAT/personal statements are less important as they mainly go off the interview performance, but fully preparing for your interview will definitely give you a better chance of getting a place! Be sure to be familiar with examples from your work experience/volunteering, be up to date with medical news, be able to talk about your own strengths and weaknesses, and just show why you would make a good medical student at their university.
What do you recommend as a 5th choice? I went for biomedical sciences at Newcastle University (they allow very few students to transfer to medicine after a year, that’s why I went for Newcastle). A lot of people go for a medical/science based course, but some go for something completely different (however, be aware that you have to use the same personal statement for all 5 applications). Don’t worry about using the same personal statement for medicine and biomedical sciences (or similar), the ‘back up’ university will realise that you want to do medicine, but they will understand your position. However, don’t target your personal statement to 2 different courses. This way, it’s likely you could be rejected from both as it’s not clear which you really want to do. You don’t HAVE to choose a 5th choice- but, even if you absolutely don’t want to do anything other than medicine, I would recommend putting one anyway, just in case you happen to change your mind. I knew that I didn’t really want to do biomedical sciences, hence why I eventually declined my offer and put medicine as both my 1st and 2nd choices. But, I’m glad that I did put a 5th choice, just as something to fall back on in case I had a change of heart earlier in the year. When did you start writing your personal statement? I started writing my personal statement in the last week of August before I applied, I got it checked as soon as I went back to sixth form and adjusted throughout September. I finished it around the 9th of October and that’s when I sent off my application. How much work experience did you do, and where? I did 1 week on the Acute Medical Unit, 1 week on the Children’s Unit, and 1 week on the Care of the Elderly unit in my local hospital. They had a work experience programme on their website with contact numbers, so definitely check out the website of your nearest hospital for this. I then did a 3 day programme where I got to spend a day on A&E (I was on the paediatrics section), surgical wards and got to speak with junior doctors. I did 2 days at a GP surgery- I spent 1 day looking at the ‘admin’ side, so this was spent at reception and where all of the staff were working upstairs with the records. The other day was spent sitting in consultations with GP’s. For all of my work experience I had to sign contracts of confidentiality and had to ask all patients if they were okay with me being there, so you should expect to do this too if you do any clinical experience. When it comes to work experience, quality is better than quantity. If you can really discuss cases you saw, say why that wants to make you become a doctor, and what you learned from it, that’s what is most important. Don’t worry if you don’t have weeks and weeks of experience, just try and get a little bit and get the most out of it. What extra-curriculars did you do for medicine? I have always been a swimmer, so I spoke briefly about this in my personal statement, but I don’t attend other sports clubs regularly. I did a coast to coast bike ride for charity in 2017, so I included this, too. The point of extra-curricular activities is to show that you are a good all-rounder, and that you can focus on other things beyond academics. You can show this by talking about any hobby you have, or anything you have taken part in during sixth form. If you’re unsure what you could talk about for this, ask your head of sixth form/teachers. My sixth form had a charity committee so we used to meet and discuss how we could raise money for local charities, and we were also able to help out in lessons for year 7-10 students and listen to year 7’s read. Anything like this is good to demonstrate different skills. Don’t force yourself to join loads of clubs if that’s not your thing, again, quality is better than quantity. What style interviews did you have, and how did you find them? All of my interviews were MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews). This means there are different stations (usually around 8-10), that you rotate around. Each one is for a short amount of time and will be focussed on a different topic or assessing you on a different skill. I found my interviews okay, all the interviewers were so friendly which helped put me at ease, and I got to speak to other applicants before we went for the interviews, which also helped settle my nerves. The interviewers are looking for your good points, they want you to do well! Don’t let the idea of an interview being scary put you off, just take your time and focus on the points you are making. In terms of the questions I was asked, I can’t say too much due to confidentiality for future applicants, but there was nothing out of the ordinary and they definitely weren’t as bad as I expected. How awful is a-level chemistry? In year 12, I struggled with chemistry the most, but with lots of good resources and a lot of hard work, it wasn’t too bad in the end. I managed to get an A at AS and an A* at A2, which proves that my hard work paid off! My teacher went off ill in the April of year 12, so I had supply teachers throughout the rest of my A-Levels, so I got a private tutor who was so beneficial to me. I am going to make a more detailed post on the resources that helped me with chemistry, and the ways I revised for my exams. If you are starting a-level chemistry soon, don’t panic. The first few units are actually very similar to GCSE, so it’s a good way to ease you in to the course. What would you say are classed as ‘strong’ GCSEs for medicine? This is pretty subjective, and all universities have different ideas of what GCSE grades applicants should have. I’d say a mix of A* and A grades gives you a good application, but if you have one or 2 grades lower than this, don’t let it put you off applying! How did you prepare for the UKCAT and BMAT, and when did you start revising for them? I only did the UKCAT, as none of my preferred universities required the BMAT. I used The Medic Portal (free) and Medify (£30) for practice questions, both of which were so helpful. I also purchased the ISC book of UKCAT questions, but I preferred the online resources as they were very close to what was in the actual exam. I started preparing around 3 weeks before my exam. I did around an hour a day, but some days I’d do 10 minutes and some days I’d do 2 hours, depending on how I was feeling. I hope this little Q&A was beneficial to anyone applying (or hoping to apply) for medicine in the UK or elsewhere. If you have any further questions, please message me on Instagram (@studyingwithjasmine) and I’ll be more than happy to help!
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