To think I can apply for post grad med school with a 2.2 in languages from 15 years ago?

[Changednameadviceneededxx]

Please be nice to me 🙈

Name changed but I'm a mumsnet lover.

I've been thinking about studying medicine. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. But I just never thought it possible.

I've got an english language degree and by the time i apply, would (fingers crossed) have a c2 cert in French.

But i only got a 2.2 😔, and I haven't worked since a corporate grad job that I did after uni, and haven't worked for close to a decade due to raising dc.

I'm a single mum so would study around raiding dc. I can't currently get work experience whilst I raise them, but would be able to study.

How crazy am I to think that a med school, somewhere in London, would accept me, with these circumstances.

I don't have science a levels either, just languages.

Tia x

A pp suggested Speech and Language Therapy - what about that? You could do an OU Access course first without needing science A levels.

I'm not being a dick in my response to you, this is just what happened

I was groomed as a teenager by some grown men in my town. The rumours were crazy and my parents distanced themselves from me and said I liked the attention

When I was at uni, I'd had a full mental breakdown and couldn't get out of bed most of the time. I didn't have anyone to tell and continued being raped by my 'boyfriend'. I didn't know i was having a breakdown tbh, or couldn't accept it

After uni, I was so ashamed and thought that my parents didn't know what was wrong with me. They did, they just wanted me to go away. Managed to get a job - during which I had another breakdown. That's when I got pregnant

I've spent the time surviving and working on myself.

I'm clearly ashamed of my desmond, as mentioned upthread @JodyFarr

Now I'm doing better, I want to do something but it has to work with dc who comes first for me - and I agree, I need to be realistic and less of a romantic though 😄

Well thats the thing, the access course is in the same space as A levels, done off the back of relevant GCSEs, The fact she hadn't done any formal education beyond school makes her very different from someone who went through the standard university route and didn't do terribly well, and has done nothing since.

Ok, but do you have the vision of graduating medical school and then the long hard slog of decades actually working and progressing as a doctor, especially later in life? You’ve said nothing in any of your posts about actually wanting any aspects of actually being a doctor or doing something with a medical degree. Are you just romanticising it because it’s the hardest degree you can think of or something?

It’s all a bit reminiscent of when my then seven year old with autism, vision problems, severe travel sickness and a fear of heights, not to mention sole British citizenship, was absolutely determined he was going to be a fighter pilot in the US Air Force. Sometimes you actually can’t be anything you want to be. There’s a lot of bravery in admitting that some doors are closed to you and considering if there are realistic alternatives that would satisfy you.

Yes but she specifically stated she has to remain in London
So other courses in other locations have different criteria,how’s that relevant to London based potential applicant?

How indeed! Everyone should get a first or a 2.1 or the system is meaningless! Imagine having 3 grades that people could get! 3!

It's as if there was any grade other than A or B at GCSE. Madness!

Thank you, will take a look 🙌

I wonder whether I've got time to at least challenge myself a little and see what I can do

Dc's 6

I could start with some science a levels and see how I get on, along with improving my languages

That's probably the most realistic option for me right now

Thank you ❤️

Don’t worry, @KeenDuck 😂 They don’t learn on the job! The apprentices go to med school, they just spend their vacations working in non clinical roles for the trust that is paying for their degree eg as porters/ward clerks, discharge planners, admin assistants, clinical coding assistants etc.

are you fluent enough in any of your languages to do translation work? The NHS a heavy user of telephone translation services... not a scooby what the logistics of that is (presume you can work from home) but it might be worth exploring as a way to find out more about medicine/make some cash out of the skills you already have.

Well if Pete Hegseth can be Secretary of Defence, I don't see why your son shouldn't apply now, even if he's still seven.

Thank you @Greybeardy for your helpful responses xx

I'm okay with French, but need more work on it

But I imagine in a year that I could be fluent enough to work and could try to get some work experience this way

I'm sorry that happened to you

😄 thank you, I do need to be less embarrassed about it i guess 🙈

I want to work in the operating theatre🙈 - I've never told anyone irl - the idea of healing someone really interests me and that's what I've always imagined best self as being

Have I watched too much tv, probably

All good x

Look at ODP (operating department practitioners) careers... no one's ever heard of them but anaesthetists'd be pretty useless without them...may be another option.

The fact you are asking around here point to either of the following: you are really not that interested in pursing it, otherwise you would have googled it and found it, or you are not confident in yourself. If it is the latter, then stop having so little confidence in yourself and GO FOR IT. You surely must already know there are dozens of access to medicine programs where they give a leg up to single mothers and even elderly entrants - when I found out, I asked - when will this person, heavily funded by the state on this medical course, 'repay to the society' by working on the wards? He was literally 50 when he started the course. Yet they accepted him.

Honestly, your first step should be to buy a second-hand A level Biology textbook. If the whole thing flummoxes you, then think again.

Kindly, OP, I think this is unlikely to go anywhere.
Medicine is a super intellectually rigorous course - a 2:2 in languages just doesn’t put you in the right ballpark, academically.
Graduate-entry medicine - the four year course - would require you to have a degree in something like chemistry or biomed. You haven’t got this so you’d be looking at undergraduate entry medicine - the five your course. Since you’ve already got an undergraduate degree you won’t get a student loan for the tuition fees for a second one so you’ll have to pay the tuition fees yourself as well as all your living costs.
All this to join a profession that even the most dedicated doctors find gruelling. Many have left to go to work in Australia/ NZ where the systems and pay are much better. Others leave medicine altogether to work in city jobs.
How are you going to manage childcare whilst rotating through unpredictable shifts - nights and days, weekends and public holidays.
Sorry to rain on your parade, OP but I think this is probably a non starter.

Hi OP,

As you are interested in joining the workforce after 10 years out, you could be a HCA (healthcare assistance) or medical secretary, both of which don’t require any relevant degrees and may be more accommodating for your childcare needs.

I think becoming a doctor is not likely for you, but you could help the heath sector in a different role.

Medicine is a hard road. If you couldn’t plan/do it at 18 with no commitments, it will be 100x harder 10/20 years later as a single parent.

You give thee impression that you think it's mostly studying like for an English degree. In fact, it's 9-5 at least. And then a shed load of studying in the evenings and weekends for even the really bright students who chose to do chemistry GCSE because they enjoyed it and had aptitude. That you didn't even choose science GCSEs suggests you will not have the aptitude for learning medicine - most of it is chemistry.
The NHS has plenty of other jobs though.

Youi need some science background, You need to be able to solve problems analytically based on data. Do maths, biology and chemistry A levels?

The most exquisite waste of time - NHS interpreting. A naive dd of a friend did it for a while - poorly paid, disrespected, not enough to buy a high street suit in a month of jobs, paid per hour. Humiliating, degrading for a language graduate.

There's plenty of people on medicine who have taken non traditional routes- I know someone who is an orthopaedic surgeon who was an art school drop out with no science a-levels and I knew someone who worked as a HCA for years before doing medicine.

However you need an understanding of the role and the healthcare service, recent evidence of academic rigour, and a demonstrated work ethic.

It's not the historical 2.2 that I see as the limitation as much as your practical appreciation of what the course and subsequent career involves. If you can't practically do work experience now then there is no way you would be able to do the course.
Liking the thought of an operating theatre and 'healing' may well be true but if repeated in interview wouldn't demonstrate that you have an insightful view.
I'd actually start with a few work experience placements trying different roles. You say you have discounted things such as nursing but for example a scrub nurse or ODP will have far far more theatre time than even say a surgical trainee 5+ years post graduation.