Sorry, another medicine question! Personal experience please.

[Mindgone]

DS is stuck for a fourth choice, here are his stats:
GCSE. 8A* 3A
AS. AAAB in maths, chemistry, biology and psychology
UKCAT 725 SJBand 1

He doesn't fancy PBL, London, or the BMAT unis.

I was just wondering, bearing all this in mind, where others' DCs have been happy? Any personal experience and/or advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Great news Carriemac! Hope he finds the website ok. My dd had problems booking but finally done now

peteneras your post is quite hard to follow but I'll attempt to respond.

a) All med school applicants these days have good grades. It's a requirement. Early interviews at the early interviewing unis tend to be almost a given for those with 11 or 12 A* at GCSE. So perhaps I should have used the term 'top' when referring to grades.

b) Strong applicants aren't necessarily those with the best grades. There's much more to a strong Medicine applicant than that.

c) Interviews are absolutely designed to distinguish between those who will make good medics and those who won't. The questions are in essence all about resilience, ability to cope with stress, empathy, humour etc. Whatever the question asked, those are the areas being tested. Not academic ability, since that's taken as read.

d) Of course some applicants are weeded out for arrogance. There will be plenty who've been feted as clever and star of the school and don't have the character to understand where they are in the grand scheme of things. Those cocky types won't make good medics. They might get lucky with one offer but are unlikely to get more.

e) I don't feel any need to 'stealth boast'. I can see now that DS1 is very clever indeed: he got straight A* at GCSE and A2, he's near or at the top of his year at Oxford, he's won a number of prizes, he's got firsts in all his exams, he's done masses of useful welfare work and is very popular with a great social life. He's also a really, really nice boy. I'm very proud of him. Is that unstealthy enough? The main thing is that if I can offer useful advice to parents of Oxford Medicine applicants on MN ahead of interviews then I'm only too happy to do so.

And as an aside

f) Very good luck to those with Birmingham interviews soon!

We are away on my birthday treat so just goT a quick call to let us know from DS. V chuffed for him, he is meeting a friend's Dr who is in 2nd year at Birmingham tomorrow.

Great news Carriemac! I got a bit excited to read Dr Who at first in your post!!

OK, so it’s now all ‘top’ grades have early interviews at the ‘early interviewing unis’ and therefore, early interviews are not dished out like sweets to all and sundry as we were first led to believe.

But I’m still not too sure about that. . . Not all top grades will have an interview, never mind an early one, in any uni.

Wow! With such stunning achievements and workload, scooping up prizes along the way in addition to masses of welfare work and still have a great time socially, any parent would be mightily proud of a child like this!

And you say he’s now in his 6th and final year at Oxford medical school?

That’s really, really tremendous considering he’s just finished his A-levels in the summer of 2012.

Well, I’m afraid it’s your imagination running at overdrive again, Yellow err. . . I mean, Molio!

Yes, good luck and best wishes to Carriemac, Decorhate, QQueenie and all I may have missed (my apologies and good luck all the same) for the forthcoming interviews. To all who are still waiting, my thoughts are with you . . . don’t worry, the invitations will come!

To those heading for Birmingham, I’m reliably told (but don’t know how far it’s true), they send scouts out to observe interviewees on their arrival. So please, thread carefully!

... he's in his third year, peteneras. The medicine degree is three years. 2012 + 3 = 2015. :)

In addition, I should point out that I haven't changed tack at all - I've just tried to clarify what I've said for your benefit, since you seemed confused.

To those posters whose DCs have successfully got places at med school, perhaps it would be useful if they could contribute their own ideas on good med interview strategy? I've tried to give mine, but that might have got lost in the noise.

Peteneras, I don't know why you seem to find Molio so irritating, but it's jolly tedious for the rest of us to read. Maybe you could give it a rest now? Also pretty bad form to refer to a namechange, I thought.

Thanks Mimsy. It's to do with Oxford and Cambridge and and entirely one-sided. I only mentioned DS after I'd been asked whether I has a DC applying for or reading Medicine. I also have a personal interest in this year's applications as DS's girlfriend is applying, hence joining the thread.

and
has had

I'm not sufficiently exercised to report this post but it surely strays well beyond the guidelines as it contains a number of personal facts, several of which are incorrect. Slightly presumptuous! And very stalky!

For the sake of 'nervous applicants' last year's DS got 7A/4A at GCSE and after a remark ended up with 3A and an A at A2, also a B. His head of dept certainly thought he'd have a good chance of getting in and backed him strongly - I'm not sure the tutors pay that much attention to the views of an anonymous stalker/ poster on MN :)

It would be nice to keep this thread on with interview advice for prospective medics, and keep the less helpful stuff ( such as personal attacks and being dismissive about genuine parental concerns re the stress of medicine applications) to a minimum.
Any advice about Birmingham interviews most welcome. Off to buy DS a new suit as he has just burst out of one of his sixth form ones so will be smartly turned out for the interview!

Seconded.

I'm no use on Birmingham unfortunately as DS and all his friends as well as the friends of the three older siblings all did their interviews under the old regime, which was standard panel format. My strong impression is that the ratio of offers to interviews is very high, and response times are generally quick, but that may a reflection on the fact that the DCs' school seems to be popular with Birmingham, so my stats may be skewed.

I'm more use on Imperial and Oxford, when those interviews come along.

I hadn't even thought about what my dd should wear to interviews! Would it be ok to wear what she normally wears to school, ie dress or skirt with smart jacket?

Medicine is on its own in the dress respect Decorhate. I was horrified. It cost about £150 . No other subject seems to cost so much. Oxbridge interviews for all other subjects including law are fine with just any old high street stuff.

I think she would be fine with what she normally wears to school, all our candidates tend to go in their school stuff. I really don't think the interviewers will mind so long as they look clean, presentable and as if they have made an effort.

Someone on MN in DS's year suggested interviewees needed to wear short sleeves to show that they knew that long sleeves weren't ok in a surgical setting. DS just said how ridiculous. But that's how daft some advice can get. As Hobnob says, clean and presentable has to be fine.

I think as long as they are neat and smart, it really doesn't matter. You don't need to spend £150 and I think 'any old high street stuff' will be absolutely fine as long as it's clean and smart! My DD wore a long sleeve blouse and got an early offer from Bham, so the short sleeve thing is ....... ridiculous. I think it's best to calm down, let your DCs do the worrying and stand back. At the end of the day the admissions people know what they're looking for. Good luck, but it should be what your DCs really want to do. They're the ones who will do the long hard slog to become a doctor. It's not easy, getting in is really just the first step. Don't push them, it has to be what they want.

fairywoods there's a massive difference here in cost between boys and girls. My eldest three are girls and could find a decent outfit for £30. DS found the best value suit he could for £150 which was a lightweight summer suit albeit he needed it autumnal/ winter interviews (not a problem - overheated interview rooms), slashed to half it's original price. Fine for girls, not so much for boys.

If he's lucky enough to get an interview, DS will wear the suit he wears for school, freshly washed, with polished shoes! Btw, my friend recently bought a very respectable looking suit for her son from Asda, it doesn't have to be expensive!

Lots of state schools don't wear suits though Mindgone - ours doesn't. And while that's good generally in terms of cost, it does leave a wardrobe gap for interviews!

I think the suit as a uniform is easier and cheaper all round! My two boys have each had one suit (has to be plain black) with two pairs of trousers, for the two years of sixth form! No worries about what to wear for school or interviews :). I think it sounds much more difficult for girls, they have so much more choice.
Molio, at least you have the suit now, good to go for all occasions! :)

mindgone Of course applying for medicine/vey med is different! Which other course has almost all applicants predicted at least 3As, and have a 60% of getting no offers at all?! I am interested to know if anyone knows of such a subject!

Have you ever looked into what applicants for music or drama go through? I'd just thank my lucky stars if I was you.

Rabbit, no I haven't, is it even worse? Actually, I have heard that vet med is harder to get into, but I didn't know about music and drama! Is that what you're going through with yours? You have my sympathy!