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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Medicine Applications 2017

539 replies

adski · 08/08/2016 14:11

As UKCAT season is in full swing and I can't find a thread anywhere else I thought I'd start this off. This is for parents of children looking to apply for Medicine at University with courses starting in 2017. UCAS application is only a couple of months away. It is hard to watch our kids put themselves through so much to work in the hardest profession imaginable and I thought it might be useful to start some sort of discussion here.

OP posts:
Powergower · 22/01/2017 23:07

Triplet what an amazing daughter you have. Congratulations!

No offers here at all and major stress relating to a level results and hearing back from unis.

Needmoresleep · 23/01/2017 08:32

Congratulations to triplet DD, and best wishes to the rest. The wait is awful, especially when the academic pressure is building up. Quite a lot applied from DDs school and several had fairly early offers. DD and a couple of good friends were still waiting towards the end of March. She was then the lucky one with a couple of offers, so no news is not necessarily bad news. But no doubt, Yr 13 is tough.

Tripletmumof4 · 23/01/2017 09:08

Best of luck Power on hearing soon , I think at least 2 of my daughters choices have interviews on going for some time yet .Sorry if I was a bit ranty .DD has not had an easy few years as may well be the case for many others . Sitting waiting and chatting to other parents at the Nottingham interviews you could see the hope and anxiety etched on many faces ( parents and students )It is so full on isn't it ?I suppose it's good preparation for future exam / work pressure which I expect is much greater if they get a place . Certainly is a tough year Needmoresleep I would like to fast forward the next six months !Hope the gap year is going well.

sluj · 23/01/2017 13:43

Oh boy. I remember that hourly checking of the tracker, this time last year. DS got three offers in the end and is now happily stuck into the 2nd semester at UEA. Good luck to your DC

CQ · 23/01/2017 15:54

Hi all - just quickly sticking my nose in here. DD wants to do medicine, she's in Yr 11 now so under pressure to choose A-levels.

She know Chemistry is a must have, but she's gone right off Maths, and is not very enamoured with Physics. Likes human biology but not plants and cells so prob won't do that either. She's currently loving Geography.

Would any of you mind sharing your DC's A-level choices with me? I know that different med schools have different 'must haves' so she will limit her options if she doesn't do certain things, but having read about the stresses on here, it's becoming clear to me that she needs to enjoy her subjects in order to keep her head.

TIA

Needmoresleep · 23/01/2017 16:30

There is quite a lot on this thread

Look for volunteering this summer, as next can be taken up with UKCAT revision, shadowing etc.

Decorhate · 23/01/2017 17:04

My dd did Maths, Chemistry & Biology. Chemistry was compulsory pretty much everywhere when she applied but I think a few places have relaxed this rule. You will need to check each individual medical school's entry requirements & then maybe make a list of any that don't require Biology. But do bear in mind that, being hugely competitive, your dd may be at a disadvantage if her A Levels are not those normally taken by med school applicants.

Abraiid2 · 23/01/2017 17:21

Drama
Biology
Chemistry

Maths for AS level

Tripletmumof4 · 23/01/2017 17:39

Chemistry
Biology
Geography
Philosophy and Ethics

sluj · 23/01/2017 17:44

Biology
Chemistry
Geography

And maths for AS

Mindgone · 23/01/2017 22:53

DS is in 2nd year and really enjoying it.
He took chemistry, biology, maths and psychology (AS)

Mindgone · 23/01/2017 22:54

I would have thought that having biology A level would make aspects of the course easier than without it.

Northernlurker · 23/01/2017 23:04

I was a medic applicant mother last year. Dd got a place at Dundee and is well in the swing of it now.
She did chemistry, biology and maths at a level and history at as level too. She also did an extended project on hip fractures, inspired by the ward she volunteered on, which gave her some good stuff to talk about at interview.

soapybox · 24/01/2017 10:11

My DD is in her first year of studying medicine and she has said on several occasions that if she had not studied biology at A-level, she would be utterly lost at times.

The university she is at does accept people without biology but she says those people are really struggling at the moment.

She says A-level chemistry has been a waste of time so far in that she has done nothing related to it at all, but of course most places require it!

Needmoresleep · 24/01/2017 15:31

There had to be one...DD took five, including maths, physics, chemistry and biology.

I don't think having more than three helped her much in getting a place. It might have done if she had sat BMAT which seems to test a wider science knowledge, or had applied to Barts/Royal London which scores 4 A levels. But generally as long as her academics were at the level required, it was UKCAT, PS, shadowing/volunteering, and interview performance that mattered.

It also meant a horrid log jam in March with three interviews and three sets of coursework deadlines.

Keeping up a broad range does mean that she has more scope to intercalate in an area that interests her (medical engineering) and it meant she had a bit more leeway when it came to the exams themselves as her offer was only based on three A levels. (Just as well as she picked up a bug before her physics A level and was very unwell when she sat it. She did OK but would have been petrified if she felt her med school place were dependent on her performance that day.) Oddly she started A levels liking chemistry and biology, but by the end would probably have claimed to prefer maths and physics.

Managing the workload, along with sport, volunteering and school leadership positions means she ought to be well placed to cope with the step up to med school, though I understand the pace is still likely to be tough.

I wonder if chemistry as a requirement is more about showing you have the ability to understand concepts, rather than the knowledge learnt at school.

SuePine · 26/01/2017 00:08

At the Bristol open day for last year's entry, they were quite explicit that Chemistry was only in there to prove you were up to the course, not because the content was important. I understand that on DD's course, the students without A-level biology were brought up to speed in the first month.

goodbyestranger · 26/01/2017 09:06

DS did Biology, Chemistry, Physics and History to A2 plus an EPQ and has said he would have had problems without Chemistry. He seems to think Biology is pretty essential as well. He's in his 5th year.

Tripletmumof4 · 03/02/2017 19:41

Can't quite believe this but daughter now has all four med school offers ,Nottingham came yesterday and Leicester today !

Kr1stina · 03/02/2017 19:54

That's excellent, well done her !

Tripletmumof4 · 03/02/2017 20:37

Thank you , best of luck everyone x

swingofthings · 05/02/2017 10:58

This is amazing tripplemum, so well done to your daughter! Can I ask (I apologise if already posted) what was your DD UKCAT score?

Going through each school, trying to get a feel of which ones are most likely to suit DD's strengths (as clearly this is the general advice), it appears that regardless of whether one school favours GCSE/A levels results or Personal Experience/Personal Statement, the one element that seem to be the common factor for a chance of interview is a very high UKCAT score (obviously for those going on UKCAT).

Reading applicants' scores, it doesn't seem to be that much of a direct correlation between high GCSE/A levels results and high UKCAT score, so is it because it does test different things (ie. more alike IQ tests), or does it very much come down to practice?

Decorhate · 05/02/2017 11:57

When dd was applying, we got a chance to talk directly to someone in admissions at one uni. I asked, given that pretty much all the applicants will have predicted grades of A A A or higher, how do they decide to call for interview. He said that the results of the BMAT (which they used rather than UKCAT) were the main thing.

Tripletmumof4 · 05/02/2017 13:37

Hi , her GCSEs were 7 A*,3A,2B, BMat 17.9 ( not sure how that was broken down )
UKCAT
VR 670,
QR700,
AR690,
SJ band1
I think she targeted the schools she had a chance with effectively and must have performed well at interview .

swingofthings · 05/02/2017 18:17

Thanks Triplemumof4 for sharing. Those are great results, but I've read some getting average 800+, so that's great to see how well she's done with these results. Indeed, she must have done great at her interviews too. It's very encouraging!

Tripletmumof4 · 05/02/2017 18:41

It is best to look at each individual uni and how they score applicants e.g Nottingham is a combination of GCSE. grades and UKCAT , some will post the cut off point such as Brighton and Sussex 14 for BMAT.I don't think it is as simple as high UKCAT or GCSEs .Some have cut offs for different parts of the UKCAT , some specify which GCSEs at A* you can count , some which decile your UKCAT scores were for that year ( daughters were 7 th but only just ).My daughter researched all this herself and it isn't hard to find .