A timely posting here at this time of year when A-level results are imminent and when Medicine applicants 2017 are about to embark and invest the next 5 or 6 years of their lives beginning this autumn in their pursuit to qualify as a doctor. Like I mentioned in my last posting on this thread, I thought 2017 was going to be a very special and auspicious year (for the family). Indeed it turned out to be a momentous year!
But firstly, a very sincere Thank You to Leeds2, adski and alreadytaken for your congratulatory messages. And to HMW9793, yes I do remember you and I can’t begin to tell you how mightily pleased I am to hear of your son’s eventual success after all the predicaments you’d been to. Thank you for updating us and your kind congratulatory message.
Not only did DS pass his MBBS degree but he pass with Distinction! This latest qualification comes as an addition to the BSc 1st Class (Hons) he’d already achieved in his intercalated year some 18 months earlier. So guys, a 6-year long medicine course is a very long one but believe me, it will soon pass and in the end, it’s definitely well worth it. And what’s more, at the ripe old age of only 24, DS is, to all intents and purposes, still only a spring chicken but already has effectively three fantastic degrees in the bag! Even as I write this message now he’s already begun working as a FY1 doctor at a NHS hospital in a very much sought after and one of the ‘hardest to get’ deaneries for new foundation doctors. It does seem like only yesterday that he’d finished his Finals exams (May/June) and I should have got the message then that he’d done well as I had never heard him whistling away so cheerfully in everything that he did, cooking, bathing, relaxing, etc.
I’ve been advised by people in the profession that passing a medicine degree with distinction is a rare achievement (probably top decile) because unlike other university academic degrees, a medicine degree is a professional and an unclassified degree, i.e. you either pass or you fail – there’s no classification into 1st, 2nd or 3rd Class, etc. Also, a pass mark in medicine usually exceeds 50 marks - more like 60 marks in some top medical schools – which is a great many marks more than the usual 40 marks as in other degrees.
In order to stand a chance to gain a distinction in the Finals, a medic student must pass all his/her previous years’ medicine exams at the first attempt and with marks at ‘distinction’ level or at least with very high merits plus distinctions. Please be under no illusions that medical schools have no qualms in failing anyone even by ONE mark or in their Final Year exams if (s)he is “not up to scratch” at any point throughout the whole duration of the course.
From a quick ballpark head count figure in this year’s pass list at DS’s medical school, I note that the total number of students that graduated amount to only (appx) 90% against a known intake number from 6 years ago which suggest to me that about 10% of students had discontinued with the programme for one reason or other at some point throughout the duration of the course.
Not affecting medic freshies for now but I’d like to conclude by saying a word or two about the Foundation Programme after medical schools. It is important that you are aware right from the onset that your performance (or the lack of it) throughout the entire duration of your course has a direct bearing firstly, on the degree you get or don’t get; and secondly, will determine which deanery in the UK that you’ll be finally sent to as you’d be competing directly with your medic peers from the whole of the UK for preferred hospitals/jobs. I wish you all success in meeting your UCAS offer(s) on the 17th instant and a great time at medical school.