Medicine Applications 2017

[adski]

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.

Can anyone recommend cheap places to stay near brighton uni? My neices has an interview and needs to stay overnight. Nerves are massively frayed in her household right now. The stress of this process is killing Xmas!

Is there a premier inn because those are usually reasonably priced, I would crack on with iookinbg though as my dd has to stay overnight in Cardiff and the premier inn was full that night at the cheapest prices.

My niece was at Kings College London for Medicine started around 1999/2000. Her A Level grades were ABBD.
One of my sons went through the process 2 years ago with grades AAA predicted and attained, but he did not get one place for medicine including Kings. It's all about the person and personality now as well as top grades. DS ended up doing Pharmacology.

Red - thank you. You are right, some of the local premier inns are booked for interview week!

Share - I agree. Grades are almost an afterthought. Kids have to jump through hoops and even then there's little chance of a place. We are losing some great potential drs die to lack of places. The mmi itself is a source is great worry for some 17/18 year olds who may have the grades and experience but suffer with nerves and might not do well on the day. Some stations at mmi require you to debate with lecturers and this can be so daunting for these teens.

Happy Christmas everyone ! Hope you and your families have had a peaceful and relaxing time.

How are your kids getting on ? Mine has two MMI interviews in January, at her top two choices, so she's delighted. Her best friend at school has 4 interviews, so they are revising together.

There is no prep going on here at all! Can I ask what everyone's else's DC are doing to prep for the mmi stations? We have a brighton interview pending and dd seems to think it's going to be 5 stations where she will just chat to interviewers. It's not something I want to pester her about but I do think some prep might be needed??

No prep here either. I'm so surprised because this is DC has wanted for years but is now in stone state if total burnout and doesn't think prep is needed!

I was told by a friend that her dd had told her that so many interviewees go unprepared and I didn't think that could be true. I do now! It's the ones who go prepared who land the places on the course.

Good luck to all with January interviews.

The burn out is not surprising. There are so many hurdles to the medicine application, academic work is gathering pace, plus responsibilities from being at the top of the school. DD had her three interviews in March in the same week three pieces of coursework were due, and just after mocks, so did not do much prep. I bribed her to read a short book on ethics so she had covered the ground, though her extensive watching of TV medical dramas meant she was aware of the ethical questions behind standard plot lines. If not taking maths A level you might have a quick run through statistics and percentages. Two of her interviews involved overnight stays, so we took the iPad up and she read everything on the medical school website and was able to tell me over breakfast the advantages of both the course and University. (Intercalation options are a quick way to see what the University is good at - lots of public health in Birmingham.) She might had done more on the NHS structure but from what she has said, interviewers in part approached this by asking about what she had observed during her shadowing. I don't think interviewers had access to her PS at any of her interviews, but worth rereading it if only that you can repeat bits in interview.

She thinks she failed the ethics station at Kings, where they used vocabulary she had not come across so was unable to access the question. A course may well have helped. However her thinking was that yes she could have done more but part of why she would make a good doctor was her ability to remain balanced and level headed. If medical schools only wanted people who had devoted their final school years to their medical school application, spend months practicing UKCAT and interview prep questions, then perhaps it was not the career for her.

She got the other two, but in fairness she is happy talking to adults. Not least because of the work experience, volunteering and extra curricular she had done. She actually enjoyed the interviews. But perhaps because by then, when just about all her peers had offers, she had decided it was all in the lap of Gods.

It was a tough year. In contrast she is having a ball during her gap year. She only realised she wanted to defer after she had received her offer, but it was absolutely the right decision.

Great post needmore. I think you are right in saying that medical schools won't necessarily take the students who give the best answers and are most prepared. I'm sure other qualities such as the ability to stay calm and communicate will also serve students well. After all, not every interviewee will arrive prepared I'm sure!

Really good to hear your dd is enjoying her gap year, the application year is so intensive I'm not surprised many students defer.

Red - thank you. You are right, some of the local premier inns are booked for interview week!
I expect you would have found somewhere by now, but if not, I would strongly suggest the Premier Inn in Lewes, which is brand new and lovely. The Uni is only one train stop from it, so in actual fact, quicker than staying in Brighton city (and I expect cheaper too!).

@Needmoresleep, without breaking confidentiality agreement she may have signed, can you share what the language was that your DD was unfamiliar with?

Medschoolrat, I can't help you much. It was a pretty standard end-of-life ethics question. I had not heard the term before, so have forgotten it. And apparently the interviewer spoke very softly, so she did not hear it first time either, so was pretty much thrown. In contrast she recognised the disease behind the statistics at the next station, and was able to contribute more than required in terms of symptoms, treatment and prognosis.

Back to the fact that they will be interviewing more qualified candidates than they have places for. Like interviews for other things, luck will play its part. Tough though for a 17 year old, with so much at stake.

Best wishes to all those whose DC are waiting to hear about interviews, or who have interviews coming up.

Needmore I agree that luck plays its part. My niece said that all the interviewees were very very capable and all very prepared. She also said that at one station she could barely understand one interviewer (non British) and he started his final question 2 minutes before the end of the station session and stopped speaking 18 seconds before the end leaving her 18 seconds to reply!

She also said she was one of 3 17/18 year olds there on the day. Everyone else was a graduate or mature student. It's such a competitive admissions process. The interviewers all seem very encouraging and kind which helps put everyone at ease. Good luck to all who are invited to interview, even getting to this point is a massive massive achievement imo.

If I were you I would be encouraging your children to do some prep for the interviews . There are lots of questions online e.g.

www.medical-interviews.co.uk/interview-questions-medical-school-interviews.aspx

www.themedicportal.com/e-learning/interview/

MMI usually have a combination of traditional talking stations ( why medicine, why this university , what did you learn from your work experience , what are your views on the junior doctors contract , what's wrong with the NHS ) and tasks /role plays.

It's quite difficult to do the role plays well without some practice and they need to be able to quickly identify the ethical issues in each one and relate these to GMC etc.

Again there are plenty examples online .

They also need to do some research to be able to answer the knowledge based questions . You might be able to think on the spot for a question such as " how does politics influence healthcare " . But if you don't know anything about eg evidence based medicine , the funding of healthcare, current changes in the profession ,etc it's hard to make it up.

How are your kids getting in with their interviews?

Mine has done two , has one to go and hasn't heard anything from the other.

Anyone else worried about A levels now ?
Flo has heard from two medical schools with offers for both Brighton and Sussex and Hull and York , no news yet on the outcome of the other two interviews . She was totally stressed out by the interviews and they were all in December .Now her Chemistry needs some definite extra input so the stress goes on !

Three interviews so far, but earliest we will hear is apparently mid-Feb-ish so trying not to think about it. Though I suppose that is only three weeks or so away now.

Three girls in my daughter's year already have offers, so the others are starting to feel the pressure.

Ah that must make it very tough. No one in DDs school has had offers yet and quite a few still have more interviews to attend. So at least they are all in the same boat.

One university told interviewees that they won't hear until March when last interviews were in early January.

Flo was told that for Brighton but they rang her with an offer the Tuesday after the Friday when she had an interview .

She must have impressed them, triplet!

Thanks yes I think she must have . She is the only one at her school to have had interviews .We were amazed as we are unfamiliar with the whole system .Good-luck to yours .

Thank you!

YY she must be very impressive! All the kids I know who have offers ( not for medicine ) got them by email or through UCAS Track .

Is she pleased with her offer?

She is a normal kid no extra courses , goes to an ordinary state school but she is very passionate about medicine .and did lots of volunteering / local work experience .. She has type 1 diabetes , was diagnosed just before her GCSES and although she didn't mention this on her PS or at interview they would have known from her UCAS. form so possible they took this into account . Having said that her GCSEs , UKCat and Bmat were all very good .She also had her BSMS offer through UCAS. I hadn't heard of this happening when my oldest went to. Uni two years ago but the same thing happened to my other daughter when she got an unconditional offer . Both offers for medicine are AAA, .Yes she is very pleased with her offers , it has given her a massive boost . She had horrendous blood sugar levels during her interviews but didn't tell anyone so I am unashamedly proud of her .

😀