Medicine 2019

[kaykay72]

Hi,

Does anyone here have a DC applying for medicine to start in 2019? It would be nice to meet others as we embark on uni visits, predicted grades, UKCAT etc

We’re in Kent, d is planning to visit kings, UCL, Nottingham, Sheffield and Newcastle at the moment. She really wanted to go look at Belfast but they want three A’s plus an A at AS level but won’t accept her additional qualification in place of this (despite it having a higher UCAS tarriff). We went to an open afternoon at BSMS which she liked more than she thought she would, so is pondering the BMAT.

I have two older kids (well, adults now), one of whom has just finished his masters, the other just completed his first year elsewhere, but medical applications are just so complicated in comparison to their experiences at this stage.

Hope to hear from others in the same boat :-)

We are taking time out of medical school thinking for DS to try to decide whether to squeeze grade 8 violin in this term. He is quite a way off a comfortable pass, so he needs to decide whether he is prepared to put in a lot of work! I want him to get his work ethic going (he is very lazy - wakes up at midday at weekends, treats all morning "study periods" as an excuse to sleep longer). He has no intention of working for his mocks, thinks he can pull it all out of the bag from Easter.

I am really thinking it would be not be a bad thing if he does not get any offers and has a year out to focus and get a job.

Ho hum.........

Hi Monkey,
Yes, slightly similar here re. music grades. DD skipped 7 so she had a better chance of getting 8 ticked off, but now 8 looks like a step too far between now and May. That'll be one of the gap year tasks, if she gets to have one. But speaking as someone who got to grade 7 in two instruments but never got a grade 8 (one instrument due to complete lack of interest as the teen years hit, the other just from running out of time with A level commitments) it is something I still regret a little. Worth pushing for if there's any time in the schedule, I'd say. In retrospect, I wish I'd taken it with a high risk of a fail, just in case I'd passed. But motivation has to come from DS at this point, I guess. How bothered is he about getting grade 8?

Hoodiemum, that is very helpful. DS is saying that he has invested a lot of time to get 80% of the way there, 2 of the pieces would pass and he just needs a final push for the other piece, but grade 8 violin is hard! DS2 plays double bass and could have played a 6 line piece as one of his G8 pieces. DS1 has 3 pages of a Beethoven sonata. He is probably going to go for it knowing that, as you said, he may fail, but at least he won't wonder whether he would have passed.

He is also thinking that he might end up with a year out if he does not get offers and would be able to do violin and driving test.

Does your DS play the violin too? The current syllabus finishes in 2019, so Spring 20

Whoops, posted early. Spring 2020 will be last session for current syllabus.

Alreadytaken- is your Dc at UCL?
Dd has an interview - not sure if it is science based interview or a general interview with an option to ask anything ?

@Hoodie and @Monkey .....my DD is drawing a line under grade 7 now. Our thinking being that if grade 8 was within reach she ought to have done a shed load of practise of Christmas (and that didn't happen) plus lessons are very sporadic after Easter and I'd prefer her not schlepping into school just for a lesson during study leave. I also think she should just focus on getting the A level grades and not too much more.
My DD also loves her sleep @Hoodie.......this concerns me a little as it seems completely at odds with the career choice she's making - ho hum! As an aside, met a friend yesterday who is a surgeon/ENT consultant. She was politely downbeat about some of DD's uni choices - non London or Oxbridge - frankly the chat was a bit of a downer. We are not medics but it's set the alarm bells going a bit about the perception of prestige and getting the job you desire after graduation.

@ProfessorLayton1 has your DD used the Medic Portal? They have a lot on UCL interview - www.themedicportal.com/how-to-prepare-for-a-ucl-medicine-interview/

Tinkobell - Nice for me to know that DS is not the only slug-a-bed!

ProfessorLayton might be able to tell us whether the equality of all med schools is a myth....

Thanks Monkey2001...
I think I did tell her about it after someone suggested it last time, completely forgot about it..

All medical universities produce good safe doctors and the curriculum is fixed by GMC. We are lucky in UK to have so many good universities.

There are strengths and weaknesses with each university. Oxbridge/ BMAT universities generally produce good scientists but saying that, it reflects the teaching style and the staff there. This does not mean that they don't produce good clinicians - they may acquire it at a later time in their training.

Some universities are good in giving importance to clinical medicine from the beginning but that does not mean that you can't get into academic medicine at a later date if that's what you want..

Do you all think our DCs who could end up in any of the other institution are less capable - absolutely not! What matters at the end is if they have a burning desire to keep going and have the tenacity to get to where they have to...
Medicine is one degree where you can achieve what you want if you are good and want to do something desperately, you can do it irrespective of where your first qualification is... The training is long and a lot of the trainees get to a point when they think that it is enough for them- there is nothing wrong with that.. don't forget the ability to uproot yourself and family few times whike training.

We are on leave today and had a text from one of our old trainee ( he trained with both myself and my DH) who happened to be in town so came home for tea and some career advice!

His initial training was in Malaysia and his training has taken him to Canada, UK - oxford and Birmingham and Singapore.He is very good, hard working, has exceptional surgical skills, good team player and always cheerful BUT his wife has had some many jobs (not a medic but well qualified) as she has travelled everywhere with him. No one even knows where his first degree is from and is immaterial to him getting his job.

Tinkobell- I would not be downbeat about any medical university place. There is nothing preventing your Dd from getting London experience if she wants!

Professor Layton - sorry but that's information I dont post as they dont wish to be identified. They have friends in several London medical schools.

The job they get after graduation is, currently, worked out by looking at their position in their medical school and also how they do in a wierd and wonderful examination called the Situational Judgement Test. Half the points are from the SJT, half from your educational background. They are then allocated to jobs based on their point score. There will be a national exam by the time current students graduate but at the moment they still say it wont change anything much. There is an Academic Foundation Programme where the rules are different but not many apply and even fewer get a job that way. Publications and prizes matter for the AFP.

How they do after their years as a junior doctor depend on what they have been doing at medical school and as a junior doctor. They will have to take more exams and Oxbridge graduates do tend to be a bit better at passing those exams than the average graduate from other schools. However if you looked only at those who, say, got 3 A*s I suspect you'd find little difference between medical schools, people who are good at exams go on being good at exams.

Alreadytaken - no worries!

Can I just ask ProfessorLayton (my favourite game) a quick question - or any other medics out there. My DD is finding her eyes sting during dissection and I wondered if there was anything she could use to stop this. Thank you

Thanks so much for taking the time to give such a considered response @prof.....what you say makes perfect sense. Look, at the end of the day, where a candidate ends up getting their offer will probably end up being the main determinant of where you go in the country. I suppose all professions are going to have some slight snobbery, it's probably inevitable.

Actually maybe the perception this could be generational? NHS 2019 has people of wildly diverse backgrounds ....not just Oxbridge consultants that wear a bow tie 😀

@mumneedswine, may be worth trying antihistamines? Not on the basis of medical experience, but general allergies.

Thank you Monkey. I think it's the formaldehyde from the cadaver that's causing it. They just took the lungs out so she's hoping her eyes might get used to it. But I'll tell her to take some Piriton before next weekZ. I'll stop hijacking this lovely thread now. Good luck everyone.

Agree it is the formaldehyde and don't think antihistamines would help.. she will have to get used to it, I am afraid

Thank you. One of the Drs suggested she take some home and sniff it every day so she gets used to it !!! Another, slightly more sensibly, said that when they take the first bits out it releases a lot of the formaldehyde and should be better next time. They have retired Drs helping them with dissection and she says they are so lovely.

Hi guys,
DS is in Year 12 and wants to do medicine next year, he's got his heart set on Leeds.

Just wondering how you helped your kids out, anyone in a similar situation?

There's a few courses available that offer UCAS proof reading and practise interviews - what are your thoughts on them? Would you consider putting your child through them? I have been told there are already a wealth of free resources available - can you imagine there being a demand for paid courses? If the free courses are so abundant and effective then why do paid courses even exist? Asking because there's a skype-based course that has limited spaces!

On another note, does the application/interview process vary a lot between universities? What is the consensus between universities, if any?

Thanks guys .

Hello undergradhopeful. We did a course at the beginning to get an overview of everything with Medic Mentors. It was aimed at students and parents and we found it helpful.

Definitely not worth paying anyone for help with PS. Most med schools don't look at it for shortlisting any more and there are free resources - The Student Room and Medic Portal are good.

DS applied to Leeds. They are not reviewing PS before shortlisting any more, but I think you needed 37/40 on their scoring system to get an interview this year. DS had 24/27 for GCSEs, 8/8 for A levels and I assume his BMAT was 5/5 as other people with at least 36 points did not get interviews. Have you worked out your DS's score so far?

I think everybody would recommend a subscription to medify for UKCAT. They have only just started their BMAT course, so don't know how good that is. We used BMAT Ninja, but it was not as helpful as the Medify UKCAT subscription.

We went to a medic mentor thing too - it was informative and good fun, it was a weekend thing in London, not a specific exam or interview course.

Medify definitely worth doing in the run up to UKCAT, helps with timing and format hugely. For BMAT my d worked through past papers and revised any dodgy bits from the spec - mainly physics as she hasn’t studied it for a while. And practised doing essay plans in bullet point form rather than writing full essays.

I’d recommend doing the early BMAT if possible, so the result is known before the application goes in as it might change where they apply. My d says if she’d had her BMAT score before her UCAS form went in, she might have applied for Cambridge - she assumed her score wouldn’t be good enough.

Once you have BMAT/UKCAT/predicted grades, there are wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful folk on the student room forum who can advise where the best chance of interview is, for a given profile.

@Weaverspin, did DD get an offer of AAA or AAB if firmed? Looks like that is what Newcastle is doing for at least the early offers to "exceptional" candidates. I did not think med schools did that, but I guess it could be a nudge for the ones they really want!