Medicine 2020

[EightToSixer]

Ok, so I know it's super early, but I've been hovering at the medicine 18 and 19 threads. DD is keen to apply for medicine in 2020. Is anyone else in the same boat?
I thought it would be useful to share info and stories, it's all a very steep learning curve because despite me now having a PhD and working in a RG university I was late to learning and not a patch on my DD who is very driven and organised.
Hopefully people will find this group and we can share the rollercoaster of the next two years.

That was misleading regarding the chances of succeeding in medicine in France. Basically you can get into the equivalent of med school with less than stellar grades, but only the top 10 to 15% in yr 1 pass the concours to go into yr 2. Another 20% or so are allowed to repeat yr1 and the rest are kicked out. You can only repeat yr1 once so need to pass the concours next time, or choose to be bifurcated into midwifery, dentistry, physio or pharmacy. There is another concours at the end of yr 2 and I don't know the stats for passing that (students have already gone through sercious screening by then...).

The student I'm trying to help is very strong academically and her family has estimated that her chances of getting all the way through medical school in France are somewhere around 60%. Getting in would be a breeze (comparatively speaking), but as I said, she's not at all keen on the French system!

serious

However, and this is important for UK applicants as well, there is a big difference between medical courses. Some are very academic, others are very hands on.

DD had thought she wanted a more structured academic course. However she deferred and found herself on the first year of a new course, with patient contact from her first week. Comparing notes with others at Imperial and Oxford, her course is very different. Slightly to her surprise, it suits her. She likes patients and the mix of practical and academic. She also seems good at picking up and retaining knowledge gained through observation. Others though might be happier in a more structured academic environment.

I can see why the UK might seem preferable, but coming from a very structured education system, she may be wise to attend a couple of open days to understand what she is letting herself in for. Slightly cynical perhaps but at least a portion of DDs learning seems to be about how to deal with NHS bureaucracy effectively when sorting out placements etc.

New girls I don't have monkeys knowledge, not even half! But we did visit Birmingham, I have seen above 8 mentioned somewhere before, dd scores full marks and I suppose that is the worry - how many will? We were told less than 10% of applicants score full marks. And they interview a lot more than 10% of applicants. Dd loved it and was thrilled to realise she would get an interview. Still feel that I should be writing 'probably' get an interview but she was basically told yes to an interview. Then it's back to basically even ground, just the sjt counts for 1 MMI station. Hope that helps a little.

Monkey dd likes Edinburgh - she has 9 A * GCSEs - sjt band 1, ucat top decile - looks like she 'should' on paper get an interview? Is that how you are reading it too?

Slightly cynical perhaps but at least a portion of DDs learning seems to be about how to deal with NHS bureaucracy effectively when sorting out placements etc.

This is a very important thing to learn, otherwise the later years of the course are impossible to complete. You don't learn medicine in universities: you only learn some basic biological, behavioural & social science there to help you to learn medicine. You learn medicine in hospitals and GP practices, so you have to understand how they work.

Such lovely people on this thread thanks in particular monkey and hedgehog. Will report all this back to dd. A 6 to a 9! If he ever wants to go into publishing there is always demand for great medical editors in Cambridge and Oxford 👍

NHS bureaucracy - bane of all the medics' life in UK. Something they will have to face increasingly as they progress through their career!

Better to learn to negotiate it early ...

My Y13 DD who is thinking about applying for medicine sat her UKAT today and got an average score of 750.
I know it's supposed to be a good score but I can see mention of scores in the 1000s on some sites.
Where can I get an explanation of how these numbers compare?
DD is no help, she's disappeared over the horizon to celebrate with friends!

If you Google UCAT results 2019 you can find the interim results published this week, giving the scores so far this year. There will be final results at the end of the month, but I would be pretty happy with 750s!

That's a great score, FiveHoursSleep. Well done to your DD!

UCAT prelim scores were released earlier this week and should be helpful in seeing where your DD stands. Looks like she is in the top decile:
www.ucat.ac.uk/sjtace/sjtace-results/test-statistics/

@FiveHoursSleep - Each subtest of the UCAT is scored on a uniform mark scale ranging from 300 to 900. So the total score from the four subtests is in the range 1,200-3,600.

Posters who are referring to scores in the thousands are reporting total scores. For some reason students keep referring to average scores (i.e. total score divided by four), despite the fact no medical schools state their requirement in this form.

Your daughter's total score is 3,000, which is very high.

Thank you emummy and 242. That's helpful.
She's hoping to at least get some interviews!

She should get interviews with that score 👍👍👍

SirToby that's even more helpful. Thank you again. I haven't paid that much attention to all this up until now but I'm off to have a read up.

Hedgehog have you downloaded the Edinburgh "Applying for Medicine" document?

Shortlisting is done on a score with:
50% academic (achieved and predicted)
35% UCAT score (by decile)
15% SJT

For GCSEs they score your best 8. They have not revealed what they do with your A levels. There is an open day on Saturday, so maybe more info will trickle through.

Your DD is in an excellent position with full marks for GCSEs/SJT. They work out their own deciles from their applicants.

The score calculated at this stage is carried forward as 50% of the post interview score - that is also not going to hurt your DD's chance of an offer. I also think it is good to know that they plan to interview 650 people and last uear made 490 offers which is a great interview to offer ratio.

DS did UCAT today and it went well, nice high score and band 1.

Planning to apply to St Andrews, Sheffield, Edinburgh and maybe Leicester. There is still a chance that we will appeal Chemistry A level marking and he may be able to apply to Cambridge, BMAT results tomorrow (or tonight) - he has 3xA predicted but got AAA by 3-5 marks on each subject and we are still waiting for a reviewed paper to come back.

He is more cheerful than I have seen him since results day!

I have downloaded it and that's exactly how I read it monkey. I am turning into a basket case though!
I am so pleased the UCAT went well for your DS and I hope he gets great results from the BMAT too. 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Sounds like he has worked so hard monkey good luck to him

Does anyone know about deferring a medicine place? DD1 thinks she wants to do a gap year but isn't sure. Does she have to mention this at her interviews or could she defer if she already has an offer?

Since medical school numbers are controlled, I would personally suggest looking at the policy on defferring at all the Medical schools she intends to apply to and asking their admissions team direct if it is not clear. I wouldn't assume that it would be okay to wait until offers are made.

Yes, policies on deferring vary. There was a DD on last years thread who wanted to defer and Sheffield said yes, St Andrew's do not seem to permit it. Some med schools have asked people to defer because they over-shot their numbers. I think for the big ones it us often fine to ask about deferring after getting an offer.

We are tightening up our rules on deferral in the forthcoming year. The number of students who ask to defer in August or even September is ridiculous, and most of them don't give any reasonable justification for deferring. As @MarchingFrogs said, the fact that our numbers are capped means we have to perform a very delicate balancing act to ensure all places are filled without going over our number cap (for which we would suffer financial penalties). If someone asks to defer very late we then have to find someone else to fill that place at short notice causing disruption to their plans and making it difficult for them to find accommodation.

If your daughter wants to defer she should request this when she accepts her offer, not when she gets her A-level results (bearing in mind that one or two medical schools won't accept requests to defer at any time). Better still, she should apply for deferred entry in the first place.

DD managed a deferral at a place where they stated they did not allow deferrals. She had good reasons why she thought it better that she had a year off, indeed something that had been mentioned in her original application. She also made her request just at the point when the Medical School were sorting out final numbers, and got agreement by return. (She was part of the last set of March interviews.) Our guess was that they were either slightly over numbers, so would grant her request, or slightly under, in which case they probably would not.

She knows someone else who was granted a deferral after giving strong reasons, but lots who asked but failed to get one.

DD had a brilliant gap year and started University ready to learn. She has no regrets at all.

Following PP, I would suggest applying for a deferred place, or asking as soon as you can, and at least by April. Be careful though. Quite a few of DDs peers got in with dropped grades, I assume because the Medical School did not want to waste the place. I assume they would not do that if you had deferred.