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.

So DS got an insanely high BMAT score today, but sadly does not have the A level results to go with it for Cambridge.

I hate the A level system! We are still waiting for a chemistry re-mark and the school is considering appealing as he lost a few crucial marks for poor handwriting. We find it maddening that there were things like Physics where his answer to a 3 mark question was absolutely correct except that when he was re-arranging his formula he made an error by a factor of 2. For that he only got 1/3 although the physics was all correct and it was a silly mistake. Another one where in part (i) of a question he talked about the relationship of velocity and drag, then in part (ii) did a correct calculation without repeating what he had said 2 sentences earlier and lost another 2 marks - he missed an A* by 3 marks. Our exam system is rubbish!

Urge your DCs to go closely through the examiners' reports and be really pernickety when marking their own papers - expect the examiner to be a complete pendant playing mark scheme bingo, not someone assessing whether you understand your subject.

Sorry if that was a rant!

Monkey - what about Oxford? Their offer is A star A A and with a super high BMAT score he would stand a good chance?

Yay for the high BMAT score today!!! I'm sorry he won't be able to follow his dream to Cambridge but he can probably go pretty much anywhere else? Oxford don't accept first BMAT do they? So anywhere else - he had a great UCAT too so an overall very strong candidate. I hope he has some other places in mind he will love.
Hope others waiting on BMAT yesterday/today? got what they needed too. What a minefield this whole journey is.

DS1 received his BMAT scores today too - we're happy with his results! Still in the running for all his BMAT uni choices. Hurdle crossed - onward!

DD got a 5.something on her BMAT. She's chuffed. Plenty over the threshold she needs.

UCAT next Tuesday (thank goodness). She's in good mood today but has been very tetchy last few days. I'll be relieved when that's over.

Great news!!!

No, Oxford doesn't accept the September BMAT and it doesn't score A Levels for interview either, only BMAT and contextualised GCSE scores.

We have had confirmation that he can apply to Cambridge whilst appealing A level result and they would allow a re-sit if the appeal fails because the school think his scripts should have been an A* and the BMAT score was so good. He is not keen to re-sit, so hoping the appeal works out. Phew!

Glad to hear the other BMAT takers are happy, it is much less stressful when they can get all the admissions tests done before 15th Oct.

That's good! Fingers crossed for the appeal then 🤞

People considering Birmingham might like to see this new FOI response
www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-mds/medical-school/Application-Statistics-Medicine.pdf

DD has run out of time to go to open days and need a couple more universities to put down on her application. She has good GCSEs, A level PGs and a good UCAT score. She's not sitting BMAT.
So far she likes Manchester and would consider Birmingham.
She didn't fancy Cardiff. What other places do people think she might like?

Does she like PBL or integrated?
Dissection?
Campus or city?

If all her stats are good, you need to narrow down on something!

You're not giving people much to go on, @FiveHoursSleep. Manchester and Birmingham are very different (PBL hybrid with whole-body dissection in city-centre location vs lecture-heavy with practically no hands-on anatomy in campus location), so no-one can guess which other medical schools she might like from having these two named as preferences. The only thing they have in common is that they are both massive.

How good are her good GCSEs and UCAT score? These will rule some places in/out in tearms of feasibility. Beyond that, she really needs to narrow down her choices on the basis of course style and/or location.

DS sat UCAT on Saturday - train was cancelled and next train delayed so arrived with very little time to spare and then wedding bells disrupted his first section, but was happy with a score of 2730 (SJT 2). A slight improvement on last year. Hopeful this will be good enough for Sheffield and Manchester interviews.
We are struggling with options for his other 2 choices cuz he is a resit candidate (A-levels BBB no Chemistry). We've emailed several admissions teams for a bit more information, but clock is ticking and feeling like we need a Plan B if things don't work out with Sheffield (his firm choice last year and his dream destination).

Plan B might involve looking for chances in Clearing (assuming he gets AAA this time around). St George's regularly use Clearing to pick up AAA+ students without offers elsewhere, and some of the new medical schools might have the same plan. Several medical schools went into Clearing this year (albeit not all officially) but I'd expect there to be fewer next August.

@SirTobyBelch, DD has done everything herself at this point and these were the two Unis that she visited that she liked. I will talk to her about the reasons for her choices a bit more but she's very independent.
Manchester is her favourite by far because it's in the city but she thought Birmingham wasn't too far away either.
Her GCSEs were 9999888887 and A*( which I believe equates to another 8) and her UCAT score was 3000/ 750.

@fivehoursleep your DD could well be shortlisted for interview with those UCAT and GCSE results. From what you say, she really loves cities. Has she considered London unis at all? My DD prefers campus so I'm not clued up on great city centre locations I'm afraid.
At least with medicine, they will all have interviews at each location so have further opportunities to visit and investigate their choices.

DD's UCAS is now submitted to the school for references. It has been a long slog so we are very hapoy to finally be done with all the edits to the PS and managed to cut it down to 47 lines finally!
How are your DCs applications going?

@EightToSixer, we live in London so she's not interested in London Unis!

As the mum of two medic children (one in their third year, one in their final year) I well remember their Year 13 ups and downs- it's a stressful time.

I thought I'd pop back and post a couple of comments the DC made which might be useful for your would-be medics to consider before pushing that UCAS button.

1. When choosing the four schools to put on your list research the continuation rates for the schools (maybe FOI records or ask them directly). I say continuation rather than drop-out so students being kicked out after (mainly) 1st or 2nd year exams. One DC has a medic friend at Birmingham and the proportion kicked out at the end of 1st year was eye-watering which can make for a stressful year.

1. Check what happens if a student fails just one of their first year exams. Mine have been fortunate and had a smooth ride so far but again, their medic friends at UCL have had to resit all of the first year exams, including the ones they passed first time, despite failing only one exam, and by just a few marks. They passed the retakes but it apparently made for a miserable summer.

1. A word of warning for any 'squeezed middle' parents who will be supporting their DC. The funding for clinical years gets more expensive- a LOT more expensive!

It is different to the standard student finance loans for the first three years. My DC (who only qualifies for the minimum maintenance loan as we're over the 62K household income threshold) gets a non-means tested non-repayable NHS maintenance bursary of £1000 for their final year together with a (maximum for them) SFE maintenance loan of £1862.

They have only 4 weeks 'holiday' in total this year so will have a grand total of £2862 for the year (August 2019-July 2020) to pay all their rent, food, travel to placements (which they have to pay up front and claim back). They have no possibility of earning extra money due to no holidays and moving around on placements.

The logic of this is beyond me as clinical students have much much longer 'terms' and need more not less money.
Get saving if you haven't already.

Good luck to all your DC! Mine love their courses.

The exam system is rubbish and you have to learn to play the game, using the specific words that tick the examiner's boxes. Studying mark schemes is beneficial.

Monkey there are various FOI requests that will tell you what the current Cambridge offer holders got in BMAT e.g. www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/558608/response/1340634/attach/html/2/FOI%202019%20163%20Lake%20response%20letter%20and%20data.pdf.html

This will let your son know how competitive his score is.

Are you sure Cambridge is really his dream because if so I'd expect him to be ready to do whatever it takes, includes resits or an extra one year A level. Once they start work in a hospital it is what they do there that matters, not what medical school they went to.

Dd has given her PS to her guidance teacher for review and has got her teacher references done. She is on a biology field trip right now, so will chase it all up from tomorrow. We will have 2 weeks holiday starting on October 11th so it all has to be done before then.
Agree about the finances for medicine being tricky; even when I did it many moons ago it was a struggle to afford for my parents in the clinical years.

DD is finalising her PS (and where she's going to apply to) - deadline for her to submit is Friday night but she called earlier to tell me she's received comments, made some minor changes and is hoping to send it off today! 😱

DS's PS still to be reworked from last year - he doesn't seem to be in a rush -arggghh! However last year's multiple drafts were a really stressful couple of weeks with lots of angst on both sides and disagreements between us and the careers dept. Later I was miffed to discover that the uni's he applied to (Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle and UEA) didn't place much emphasis on PS. For Manchester we had to complete a separate form later! Probably worth checking beforehand how important PS is to the universities your DCs have chosen.

Fivehourssleep, has your daughter considered Bristol.

London DD's criteria essentially were city University with teaching Hospital attached.

Her UKCAT score was not great, though her grades were fine. She applied to Bristol, Nottingham, Birmingham and Kings, effectively sight unseen.

Bristol can be horrendously competitive, though they have now radically overhauled their entrance process so it may now be different. As a medical school it offers a good mix of urban and rural placements. It allows intercalation elsewhere, and has some interesting specialisations. It is quite hands on with patient contact from your first week, which DD has really enjoyed. For her, the first year was rough as she found herself in a party flat, and should have requested a move earlier. Since then she has been really happy. Bristol is beautiful, about the right distance from home, and contrary to general stereotype, the medics tend to be quite grounded, from all over with a high proportion from state schools. (Bristol is generous with contextual offers.)