Medicine 2020 (part 2)

[Monkey2001]

This follows on from the first thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3380915-Medicine-2020

Haven't posted for a long time as nothing much has happened here. DS had his interview at Nottingham 13th January and UEA will be next Tuesday. I am happy to say that he got an offer from Nottingham this morning. Such a relief to get the first offer! Congratulations to all DCs on their offers.

Feeling poorly prepared to be a junior doctor can be an indication that actually you know just what you are getting into!

That's not what the survey asks. It asks F1 doctors who have been working for 8 months whether they were adequately prepared (i.e. by their medicine degree course) for their first foundation post. It's not the same as asking final-year students whether they feel prepared for something they haven't done yet.

I'd be (and was) more interested in why some students perform a bit better than others in specialty exams.

People who are good at exams are good at exams. People with the highest grades at GCSE/A-level and throughout medical school will usually get the best marks in royal college exams. Doesn't mean they're the best doctors or went to the best medical school.

You are asking junior doctors for a subjective view of how well prepared they feel, not looking at an objective assessment of how well they are actually performing in post. Some schools impart more confidence than others, doesnt mean their graduates are actually any better prepared or performing any better. I dont know how much research there is but at least one small study to suggest that confdence and competence dont relate.

My child believes that the nature of their course was better preparation for specialty exams, that is not the same thing as being a better doctor.

Does anyone have views on whether doing 3 or 4 A Levels makes any difference. My daughter is really interested in doing Psychology in addition to biology, chemistry and maths. Everyone has said it might affect the other three A Levels. She said she wants to do it as it will be different than all the hard/science based subjects she will be doing. She has the option to drop it at end of year 12 if things get too much. If it makes any difference, she got 8/9 in all subjects in mocks other than Art where she got a 6/7.

I'd say drop maths unless she's wanting Cambridge. New A level is hideous and just need an A in a 3rd subject.

DSs sixth form college don’t do 4 Alevels (except further maths) because they feel it risks spreading students too thin and universities don’t seem to consider the fourth. They do however offer EPQ - would that be an option for your DD. Can pick any subject. Could provide a bit of diversity and let’s be honest some very useful skills for a future career in medicine/health.

DS has an offer!! Sunderland emailed this morning. Such a relief. Fingers crossed for everyone still waiting

So pleased for you @ladsmum - what grades do they want?

Well done ladsmum! Fabulous news!
Re choice of medical school - try to choose ones with a direct train line home - crises of all types happen (!) and they need to be able to get home relatively easily if they need to. Secondly, it seems anecdotely to me that med schools vary on how tough they are to survive! I would that your DD tries to talk to some students and find out the real story because honestly the blurb in the brochure can paint a very different picture from reality. I second Sir Toby on taking pbl cbl integrated etc with a strong pinch of salt - my feeling is that the gmc may have more than a small say in course content and structure. Added to that I feel that individual med schools have their own very individual culture and style so your DD needs to try to “feel” where she feels ‘at home’ or where it ‘just feels right’.

I agree with mumsneedwine. Wouldn't it be better to drop maths and keep on with psychology, unless she wants to apply to Cambridge or her plan B is something that would require maths?

I was a bit disappointed to discover that at Sheffield if you get 2/5 on any station you seem to be rejected even if you get 4 or 5 on all the others. A recently released FOI showed that someone with 34/40, including 2 for knowledge of Sheffield, was rejected although the general cut off was much lower. I thought that the big idea behind MMIs was that it removed individual bias by having several chances to make a first impression. It appears that Sheffield, in general a showcase for excellence in Admissions process, is going backwards on this aspect.

Most of the other med schools seem to simply add together the scores from each of the stations and rank, thereby eliminating the individual bias.

@ladsmum...that is fantastic news! So very pleased for your DS 🍾 we remember that palpable relief v well! @monkey ....always 🤞for you! Appreciate your frustration on the Sheffield insight. Of course I’m going to defend them a little, but in fairness, they were and are absolutely explicit at all their Open Days about wanting interview candidates to have demonstrably researched the city, history and civic life. I can only say that DD did do her research but still was stumped on a couple of ‘local’ facts which caused a very uncomfortable eye roll! But she still got in and managed to chug through. I know DD had massive misgivings about the ‘fairness’ or lack of consistency at other Unis. I guess it’s not a science but takes into account a multitude of inputs.

Yay ladsmum! Well done your DS. The North East is fabulous.

Congratulations on your DS' offer! Is it unconditional for his achieved grades? I can't remember if you said he was re-sitting (sorry!)

Lovely to see all the offers, congrats to ladsmums ds, hattis ds, origami's ds and shangrila's dd! Hope to see lots more offers through in the next few weeks ahead!

Yay @ladsmum and all the other offers of course

Fantastic news about all the offers :), congratulations.
Thanks @mumsneedwine and @sirtobybelch for the replies. Maths is the backup option for to go into finance if medicine doesn't work out .

Congratulations on the offers that are coming in, and for people still waiting, hopefully not too much longer.

My Dd was lucky to be able to get a couple of days work exp/observation in A&E, this took absolutely months (9 iirc) to sort out going via the official channels and probably would never have happened without her getting chatting to a customer at her waitressing job who just happened to work in A&E locally and told her to email back in using his name.

She thoroughly enjoyed the time and experience, but the thing that was most useful to her was chatting with F1/F2s over coffee/notes, talking about their experiences of their training and the transition from student to junior doctor, about the numbers in their cohorts who were not planning to stay in medicine and the reasons for this. Gave her lots of food for thought and further enquiry.

@SirTobyBelch I can't seem to get your link to the survey of qualified doctors to work at all, it just seems to take me to a log-in page, and as I have neither a log in or password, I can't get any further.

Exeter offer here! Has been DDs first choice for the last 2 years. Same offer as Plymouth AAA. Still waiting on Southampton.

I’m intrigued as to how you choose a back up option when your first choice has the same grades. Do you choose to go with the one you think would be more likely to accept you if you slip up? Or how else? DD not concerned about getting AAA as she’s already done her AS levels, has high As and has 3 x A* predictions so she feels relaxed for the first time in 2 years today.

Great news @EightToSixer ! Generally people look for one likely to be more flexible on slipped grades for the insurance. I think Exeter is very inflexible on slipped grades as they maintain a reserve list, so Plymouth would be more likely to accept AAB. Sounds like that is not an issue for your DD!

Would anyone mind if I ended up making a list of Unis & offers they gave out for medicine (& copied the summary here)? I imagine that could be useful to others in future. Or maybe I'm just dead nosy.

DD had a 5th choice on her UCAS form after all (I didn't know). She got an offer from #5... it's for philosophy, btw(!). Doubt she'll need to fall back on that, but it was still nice to have. She says her A-levels would be very unusual on the philosophy course (history & English more standard fare). Since biology is her least fave A-level, she's very clear she doesn't want to do BioMed.

We have sun. I hope everyone is enjoying the briefly mild Feb weather.

Long time lurker...

My DD decided not to apply last year as she wanted to focus on passing her A levels and not juggling UCAS and her anxiously waiting for news. She got her first offer this week and no matter what happens with the other interviews she had she is DEFINITELY going to medical school in September.

@drizzleborn - huge congratulations to your DD! How lovely for your plan to all come together. Now she can look forward to September! Exciting!

May I cheekily ask how she spent her gap year? Just interested in case my DD has one too!

@drizzleborn that’s superb news. I’m glad your DDs mature and considered approach to the process has been rewarded by an offer. Well done!