Medicine 2021 - part 2

[Millylovespuddles]

Following on from the first thread:
DD now has UKAT booked for mid-August. She couldn’t get a driving theory test booked until after the UKAT date, but will keep an eye out for cancellations.
Now, her big dilemma is Oxbridge it not....

@Powergower it did cross my mind that BMAT unis might have less applicants, as they will all have to apply without knowing their score.
However DD is finding that most of the people she knows applying to medicine are sitting it as they like some of the BMAT unis. We are in the south east so I think it's possible quite a lot of her friends have their heart set on Imperial or UCL, to be in London and fairly close to home and that might be why?

Another friend sitting BMAT was always planning to apply to Oxford, so would always have had to sit it in Nov - but she's then doing 3 UCAT choices.

I know what you mean about work experience and understand your DS being annoyed. DD managed two placements and also volunteered in a care home - she had two other placements lined up but cancelled. She worked her socks off securing those placements. I'm sure your DS experiences will be useful in interviews though.

DD's personal statement was like one big paragraph too - but with a few cleverly spaced half sentences to show the next "paragraph" was starting. College checked it and didn't comment on this so I assume it's the norm although it doesn't look great!

Has DS posted on The Student Room - which medical school should I apply to thread? It's really very useful to get ideas of where to apply to.

Sorry I should have clarified re work experience - keele and Sunderland normally have additional marks for work experience. This year they've hinted that work experience won't be marked so as not to prejudice those who haven't had a chance to organise any.

Ds did go on tsr but as so many of his choices this year don't have clarity re entry he's finding it hard. Interesting what you say about bmat, the whole application process does seem to vary depending on where you live and how far you're willing to travel.

Good tip about breaking up the big paragraph in the statement by using some extra spaces between some sentences.

My DD also has great work experience to draw upon and lots of events that have happened during her job that would be interview gold. But she may never actually get her foot in the door to talk about it. I can't fret, she isnt, so I need to stop worrying about things I can't control for her. I'm hoping that just because Keele have said they won't penalise for no experience, surely those of us who have kids that have managed some will fair well? *hopes

She also has Lincoln on her list; and you're correct that they have had a lower score threshold for interview in the past although that only comes to light when you search FOI requests and TSR! I assumed they were exactly the same as Nottingham, and the Unis say as much, but the score has been different. It may be different this year as I get the impression that Lincoln is now on a lot of people's radar, so if applications have risen so will the score.

Nottingham was DDs first choice but she only scored 44 so is going for Lincoln as the safer option and praying the applicant number isn't through the roof.

One hurdle after another 😁

Crikey, because all this is in my head and I try not to hound DD with information it all just spills out on here, sorry ladies.

Oh, interesting that Keele have said they won't score WE at all. That is a kick in the teeth.

Another one here sad that some unis are no longer awarding points for work experience. Surely students applying for med will have done something work experience wise before March! It just penalises those who worked hard for years building up their volunteering and paid opportunities.

It also really makes me angry that the playing field this year is weighted so heavily in favour of last years cohort at the expense of this years yr 13. We've had missed learning, no idea about exams taking place or grade boundaries, no info from unis about exactly how many places have been taken away from this year, exactly what the criteria for entry
this year is, no uni open days, no allowances for the difficulties being faced and very little support from unis and the government. Applying strategically has always been a big part of med applications but this year it's like a shot in the bloody dark.

My dc went on tsr but said it's awash with last years cohort trying again with inflated grades in hand, and even some who are starting med at one uni whilst applying to another one for next year. This years year 13 are the real educational victims of 2020. And don't get me started on the devastating impact this will have on those from disadvantaged backgrounds. I'm supporting my dc through this process but it feels like such a battle this year.

MaddieElla - don't quote nee on the keele WE situation. It's ds who told me he'd read they won't penalise those without and he deduced that meant that those with WE wouldn't be rewarded for WE. It is a shame because ds has some really great stuff to put on the roles and responsibilities form. It's interesting that they're still wanting the form to be submitted, so surely there must be some form of assessment/ scoring of it. Who knows, there is so little clarity on anything this year!

Disappointed to hear they're not going to take account of WE in some places - DD's first choice is Keele and we were hoping the R&R form would make her application stand out a bit more.

I did read yesterday that Liverpool are holding 51 (I think) places for deferred entry which is apparently no more than previous years.

On the PS / paragraph question - DD has indented her 'paragraphs' instead of using a blank line as this uses less characters. Or at least it does in Google docs, apparently it doesn't always count the same when pasted into the UCAS form. Hope hers does as she's bang on 4000 chars after last night's edit!

@MaddieElla this is a great place to let all of these thoughts out.

I think we all have our thoughts that we try and keep to ourselves so as not to worry our DC but it's helpful to be able to share on here.

I have read that EU students will be on international fee status for 2021 entry, so there may be less EU applicants which could help. Clutches at straws!!

DD seems to be taking great joy from seeing acknowledgements come through in the UCAS system, and I'm trying to just roll with it, while subtly managing her expectations.

She did say last night " well if I have to apply again next year at least we'll both be experts on the process".

That's good to know about Liverpool, let's hope the deferral numbers are similar for others.

I don't see how Keele will award interviews if they aren't taking the R&R into account. UCAT requirements are lower than others, so they might shortlist based on scores this year (bad for DD). But she's applying there as she has strong R&R content, could end up being a wasted choice.

Hi just found this thread and have a year 13 dd who’s in the midst of applying but is struggling to find courses that offer a balance between lectures and pbl. She doesn’t find the uni websites are very clear in illustrating their teaching methods. Does anyone have any further knowledge on which universities offer truly integrated courses? She wants to go to a reasonably big/big city for sure.

Elizabeth - all unis have that info on their websites now and tsr also sometimes has the info.

We are having problems with school. Ds is getting UCAS predictions today and his biology teacher is predicting a b. Ds got an 8 at biology gcse. His other predictions are a* a. He needs at least 3 a for the unis he's applying to. He does not get on with his biology teacher but I do believe he's capable of an a. She said she based his prediction on 2 x tests from oct 2019 (year 12) . He's devastated. Why are school being this difficult? I would be the first person to defend school if I thought the predictions he's asking for were too high but he scored 8/9 for his gcses and is capable of getting an a. Feeling massively overwhelmed with everything this year and trying to support him but he's so sad about this. Has anyone else had similar issues?

Is it time to be "that Parent"? Have a word with someone senior and sympathetic. Explain why he needs the A prediction, and explain how he, and you, will make every effort to achieve the grade, perhaps using tutoring, Justin Craig revision courses or whatever.

Needmore thank you. Yes I'll have to do that, I'm totally non confrontational and hate doing stuff like this but I've got no choice. School had zero learning from March until Sept except one open morning where they went in to discuss personal statements. I can't believe they are being this difficult. They have no early entry support or guidance for the kids, no assessment until October and no tests since 2019. Why can't they have some belief and be facilitators instead of creating barriers. Ds has a biology tutor, he spent 3 weeks in summer revising for the ucat and the rest of the time going over missed content. With everything going on with work, home, covid, kids dealing with this is incredibly frustrating.

Cleanmean, don't worry about it. Every parent should have the right to step in once during their child's school career at a point when it really matters. You have built up that credit and now is the point at which you need to use it. Build the justification carefully, with as much evidence as you can muster, and see it as constructive rather than conflict. You are helping them by ensuring that one of their pupils has the opportunities they are qualified for and have earned.

Good luck.

Needmore - thank you for your incredibly supportive words. Feeling much better, and stronger.

@Elizabeth648 my DD showed me lots of little videos from current students at various medical schools. It was quite helpful as a lot of them described a typical week and the course structure, so this might help your DD get an idea of each course?

I think it's on instagram under "wearemedics" and it's run by students at Birmingham but has lots of videos for other schools too. Apparently it's also a series on IGTV called Medical School Insights.

It might just help a little?

I was going to suggest the videos too, wearemedics is good and YouTube is awash with "day in the life" videos.

These videos are also great for viewing the accommodation, campus tours etc.

@Cleanmean definitely speak to the school.

@Cleanmean I agree with the other posters saying to speak with the school and I really hope you manage to change their mind.

If they really won't though, there are Medical Schools that accept an AAB or A*AB prediction so worst case maybe DS could look at other options.

Hope you get it sorted though.

@Cleanmean, what was / were your DS's 'working at' grade(s) between the autumn term assessments and March 20th (assuming that he had some kind of feedback on homework / classwork at least, of not a formal interim report kind of thing)? If all the other work he produced was of a higher standard than a B, then he may be successful in arguing that the earlier assessment grades should be disregarded.

@Cleanmean Speak to the Head of 6th form. That is the protocol at our school if a teacher’s predicted grade is not high enough. They are usually happy to over ride it (as long as it’s reasonable). Teachers do get assessed on how well pupils meet their targets so may be reluctant to be over-optimistic.

Thank you everyone!

His working at grade for year 12 was a b. He has massively upped his game since summer, but he was lax during lockdown. This was mainly because he did suffer mentally coming to terms with lockdown and the loss of routine. School only tested him in Oct 2019, nothing at all after that. I'm going to email his teacher and head of year next week, he has a plan of action to present to them which includes offering to sit additional mocks, doing extra work during the week and working harder. Thank you for letting me offload here. With him I'm very calm and keeping my thoughts about School to myself, but here I can share my frustrations.

What is his UCAT like? DDs grades were OK but her UCAT was poor and was recovering from illness so not taking BMAT. Her approach was to treat the application as a trial run, only applying to places she wanted to go to and which were likely to interview her. (There were only three!) I then encouraged to plan things she might do in her gap year. In the end she got two offers in March, but by then was so attached to her gap year plans she asked for a deferral. If she had needed to reapply she would have been a stronger applicant: grades in hand; a year’s more maturity; interview experience; and a realisation that she needed to spend more time practicing UCAT.

His ucat score is 2690, so it's not earth shattering but enough to allow him to apply to unis on his list. Like your daughter he's thinking of a 2 year process, but he was upset yesterday as the prediction of a b means he can't even really apply at all this year as the unis on his list want 3 x A and he'd be knocked back with a b. Well done to your daughter, I know how hard it is with low ucat scores so she must have been pretty exceptional to get 2 offers.

Not really. At the time Bristol did not require UCAT, and Birmingham looked closely at GCSEs. Luckily Bristol would have been a top choice anyway.

It is worth looking. Perhaps others can suggest places he might try. Assuming you can’t get the school to change their minds, there may be one or two places that are worth a go. You might also have a peek at the tail end of TSR threads for last year (or perhaps the year before given this summer was so weird.) Medical schools need to get their numbers spot on so there are always one or two who invite applicants who achieve their 3 As for very late interviews. SGUL is always a bit down on the popularity stakes, and has been known to go into clearing, so always worth a look. (We know several people who enjoyed their time there) There will be others.