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....

Anybody else enjoying the lull? It was just such a relief to get choices confirmed and UCAS away....

@Millylovespuddles - doesn't feel like a lull - he has two tests Monday and Tuesday (after having two last week and two the week before) and is studying hard for them (and is quite exhausted). Roll on half term!

Our lull is also due to the fact half-term has started a week early as a circuit breaker attempt.... DD has had 3 weeks in school since the start of September.
Just hoping a school starts back as planned so she can sit the BMAT 🙄

Yes, DD says she is enjoying this time.

Saying that, she is having tests 2 weekly for all subjects. Maybe in case they have to do teacher grades.

She's had acknowledgements from all her choices apart from 1 so now it's just a waiting game.

She's using this time to (hopefully) pass her driving test.

DD has a test on Monday and Wednesday but is then on half term so she’s looking forward to that. She has made plans with friends for two of the days and apparently might have time to do something with me and DH one day, but not the whole day as she has a lot to do!!

@LaLaFlottes haha, so pleased it's not just us that feels privileged when DD spends time with us. We have a small window to take her for dinner but that's about it.

Total lull here, ds has been exhausted and gone to bed early almost every night since submission. He's barely done any work but said he's going to get back into routine from this week. Must admit, I was exhausted myself too.

Lala - your dd sounds like my ds. I asked if he wanted to go for a walk and a coffee over half term but he said he was likely to be too busy.

It's just been so intense for them hasn't it? With UCAT, predicated grades, tests, applications.... DD is always so busy studying it's very hard to persuade her to do anything.

So I'm glad she's made a couple of arrangements with her friends during half term to have a bit of a break - even though that means she's too busy for me!!

@Powergower I hope DS feels refreshed after some early nights and a bit of a rest.

Feeling a little worried on 2 counts

Firstly , is anyone else's dc nervously counting down the days to BMAT hoping not to be notified that they're a "contact" of another pupil who has tested +ve for Covid ?

DD has already had to self-isolate once this term, so it was back to 'distance learning' (aka DIY from books/worksheets) for 2 weeks of school. The number of +ve results in Y13 has been reportedly higher than other local Y13's but it is quite a large comp so perhaps it's just caused by the higher number of 17/18 year olds in the school.

Half-term seems to be quite variable date-wise around the UK this autumn and I'm being the voice of doom, suggesting that meeting up with friends may not be a good idea as it increase the chances of being notified.

If she is notified again after Weds, I don't know what the procedure will be.

Second worry is that we can't seem to get an answer from school about using one of the school's in house computers to sit BMAT as we don't have any laptops at home and our internet is variable. Sometimes great but other times prone to frustratingly falling away, coming back, falling away over an hour or so and no set pattern as to when the crappy period will be.

If DD was told to sit it under exam conditions at home somehow, we don't have PC or laptop to do it with, just ipads which apparently can't be used.

@SATSmadness - that's exactly my worry too! DD is already on half term as schools in NI are having an earlier and longer holiday 'circuit breaker'. They are due to open again on 2nd Nov.

My concern is schools may extend the holiday, in which case we don't know how the local base school, where BMAT is being held, will be affected. That's assuming she doesn't come to contact with anyone positive.....

I can't see how admissions teams can discriminate against those who can't sit the rest through no fault of their own, but will they???

DD is just plugging away with diy learning and some test practise, thankfully she's not as uptight about it all as I am!

She's not at all keen on taking the test at home (technology issues) but I can't see how you can plan on not being affected after the 26th!! What a joke 🙄

Anyone else still waiting for Nottingham to acknowledge?

MaddieElla - have you checked your spam folder? My DSs Nottingham acknowledgment had been lurking in his junk folder for days (not sure why this only happened to Notts and not the others though!)

@MaddieElla - Nottingham was the slowest responder for us. Took them five days (as opposed to Sheffield, which responded in hours). But it did eventually turn up for us (not in junk). But that is another place it may have gone.
For anybody who has the email from Nottingham, have you tried logging in to the Mynottingham portal? It claims that his username and password are sent via email, but they weren't it was just a link that took him straight in, but the portal wouldn't accept his change of password, and then (as the email hadn't told him his username) he didn't know how to try and say he lost his password. We also don't know how critical being able to get into this Mynottingham portal is. They say when you try and log in that if you don't have an email with password and username, you should phone them, but he doesn't want to bother them if it is really not important he is in at this stage.

How strange, it's been 9 days since the application was sent. All the others replied within 24 hours.

Not sure about the logging in problem.

Just wondering what views are on interview prep courses. My DS is a little bit sceptical and says he would rather come over naturally rather than rehearsed but I am thinking that interviews are like gold dust and you only get one hit at them
so a bit of structured prep could be worthwhile. Any thoughts very welcome.

Well I took one look at TSR at the prep talk going on there, felt like weeping and now I'm still none the wiser

I have heard the medic portal course is good, but I've always taken heed of the advice on here that says don't pay for it.

As you say, it's hard as I want DD to be herself and hopefully they like her; I know she doesn't want to rehearse answers like she's reading a script.

I think she's just going to read, read, read, and hope that she has enough knowledge and experience to answer questions effectively.

@MaddieElla

Funds won't really stretch to an interview prep course for DD. Is it very common for applicants to do this ?

She's hoping that copious reading (once BMAT is out of the way) will provide some discussion matter. I would have though they can't expect all applicants to have the same knowledge of medical stuff given that some managed to get work experience and some didn't due to Covid-19.

I think she'll be fairly up to speed with her syllabus content and happy to try and answer questions on that but has no idea how far outside of that interviewers might venture.

No courses here. Ds just wants to be himself and he's always awkward and uncomfortable when rehearsed. He also thinks being rehearsed and too prepared will dim his personality from coming through in an online interview. I think the prep would be good if you had a very shy applicant or someone with confidence issues.

For reassurance, my shy DD had no interview prep (except reading a book on potential questions) and she got 4 offers. Her advice is be prepared for anything - going to be different this year if all on line but smile, don't pretend you know something if you don't, and know why you want to do medicine at that Uni.

Hope you don't mind me giving a little advice. Have DD currently studying undergraduate medicine and DS studying graduate entry medicine. Both got in on their second attempts.

Always check email spam folders. DD had Nottingham interview waiting in her spam file for over a month. It was only because Nottingham wrote to her asking why she hadn't responded that she found it. Not all medical schools would do this...

Interviews do not assess how nice applicants personalities are. They are numerically scored. Each tick box point adds up. So make sure lots of research and practice is done prior to interview. There are plenty of interview resources use them. Some schools are better than others at providing interview support but make sure your DC do their own research and preparation too. This should be tailored to fit the particular medical school too so ensure you make use of all the information provided by the medical school.

Finally just in case your DC are not successful this year if they are intent on a medical career then reapply for undergraduate medicine rather than take the graduate route. Graduate entry medicine is far more competitive than undergraduate medicine.

Anyone still waiting for Manchester to respond?

@Djchickpea my DS got Manchester acknowledgment at the start of this week.

Thanks @opoponax I will check back with DD!

Billie that is fab advice. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Ops for all the interview prep advice. Very useful. I'll let DS decide but pass on all your pointers.