Medicine 2022 entry - How difficult is it really? *title edited by MNHQ at OP's request*

[notmedicmum]

I couldn't find a thread for 2022 entrants to medicine - maybe I didn't look hard enough! DD is in Year 12 and has wanted to do medicine since Year 10. It's only this year that we realise the enormity of actually getting a place. Not only do you have to have brilliant grades, you must also have done work experience, volunteered (both difficult in the current situation), got excellent BMAT/UCAT scores. Oh, and you also must have cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats to raise money for charity or climbed Kilimanjaro or won the Nobel Peace prize or found a cure for cancer (joking about the last two). How competitive is it REALLY? I'm not sure about the value of the last apart from being used as a selection tool as the unis get so many qualified applicants - and showing enterprise and drive. Apparently this sort of thing is even more important this year as getting work experience is very hard this year. How does climbing a mountain make you a better doctor anyway? And what can normal students do to improve their chances of success??

DS had one interview before Christmas and then the other three in January. He had quite a lot of freedom around dates in January and was able to book them around anticipated mocks (which didn't happen) and in preference order leaving his top choice until last (on the assumption that he would improve as he went through the process). Some of the med schools (like Sheffield) give out interview invites to all candidates above their UCAT threshold in one go on one day and others (like Bristol) drip feed the invites in tranches running from highest UCAT ranking down to their cut-off over a period of (I think) weeks.

Hello all, may I join you please - need a hand hold and as many top tips as I can glean through this I think!

DS is in year 12 doing Biology, Chemistry, English Lit & Economics. He is aiming for 4 x A but it’s early to say. GCSE grades were 7x9s, 2x8 and 1 x7 so I think ok there. He’s done some virtual work shadowing and applied to the local hospital to in do in person WE but it’s still not running. This really worries me - make a whole life commitment without ever having experienced working in the field! What can we do? He has no job but has qualified as a vaccination care volunteer with St John and has his first shift this weekend. He hasn’t done an awful lot more in terms of extra curricular, no sports but was involved in societies at school, including leadership roles - all pre Covid.

He’s thankfully not seeming too worried about location, Nottingham and Southampton appeal to him for random reasons. He’s also looking at some of the new schools with slightly lower entry criteria (Kent, Lancashire) as a fall back. Southampton seems to be planning in person open days early July which he has registered for. Low cost of living seems to be an important criteria for him.

He knows he needs to study for UCAT, probably early summer.

Will read through the thread to date but welcome any suggestions or worries with what I have said!

@Chewbecca Nottingham planning in person open days too. DD signed up to work at them.

@Chewbecca he definitely seems to have his ducks in a row. Sensible to apply strategically.

With regards to experience, mine got a part time job in a GP pharmacy which proved invaluable for interviews. Her academic profile was good but not in comparison to some of the really high achievers so this was the thing that set her apart.

She went in and asked around August time as that's when counter assistants tend to go off to Uni etc, so bare that in mind for a myriad of jobs. The face to face contact with GP patients throughout the pandemic undoubtedly helped her get offers.

Any part time job at all though is a huge box to tick. Anything that the applicant can relate back to medicine and how they deal with people.

Although she asked in the August in the year before application; I appreciate Covid will be a stumbling block now.

Thanks, that’s good info. Nottingham website currently says virtual and they hope to offer in person. Interest has been registered so hopefully that will amount to something.

Thanks Maddie, we’re hoping the SJA voluntary work will give him some good people experiences to talk about but the opportunities to work at the centres are pretty limited at the moment as the NHS apparently haven’t handed as many centres to SJA as expected. Plan B may be required by end of summer and that’s a great tip about August being when PT jobs come available.

The Nottingham in person references might be to offer holder in person tours - as DS has booked on one, so those are definitely running. We are going up in half term to look at both Nottingham and Sheffield, so he can decide before the UCAS deadline on 10th June (because everything has been online, DS has applied and been given offers for places he has never in his life visited, so we thought we had better try and rectify that).

Yes @Chewbecca - I checked and Nottingham is still showing as virtual. I'll get DD to register in case it does switch to 'in person'.

That would make sense @bimkom - the offer holders need to get priority as they are running out of time now. The 2022 intake have some way to go...

Hello all, joining this thread as the parent of a second time round medical applicant .

I did lurk on the 2021 applicant thread but thought I'd be bold enough to join this one.

Ds is still doing assessments at school (substitute for A Levels) so hasn't put much time in to researching for his re-application yet.

First thing on his to do list is UCAT preparation. It would be nice to get that out of the way early so he can enjoy a chunk of the summer. Last summer he was keeping up with his A level studies, prepping for UCAT and drafting and redrafting his personal statement.

Hello @fairisledog, sorry to hear it did not work out for your DS this year, hope he has not been knocked back too much by it, it has been a very competitive year.

My DS did very little editing to his PS between cycles. If it helps, I have put together a summary of how the different medical schools use the PS which I will try to post. Very few use it in shortlisting.

Good to get UCAT out of the way early. I think DS2 is hoping to get Friday 13th August - memorable and might be less popular(!), but mainly to fit around other commitments.

Use of PS

Did you create that spreadshit, Monkey - it's amazing!

@KingscoteStaff

Did you create that spreadshit, Monkey - it's amazing!

Yes, I have been working with GANFYD to download her knowledge into a workbook!

@fairisledog - I am with you too. DD had 1 interview but not successful. She is ok with it and is applying to various places to try and improve her work experience. Looking to do UCAT again as soon as possible and not sure if she will do BMAT.

@Monkey2001 - seriously impressed with your handiwork.

DD has her first shift coming up as a 'meeter and greeter' at the Royal Marsden this weekend. There was a lot of online training to do before she could start.

She's produced a first draft of her personal statement and her tutor says it's in the right track (her school starts early). Still in discussion about where to apply. It's looking like Oxford and Bristol and possibly Newcastle and Birmingham. The second two seem to change daily! Her school has had some surprising rejections from Nottingham and Edinburgh this year so I think they're off the list at the moment.

Love the spreadsheet!

We've come up with 2 Qs over the last few days which perhaps someone here might know the answer to.

Does anyone know if all the Unis operate in the same way re: which grade is discarded if you do 4 A levels?
I.e. do they only consider the 2 science subjects plus the higher grade of the other 2? So say DS got A*s in his 2 non science subjects and an A & a B in in 2 sciences, do they vary on what they would count that as?

Second q is re: firm and insurance acceptances. School have talked about this but does it apply to medical school too? And how does your 5th (non medical) choice fit with the firm / insurance? DS is planning to put biomedical science as 5th choice in case he doesn't get his grades. If he does get grades and no medical offer, plans to reapply following year after boosting experience etc.
Thanks!

@Chewbecca it varies by university. I think that at Bristol an A in Chemistry is a requirement, but if the university first but if the university first not require a particular subject I don't see how they could specify. I know some people with Cambridge offers get offers with requirements for 4 grades if they are doing 4. I think Leicester and Liverpool are the only ones which state that A*AB is equivalent to AAA, but I don't know whether they have subject requirements.

does not require

@Chewbecca Don't know about 4 A levels (only that Sheffield apparently allows an AAB if you get an A or A* in an EPQ - but when we got the offer we couldn't see if that in fact is true - one of our questions when we go up to see them. Hopefully we won't need that anyway, but still).
However I don't think putting down a 5h non medical choice will help if you don't get the grades, as you will have to either firm or reject them before you know what your grades are. Most people put down a 5th if (and only if) they are concerned they might not get any offers, and they want to go to university anyway even if they are not doing medicine. The general advice is that if your heart is set on medicine, don't put down a fifth non medical choice. Do what your DS is planning to do, which is take a gap year and reapply. If you don't get the grades then there are always resits (a number of medical schools are fine with resits) and there are apparently always biomed options in clearing if that is what your DS ultimately decides to take (but that you should never do another degree with the intention to do graduate medicine, as graduate medicine is even more competitive and difficult to get into than undergraduate medicine, so the advice is as many gap years as necessary and resits if necessary, unless you decide to give up on medicine).

Morning everyone. In case you haven't spotted it you can now make an account for UCAT. You can't book a test until
the 28th though.

www.ucat.ac.uk/generic-pages/ucat-booking-2021/

DD's hospital work experience has been given the green light for this summer. Fingers crossed that it actually happens!

Just discovered that Cardiff are dropping their A104 (medicine with wrong A levels) course for 2022. Grrrr, only 2 options now.

Oh, that's not great @Monkey2001. What are the other 2 options ?

I wonder why they've suddenly dropped it or if it's only temporary whilst they cope with the ongoing cumulative fall out of 2020 and 2021 application cycles ?

Oh @Monkey2001 that is rubbish - I hope the other two are places DC fancies?