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??

There will be a round in the UCAT on the goings on in Love Island right? DD is an expert on it. Not sure how up to scratch her AR, VR, DM, QR etc are though...

@MidLifeCrisis007 😂 I have one (well two) of those. Love Island, Ru Paul, Made in Chelsea are vital. Always smile when others say their kids are reading Plato and Greek literature while mine are watching people in bikinis argue a lot.
Sure your DD will be fine. My DD always says Love Island helps with SJT as you know how to behave better 😊

@mumsneedwine - DS1 was approached by the producer of Made In Chelsea at the end of last year (just before his Oxford interview!) - while he might have the look, he certainly doesn't have the personality to appear in the show so didn't take it further......

Having been grumpy and reluctant to agree to an hour a day of medify, I think DS is now quite enjoying it. QR and DM looking good, but he needs to sort some technique on VR and AR. Encouraging for now though.

DS and I are quite enjoying debating the rights and wrongs of the various SJ scenarios.
e.g. : Fellow med student is clearly depressed and drinking heavily. You urge them to get appropriate help. They ask you to drop the subject and stfu How appropriate is it to never bring up the subject again?

According to Medify apparently it's appropriate. According to Real Life it all depends ...

Not sure, the debates are helping ds improve any scores though!

Haha, we found the UCAT book quite amusing with its scenarios. Medify is quite good in the tutorial section about telling you what you are looking for. DS had one in DM about homeopathic medicine, which he is very anti, and was very carefully being objective with the data in the question and not giving his gut reaction!

@MidLifeCrisis007 even to be asked must be nice. Afraid mine are bit too common to be asked - they'd be Mark Francis's staff 😂.
Tips from DD on tricky sections is speed. Make sure if you don't know you make an educated guess, flag the question and move on. It's about 40s per question so no point getting stuck on one. Get all the ones you can then go back to the flags and try again. Verbal is hard if you're a slow reader.
SJT on UCAT site gives best ideas of what's required. Might not bring an issue up with friend but always report to boss if there is an issue. And don't sleep with the patients.

I have to say that she's gained a bit of confidence over the last week. The AR was initially all gobbledygook to her but she's now learning the patterns and finding it a tad easier. Initially she thought the QR questions were easy... until she did them under time pressure - and that caused some panic.

VR and DM are work in progress. SJT hasn't yet been considered.... (makes mental note to not sleep with patients though....)

Thankfully she's self isolating until Wednesday so hasn't had any social distractions for the last week. I think I might need to find a way to get her pinged again next week to keep her in social captivity until she's done her UCAT!!!!

How is everyone's UCAT prep going? DD has her slot on 7 August and it's seems to be going OK.

She's doing a week of work experience in our local hospital this week. It's been an eye opener but she is very enthusiastic 😊

What on earth is going on at Exeter?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57908436.amp

Medical Students offered about £17k to defer. £10k plus a year of free accommodation.

The university's commwnt seems to imply that they didn't appreciate how many of the offers that they made would be the applicant's only one / one of two, rather than one of 3 or 4?

It would be logical to assume that other Medical Schools are facing a similar situation? You'd assume so.

I also wonder how many Exeter needs to defer and what impact that will have on numbers available for 2022 entry.

I think medical/dental schools will be finding the current situation with all its uncertainties harder to manage than most other faculties due to the cap on numbers & the limits on placements. But it will vary depending on their policy on making offers. Those who don’t over-offer by much will be in a better position.

It’s very probable that a higher percentage of students awarded grades will match their predictions than in the past. If unis did not take this into account when making offers this will now cause them issues.

I suspect that the reason many unis want to continue with online lectures next year is because it solves lecture hall capacity problems.

Exeter prioritised awarded grades this year so will have made a large number of unconditional offers. Looks like too many have made them their firm choice ! It's a generous offer which I'm sure will tempt some. Trouble is, what do you do with another gap year .

Sadly for our dc it looks like the 2020 algorithm/CAGs debacle will continue to affect medicine entries for the foreseeable future.

Were Exeter amongst the earlier medicine interviews so possibly offers made before A Levels cancelled ?

The spokesman specifically said it wasn’t about grades, rather that a greater proportion of offer holders firmed Exeter than expected. Which logically suggests some schools may find themselves with fewer firms than expected, unless they all over-offered, but that seems unlikely given their experiences the year before

The majority of their offer holders will already have their grades. They've just over offered, expecting many to turn them down. They haven't, so now they have too many confirmed offers.

I think an inevitable consequence of this is that next year Exeter, (and possibly other popular med schools), will up their offer requirements.

While Exeter allegedly only interviewed those with 3 A stars predicted or in the bag, their offer is normally 3 As as I understand it.

Next year they could raise the bar higher than Cambridge.

Bloody annoying as it was DD's top choice.

I don't think most applicants would already have their grades, although because of the way they shortlisted, they will have interviewed more gap year applicants than most medical schools. Last year, in the pre-Covid shortlisting, you needed to be predicted at least 2 A and an A if you did not have grades in hand, so 3xA was not a massive jump. The offer will probably still be AAA. They have a stupid situation that if you are at a school which is willing to predict higher grades if you ask (which is the case at a lot of schools) you get an interview because you are predicted 3xA*, but only have to get AAA.

I do think that numbers will be tight at Exeter for new applicants, as they allegedly were at Liverpool this year. Probably worth submitting an FOI request after 10th August asking how many places will be available for the 2022 cycle.

DS more keen to go to the gym and sort his camping trip than do UCAT prep. The hour a day we agreed seems to have fallen off his radar! He was improving though and if he is not ready 13th Aug we will delay it.

@Monkey2001 this year Exeter gave priority to people with grades in hand. They didn't advertise this that well. Was a v hard year to even get an interview as a school leaver - UCAT was over 3,400. So most offers will be gap year students.

@mumsneedwine I think they give automatic interviews to a lot of WP applicants too, would be interesting to know whether they actually gave more offers to gap year applicants than Y13s, which I agree is quite possible on reflection.

@Monkey2001 they did 🤓. Lots more. Think they might be regretting that now as no uncertainty in the results. It's been such a tough year for med school applicants.

@mumsneedwine do you have a source for that? Does it mean that Y13s effectively should not apply to Exeter unless the shortlisting system changes?

@Monkey2001 this year was strange so I wouldn't say in a normal year that Exeter is not worth a go. We had one offer for a school leaver this year but his UCAT was 3,500 ! Before we've had several offers each year. And I do have a little mole 🤓

WOW 3500 @mumsneedwine?! That's incredible. Is the student a complete genius or just uncannily good at this? I always thought 3000 was an aspirational score!

DD feels really time pressured - but I guess that that's the purpose. To see how you perform tasks when under considerable pressure.

I'm looking forward to her getting it over and done with so she can enjoy a bit of getting shitfaced at festivals downtime.