Medicine 2022 entry

[Monkey2001]

Support thread for aspiring medics.

We want all our DCs to succeed, whatever their school type. We share knowledge to help them to achieve their goals, celebrate success and support if things don't go well.

As we press the "send and pay" buttons on UCAS, we wish all our DC the best of luck in this tough year with so much uncertainty.

Seems it's only medicine and education applicants who have to interview

Not all education courses interview (I'm not sure why not: I presume they're happy to take students who won't be allowed to qualify as teachers), but most/all healthcare courses do, e.g. nursing, midwifery, radiography, physiotherapy, etc... Social Work courses will also interview.

You probably need to look at individual university/course web pages to find out how they're doing their interviews this year. As education interviews will mostly start in late January/early February, it's best to look regularly for updates, as courses that currently plan to interview in person might find by then that they can't.

Oh no, the idea of team online interview tasks will sound awful to dsI Group tasks are hard enough in face to face interviews (trying to stand out from the crowd for the right not wrong reasons etc) but doing group discussions with all the fun of time delays and dodgy wifi sounds a nightmare.

What other delights did the online interviews throw up for med applicants last year? Anyone know of any good online specific interview resources?

At least they won't have to do the 'follow these instructions to make a lego model while discussing the state of the NHS' station! Or maybe they will - maybe little packages of lego will arrive in the post?

@Haffdonga

For help with interview prep, I didn't realise this was what my DS had found until the Cambridge offers came out, and he told me he was very chuffed that he had "interviewed" a significant group who got Cambridge offers, and I said - "what do you mean you interviewed them?", and it turned out that he had been part of a Discord channel made up of medical applicants (a few medical students I think as well) and they had been interviewing each other and that a very high proportion of those on this server went on to get Cambridge medicine offers (much better ratio than any of the private schools apparently), and he had helped to interview a number of them. He said it was much better practice than TSR, as there you were writing, and here you were actually talking - and I thought how sensible this was, as it meant that not only did he get practice, but he got to be on the other side of the table and have to look at it from the perspective of an interviewer, which surely will have helped give a level of insight that is otherwise not available. Below is an old link - but if you are more technical than I am, and know more about DIscord, you might be able to find a better link:

"Discord invite to Medical Applicants server: discord.gg/BHr8vPFjhy
To those who are new to discord and may not know how things work you need to visit the #roles channel and select the right emoji to be able to see and message the rest of the server"

Re interviews, candidates are strictly forbidden from disclosing anything about their interview content and are briefed on consequences of non-adherence to this before they take their interviews. Consequently, I know absolutely nothing!

@opoponax - I'm not trying to get any inside info on anything that isn't public knowledge of course, and nor would ds countenance me giving him any such info! But there IS publicly shared information on the types of tasks that are often asked in MMIs (e.g. role plays, ethical questions, experience, conversations with patients, practical tasks etc etc) and all of these are going to be slightly different online as opposed to in a face to face. Sheffield releases their questions pre interview so nothing unethical about discussing last year's format once interviews have been completed.

@naem - thank you for that info.

@Haffdonga I wasn't implying that you were trying to get inside info. I was simply stating that I genuinely know nothing about my DS's interviews last year because he didn't discuss them.

Re your comments on Sheffield, they don't actually 'release' their questions, only send them directly to the candidates they invite to interview. Those candidates are told they are not to be shared. To my knowledge, this not time framed.

The Picard/Lee Medical School Interviews book is a good source for interview preparation, covers all the areas you list in detail and is relevant whether interviews are online or face to face.

Thanks for asking @KingscoteStaff abs thanks for replying @Monkey2001. I was be going to wonder myself and didn't want to as DS.

So who do we think will be first out of the gates with interview offers?

UCAS stats out for applications made up to 15 October deadline.

Not such a big increase in medicine applications as I thought there might be.

2022 - 29,710
2021 - 28,690

www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-releases/applicant-releases-2022-cycle/2022-cycle-applicant-figures-15-october-deadline

There was a 9% increase in the number who took the UCAT this year but only a 3.5% increase in medical applications. Obviously UCAT is taken by other groups but strange that there is a discrepancy. Might it be that some of the extra numbers who took the UCAT didn't follow through with a medical application because of a low score or change of heart?

I start the sweepstake with a bid for Sheffield as the first interview!

Anecdatally... DD knows 3 or 4 contemporaries who got a Band 3 or 4 SJT this year and have binned their UCAS forms - planning to apply next year with grades in hand (and hopefully a higher SJT Band...).

St George's are usually pretty quick with interviews.

That sounds about right @KingscoteStaff - DD knows a couple who've already ditched applying this year with lower than expected UCAT scores.

Not far from Sheffield today as am on mini break in the Peak District. Bit sad DD didn't put it down as would have been nice.

@SandyBayley

So who do we think will be first out of the gates with interview offers?

I'll go for Kings.

Sheffield say they will be sending out invitations 15th to 19th November, so may well be first.

@SandyBayley I agree that some will have decided not to apply due to low UCAT, maybe there has been a major jump in dentistry applications! Playing with data English reapplicants are up by 28%.

I will say Kings for first offers. Maybe Exeter for first interviews at they are only interviewing 350 applicants.

This is an interesting article from The Week. Ironically, Cardiff is one of the Med Schools that places the greatest emphasis on academics!

Hmmm, he is completely behind the times! If he knew more about medical training he would be holding Keele and Sunderland up as examples of good recruitment, and as you say pointing out that Cardiff should re-think. He should also know that they are no just training clinicians, but also future researchers - they do need to be clever/academically bright. But agree that we should be training more doctors.

Whilst I agree with other posters, the author of that letter is a Consultant T&O Surgeon (specialises in knees!) based in Cardiff - not necessarily affiliated with the Medical School or has anything to do with admissions, hence his rather 'skewed' view of a medical training!

Best of luck to all the DCs sitting the BMAT this week. I'm so glad DD didn't want to apply to any BMAT unis! UCAT stress was bad enough! I still remember the anxious dog walk I had around a park in Croydon as she sat her UCAT!

DD had a weird message from Bristol who wanted details of her UCAT. From what she was saying, it seems that her UCAT score wasn't routinely sent to them. Has anyone else had a similar message through on the UCAS portal?

@MidLifeCrisis007

Best of luck to all the DCs sitting the BMAT this week. I'm so glad DD didn't want to apply to any BMAT unis! UCAT stress was bad enough! I still remember the anxious dog walk I had around a park in Croydon as she sat her UCAT!

DD had a weird message from Bristol who wanted details of her UCAT. From what she was saying, it seems that her UCAT score wasn't routinely sent to them. Has anyone else had a similar message through on the UCAS portal?

Bristol do this every year. UCAT scores have not been sent to the unis yet, so they are just trying to get ahead of the game. They will correlate anything they are told with the official results, when they get them

Thank you (once again!) @GANFYD. That's reassuring to know. She thought she'd done something wrong!