Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 2

[opoponax]

Anyone out there with DC applying or reapplying for Medicine 2023, please join a friendly thread for mutual support and useful advice.

....... and Cardiff still say their selection procedure is under review!

Yeah, I know but can't really control what she feels!! She is pretty pragmatic about it really, and is quite prepared to take a gap year next year if she doesn't get in this year, but she resolutely declines to be strategic in her choices this year. I think she would be happy with any of her 3 London choices. Manchester too, though it's definitely not quite up there with the others in her mind.

Ultimately, it will be what it will be, I suppose. If she ends up having to reapply, it won't be the end of the world. In any case,, she is very stubborn so there's no swaying her views!

@Monkey2001 makes me so angry. Really unfair - hoping lots don't apply there because of it and mine get interviews 😊
@MrsBennetsPoorNerves I know it's hard. I just see too many kids fixated on one choice and then not get it. They then find it hard to like the one they do get, to the extent they talk about reapplying !!!

@mumsneedwine, I totally get what you're saying. In a way, though, I think that's why dd is so determined not to apply strategically - she said she doesn't want to apply to places where she doesn't genuinely want to go, just because she thinks she has a better chance of getting in, because she knows that she'll find it hard to be happy about getting offers from them anyway. If she doesn't get in this year, then she'll have to be more strategic about it next year, but this year, she is determined to go for the ones that she loved. Hopefully one of them will come through for her!!

Do they do any medical school interviews during school holidays at all ?

Which holidays? And which schools?

I would imagine some might do interviews on 19 and/or 20 Dec, and possibly some time in w/c 02 Jan.

If you're thinking of Easter holidays, most - if not all - decisions should have been made by then.

If you're thinking of half-term holidays, these don't mean anything to universities and they probably won't be aware of the dates.

You're usually given some choice in your interview date, though, unless it's very late in the cycle.

We are supposed to be going away at Christmas to visit DH's family, so might need to check with dd's chosen universities about when their interview schedules are going to be...it hadn't occurred to me that they might interview in the holidays, so I'm glad that someone mentioned this.

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves DD had an interview on 22nd Dec 😳

Oh crikey. We haven't actually booked yet, but really don't want to miss this trip...we haven't seen family for ages due to the pandemic.

We will have to make some enquiries...

Re personal statement, is it essential to mention voluntary work? DS says he can't fit it in but I feel he shouldn't omit this?

@beneathhereyes yes. For the few that read it this will be some of the most important bits. What he has learned though, not what he has done.

What he has learned though, not what he has done.

I know this is an oft-quoted piece of advice but I'm afraid I disagree with it. When we used to score personal statements, the most common reason for us to give very low scores was that people didn't tell us what they had actually done. You can't realistically claim to have learned the importance of respecting people's dignity, for example, if you don't give an example of a situation you were in where this would have been apparent. If you're going to say you learned something, you have to explain how (not just where) you learned it.

And if someone says they can't fit details of volunteering into their personal statement, I'd have to ask what on earth they've filled the space with (unless they're applying for Oxford/Cambridge).

Of course, in most cases it's academic as so few medical schools make much use of UCAS personal statements.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne obviously need to say how you've learned something 😊. But so many just list stuff and don't say why it's been beneficial.
Hope that makes sense - I've had gin again 🍸

I agree that 4,000 characters let's you say a lot. You don't have to talk about books you have read and less than 25% should be about extra curricular interests, so that leaves quite a lot of space to talk about what you have learned and how in jobs, volunteering and work experience, both real and virtual. None of DS"s choices use it, but we saw it as an opportunity to bring together the things he wanted to make sure he says in interviews if given the chance! (I know you must always answer the question asked)!

But so many just list stuff and don't say why it's been beneficial.

I agree. Not only do lists not tell us anything useful, they also scream out box-ticking. We used to see lots that told us they spent so many weeks working with children, so many with "the elderly" (I detest that phrase), etc., with no indication that they had wanted to do any of this stuff, that they had done anything worthwhile or that they had learned anything from the experience, either about themselves or about the children/elderly people and their families. They put far more effort into coming up with a completely context-free quotation which they then failed to refer to at all in the rest of the statement.

Are they NOT supposed to bring in books they have read, even as it relates to things they learned from work experience?…DD has 2 references to books in hers on the advice of her Head of Year…it’s not submitted yet though…should it be changed?

DD hasn't actually talked directly about volunteering that she's done, though she has talked about work experience and other stuff that she's done. Her head of year said that it was one of the best personal statements she had ever read, so hoping it will be enough. If I remember rightly, only one of dd's choices really uses the statement anyway.

This time around (he's a reapplicant for dentistry) ds is finding it hard to fit everything in as he has a lot of clinical experience this time around and wants to talk about what he has learned. There's a fairly substantial paragraph on online work experience and how his hobbies relate to manual dexterity.
After a rejig he's managed to put in 2 lines about his voluntary work, which doesn't seem enough but he just wants to submit it at this stage. This is his last chance so it feels as if there's a lot more pressure this time around.

Just make sure you have read what the medical/dentistry school says about what they want to see. I don't know about dentistry, but most medical schools don't seem to read it any more, none score it, but some may check that you have what they said they wanted as a gateway check (eg St Andrews, Cardiff)

My dd also refers to two different books in hers, don't think it can be changed now though! I hope it will be ok, I haven't read the final draft but I did see it nearly finished and thought it was ok, but I am clueless really..!

Sorry if I worried people by saying you don't have to talk about the books you have read! They need to show that they know what they are letting themselves in for, and might have done that through reading, but they should not feel obliged to talk about books.

On the theme of BMAT I think PP (or more than 1!) Has said sec 2 is fine if your know your GCSE stuff.
Just to say DS2 is doing past papers at the mo and says some of the questions relate to AS material (esp biology). He is adamant he didn't cover the all the topics in his GCSE course. I guess syllabuses vary.
Anyway he has found practice useful not least because its non calculator and he says there is a LOT of mental maths which he has got out of the habit of!

@Lottsbiffandsmudge did his school cover the whole GCSE syllabus? Due to covid they were initially told it would only be certain topics and then later they were all cancelled in favour of TAGs, his teachers might have decided to ditch some of the curriculum in favour of revision. Although dd's school did cover everything, many coming into her sixth form had not and some of the A level topics they hadn't looked at since yr9 and some from her own school said that they had never covered it before when they went over it in yr12.

@Lottsbiffandsmudge I think BMAT prep is a lot of work as there is a lot of content to cover. It's why I don't recommend it to anyone with a good UCAT - it takes away A level studying time. When they had an early sitting it wasn't so bad as term had just started, but now it's around the time of mocks starting. I won't go into the fiascos of the last 2 years computer failures, but CA (& the Unis) did not help my negative feelings !
But if you want one of the BMAT Unis it's worth it I suppose. Less and less people are sitting it each year which also helps 😊.

@Unexpecteddrivinginstructor the school did the whole course....
@mumsneedwine I totally agree and have advised him to apply to 4 UCATS as he had 2970... he has 900 in QR and I thought he should out Leicester down. But he is wedded to trying for Cambridge and I couldn't dissuade him. So there he is slogging away again.
His mocks are in Feb so it's not too bad for him....

DA got 7.0 in S2 at the beginning of his gap year with 3 gentle days of past papers. He did not do Biology A level, but had done AS a year earlier. I would recommend going through the assumed knowledge on the Cambridge Admissions site to pick up any gaps and doing papers in timed conditions. Don't get lulled into a false sense of security by the early ones, it got harder to get high scores over time, presumably as there were more past papers for practice, so include 2018 and 2019 as the last normal ones where moderation was not affected by IT issues. As the marks are set on a normal distribution, cohort performance matters.