Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 3

[opoponax]

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

@NewMinouMinou as long as he does not want to go to Cambridge he just needs a third subject which will get him a safe A. May be an issue if German is a mother tongue, but if he learnt German as a non-German speaker it will be fine. Or he could do History.

TAGs - urghhh!

@mumsneedwine Thanks for that! He loves German and is doing this, as well as French and Latin, at GCSE. His backup plan is international relations with a view to diplomacy, but (forgive me), the pandemic seems to have really ignited an interest in medicine and it looks like he's on for 8s in biol and chem, as well as an 8/9 in German.

We're starting the process for volunteering - we're two miles from a big teaching hospital - and he's been working in the village pub since he was 14.

Howeverrrrrr - he has moderate to severe ADHD. Well controlled with Ritalin, but...ya know. ADHD gonna ADHD. I've seen interviews on med students with it and it's all quite anodyne looking, whereas the reality is ADHD does make life harder.

@Monkey2001 He's not planning Cambridge. We've been through the unis that are a bit more flexible. We live in the...ahem... "other" place, btw and I think he'd consider it, but having lived here for so long, we know how much it can chew you up and spit you out.

@NewMinouMinou I am no expert in languages, mine drop them as soon as they can, however dd says that some of her friends taking MFL have found it a huge step up and it is a bit like doing Eng Lit but in a different language. Generally he needs to do whatever he has the best chance of getting an A in. Psychology can be a bit marmite, some people love it and really get it, other, perfectly able people really struggle with one aspect or other of it.

@Unexpecteddrivinginstructor Hi there! Yes, you do a bit of history as well as literature and, of course, the actual language bits. He's well up for it and I think it gives him a good chance of an easy A. He doesn't like psychology at all, for some reason so I think it'll be German as long as his biology and chemistry grades are 7-8 or so.

I would go for it then, he is only ruling out Cambridge and they have quite a different structure. Dd considered their course and ruled it out almost immediately so no point in doing maths for one course which he doesn't end up liking. Just make sure the third subject is one he will enjoy and do well in.

Wanted to thank the lovely people on this thread and by private msgs who found time to respond to my post yesterday. Good points were raised! Now upwards and onwards!

@NewMinouMinou I'd say psychology is quite useful for medicine, as students have to learn quite a lot about human behaviour, as well as study design and data analysis. Having seen both my daughters do A-Level psychology, though, I'd say the A-Level does look a bit dull. (There were also some bits in the medical psychology part of their syllabus that were simply wrong, but this doesn't only affect psychology.) As others have advised, once you've selected biology and chemistry to keep the widest possible range of options open, the third subject should be one the student will enjoy and get a good grade in. Modern foreign languages are always a bit of a risk because native-speakers push the grade boundaries so high, so they would need to have a frank discussion with the teacher about the genuine likelihood of gaining an A or A*.

Liverpool interview offers started about 30 mins ago. There’s a delay getting a password email.

Does anyone know how long it takes to receive the password email that allows you to book the interview for Liverpool? From anyone who got one in previous rounds…?

OK panic over, DD finally got the password email and has the interview booked. The timing was just a few minutes after she came out of the Newcastle interview, which went well, but it was straight into panic mode! That’s it now, she got 4 out of 4 interviews thanks to the great advice here xx

Hello everyone, nice to see the thread so busy with invites to interviews coming in and getting underway. DD has completed 3 interviews now and that’s her done as rejected by Cambridge. So now the wait begins…

@Peachy2005 and @justjuggling great news on all the interview offers. DD also holding 3 now (also heard from Liverpool today), just waiting to hear from Leeds but they are notoriously slow for everything I think, not just for medicine. Fingers crossed

That's fantastic, Peachy2005! Well done to your DD and a huge thank you again to all the knowledgeable women on here helping everybody.

Lovely to hear all the interview news. The gin is already poured here (been a v long week) so any comments after this are unlikely to make sense. Cheers 🥃

Hopefully this will actually happen…

@ASeagull23 unless they increase the training places all the way up the scale it's pointless. You need more doctors to train more doctors. And they need guaranteed jobs when go to ST level. There are not enough speciality jobs as it is, so more students will just mean unemployed graduates.
The whole thing needs a lot of thought and investment, not just click bite headlines.

@mumsneedwine enjoy your gin!! Although can I steal your name, you should be mumsneedgin, not mumsneedwine 😂 ….good luck everyone!!

Liverpool interview invites - anybody know what is approx UCAT score needed for interview ?

Thanks @Africa2go . I so wish she hadn’t applied to Cambridge as I worry she has potentially cost herself a more realistic option but she was absolutely determined to try. Madness really as she wasn’t even that keen on the course - think she was hooked by the stunning college and beautiful grounds. 🙄

@Africa2go and I hope your DD gets good news from Leeds soon!

@HAMROGUE this batch has gone down to 2740 non contextual. But there will be at least two more batches I reckon judging by the dates offered and the interviewing window publicly stated.

Sorry typo @HAMROGUE 2730.

@Thethingswedoforlove
thank you x

With 3 down and one to go, DS's feelings so far are that is expecting 1 offer, 1 waiting list and 1 rejection. Hopefully only 2 more months to wait for the decisions to start, sigh.......