Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 3

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

Sorry to hear that @Monkey2001 , but as know sometimes the interviews you think you did worse at are the ones you get offers from.
DD came out positive - she said she answered the questions and the info she shared with me sounded good - last year she came out of the interviews upset and the few titbits she shared my heart sank.
DD hasn't easily taken advice off me - last year she certainly didn't - she has done this year. So hopefully we will have more positive results this year.
Interestingly she has said if she is not successful this year she will take another Gap year and try once more - then and only then will she go down a different route.
This Gap year has been really good for her - she has matured. The job she is doing is teaching her skills she can take forward and she is helping with the interview practice for the year 13 students.

@coffeeandbiscuittime that is great to hear. Does she have favourites or are they all equal top?

Hi, is this Queen Mary London or Queen Belfast?

@Monkey2001 usually the ones we feel didn't go well turns out to be better result wise

I agree with@coffeeandbiscuittime that often the ones that we think are worse are the ones that went better (more depth?) @Monkey2001

DD just getting her zoom setup together now for 3 interviews this week... going to have a test run. We are all banished from the house during her interviews so we don't use the broadband at all or listen in - as if! 😉So I'll be taking dd3 to Starbucks after school tomorrow as the second Cambridge one is at 5. I think she'll find the Cambridge one a lot drier than the MMI format of her first one, but who knows. Reckon the college must only interview 40-50 so it's quite different to, say, Newcastle interviewing 1000 and ranking, a bit more personal really.

MrsBennets, Since there were only 3 inteview dates for UCL in December, I think there are more invites coming through in January.
Did your DD apply to Imperial as well. Many students have got interview invite on friday.
We are still waiting. BMAT score for my DD is more than some of the invited candidates for Imperial. So I guess it is again sent based on last name aplabetical order. Just need to wait and see.

So I guess it is again sent based on last name aplabetical order.

Just as likely - if not more likely - to be ordered by UCAS ID or student number (generated in the university's records database when the application is imported from the UCAS download). There's no sense in speculating on what order applications are being processed. I'm pretty sure when I have lists to be invited for interview the university sends the invitations out in student-number order, not alphabetically, because that's the order the software that generates the invitations would read them.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne Thank you for the details. Didn't realize it could be on the UCAS ID or student number :-)

Dd did't feel Cambridge interviews went very well today. She's exhausted now. Onwards...

A friend’s child ( not medics) had Cambridge online interviews this week and the second one was horrible, very unfriendly interaction, really unpleasant experience which was mirrored by a second non medics contact who also interviewed this week. My friend is ex Cambridge herself and says there are some tricky academics there who don’ t always make it easy for the teenagers they are in contact with. Aside from the - why dear god do you think this sort of deliberate overly difficult experience is a useful part of selecting students- your DD may not be the only one who has come out feeling low. That’s a very convoluted way of saying I hope it went better than she thinks.

DD has taken a break from stressing about various coursework deadlines to come downstairs to tell us she has a Cardiff interview. We are towards the start of the alphabet if that helps anyone else waiting.

My DD told me every step of the way she had bombed out of the Cambridge process. First she failed the test (Econ) and wasn't going to get an interview, then she failed the interview and wasn't going to get an offer (she was pooled but did get an offer), then she wasn't going to make her grades... she is in her second year at Cambridge now. Never say never. Don't give up. That's my experience.

Thanks guys, I've said the same thing to her, you just can't tell. She said they were really nice themselves, just that she didn't answer well and it sounds like she didn't offer up information when she could/should have. The cat also miaowed at the door all through (she doesn't like a closed door) and they said at the end "you can let your cat in now", so they could hear her...

@UnclearNuclear it is so hard to know how they did. One of the things they do at Cambridge is deliberately push you to the point where you struggle so that they can assess where that point is.

It is then difficult to know how to support them whilst they wait - do you let them believe it went badly so that they are prepared for the bad news that 4/5 will get or do you try to be positive? It is so hard! At least you know when they will hear and it is quicker than any of the non-Oxbridge ones with the exception of Dundee, who start making offers around now.

I see on TSR that Dundee has already started sending offers out. 4 months wait for most of us/our DC......

My DS found Cambridge ivs hard. First one had a clinician interviewer so some medical stuff. Rest all hard science which he expected.
Glad he'd read up on the interviewers before hand as questioning was quite closely related to their specialties.
He did get stuck. When down a rabbit hole and then was told that route wouldn't work for the interviewers particular area. He thinks he saved himself but isn't sure! Can only wait.

I have not had the chance to post anything or think about the interviews lately due to flu and Covid etc in the family. We are having a fun December so far 😏

@Monkey2001 hope Newcastle went better than your son thought and he will get an offer soon.

We are still waiting to hear from Bristol and Liverpool. Other interviews will be in January and my DS has not done any prep yet. He will start after school finishes this week I hope.

Good luck to all DCs !!!

With the ‘worrying while waiting’ aspect to any life events I tend to go with -‘Is this worrying useful to you? Will it have an impact on the outcome? ‘ if the answer is no and no then I suggest they shelve the worry and just get on with everything else. I know that is easier said than done!

Good luck to everyone's DC about to do interviews or worrying about how they went. Such a nervewracking time.

Just having a little panic about DD's first one later this week. If the interview time is 10, should she get there for 9.30 (ie should we plan to be on site for 9?) for the admin side of it, or do they genuinely mean, be here in plenty of time for 10, then the MMIs will start after your ID etc is sorted out? It doesn't say anything in the interview email - just, "Your time is..." or on the site they've linked to, just to bring photo ID and a bit about the structure.

We plan to be there in plenty of time of course but don't want her hanging about for an extra half an hour or so getting nervous if all the checking in starts from the time she's been given. Many thanks for any help.

6 interviews during 1 week done by DD (2x2 Oxford + 2 int. in other medical schools). If it isn't a test on endurance don't know then what is. Some interviews were nice, pleasant/ reasonably challenging. Some (looking at you, Oxford) were REALLY hard and left me wondering would an experienced GP be able to crack on with given problems. Never mind...
What did I learn as a parent during this intense week? To be honest, probably, not much, but anyway - stay as calm as possible, checking on supply of water, hot chocolate and general comfort of the DC. Comfort... Maintaining the normal temperature at the house where DC can study comfortably will cost smth like a second mortgage this month but like Scarlet O'Hara from "Gone with the wind" said, "I'll think about it tomorrow".
The rest now is in the hands of God and the admissions departments of the medical schools.
Wishing best of luck to your DC with interview invites and succesful interviews!
And seasonal greetings - merry Xmas!

@BungledBundle
DD had to be there for 9.30 admin to start at 10. There was a bit of sitting about but she was chatting to other people waiting and they were all lovely and bonded slightly over the nerves so that was fine.

@GoldieRetrieversRule1
That is a ridiculous week!

@BungledBundle UEA specified that they should arrive half an hour before their interview, I think he did the same in Newcastle.

Thanks @Cathpot and @Monkey2001 . I'll get DD to double check any other emails. Certainly the email confirmation doesn't say anything about half an hour earlier but we probably will anyway to be sure!

Cardiff being as opaque as ever. Rejections for perfect GCSEs, A star predictions and UCAT over 2,700. Welsh students have interviews with much less. Just wish they'd be more honest.

Do the Cardiff rejections say they were rejected at stage 1? They might have exceeded the academic cut-off but been rejected at stage 2 (personal statement).

Just rejected on UCAS. No further info. Looking at TSR lots of English students in the same position. It's fine to do this but I wish they'd be honest. So many like the course there so want to try, despite me telling them they need to be Welsh.