Medicine - 2024 Entry

[LaMereDuChat]

Just thought I'd start a thread for anyone else who feels like me... Dd has just announced that she'd really like to apply for medicine. It seems pretty much impossible to get into and I'm dreading the process as the odds are stacked against her - private schooled, grades a bit iffy as she's chosen a language as an A-Level and it's hard, though she loves it. Anyone want to join the pity party 😬?

I presume it is a shortcut to get more doctors quickly ...
But seem to remember there would be a longer "internship"FY type of jobs.
Btw several European systems incorporate the FY jobs into their medical school degree so (at least in the past) when they come over here they get full GMC registration.
But makes it a bit difficult to compare length of degrees in various countries

@Notagardener other countries already think the classroom time doctors get is just about acceptable. Less hours learning and they won't accredit the degree. Same with the proposed apprenticeship.
The biggest issue is less doctors on wards, less training. It's already an issue in some places with medical students being turned away from placements as there are too many of them at once. We need more doctors before we can train more. So we need to keep the ones we have.

Good question to ask at open days. How many students on a ward at a time.

On our department the middle grade Doctors were offers to have more doctors employed. They refused , they didn't want more doctors.
Btw, in a previous century..., we did not actually attend the wards till year 5 (out of 7) I think😯. Taught a lot of useless stuff

Difficult as each ward , as in speciality, is so different. And some may go down to clinics, meetings etc. Depending on department there may be more or less opportunity for this

@Notagardener true. But it's more of a problem at some medical schools. Others not so much. It's all down to numbers allocated to each placement.

Hi all, I’ve been lurking on medicine threads for a bit as DD is applying this year and thanks for all the valuable advice so far! She has just done her UCAT which went well 😃 I understand Leeds has changed to using the UCAT this year- does anyone know what their requirements are and what they’re looking for? She’s also thinking of having a gap year so would you advise applying and then deferring or applying for 2025? TIA

Well DS did the latter (ie applied for a deferred place from the get-go) and while we heard all these horror stories that it is harder to get these places, we didn't find it made a difference - they interviewed and assessed just as they would for an earlier place, and then if they made an offer (based on ranking), it was for the following year. Made the gap year much more pleasant knowing he had a place, and made the application process slightly less nerve wracking, knowing he was definitely taking a gap year and so the first application could be a trial run if necessary.

Thanks that’s very helpful and good to know
Had he already planned what he was doing on his gap yr and put this on PS? I guess I want to know the level of detail unis might want…

@Pickupapingu here is Leeds selection process. They are using a holistic approach, taking all aspects of application into account. They use the PS. Hard to know what cut offs will be as first year of doing it this way so worth a punt if have a good UCAT. They need 6 6s and 3 A levels at AAA sat in year 13. But they use previous grades as part of application so if higher it looks like you score higher. There is a link to what they want on the PS and I'd imagine that will be quite important as lots will have good grades and UCATs. Deferring is never usually a problem, most Unis seem to allow it.

courses.leeds.ac.uk/5580/medicine-and-surgery-mbchb#applying

If UCAT is v good (over 2,900), you can pretty much choose 4 to (almost, it's never certain) guarantee interviews.

@Pickupapingu sorry, meant to add. Leeds say they only offer deferral if you ask before you get the offer.

No he didn't, because he wasn't sure he was doing anything medical related (going overseas for a year - family reasons). As it turned out, he did do a bunch of things that were medical related (had an internship at the Ministry of Health there, volunteered for the ambulance service there, volunteered at a care home there), but that was all after he got the place, none of this was arranged before, so no way it could go on his PS.

There is nothing wrong with saying you want a gap year to travel, earn some money and have some fun. Most Unis do not expect any medical stuff.

Thank you both so much- very helpful! I’ll let you know how she gets on
Just trying to arrange some last minute uni visits for September / October now 🚂 🚗

Hi all,
DS sitting UCAT on 17th. Getting a bit anxious about it all. Its built up in his head now to this massive thing. He’s scoring decent marks on the tests but I feel like he needs a bit of a break from it all for a day or two. Thoughts/advice appreciated in the run up to the test.

@Mumofboys2006 similar here as DD has her UCAT at the weekend but her mocks are a still on the low side of what she was hoping for and a bit inconsistent too. Not sure how best to support as she’s not keen to delay it, as she doesn’t think it will improve any more anyway. I’m worried she’d burn out anyway. We’ll see how it goes over the next couple of days.
Sounds like the fact that your DS is getting decent mock scores is a good thing so that’s definitely something positive for him to remember/focus on?

Thanks @Undecidedat46 - I’ve just concentrated on focusing on the bigger picture. It’s revising wirh a bunch of school friends online every evening. I think that may be where some of the anxiety is coming from. He is just in his room all the time. So hard at this age!

My DS is barely revising and I'm trying not to stress and make him anxious. No idea what a good/bad score is. He so laid back and chilled it worries me. He's not doing the level of revision I expected or others appear to do but he says he's fine. Let's hope he's right.

It really is @Mumofboys2006 ! DD’s friends always seem to have a story about someone somewhere that is sure to induce anxiety! All the doctors that DD spoke to on recent work experience told her they either messed up the UCAT and/or just focused on BMAT but that’s clearly from years ago, so I’m sure it’s all changed (we’re a non-medic immigrant family so have no clue really!!)
@BlueMum16 he might be doing the right thing actually- a friend of DD’s was super chill about the whole thing and got 3100!! But she loves logic puzzles etc so it really suited her and she didn’t really look on it as an exam (apparently).

@BlueMum16 - I don’t think being anxious helps at all. That’s what I was trying to tell DS yesterday.
@Undecidedat46 we met a girl at the BSMS open day who had four attempts at getting into med school! She eventually got incredible offers. Honestly I always give the example of myself and DH in a law context. I walked into a training contract at city firm and absolutely hated it! He struggled to get training and paralegaled for before qualifying- guess who’s still practising?! There’s more than one route into a profession!

Wow, four attempts!! That’s very dedicated- I’m sure she’ll make an excellent doctor, good on her for having such resilience. Just doing the UCAT four times must require some sort of official recognition, surely???

DD had her UCAT and I’m so proud of her - she really struggled with it but persevered and managed to get what I think is a really good score. She’s surrounded by UCAT genuises getting 3000+ scores so that’s playing on her mind. Any advice on if she’s looking at the right/wrong unis? She’s definitely doing BMAT as that’s more her bag, but just wants to get the best shot at an interview so has zero preference on location and will go wherever she can get a foot in the door.

She has all 9s at GCSE and 3 x Astar predictions for A levels (doing chemistry, biology and a humanity). No WP flags, is non-contextual. Loads of hospice volunteering and hospital work experience.

UCAT - 2680, Band 2
VR 640; DM 650; QR 620; AR 770

For UCAT unis, thinking about QUB, Exeter, Plymouth, Liverpool and maybe Leicester or Leeds? Loved Cardiff but is an English applicant and heard that might not help despite the full marks for GCSEs. May do 1 or 2 BMAT unis depending on how prep goes (likes the look of Lancaster). Are they risky options? Are there better ones? Thanks in advance 😊

@Undecidedat46 good choices, except maybe Exeter. They have changed their selection criteria to use predicted grades and UCAT (see attached). Will need to see what decile DD ends up in when interim results are out. UEA a good option.
If like BMAT Unis then 2 not a bad idea. We need to see what UCAT scores look like in Sept - surely they can't go up again !

@Undecidedat46 sorry, should add, go for Unis that count those GCSEs heavily. DD is close to last years cut offs for a few Unis but might be ok with the great GCSEs.

Thanks so much @mumsneedwine , really appreciate your guidance. Definitely focusing on the GCSE-heavy unis - think Leeds is one but not sure as it’s a bit unclear on their website how much weight they actually give them. They don’t seem to publish a scoring system like some of the others do. DD thinks Exeter cutoff was 95 this year, but not sure if it’s going to be higher so it does seem a bit risky. Will see where the deciles shake out. Daft question - I assume Exeter use the same deciles as the official UCAT ones and it’s not deciles of the UCATs of those who’ve applied? In which case, 9th and 10th get 100 points, and if she scrapes into 8th decile, then she’d be on 98?