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 😬?

That description makes me think of DS @not content. He got one offer and waitlisted. That was for 2022 entry which was an especially tough year I think. So there's hope!

Does Nottingham have a calculator?

Just for ref: DS UCAT score was 2790 - all 9s in GCSE (1 8) predicted 2 A* 1A

Just for ref: DS UCAT score was 2790 - all 9s in GCSE (1 8) predicted 2 A* 1A

Nottingham UCAT scoring details are at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/medicine/study-with-us/undergraduate/undergraduate-medicine/undergraduate-selection-process.aspx#Selectionforinterview

I'm sure you've picked this up already, but Nottingham doesn't use predicted A-Level grades.

They weight the verbal reasoning section of UCAT double, so you'll need his subtest scores, and they also score the SJT.

Not an exact answer to your question @Notcontent but if your DD got a high UCAT, then UEA could be a good option to have as one of her 4. I think 50% of the post-interview score is from UCAT so it would really benefit those with high scores who are a bit nervous, or not feeling confident about interviews in general

Also @Notcontent, Sheffield gives the interview questions out beforehand so you can plan your answers.

Thank you @speedyhedgehog and @Africa2go that’s reassuring!
She has managed to get through school interviews, so hopefully this will be ok too…

There are practise interview courses they can go on which gives them some idea of general interviews and MMI style. Obviously this costs money but it can be very useful for some candidates.

Customer facing job asap. Best interview prep you can get. Other than that lots of practice with everyone and anyone - just making conversation. Lots of MMI stations test the softer skills of empathy, listening etc.
Being able to communicate well is a very important part of being a doctor so they do need to conquer this.

Many thanks everyone for the useful insights re interviews.

DD is already volunteering at a hospital so that’s useful experience of talking to patients and staff. Good idea about doing a course - I guess it all helps!

I guess some people are just naturally more eloquent than others but hopefully the interviewers can see past that!

@Undecidedat46 good idea about looking at unis that don’t just rate you on the interview.

I guess some people are just naturally more eloquent than others but hopefully the interviewers can see past that!

Interviewers get a very short time to interact with each individual candidate. There is definitely a limit on the extent to which they can see past lack of eloquence/articulacy. This is why @mumsneedwine was emphasising the value of roles or activities that involve lots of talking to people. This means either talking to people different from themselves (i.e. older, younger, with sensory/cognitive impairments, from different cultural backgrounds, etc.) or talking to peers from a position of authority (i.e. captaincy, leadership, anything where you have to tell people things they probably don't want to hear and make sure they have understood). Customer-facing jobs are ideal because they can make money at the same time. (Customers, on the whole, are pretty objectionable and have to be spoken to with tact, politeness and a fair amount of teeth-clenched grinning & bearing.) But there are plenty of volunteer roles that develop the same skills.

Exactly. All put 😊. You have between 5-8 minutes at each station to do a task/answer questions/communicate with a stranger, so the ability to think fast and communicate your actions or feelings is vital. A few still offer panel interviews and some were still using videoed things last year, but majority are MMI.
Being able to have the confidence to speak to everyone is a major skill they are looking for

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne I definitely agreed with that - I was just thinking, based on my own professional career, that some people are never going to be as well spoken as others.

in terms of getting a job, I hope my DD’s volunteering and other activities will help. She can’t really get a paying job right now as her long school day plus volunteering mean she is out of the house from early morning to 5 pm, and she has also been volunteering on Saturdays.

We'll put

Can anyone recommend any interview courses? And are any of the books any good?

@Notcontent It's definitely true that some sixth-formers just don't have time for some additional activities. Where I live, there are students who travel 2-3 hours a day to/from college because they live in areas with little or no sixth-form provision. So the things they do at weekends become very important. I've got into the habit of telling everyone I meet to do whatever they can to make money before going to university because it just makes the whole experience more comfortable. But if you need to develop particular skills to get onto your course at all, you have to focus on those. If you want to do art, you have to focus on your portfolio; if you want to do anything healthcare-related, you have to focus on your interpersonal skills. If you can earn money at the same time, though, so much the better.

If your daughter already has volunteering roles that she is embedded in and in which she is developing these skills - as well as acting on her desire to help others - it's good to stick with those. It's a good idea to ask to be given specific responsibilities and to be given feedback that she can talk about in an interview ("I was responsible for... and my supervisors told me I did this really well. For example..."). Another very useful thing to do is keep a diary where she records examples of situations where she has demonstrated particularly important attributes: empathy, ability to overcome communication barriers, determination/commitment, ability to work with other people (who may or may not be similarly conscientious), ability to handle setbacks, understanding of ethical issues influencing fairly routine decisions, etc.

But being confident talking to people is going to be essential.

Point her at the Medical Schools Council's interview preparation resources before you think about paying for anything.

https://www.medschools.ac.uk/studying-medicine/interviews

http://www.mscinterviewprep.co.uk/ (registration required but they won't send spam).

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne thank you. That is an excellent tip about keeping a diary. Really helpful.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne and thank you for the links!

Also, I don't know if it still exists, but my DS stumbled over a Discord server that was made up of medical students from all over the country practiciing for interviews - and what they did was interview each other. He did dozens of practices (and was quite chuffed he managed to interview just about all those accepted to a particular Cambridge college, amongst others). The advantage to this is you get honest critique from the other students, but also get an insight from the other side of it - ie you can see where other people go wrong, and see it a bit from the point of view of the interviewer, which DS found invaluable. And it turned out that the role play he got in one of his interviews was very, very close to one he had practiced with some, and got lots of useful pointers, which made him a lot less nervous when doing it.

@Notcontent this one is very good. Can get from Amazon.

Thanks @mumsneedwine every little bit helps!

it’s crazy to think that when I was applying for uni 30 years ago all I needed for medicine (which I chose not to do in the end) was to get excellent grades and fill out an application form. Nothing more.

@Notcontent it does seem a bit complicated now. Although I'm thinking less will apply this year due to the doctor strikes and the knowledge of how bad things are in the NHS. And the fact that they will not be well paid, as I believe many think they'll be wealthy if become a doctor. Not on £14.0882 an hour they won't, even doing a 198 hour month.
Do know what you getting into it. Talk to medical students on open days and ask if there are enough placements or if they are being turned away.

18 GCSEs ? How?

@Sares100 ?? Confused

some one put their kids had 18 GCSEs, I’m asking how, why so many