Medicine 2025 entry

[HGC2]

Inspired and slightly terrified reading the 2023 entry threads and how much prep has to go into a medicine application!

DC wants to do medicine, probably in Scotland as a Scottish student, doing well at school but this doesn't seem to be enough! School has little / no experience of applications for medicine as a not fantastic state school!

Can anyone advise what work experience / volunteering they will need (currently volunteering at sports club with hope of job)
what are the spreadsheets that people talk about?
How do you strategically apply?

I have one child at uni and they just applied and got a place, this seems like a whole other level!

Forgot the spreadsheet. Be aware a few have changed (Exeter and Newcastle being 2).

Keele and Sunderland are the wex heavy ones.

@ColouringPencils sorry, everyone has high grades. Nottingham and Belfast score GCSEs, as do Birmingham (but helps to be contextual). Notts you really need SJT 1 though.

@ColouringPencils sorry, cooking dinner. Bart's score all sorts of weird stuff. Liverpool only care about UCAT. Most do these days.

Thank you for sharing, will take a look!

I also looked at Hull York and that seems to give a lot of points to its contextual offer. My DD would get 2 out of a possible 15 points there, which made me think that might be another one to avoid. A lot of points are available if you live in the Hull York area and do their WP programmes.

I guess a lot of this is pointless looking at until we know UCAT results!

@ColouringPencils it is a I'm afraid. Best fit DD to look at the courses as they are very different. Some have early patient contact, some don't. Some offer full body dissection, some prosecution. Some do PBL, some CBL and lots do a mixture.

@ColouringPencils you can't score Hull York without the UCAT ?

@mumsneedwine no sorry I meant Hull York give 15 percent of interview selection criteria to contextual data, but my DD would only score 2 percent on that, so maybe it would not be a good place for her to apply. https://www.hyms.ac.uk/medicine/applying/selection-procedure

@ColouringPencils with a good cast and a she 1 it's still possible with no contextual data to get an interview. But there might be better options.

Good UCAT ! Sorry, cooking tea.

@ColouringPencils if you want to drop me a message with GCSEs I can help advise any good or bad ones at this stage. Nowhere cares about 4 A levels

I think it’s worth going on a couple of open days this side of the UCAT, just to get a feel for campus vs city for example. Don’t get too attached or otherwise to any uni but if your DC does end up with a decent UCAT, which gives them a choice, then it’s handy to have given it a bit of thought in advance. My DD created her own spreadsheet, using cutoffs from TSR, which really helped as it forced her to look through all the websites herself to confirm entry requirements and meant she then knew how each course described itself. She also knew straight after her UCAT which unis not to bother applying for (eg Notts as she had an STJ2, Bristol as she didn’t have 2900+ etc) so was able to create a shortlist relatively quickly.

Great advice. Shortlist 10 from the course type and location then visit 4-6 if you can. But things might change when get UCAT result. So be flexible. I have a student with 7 7s and a UCAT if 2560 who has an offer. Strategy matters !

Thanks both, we are going to book on a couple of open days. So far have been to Newcastle and Sunderland, but they are both nearby so have not had to think about it too much. I will encourage her to make a spreadsheet, I think she also wants to think about things like distance home and whether it is a big city.

@mumsneedwine I will send you a message if I can work out how!

Has anyone’s DC got Medify? Can you pick a date for subscription to start or does it just start as soon as you sign up?
is it worth it? I believe there is a monthly subscription

My daughter has Medify and it has definitely been worth it for her. It started as soon as we signed up, so I just paid for the annual subscription as it was better value.

@ElaineC77 is your DD starting now to study UCAT, what is her timeline? My DS not sure when to start .

The UCAT is the thing she is most worried about and so she started last October. Not full on every day or anything but just getting to know where her strengths and weaknesses are and how to address them.

Most people spend about 6-8 weeks on UCAT practice. There are free resources in the UCAT website and this book is really useful (might have been updated).

I have some questions! @mumsneedwine and others in the know. We're very early days in the medical school path for my DD and just wondering if there is anything one can do to prepare for the UCAT? I appreciate you can "over-prepare" and that preparation is something you do closer to sitting the exam, but what qualities is the UCAT measuring? How do you know whether you will be capable of a good enough score to apply to med school until you actually start doing past papers?

Second question - I see a number of med schools seem to give preference to candidates from the local area, are there any that do this for students in Surrey? Although at a state school, my DD has no contextual data (I've checked and her school is not on any of the lists as too high performing). She's bright and hard working, but it almost feels as though being at a school of high achievers could count against her (I read that KMMS contexualise GCSE scores by comparing against your school's results). Just grappling around for something that might work in her favour.

@SuperSue77 UCAT is a strange test. It's measuring innate intelligence and it's tough. Practice and understanding patterns helps, as does speed.

Nothing contextual near Surrey I'm afraid. And contextual at Kent is only part of their scoring. It's best to choose some where you like the course, rather than worry about points. Until UCAT is done you can't really shortlist if want to maximise interviews.

@SuperSue77 based on what my dd has told me, it’s definitely better to over prepare for the UCAT rather than under prepare! Practice, practice…

I'm going to disagree. It's the one exam you really can over prepare for. Scores tend to go down if you do too much - think it's because you start your over think answers. Speed is the key. The maths and English bits aren't hard, just quick (45s per answer). Decision making is instinct and abstract is learning the keys to look for. And the SJT relies on always putting the patient first.
Practice and understanding those pesky patterns.

I agree. Both my DC said it was like a marathon. You had to calibrate to try to peak at the right time. You need to be practiced (speed) and confident but still fresh. A lot is instinctive and you don't want to dull that reflex. DS started a month before and DD about six weeks before because of a holiday during the prep period and both did really well. I know it is difficult as it is a strange type of exam but it is best not to get too fixated on it. It is just one of the number of hurdles along the way, although it is definitely worth taking the preparation seriously when they get to the period just before.

DD is Y12, so hasn't done the UCAT yet, so no idea if her approach is going to work. But her plan is basically to spend about four weeks working on it in July and then take it in early August before the fun holiday plans start. (In the event she's clearly not ready, I think she'll switch to September and give herself a couple more weeks after the holidays, but very much hoping this isn't how it pans out.)

She's done a bit of stuff on the question bank on the UCAT website - I think she thinks her main weaknesses are going to be the abstract reasoning and getting it all done in time. (I had a go at a few of the questions and was quite pleased with myself until she told me the speed I should be working at!!) But that's it so far...

We are planning to go to a few open days in June, and have earmarked a couple for September (when she should have the UCAT score so can be more focused with those ones). DD's started to like the idea of a gap year too, which makes thinking of it as potentially a two-year process easier.