Medicine 2024 part 2

[mumsneedwine]

New thread. Hope the offers keep flowing in

Congratulations to your dd too @sybil. Fantastic news. It really is lovely for my dd to have an offer now too. She can plan open days now like the boys are and have something to focus her revision efforts on.

Congratulations everyone that there DC got offers.

@OwlMother Aberdeen is fab, I can see why your DS would have it as a favourite. They do placements on the islands, don’t they? That would be such a unique experience I think.

so happy for your DD @speedyhedgehog - all my DD ever wanted was to be able to go to an offer holder day, so she can’t wait! And like your DD, the focus it’s given her for revision is great - she’s so much happier now she has something tangible to work towards

Fingers crossed for more offers for all DC soon 🤞

You only need one ..... 😊🥰

DC has an offer from Bristol today!

Congratulations @turnleftontheroundabout dc!

Brilliant news @TurnLeftAtTheRoundabout - congratulations to your DC!

coTurnLeftAtTheR@TurnLeftAtTheRoundabout dc!

UAE offer today. Feeling happy and relieved. She has choices.

I am loving hearing about all the offers! I am still a few years off all this as my daughter is only year 10, but I am keen to pick up on anything students have done to help their applications (beside good GCSEs, predicted A levels and UCAT/BMAT scores)
@OwlMother you said your son had put a lot of effort in, was there anything he did that you recommend? I was also wondering about EPQs - do they help the applications or are you in with as good a chance without one? My daughter is my eldest so I’m not familiar with year 12/13 procedures.

@SuperSue77 some unis give lower offers if gave an A or A star in EPQ.

@SuperSue77 nothing too radical, he basically did everything they are told makes you a good candidate. As well as the obligatory perfect grades he has been volunteering since he was 14, had a part time job since he was 16, this means he is very used to speaking to people in different situations, this helped his confidence hugely and he's very personable. He has been proactive in hunting out work experience and has a good spread of this. He put a lot of work into the UCAT and performed very highly, then chose unis accordingly meaning he applied to places he knew he'd get interviews. He then sought out people (luckily has a big sister with a wide social network!)who were already studying at these unis to ask about the courses and interviews. And all of this was self driven which I think is key. He's really invested in the process and the outcome.

Brilliant news @W0tnow ! So lovely to have the luxury of choice!

Brilliant to hear of offers.

@SuperSue77 my DD was offered a grade lower (AAA rather than A*AA) on account of having an A at EPQ but I think there are only a few places that do this now. It also gave her something to talk about in interview (albeit briefly) - her EPQ was on the opioid epidemic - and the research / independent study skills are valuable. However, she had completed it by the end of Yr 12 which meant it didn't take up her precious time in Yr 13.

Thanks @Africa2go my daughter’s school seem to offer EPQ for year 13 so she’d not have that option, but to be honest I think she’d benefit from focusing on her main A levels.

Thanks @OwlMother the part time job sounds like a really good idea. My daughter is still painfully shy and I worry this will be a stumbling block for her. She is a St John’s Ambulance cadet and is doing online medicine work experience and has a 3-day in-person work experience lined up at a GP practice for the summer, but I’m worried she’ll sit there like a rabbit in the headlights 😬
We live near a hospital and our local volunteer bureau places volunteers there from age 16, so I’m hoping she’ll be able to get involved there and that will force her to speak to lots of different people.

She’s got a fantastic work ethic and is very hardworking, but I can’t imagine her being interviewed at the moment 😬

You do not need perfect grades !! Please don't spread that myth. I have many students this year with lots of 7s who have offers. As long as gave 7 7s you'll be good. You apply to your strengths.

@SuperSue77 job in a cafe or care home would be great. She'll get experience of talking to strangers and gain confidence. And it shoes commitment, time management and resilience.

@mumsneedwine I didn't mean to suggest that they were needed, just that the more of these boxes you tick the stronger your chances are- ie you can't be discounted for not having them.

@OwlMother 😊 sorry. I think it's when I read obligatory perfect grades I got cross. It's something I've seen so much of and I do like to make it clear it's not necessary. So few even look at GCSEs these days once you've passed their threshold. Apologies if a bit rude 🥰

@mumsneedwine not at all- totally get it! We are in Scotland so slightly different as they are sort of applying with grades in hand as the highers carry so much weight so slightly different. One of DSs friends has two offers so far with less than perfect highers- the school advised her not to apply with the marks she had but she persevered!

We did quite a bit of interview practice. There are also loads of helpful YouTube tutorials on interview questions/ techniques. Dr Ollie (Google him) was helpful. There are plenty more.

Her strategy (strongly recommended by me) was to apply wherever she had the strongest chance of getting an interview, with solid post interview offer statistics.

She did an EPQ which says has been hugely beneficial in terms of research skills etc. Also a language to AS level. Neither necessary, but she’s happy to have done them and would have dropped them if necessary.

We were late to the party regarding choosing med. so scrambled for work experience. There is the BSMS online WE. Plus she did a few months of evening volunteering with a homeless charity. She also started a med society at her school for med hopefuls.

@OwlMother 😊

@SuperSue77 my daughter also volunteered from 14, but she worked as a volunteer in a riding for the disabled centre. This was really brilliant experience and if your DD likes animals I'd totally recommend it. Other than that she had a very similar track record to Owlmother's DS - a wide range of work experience and shed loads of interview and ucat practice. I honestly think at 14 I couldn't have imagined her being interviewed, for a lot changes between then and now, and things like volunteering and work experience really help with shyness.

Congratulations on all the offers over the last couple of days!

Thanks @W0tnow my daughter is doing the BSMS online work experience as her silver D of E skill - they can do work experience for that. It’s not quite 13 weeks of an hour a week but she’s going to flesh it out with reading about current issues in healthcare. I think it will really help to prepare her for her in-person work experience as I believe they get the students to reflect on what they have learnt from the experience, so hopefully she will be able to apply those new found reflective skills to her in-person experience.

Thanks @Habbibu it’s reassuring to hear that you couldn’t imagine your daughter being interviewed at 14 either, I am hoping her experiences over the next few years will massively increase her confidence. We have a riding for the disabled near us, but my daughter is nervous around horses so I think she’ll have to keep her volunteering to people! Shame though as it does sound like a good one.