Medicine 2025 entry - part 2

[HGC2]

Not sure how to link old thread, can anyone help me do this?

Onto UCAT and personal statements now - good luck everyone!

My daughters best one last year and followed by an almost immediate offer was when she complemented the interviewer on their Christmas jumper and they nearly ran out of time after jumper chat 😂
some stations the less prepared and more natural the better - but the only one she didn’t get an offer for was failing the station she should have prepared for on AI in medicine so it’s a bit of both

but the only one she didn’t get an offer for was failing the station she should have prepared for on AI in medicine

Certainly something Dundee did well out of.

www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-environment/business/5129249/dundee-company-birthed-in-coffee-shop-sold-for-500-million-to-recursion/

I trained at Newcastle in the early 90s think it’s still well worth the trip :)

That's a good endorsement @ipredictariot5 . I know a couple of late 90s Newcastle medics a bit (my sister went there, not medicine though!) and they've all stayed up there and speak very highly of it. It was not on our radar until the last minute due to the distance, but it does sound great. DD and DH are spending a couple of nights so they can have a look around as we missed the open days.
Hope your DD's interview went well today

Hello, for anyone still waiting...my daughter has just received an interview invitation for Birmingham (non contextual, UCAT 2700, grades 8/9 GCSE)...hoping for good news for all others waiting x

Oh that's good to hear @runningonchocolate. No news here yet (with very similar stats- just an A in eng Lit- so equivalent of a 7 for it & 20 pts more in ucat), but definitely gives us hope.
Best of luck to your DD.

Finally 1st response here DD got at interview invite for St.George’s
starting to feel some excitement now

DS is at Newcastle and ever so happy.

Good Luck to your dd tomorrow

Great to see more interviews coming in. Especially nice to get a first one @Justlikingit!

That's encouraging @Thefatbutteredpig. I've read a lot of positive comments about Newcastle on here over the years. Hope she likes it (and more importantly, they like her!!!).

@maybemedmum thank you. It’s good to feel like she is in the running

Did anyone else’s DC receive an email from Plymouth? Essentially their process has changed this year, but they expect everyone to have heard by the 24th of December

Yes DD got that email too.. slightly tough to be told if you’ve not heard by 5pm on Christmas Eve it’s a rejection! Do we think there are higher applicant numbers this year? My DD knows loads of people who applied to Plymouth as a safety choice..
in other news DD didn’t get a KMMS interview so whilst not formallly rejected based on previous years it will basically turn into a rejection by Feb. They keep them hanging on just in case they need a second batch of interviews - cold!
She’s pretty annoyed by it but as they don’t publish how they contextualise in detail it was always a shot in the dark - but it is our local med school so we tried. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Need to focus on the two interviews in hand now..
good luck everyone!

All the best to you DD with the 2 she has. Hopefully she has more positive news to come.
My understanding of the email, is everyone ( yay or nay), receive their decision on the same day, but staggered throughout the day.
But if you haven’t heard by 5pm, you can call to find out your outcome.
I guess the challenge is if you don’t know anyone else that has applied there, so don’t necessarily know the outcome date that answers have gone out ( hope that makes sense).

Thanks, I haven’t read the email myself so just got the condensed (annoyed) version from my DD! That makes more sense. Good luck to your DC and well done on their interview at SGUL! It’s a bit of a rollercoaster isn’t it, let’s hope it’s a bit of Christmas good news from Plymouth for everyone on the thread.
x

But if you haven’t heard by 5pm, you can call to find out your outcome.

At 5pm on Christmas Eve everyone will have gone home until after New year.

By 5pm on the day that the invites/rejections go out ( which we don’t know yet), is what they mean.
But the date will be before 24th December

Interview here for Birmingham with very similar stats to @runningonchocolate except A*s as we are in Wales and contextual. Quite pleased as thought it might be a bit iffy.

Any tips on helping them deal with interview nerves? My DS is saying his mind is just going blank in practice and he can't get an answer to come out, even though I know the answer is in there as he will happily talk about the topic in another setting.

He is so worried he is not going to get any offers it's completely overwhelming him and possibly creating the situation he fears the most.

@medprocesspain Mind blanks and nerves are all perfectly normal so first of all your ds must try not to work himself up in to a state about expecting it to happen. If it does it does, so what? The way he deals with it will be what makes the difference to a good interview. He might want to have a few plans up his sleeve for his worst case brain-freeze scenario so he knows it won't be a disaster whatever his brain does:

1. Take a moment and breathe after their question. Breathing's ok and so’s thinking! It's better to spend a moment thinking in silence than rushing in with a garbled nonsense answer.
2. If the silence is getting a bit too long and awkward, then he can just repeat the question and ponder it out loud (or ask them to repeat). Hmm, so you're asking me about X,Z and Z. I'm just considering my experience with Y first ...
3. Just saying something/ anything can help to open up the speaking/ thinking ‘gates’ even if it's not directly relevant. ( Hmm, X,YZ makes me think of ABC which I did at school. It's a bit similar because ...) Obviously he won't get the points for going way off topic but if he needs to use something as an opener it can help as an icebreaker to segue into the relevant topic.
4. Does he know the STAR interview technique? ST + situation and task; A = action; R+ Result

It's a very helpful way to summarise the experience you want to talk about for the answer to competency questions. E.g. I was member of team A and my role was to do B, but B went wrong so what I did was C and D and the result was that it all went brilliantly and everyone was happy. If he has a few of his experiences thought-through ‘STAR-shaped’ and ready to talk about, he’ll find he can draw on something or other when asked about skills and experiences. (The same ‘STAR’ story can quite often be used to demonstrate a whole number of difference ‘competencies he might be asked about – working in a team, dealing with conflict, stress, etc etc).

• Smile! It sounds trite but smiling helps both the interviewee and the interviewer to feel better and more relaxed. If you need to, TELL the interviewer that you’re very nervous and experiencing brain fog. If you say with a smile I’m really sorry, I’m so nervous, I just seem to have gone blank for a moment it will help the interviewer/s empathise and not worry about the awkward silence.

In fact your ds will probably find that the adrenalin on the day will carry him through fine. He won’t remember anything he said afterwards but our brains have a wonderful capacity to help us out in moments like this and he’ll be amazed how articulate and sensible he’ll sound.

Good luck to all.

@Haffdonga thank you, that's really helpful. He's doing well with the role play / task based stations but is struggling with talking about himself, it's quite odd lol. Can deliver bad news but ask him about his volunteering and he freezes 🙄. I will pass your techniques on, thanks again.

Hi all, congratulations on all the interview offers coming in.
Hope you don’t mind me joining - been lurking for a while and found all the info and advice so helpful. Our DS has been set on being a doctor since we can remember - we are not an academic family and know no one who is a doctor so this is all quite an overwhelming process (for me not him, he’s taken it all in his stride). I feel like it’s such a hurdles race, get over one step and have a moment of triumph then start worrying about the next step (Getting work experience, UCAT, Application, Interview offers).
does anyone know where you can see ratios of applicants to interviews to offers?

It really is a hurdles race, I’ve found it overwhelming too! My DD found the stats you are looking for just on the uni websites, not sure if it helped her to know them or not!

@HGC2 thanks for the response - I’ve found some info on the uni sites. It’s for me rather than DS - he’s very much of the opinion that the stats are irrelevant as it doesn’t change his personal outcome. He’s got a great philosophy and outlook for this process - me not so much 🤣

does anyone know where you can see ratios of applicants to interviews to offers?

You can see ratios of applicants to interviews and applicants to places on the Medical Schools Council web site (click on Competition ratios for an individual medical school, or uncheck all the filter boxes apart from Competition ratios). Not all medical schools have provided the data, though. You'd have to guess at applicants per offer, but the number of offers will be between around 1.75 and 2.5 times the number of places.

Can’t believe the interview dates have come round already! DD has Leicester & QUB this week so going to be lots of travelling. Think I’m more nervous than she is so really trying not to let it show. Good luck to everyone with interviews!

@Midnight001 my DD had QUB and Leicester last year too! She got offers from both and is just finishing up her first term at Leicester this week and loving it (although first formative exam is today!) She found the interviews quite similar for both (and actually the med schools had very similar vibes too) The book recommended earlier in the thread was very helpful (especially for the numeracy test). Good luck to your DD!