Regarding DH2005 Posts

[ignorDH2005]

Dear All,

I feel compelled to respond to some of the comments a senior member of this forum has written on the subject of entry to medical school via the Access route. Over the last few months I have routinely checked the posts under the Assess heading and have found DH2005 has contributed to nearly all new threads often on several occasions.

As a former Access Student at Kings Lynn I have first hand experience of life on the course: the academic requirements, the application and interview process for medical school and entry to medical school. Reading DH2005 posts I feel they are often inaccurate and misleading. I think it should be noted that DH2005 whole experience of Access to Medicine, Application to Medical School and general life in Kings Lynn seems to stem from an interview at the College of West Anglia and extensive research. Where I respect his endeavor to be source of information on the topics at hand, I feel he is inadvertently delivering poor advice and ill sourced information.

Further, to those who intend on applying to any Access Course do well to source information and advice but please be aware there are those of us out here that do not agree with some if not most of what this member has to say.

To reiterate this is not a personal attack however I feel the best place for most of the comments DH2005 has contributed so far are best keep to himself. There are members of this forum who have successfully attended an Access Course and gained entry to Medical School who are best placed to offer advice and counsel on matters regarding Access to Medicine and Application to Medical School.

I invite other members of this forum to comment on my contribution and accept this will be a contentious issue. I apologise in advance if DH2005 takes any offence.

Regards

A friend to the forum.

[claudia]

I'm not sure what you hope to achieve with this post

I don't think anyone here claims to be an expert in any domain; people respond to threads based on their first hand experience, research and/or subjective opinion. To register with such a provocative username I believe is unneccessary - people have posted things I don't agree with and should I feel very strongly about it, I will contribute my different opinion on the relevant thread and that will be the end of the matter...

[fatcat]

Dear All,

I feel compelled to respond to some of the comments a senior member of this forum has written on the subject of entry to medical school via the Access route. Over the last few months I have routinely checked the posts under the Assess heading and have found DH2005 has contributed to nearly all new threads often on several occasions.

Good on DH2005 for trying to offer others advice, rather than having a cowardly dig at others.

As a former Access Student at Kings Lynn I have first hand experience of life on the course: the academic requirements, the application and interview process for medical school and entry to medical school.

Then why are you hiding behind this offensive username and why don't you contribute positively to the Access to Medicine forum?

Reading DH2005 posts I feel they are often inaccurate and misleading. I think it should be noted that DH2005 whole experience of Access to Medicine, Application to Medical School and general life in Kings Lynn seems to stem from an interview at the College of West Anglia and extensive research. Where I respect his endeavor to be source of information on the topics at hand, I feel he is inadvertently delivering poor advice and ill sourced information.

I'm sure DH2005, like everyone else, bases his information on his subjective experiences, which are, by definition, different from person to person. As far as I know, he is going to King's Lynn this year so will be able to add to the advice he gives as and when he begins the course. I have no personal experience of King's Lynn so cannot comment on the accuracy of any information, but at least DH2005 does his best make a positive contribution to the forum, based on his experiences at the time.

Further, to those who intend on applying to any Access Course do well to source information and advice but please be aware there are those of us out here that do not agree with some if not most of what this member has to say.

Then respond to his posts directly if you disagree. I'm sure if you can add anything useful then DH2005 would welcome it, since, as I already pointed out, everyone's own experience is subjective.

To reiterate this is not a personal attack

If this thread isn't hijacked by a moderator then I'll believe you.

however I feel the best place for most of the comments DH2005 has contributed so far are best keep to himself.

If DH2005 is being openly and deliberately misleading or offensive, fair enough, but I suspect that this is not the case. Isn't the point of a forum to make our opinions known (though not using your method)?

There are members of this forum who have successfully attended an Access Course and gained entry to Medical School who are best placed to offer advice and counsel on matters regarding Access to Medicine and Application to Medical School.

Then I'm sure they will also contribute to the advice given, and if anything misleading is being said they can correct it.

I invite other members of this forum to comment on my contribution

Invitation accepted.

and accept this will be a contentious issue.

No, I suspect this will very soon be a 'closed' issue.

I apologise in advance if DH2005 takes any offence.

Yaha.

[jonesy]

Sorry I have nothing to do with Access to Medicine courses 'but felt compelled' to react to ignorDH2005's thread topic.

I agree with fatcat and claudia in that DH2005 is only offering advice based on his experiences and no-one should take anyone's advice on here as red. We are all experts in our own situations, so advice given to other applicants is to be taken with a degree of caution because not everyone is exactly the same.

I have found DH2005 to be a very level-headed and helpful person. He responds quickly and unambiguously to people requiring help.

Quite frankly your username is offensive and reflects a personal vendetta against DH2005, which in this forum is unacceptable.

I respect your views, but most people on this forum like DH and find his posts helpful....so get a life

Anyway good luck with whatever you are trying to achieve!

Member of the DH2005 Fan Club!

[silverspoon]

Couldn't believe the title of this thread when I checked it this morning... so un-called for and against the principles and moral conduct of open internet-based discussions. There is no need to have even started the thread and it appears ignorDH2005 is under the impression that he is to be regarded as more useful and/or important than DH2005 simply because he has an alternative experience of the course DH is about to commence.

I must add to the last two posts by saying that DH2005 has, since I joined the forum at the beginning of the month, made my reading not only more enjoyable but has certainly been an asset to the boards with information, jokes and general chitter-chatter which is what, some may say, is what 'nice' and 'friendly' people tend to add to communities rather than mild mannered back stabbing a la the original poster of this thread!

If you're reading this, see you soon DH2005!

[exms]

I don't consider this thread to be a personal attack. You're saying that you think his comments on access courses are ill-advised / not worth making rather than saying anything about the person himself. That's fine.

As others have said, if someone is posting inaccurate information on the forum - there's always enough people around to correct them. You'd be probably better off doing exactly that, rather than essentially telling DH2005 to stop posting.

Now, I don't believe you've suddenly come out of nowhere and read the forum and then decided to post this. You've been reading and posting to the forum under a different user ID but (for some reason) don't have the courage to stand behind your words. Users are not permitted to have multiple IDs: your new user ID is banned. Feel free to continue this discussion under your actual user ID if you wish - unless it does degenerate into personal attacks, of course.

-- A.

[Eponine_hugo]

Sorry, I think you're being very harsh, I agree with Claudia etc. DH2005 is a very helpful person who obviously cares about encouraging and helping other members, you may have perhaps more access experience, but why devote a whole thread to attacking someone who only tries to help others? It strikes me as very strange.

[Eponine_hugo]

Just to add: I think DH2005 is brilliant!!!!!!!

[DH2005]

Morning, folks

IDH2005 - if you believe that I am misleading people, why not reply to the misleading content in question and set me straight? That would surely be the more appropriate thing to do, as the allegedly misleading information that I have posted would stand directly corrected, rather than remaining in the public domain so as to continue to mislead people. One user, Michael, recently challenged me on another thread and I conceded that he had made an important point that I had missed. However, I feel compelled to tell you that I have been told, by the College of West Anglia and by medical schools that I have telephoned and visited, that the Access to Medicine landscape is very different to a number of years ago. There are more Access courses, more Access students, and medical schools are becoming increasingly fussy about who they admit. The majority of my cautionary advice has been rooted in this. For instance:

1). At the beginning of the year, it came to my attention that a number of medical schools were beginning to refuse applications from graduate Accessers with 2.iis, and I brought this to the forum's attention.

2). In May/June I was told by Manchester and Leicester that Access to Medicine cannot be used by recent school-leavers to 'apologise' for poor science A levels, and I brought this to the forum's attention.

3). Over the past few months I have telephoned and/or attended in person at a number of med schools and all but a couple of them have made stipulations about GCSE grades - as such, I have also brought these requirements to the attention of the forum.

4). Whenever advising other users about their suitability for Access to Medicine, I almost always advise the user to contact med school admissions and the College of West Anglia directly to clarify whether my view is correct.

I freely admit to being a limited authority on this subject. However, I am a successful Access to Medicine applicant who has attended a number of open days and spoken to a number of admissions tutors about their view of the course and the students who take it. The information that I post here can be referenced directly to the words of individuals in positions of genuine authority.

I welcome ignordh2005 to private message me so that we can resolve this. I am not offended and would welcome the opportunity to publicly correct anything misleading that I have posted.

Thanks, folks.

[Leo2004]

Hello IgnorDH2005,

Whilst I champion your right to correct asertions you feel are inaccurate and I laud
what I see to be an attempt to help provide the most accurate information to applicants, I feel that perhaps the best route of doing this may have been to contribute to said threads at the time you were in disagreement with another member's view so that both 'sides of the story' could've have been read by everyone as well as stimulating interesting debate.

Also, please remember that this forum is a community for people interested in applying to study medicine or those at med school and as such it should be viewed as an information/experience interchange and not a gospel of definitive info about med school application. Any serious applicant would do well to use the info/views expressed here as a springboard to do their own research into their own best route - every application is different.

Last but not least, I feel DH is a friendly chap doing all he/she can to offer others the benefit of his personal experience and there's nothing wrong with that!

Best,

Leo