Any Advice?!

[Future_Doc?]

Sorry, but this is another 'do I stand a chance' post.

I have 4A*'s and 6A's at GCSE, but have been told by my school that I needed at least 5A*'s to consider applying. Does anybody know if this is generally true (I know the admissions sometimes say less, but you can never fully trust that I don't think).

I'm doing Chem, Bio, Physics and History for AS and my guess is that my school will predict all A's because it's a grammar school and that's what they do! However, I know medical schools seem to look at personality/work experience just as much as academic ability.

I volunteer a couple of days a week at my local hospital on the Emergency Assessment Ward. I'm also just about to start a First Aid course. I think I could get a couple of weeks work experience in the local hospital as well. I'm a prefect at school (not sure if that's too 'lame' to put as an achievement.) Does anybody have any advice on other work experiences? Also, I'll be applying for 2011 entry so do I need to do UKCAT next year? I'm a little confused because I'll have already sent my UCAS before I've sat the test, right?

Anyway, I know you're probably sick of these, but any advice or tips would be great, because I know academically I can apply (apart from GCSE's) but not sure about personal. Thanks.

[Gizmo says -]

you ought to trust the admissions tutors above all, macca, so you are fine for the vast majority of med schools

[flarestar]

Yup I know you meet the minimum requirements for Manchester and Queen Mary's so as long as you get a UKCAT score above their cut-off you'll get interviews there and I suspect it's the same for many other uni's.

[Rippy]

You should be fine really. There's a couple of unis you shouldn't apply to, and quite a lot of unis of course will want good GCSEs, but yours ARe good, and they're only part of the admissions process.

[minnako]

Hi,

You stand a perfectly good chance. As I tell anyone, check the websites of each and every medical school, email them or phone them up if needs be. There will be plenty that don't care about GCSEs, especially if you are a well-rounded applicant, and doing some research will help you pick your universities. The main universities I believe take them into account would be Oxford and Cambridge, probably.

You do the UKCAT the summer before you apply (advice: spend some weeks working on it, if you can, buy some good books, preparation makes a difference). The last day you can sit the UKCAT on is the 10th or 9th of October (many schools ask you to do it earlier), so you will definitely have done it by the time your application has been properly sent off by your school (15th October at the latest). Don't leave it to the last minute.

For your achievements, you can put anything, as long as you can actually write in your PS what it has taught you, and how that is relevant to medicine. If you have loads, then you might need to pick a diverse sample, if you don't, then put them all.

[markyc]

You should be fine with these grades, I think you should consider what other experience you can get outside of studying. Its hard when your studying, working etc but if you really want it you'll make it!