Any Thoughts On How Realistic My Application Would Be?

[giella]

That's nothing. My dad got into medicine without interview with BCC at A level. It's sickening.

[ilove_mrblair]

btw has anybody had any trouble finding shadowing work, i wrote to my own gp a month ago and ive still had no reply!!!!!!

im just worried that the uni's i would apply to, such as warwick and others which place a heavy emphasis on the ukcat, would hav abandoned this approach due to an increasing number of applicants and the supposed a-level 'grade inflation'.

its interesting that i would not even be considered for undergraduate medicine with ABB, and yet my doctor said that his HIGHEST offer for medicine back in the mid 80's was ABB.

How times have changed!!!!!

Yeah setting up shadowing and hospital experience is a real bugger for me right now. I'm worried that with 6 months or so to go whether it's still worth going for the likes of George's (for which I'm preparing for the dreaded GAMSAT) who place a lot of emphasis on long, continueous healthcare experience

[rdivers]

Get a 2.1 and you sound like you should be ok. But aim for a 1st. That will help you after you become a Dr.

Does having a 1st really help you later as a doctor? In what way?

[yazoo]

Does having a 1st really help you later as a doctor? In what way?

For short-listing for some speciality training posts, and also foundation programme application at the moment, having a 1st will score you an extra mark or 2. So it may, depending on the circumstances, make the difference between an interview or not!

So I'd always advise getting a 1st.

[scooby22]

Hey,

Yeah,shadowing can be hella difficult to sort out unless you actually know someone personally who can set you up.I had literally 0 GP or hospital shadowing, yet managed to get 2 offers. The best thing you can do is call up local nursing/residential homes and go there. You won't have to security hurdles like trying a gp/hosp etc and will give you far more to talk about. Dealing with terminal illness/psychaitric problems, working with nurses/care assistants as part of a multidisciplinary team, talking with relative - it will give you a more rounded exprerience than hanging out with a GP.
Another thing I did was work doing cancer audit in a hospital - it was a paid job, and fairly time consuming - but involved looking at medical notes, chasing info from consultants (i.e their secretaries lol) etc. In my interviews I talked about the variuos skills I developed from these expreiences and it was more varied and interesting. Also, if you have time, do a first aid coursre and volunteer,that will give you oodles of experience aswell

Good Luck

[nath99]

Hey,

Yeah,shadowing can be hella difficult to sort out unless you actually know someone personally who can set you up.I had literally 0 GP or hospital shadowing, yet managed to get 2 offers. The best thing you can do is call up local nursing/residential homes and go there. You won't have to security hurdles like trying a gp/hosp etc and will give you far more to talk about. Dealing with terminal illness/psychaitric problems, working with nurses/care assistants as part of a multidisciplinary team, talking with relative - it will give you a more rounded exprerience than hanging out with a GP.
Another thing I did was work doing cancer audit in a hospital - it was a paid job, and fairly time consuming - but involved looking at medical notes, chasing info from consultants (i.e their secretaries lol) etc. In my interviews I talked about the variuos skills I developed from these expreiences and it was more varied and interesting. Also, if you have time, do a first aid coursre and volunteer,that will give you oodles of experience aswell

Good Luck

i have the hospital voluntary work, and i have been an active member of st john ambulance for a while now, but i think that if i can get some gp experience, then i can say i have experience of both primary and secondary healthcare
I wonder some times if gp's and consultants forget that they were in this position once upon a time!!!!!
is it a bit weird tht i only start uni in september and ive started loking through my old a-level chem notes in nervous anticipation for GAMSAT, or is it just me lol

[nath99]

ive heard that provided you can show evidence of work experience, and hav good references with a prediction of a 2.1, then warwick and other places such as bart's and newcastle use your UKCAT score to decide if you will recieve an interview or not, is this true?

oh, and has evryone on here applied this year? how did you all do?

[Mart]

Sounds like a good application to me
Just make sure that you're genuinely interested in your work experience, cos if you make it to interview, they'll see right through you if you 'did it cos you had to, to get into med school' lol
The Manchester interview is based strongly on group work and work experience, so be prepared
And pray that A2 Chemistry at grade A isn't part of your offer
It shouldn't be though, if your a graduate
So good luck

[nath99]

thanks for that

I absolutely love my voluntary work, st john ambulance especially, im at the salford division which is a really close knit unit and we allg et on great and know we are all there for evryone else in the team.

So have you applied to manchester? what did you think? anything you need to know about the city or the medical school facilities just ask, us anatomists share the medical school building at manchester. Im from manchester anyway, so i know the city well!

[nath99]

hi guys,

It's been a while, but i thought i would just say that Anatomy seems to have been a wise choice as a first degree, god its so hard!!!!

i've just started my second semester and I have had a lengthy conversation with my personal advisor (he teaches medics too) and he said he's seen enough to right me a reference already for medicine, and im only a first year!!!!!! that can only be a good sign right?

turns out the rumours of manchester having a transfer program into medicine for anatomy undergrads seems to be completely false, even for those of us with firsts in every module (over 80% in some of them )

that is all......

Nath