Medical Admissions Tests!

Book your UKCAT and/or BMAT before it's too late, if you're applying for Medicine next year!

UKCAT = London Medical Schools

http://www.ukcat.ac.uk/

BMAT = Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL and Univeristy of Bristol

http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/bmat

Good luck! =)

Experience it!

Just a quick note on work experience.

Work experience and voluntary work are very important for your University application and later, the interview. The Medical School is expecting you to know what you're getting yourself into.

Where?

So, working in places like: a nursing home for the elderly, in palliative care, hospices, youth centres for special needs children, GP surgery, pharmacy/chemist, hospital (in UK or abroad) and there are many more examples.

It's about quality not quantity. It may be that your friend has over 10 different experiences, doing a week or a few days at each placement and not having learnt much from them. However, you on the other hand, have 2 years worth of experience at an elderly care home where you befriend an elderly lady with dementia, a years experience at a hospice for children, have done 2 months at your local GP practice and are able to reflect a lot more than your friend.

The key word here is REFLECT. If you are able to do this effectively, noone can stop you from acing med school and becoming a super-duper Doc! =D I recommend keeping a work experience diary and writing about every little experience you've had and any events or workshops you've been to such as debates, museums, suturing etc. Don't just describe and list what you've done, write about what you've learnt and what skills you've gained. Write about how this experience has made you a more competent medical student. Remind yourself about any difficulties you've had and how you have or will overcome them.

When should you start?

Asap! Start as early as during ur GSCEs or after. It would be nice if you could organise some experience in a hospital abroad, but only if you can't get hold of it here. If you do go abroad, learn about their health system and compare it to the NHS (great to talk about at your interview!).

Remember it's never too late!

Some experience is better than nothing. If doing Medicine was something that occured to you a few months before you started to fill in your UCAS application (or the like), think about what made you change your decision. Was it a few weeks at a Dentists clinic that you thought Dentistry was not for you? Or was it working at a pharmacy, when you realised your desire to diagnose a patient as well as prescribe them medications?

What about other things like paid work or hobbies?

You've got to prove to the Univerisity of your choice that you are a dedicated, hard working and organised student with a lot to offer them! So telling them about how you are able to juggle paid work, leisure activities (such as sport) and your education is like icing on cake! If all you're doing is studying, you've got to drop some books and get involved with more extra-curricular activities!

Even REFLECTING on the skills you have learnt or challenges you have overcome at work and/or in playing sports (or joining the choir etc) is appreciated.

For example: meeting deadlines at work, being head student and working with others to organise events, learning how to work as a team in football, improving your communication skills whilst handing out leaflets in the streets and the list goes on! Just think about ALL the things you've done over the past few years and what opportunities you've got waiting for you right now!

If you have any questions on how to write a personal statement or have already written one and would like me to have a look, do let me know. =)

An Inspirational Poem

I came across a wonderful poem in a book that I'm currently reading, "The key strategies that can make anyone a successful leader" by Zohra Sarwari, here it is:

Lessons from an Oyster - Anonymous

There was once an oyster
Whose story I tell,
Who found that some sand
Had got into his shell.

It was only a grain,
But it gave him great pain,
For oysters have feelings
Although they're so plain.

Now, did he berate
The harsh workings of fate
That had brought him
To such a deplorable state?

Did he curse at the government,
Cry for election,
And claim that the sea should
Have given him protection?

'No', he said to himself
As he lay on a shell,
'Since I cannot remove it,
I shall try to improve it'.

Now the years have rolled around,
As the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate
Destiny stew.

And the small grain of sand
That had bothered him so
Was a beautiful pearl
All richly aglow.

Now the tale has a moral.
For isn't it grand
What an oyster can do
With a morsel of sand?

What couldn't we do
If we'd only begin
With some of the things
That get under our skin.

So, we should never give up on our dreams and aspirations. We should continue in life even with the obstacles and struggles that may get in our way. For we never know, if we have enough patience, and if we're able to persevere... we may end up like the oyster and its precious pearl.

SGUL Interview Questions

I had a panel of three males, they were all Drs, one of whom was a CVS lecturer.

The following questions are organised in sets of three, one set for each interviewer.
Note: most of the questions were follow-up questions depending on the answers I gave.

• Why do you want to do Medicine?
• Tell me about your work experience.
• Is there anything else you did at your work experience?
• How are you as a person?

o What are the positive aspects of Medicine?
o Wouldn’t you rather be a nurse/radiotherapist etc.?
o Why is research important?
o What recent research have you done?
o If you were given £20 million to spend on the NHS, what would you do?
o What would you spend the money on right now?

- How were you chosen as head student?
- Can you tell me about a difficult decision you had to make as head student, or any other difficult situation?
- How are you as a leader?
- What do you think of a team?
- Are you dependent? (Can people depend on you?)
- What would you do if someone didn’t agree with you?
- What qualities do you expect your G.P to have?
- What do you think about the treatment of people with self inflicted diseases eg. A smoker with lung cancer?

On the way to the interview room, one of the interviewers asked me about my journey – they do that to make you feel comfortable!

Good luck! =)

The beginning...

The beginning is always the hardest.

Whether taking your first step as a child, holding a pen to a blank page as a writer or climbing the ladder of knowledge as a student.

It takes consistant hardwork, compromise and a little bit of luck to reach the top. Follow your dreams and success will follow you.

Whatever you choose to do in life, you must believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel.