emily | 20 | england | medical student
It’s time to settle in because this is going to be a long post! Lots of people have requested that I share my tips for applying to medicine in the UK and so I decided I’d put together this post to serve as a sort of guide. I am going to be focusing on the UK as that’s the only system that I know, but I’m sure some of this information is useful for those of you that are applying to other countries too!
Like most other people hoping to apply to medicine this year, I’ve been preparing for the UKCAT so I thought that this would be a good time to make a list of some resources I’ve found useful when doing my own preparation.
When you’re applying to medicine school in the UK you can only apply to four medical schools, which leaves you with one free option. Choosing your backup course is sometimes difficult as the chances are that your passion is medicine not some other course. Many students choose to take a course that is similar to medicine in the hopes that they can swap onto the medical course either after a year of their course or take medicine as a graduate degree afterwards. If you’re like me then you might just want to choose something else that genuinely interests you even if it isn’t particularly related to medicine!
For those of you who are unsure, hopefully this list of possible courses will give you a helping hand in deciding which course is best for you!
If you’re a student in the UK and you’re planning to apply for medical/dental school then you’re probably familiar with the UKCAT and the BMAT tests. These are tests that every medical student takes before they apply to medical school. The majority of UK medical/dental schools require you to take the UKCAT test and a few like Oxbridge require the BMAT test. This post will go through the ins and outs of taking the UKCAT test.
Earlier this week I asked people for book recommendations that you should read before applying for medical school and I got some great responses so I thought I’d share them here. You can obviously just read these for fun but they should at least be kind of helpful for medical hopefuls.
When applying for medical school, you often find yourself worrying about the grades needed in order to get a place. Unfortunately, good grades are not enough of a guarantee because pretty much every applicant will hit the minimum AAA boundary needed or go far above it. Many medical schools expect a variety of work experience within a range of areas to show that you have some knowledge and experience of the area you hope to go into. Whilst it may be simple in theory, in reality places are often limited and you may find yourself unable to do a lot of things.