Successful Medical School applicant and Top Achievers’ Programme Scholar
Q
What kind of school did you go to?
State school
Q
How did your school support you with your application?
During the process of getting ready to apply, my school helped go through my personal statement by allowing me to send drafts to various teachers in various departments. Also, they arranged further help and support for reviewing my personal statement as well as invaluable UCAT support from Dr Derin [TAP Consultant] who worked with myself and a few other applicants throughout the summer to ensure we were prepared to the best of our abilities for the UCAT and later focused on ensuring that my personal statement was ready to be sent off. After the application, further support was provided through many rigorous mock interview sessions to help prepare us for the tough medical school interviews.
Q
How many students go on to Medical School from your school in a typical year? What about in your year group?
In my school there have not been any previous students who have gone to medical school but this year two people, including myself, were successful in securing our medical school placements.
Q
What were your grades at the time of application (GCSE and any other)?
For GCSEs I obtained: 2A*’S, 6A’S, 1B and for AS level I obtained: AABB
Q
What aspect of the application process were you most worried about?
My principle concern during the medical school application was whether or not I was ‘good enough’. I was aware that medical applications and placements are very competitive and thus I was worried that I would not be able to compete with other applicants. In particular, I was worried that my GCSE grades and AS level grades were not competitive enough.
Q
How helpful did you find the different aspects of the Top Achievers’ Programme?
I found every aspect of the preparation extremely helpful. The individual meetings helped me to decide the right universities for me as well as being realistic for me. The UCAT preparation provided invaluable help and ensured that I secured a relatively competitive score for my application and the vigorous interview preparation allowed me to walk into my interview feeling confident and well prepared.
Q
What advice would you give to other potential applicants?
Get as much experience as you can, starting now, in any health care setting and try vary your experience to make your application stand out. Also, start doing some extra reading, medical books, articles, news stories etc as this will help you with your interviews. Also, start looking at interview techniques so when the time comes for interview preparation you’ll have some knowledge of how to tackle the questions.
