Primrose Kitten

If you are thinking about applying for medicine, there is quite a bit more to think about than other degrees.

The first thing you need to know is that only four of your five choices on your UCAS application form can be for medicine. The reason behind this is to protect you, the entry requirements for medicine are high. If you apply and don't get any offers, you still got that fifth choice to fall back on or if you apply, get your offer, but then don't get your grades, you still got that fifth insurance choice to fall back on.

When you're picking this non-medicine fifth choice, please make it something medical related. If it is not something medical related, that is going to send out massive red flags to the people doing the admissions, and they're going to wonder why you want to be a doctor but aren't willing to go and do something else medical related. If you don't get onto your medical course, you don't actually want to be a doctor anymore, then you don't have to take up that place, and you have lots of other options afterwards. But please make sure that this fifth choice is something medicine related; otherwise, it's going to look really weird.

The other important UCAS thing that you need to know is that the entry deadline for medicine is much earlier than the entry deadline for other courses. You have the same entry deadline as Oxford and Cambridge. You have until the 15th of October to get everything in, so things can happen very quickly after you get back from the summer break. You have a month to get your personal statements and references sorted out. When we go back to school in year 13 is not the time to decide you want to apply for medicine. You need to have started sorting things out much earlier than this.

Less than 10 percent of applications for medicine actually get offered a place, if you want to be one of those 10 percent, then you need to make sure that your application, your personal statement, your predicted grades, and your references really stand out.

You need to be thinking about your work experience, how you can be getting work experience, what type of work experience is important, your extended project (EPQ) or extended essay. This is going to give you some fantastic things to write about in your application and in your interviews, and it's really good of a way that you can show off your passion.

You need to look at the university entrance requirements and decide whether you're going to apply to sit the UKCAT or the BMAT, or both of them. Universities will ask for either the UKCAT or the BMAT, it is not your choice which one you apply for, but if you pick all the universities which accept UKCAT, then you don't need to take the BMAT; however, chances are you're going to need to take both. Apply early for your UKCAT so that you can have your choice of dates. Do not leave it until you are applying for your UCAS place because there will not be enough time. Start getting ready for interviews. Think about potential questions that could come up and start thinking about answers.

Start thinking about ways that you can talk about your work experience, show how much you've got out of it. Start thinking about ways that you can prove that you are passionate about medicine. That being a doctor is your life. Start thinking about ways you can impress the person interviewing you.

Start prepping for the UKCAT and the BMAT. It is going to be a lot of content in there, a lot of critical thinking in there, a lot of logic, outside the box thinking, and how you approach situations. They are not solely based on your knowledge from school.

Then the other thing you need to do before we even start thinking about filling in our UCAS application form is going around universities and deciding where you want to apply. Which course structure fits you, which module structure fits you, whether you're going to be happy at the university, city, campus, how far away it is from home. There are lots and lots of things for you to consider. You have made the difficult decision that you want to apply for medicine, and I'm afraid there is a lot of work for you to do.