Here’s how to ace it.
Hello! I’m Rachel, and I’ve just completed my intercalated year at Imperial College London. I’m here to give you my top tips and tricks to ace your medical school application which includes telling you how to work smartly, apply strategically, and making sure you’re looking after yourself and your mental health. I’ve cried, stressed, and made mistakes so you don’t have to ☺.
Firstly, you should be so proud of yourself that you’re applying to medicine. While the process will be tough, require lots of resilience and determination, the reward of becoming a doctor will be worth it in the end. But I know what you’re thinking: “Medicine seems so hard to get into, there’s so much to do (and the UCAT is the strangest exam I’ve ever seen)”. Those were my thoughts too, and I was so overwhelmed at the beginning – it really can make our brains frazzle sometimes. But let’s break this down into chunks. This is how I aced my journey to medical school.
Be Organised. Plan in Advance. Don’t be afraid to get involved!
The worst thing would be to leave everything till the last minute – cramming + stress = ☹ (a really scientific equation of mine). Revise 4-6 weeks for the UCAT. Both revising for too many weeks or cramming the week before will put you at greater risk of burnout. This also goes for exams – you should have a few months of revision spread out! Medical schools also want to see that you have thought out your application to medicine thoroughly, and demonstrating long term commitments to volunteering or extracurricular activities is a good way of doing this, as well as having an array of different experiences (can be both healthcare and non-healthcare related!). Try and get these started as early as you can. I organised some work experience at my local hospital in a respiratory ward in Year 11/S4 for a week, as well as volunteering at a care home once a week. I then went onto volunteer at a hospital for over 3 years and I still do this today! When it comes to getting experience for your medical school application, don’t try and make it just a tick box exercise. You should be doing things you genuinely enjoy and are able to develop your skills and reflect on the experiences you’ve had. This nicely brings me onto my next point.
Reflect. This is essential.
Reflection is one of the biggest skills you’ll need for your personal statement and interviews. Even if you have done many years of volunteering, if you haven’t reflected or learn from it – this doesn’t display yourself well. Instead, keep a reflective diary of what you get up to on your work experience/volunteering, and a note of any other things you’ve learnt from. Use what’s called the “Gibb’s Reflective Cycle” to aid you in this. Pick out something specific. For example, instead of just saying “Volunteering strengthened my communication skills.”, go into more detail and pick out an example:
“I learnt to adapt my communication skills when aiding a blind patient across the hospital. While I initially found this difficult, I was able to lead the conversation and make him feel at ease by explaining where I was often and creating casual conversation. I then asked my colleagues how I could have improved, to ensure I was competent in working with people of different disabilities.”.
You can explain this even further by using the Gibb’s cycle. Reflection doesn’t just stop here – you’ll be using it throughout medical school and in your career as a doctor!
Exams. Let’s ace them.
I briefly mentioned exams earlier saying to make sure you are organised and revise in good time. I would also recommend some techniques called active recall and spaced repetition, which are proven to boost your grades. This means you test yourself on the content you’ve learnt in specific intervals. Why is this? Well, our brain like to forget things. And if we don’t recap something, we’re more likely to forget it. By reviewing your content, you interrupt the brain’s path to forgetfulness, and you’ve strengthened the brain’s connections to. That piece of information. The graph below shows how this works:
A great piece of software to do this is Anki (an online flashcard app). You can use other apps like Quizlet, but the good thing about anki is it tells you which flashcards you need to do each day. However, remember everyone learns differently. You might find mindmaps work better for you! Find the revision strategy that works for you.
It’s important to note that you don’t need straight A*s to get into medicine. A lot of universities only as for AAA, or even AAB for some if you meet eligible criteria. I know some of you are thinking, “I didn’t have perfect GCSE’s surely they’re going to pick someone else?”. No, this isn’t always the case. I have so many friends who got into medical school with a below average UCAT, and no A*s at A level. It’s all about applying strategically and acing the personal statement and interviews.
Interviews
Be yourself! They want to see you’re not just this robot who sits and recites medical textbooks. Use the reflective strategy I told you about, be confident, have a friendly face and smile, and practise, practise, practise! Get your friends together and grill eachother on the potential questions you might get asked. Why medicine? Why should we choose you? Those are just 2 of the questions you are pretty much guaranteed to be asked, so you want to make sure you know what to talk about. Try not to sound scripted – stay relaxed, have good body language and you’ll ace it.
Now, go ace your medical school application!
I hope that was all helpful! This was just a whistle stop tour of the things you can do to strengthen your application. My final adivce would be just to take up the opportunities you’re given. Maybe there’s a head boy/girl position to fill at your school – go for it! I ended up being deputy head girl, doing a young musicians programme and playing sports all alongside my application. Please remember to have fun, take breaks, and reach out if you need help.
Good luck ☺.
