Posts Tagged ‘Oxford’
Medicine Summer School
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Sarah
Hi!
I’m Sarah and I’m going to University this October.? Not to read Medicine, but to read Chemistry.??In the end, I felt that?Chemistry was more appropriate for the type of career path I wanted to follow.
This is?my first important point – only choose to apply for Medicine (or any course)?if you are 100% sure that the course is right for you.? Do not let anyone pressurise you into choosing a course that you have doubts about, as it is you who is going to be studying the subject for x amount of years – not anyone else.? You will have to?be?dedicated to?your chosen?subject, and?this will come across?when going through the?interview process.?? Universities will expect you to be passionate about what you want to study.
Last year I attended a Medicine summer school at Durham University.? There were approximately 30 of us on the Medicine course, and the first day began with an introduction to the department.? Immediately, an emphasis was put on commitment to a medical profession.? A level grades were also highlighted.? We were told that Universities asked for 3 A’s for the Medicine course just because the course was so competitive.? This will be the main problem if you apply for Medicine.? Although in the newpapers there are frequent reports of a shortage of doctors in Britain, there aren’t enough places on the Medicine courses to accommodate the?number of applicants.? You will need top grades to have a chance of getting on the course.
On this summer school, we were told what Universities looked for in a personal statement specifically for Medicine applicants.? As well as having the required A level grades and a good UKCAT score, some evidence of work experience was crucial.? Anywhere where you are working with people and helping people on a daily basis.? Apply early to a number of different places to ensure you get some experience.? (A lot of people at the summer school had left it too late and were unable to find any placements at all). ?If you can’t get work experience in a hospital or at your doctors surgery, why not try a hospice or nursing home.? Remember, a lot of other people will be fighting for placements nearer the application time, so act quickly! Even if you don’t manage to get some work experience before you apply, if you have some?lined up for later in the year put this on your personal statement.? It will help!
Throughout the summer school we did classes which would have been typical on the Medicine course.? As well as some theory, there were circuit sessions where we had to do a different activity at each point.? The first ’station’ was first aid.? At this point we each had a dummy which was the supposed casualty?and we had to act out how we would help in the situation.? At the next point blood pressure was explained and we each took a turn taking each other’s blood pressure.? We also practised using stethoscopes and examined our knees and elbows!
The final station was anatomy.? Here we had to paint body parts on first year medical students.? This was fun, although there were several different colours of paints, and the lungs ended up being green – not really a good sign in a patient!? The first years told us about their anatomy classes in which they looked at organs which had been preserved in formaldehyde.? However, due to formaldehyde being an appetite stimulant they always had to go to McDonalds after anatomy class….
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