Interview at Hull York Medical School

You guessed it!
I heard back from HYMS about a week ago inviting me to interview.

I had just finished my dissertation labs that day and it was getting dark early. I'm based at the sixth floor and for some reason I decided to walk down the twelve flights of stairs as opposed to taking the lift that day. On my way down, I checked my e-mails and I remember stopping in my tracks. The subject of the message read "HYMS: Invitation to Interview" and I can't remember exactly how I was feeling. It was a mix of emotions, from being nervous to excited and not really believing my luck. I went into the toilets and just stood by the counter re-reading the e-mail, double checking I wasn't imagining it. But it was there, in black and white that I had been offered an interview.

It was scheduled to be on the 9th of December, but having looked at my calendar it turns out I have a university exam that day. I emailed them back and they've confirmed they're willing to reschedule my interview for another date and I'm just waiting on them again to get back to me.

The format of the interview is both an MMI and PBL scenario. The MMIs are split into two stations lasting ten minutes each, with three questions at each station I believe. The PBL scenario is a group discussion with 7 or 8 other candidates again for around 20mins. It's been about a week now and I still can't really believe it. But I need to start preparing and only then will it start to hit me that I might be getting an offer to study medicine.

Choices Submitted!

Hi everyone, just a quick post to let everyone know of my choices for UCAS:
University of Warwick - A101
Barts and the London - A100
Kings College London - A100
Hull York Medical School - A100

I would not be surprised if I did get rejected because of my UKCAT score of 672.5, but anything can happen right now. I'm just staying positive and praying for interviews.

Keep me in your thoughts!
Thank you so much.

UKCAT Results

Hello all,
So on the 18th of September, I sat my UKCAT at 2pm. I've been revising on and off for about a month, and in the last ten days I went into intense revision mode. I used both the 600Questions book which costs £10 and a 2-week subscription of Medify costing me £35. All in all, I'd highly recommend Medify to definitely boost your timing and it helped me considerably. My only regret was I'd left my preparation for Descision Analysis a little late, leaving around two days before my exam. In 2012 I scored 680 in DA, assuming they probably didn't change the marking around too much, oh how I was wrong!

My scores below:
Verbal Reasoning - 620
Quantitative Reasoning - 780
Abstract Reasoning - 750
Decision Analysis - 540
Situational Judgement - Band 2

Giving an average of 673. My heart sinked a little when I looked at DA, surprised considering I thought I did quite well in that section, more so than QR! It means I'll probably be taking a small step away from applying to four A101 GEM courses on UCAS, and consider 2 or 3 five-year A100 courses. I personally don't think my UKCAT is high enough to get interviews onto the four-year courses, and I really want to maximize my chances of interview. Funding might be an issue, but I've been saving up for a few years so it shouldn't be too bad..

Thoughts?

That First Post

I'll be working in the same libraries, sitting in the same lecture halls and reading some of the same textbooks. Medical Biochemistry is a discipline in its own right, but I can't help and think that I'm close ...just not yet close enough.

Last year, on August the 15th 2013, I was first in a line of many, waiting patiently at 7:45am at my college. I had a calculator in one hand and a folder of my UCAS papers and old certificates in the other. The countdown on my calendar wasn't helping, nor was the fact I hadn't slept or ate the day before. Sound familiar? Of course, I'm talking about those long-awaited A-Level results which for me, hard work finally translated as AAB. Fortunately, that meant I started university in the winter which I was incredibly excited about. I felt humbled because although I was rejected for Medicine in my UCAS application, the hidden blessing is very much that I am studying Medical Biochemistry!

Fast forward a year, and I am now just starting my second year of university, and I am excited! Reflecting back, I believe I simply didn't feel confident in applying for medicine, which admissions had picked up in my could-do-better-but-good-effort application. Despite this, through a little bit more experience, skills and time - which Biochemistry offers in buckets - maybe can I think about a career as a doctor a realistic goal.

And before I forget, I'd like to give you the warmest welcome to my blog! I am a terrible writer so please bear with me. I know it'll take a few posts before anything is worth reading, but good writing comes through perseverance, right? Well great, because I hope this is a long-term project, meaning I will have (and need) a lot of time to perfect it.

I'm very interested to see how the next few years pan out.
Lots of love!