Medicine Futures - Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)

Ilektra:

I think it all comes down to being organised. The best advice I can give you is to get a big wall calendar, mark the important dates (UCAT deadline, UCAS deadline etc) and reflect on how much time you need for each thing. The summer before Year 13, I gave myself a proper 3-week holiday (to look forward to) and then would revise my A-levels during the week and do UCAT practice during the weekend. I still follow this in med school but also remember to leave an evening or two during the week to relax!

Sanaa:

My revision technique for a levels was to write flashcards after every lesson and learn them in the same week so I familiarise myself with the knowledge. Once I became familiar with the topic, I would attempt exam questions relating to it to see if I actually understood it. I used to repeat this method throughout A level Biology & Chemistry. In terms of Maths, I would look at example answers & learn methods then practice exam questions. I would create a checklist to keep a track of what I’ve learnt and what I haven’t and code it red, amber or green, so I know if it needs revising again. In medical school I do this same method and learn flashcards for all my lectures then attempt any MCQ questions I can find online.

Aaron:

For A-Level: practice questions and loads of them particularly more methods based subjects like maths in which you are repeating sequences and processes of which if you do wrong you’ll get the answer wrong (that said being able to do the process correct even if you get the answer wrong means you can pick up marks for methods which is still a win). For subjects like Biology and Chemistry which have more understanding and “wordy” questions such as describe, Explain questions, flashcards alongside practice questions is very helpful. I particularly used what my sixth form provided first and foremost (and this includes reaching out for help to teachers after class, in breaks and after school if needed for help) then question banks such as Physics and Maths Tutor (which put all questions by topic for various exam boards for most subjects, not  just Physics and maths), then the exam board website itself for the past papers. Ensure you do leave yourself some past papers for closer to your exam period as well.

These techniques have really translated into university. One I technique that really helps to understand and remember things particularly for Medicine (or Bio and Chem etc for A Levels) is active recall and spaced repetition. Instead of boring you with the details Ali Abdaal has some good videos on YouTube on this topic.

Videos also really help me, both at A Level and now. If I don’t understand something then learning the same thing in a different way or from someone else is really helpful. One good YouTube channel for science and Maths A-Level, was Snap Revise. On a similar note, groupwork can be good, personally I found this hit and miss and really depends on if you get easily distracted by others.

Structure: Little and often is what I say, but naturally we are all human and miss a bit but, spending time when you are not preparing for mocks and/or in school holidays to organise all your practice questions etc to be checked off across the week, month or year is really helpful. As it prevents procrastination and time wasted looking for resources each time you come to study.

I also would say stay flexible. Things change and you have to change with it. Some weeks you may have more to do in your personal life than other weeks or something similar and that is also the same for subjects. Some subjects may require more of you one day or week than another.

If you want to go hard core regimental on yourself then that’s fine if it works for you, what I would advise is plan time for yourself and the things you enjoy doing as these times are just as valuable. Also Ali Abdaal (not plugging I swear, he just really worked for me) has a good video on revision timetables so give that a watch as well.

To summarise experiment, what works for one person may not work for another so try don’t beat yourself up or be too stubborn to change what may not be working for you. Also, teachers, peers and the internet are at your fingertips so use them to your advantage and see different perspectives there too.

Ilektra:

You need to remember that you aren’t doctors and therefore aren’t expected to have the knowledge a doctor would, you are prospective medical students. They won’t fact check you on diseases, treatments etc but you need a basic understanding of what being a doctor in the NHS entails. For example, it’s important to keep up with current events (i.e. winter pressures, doctor’s strikes) and understand how the NHS functions on a basic level. Some medical schools expect a certain level of knowledge about the population they treat (my friend was asked specific population questions in Cardiff), so when you get your offers for interviews you might want to look into that, but it is a generally mean interview question.

Sanaa:

You are not expected to know a lot of medical information but websites like medic portal is a good guidance to use and learn from for specific medical cases, information about doctors and lot of other interesting points that you can use in your interviews. It’s good to read upon some articles on BMJ journals and be aware of current hot topics in the news relating to medicine.

Aaron:

It is a hard one to answer really as it depends. The short answer is start with the hot topics, some basic medical ethics such as the 4 pillars etc. Then a little bit of reading of books like The War Doctor, This is Going to Hurt etc, would be of help (This said don’t lie about this to look good as I have heard plenty of stories of people doing that then being caught out and that looks worse as it is being dishonest). Then any reflections from volunteering and/or work experience.

In all honesty, bar the ethics and some hot topic, this is more about showing the interviewer and the university that you are interested and committed to doing Medicine. As it is a long and hard career and like anything else you are interested in you would immerse yourself in it (just like if you play football you probably support a team and know lots about football, it is exactly the same for medicine). I can assure you they will not expect you to know anymore science than what you learn/ learning at A-Level.

Ilektra:

I applied to medical school pre-covid, so getting a clinical placement was significantly easier back then. I emailed a lot of hospitals in my local area and in London, eventually I got a one-month placement in my local paediatric hospital and a two-week placement in Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London. I appreciate this is significantly more difficult now, but I think that it comes down to how you reflect on whatever work experience you manage to get, rather than the experience itself. I mentioned how inspiring it was to see the healthcare teams work in cohesion to improve patient outcomes, and how I would like to be part of said teams in the future. I reflected on the importance of communication, especially when breaking bad news to prospective parents, and how doctors’ have a pivotal point in this process. I am aware that paid alternatives exist, where you pay a fortune to go to a remote country and shadow doctors, but I firmly believe these do not offer you any advantages and are a waste of money. So please don’t feel disadvantaged if you can’t attend these (I couldn’t), you can still attend med school!

Sanaa:

As it was the Covid period when I did my work experience, I took part in virtual work experience called ObserveGp. Here I learnt about general roles as a doctor and involvement in a multidisciplinary team. This intrigued me about certain specialities, so I went, and researched articles relating to cancer and found a patient case which I reflected on. I talked about this in my interviews and what I learnt from it, and I linked it to what skills doctors will need. I recommend for work experience jot down what you learnt and saw that appears interesting to you and do some extra research on it so you can talk confidently in interviews and for your personal statements.

Aaron:

This all depends on what you define as work experience. I will split it into two types for the purpose of answering the question more clearly.

Medical work experience: I completed a week in Thoracic surgery, and a day shadowing on a stroke unit. I reflected each day initially by recording audio files at the end of each day to really capture how I felt and what I learnt then I translated the relevant bits (things that related to the reality of working as a healthcare professional and things that could help me answer hard questions like why become a doctor and not another healthcare professional like a nurse) then I had that to hand for when I came to my personal statement and I could just match up different reflections to different points I was making or skills I was trying to illicit.

Non-medical work experience: Volunteering as a guide in a hospital; Volunteering as Duke of Edinburgh Leader and working as a food and beverage assistant. These positions may not directly link to medicine, but they have many transferable skills and although experience within a medical setting whether a guide, or shadowing or unrelated like a bar or waitering role they all have skills and experiences you can reflect on and link to medicine and what is expected of a medical professional.

Ilektra:

To be entirely honest with you, compared to other courses in university, medical school is significantly more contact-heavy both in contact hours and work expectations. You will realise in first year that, while your business degree flatmates have 15-hour weeks, you have 40-hour weeks, and this can be quite disheartening. Despite that, you need to find time to relax and socialise and do things that make you happy, otherwise you will burn out. I think it’s a skill you develop quite early in medical school, being able to manage your study time effectively, so you can have a healthy work/life balance. The hardest part is that no-one can teach you this skill and you must develop it yourself, but everyone does, so this shouldn’t deter you from applying! Just be aware that it is A LOT of work!

Sanaa:

Generally, we have around 4/5 lectures per week on average, but this does differ every week, and we have roughly 2 tutorials per week in first & second year of medicine. Along with revision and socialising with friends, I also work 2 jobs. One which is a private tutor for 3 evenings a week and a student ambassador. I use a timetable to manage my time accordingly and to do lists to ensure I meet deadlines. Sundays are my rest days and during the week I do have a couple of evenings free to do whatever I like. As long as you have a good routine, prioritise work that needs to be completed and give yourself a revision slot (e.g. 5-8pm for 4 days a week). It’s okay to have lazy days and take time off from studying as it does get tiring but with a balanced routine studying can be effective and you can enjoy your time too!

Aaron:

It changes as the years go on. In Gateway to medicine there is less time spent at university so it can be a bit easier to fit work with life commitment etc. In year one the volume and difficulty is greater and there is more time scheduled in on campus for lectures, groupworks and placement but we still have a lot of time to use as our own to study and fit life commitments within. Across the first two years of Medicine we also get Wednesday afternoon of as protected time for sporting and/or societies etc.

Work life balance varies and it must be understood that there will be periods when you may not be able to go to the gym as often as you’d like or see your friends, do your hobbies etc, especially if you have a part time job on the side as well. Also, if you are someone like me who needs more time to understand something then naturally you may need more time to study than someone else so that will effect how much time you have for life commitments. Quite equally there will be times when you can study less and as such have more time to spend with your friends etc. It all depends and it is about finding harmony and feeling comfortable with the fact that “work life Balance” is very individual and will change for everyone over time. You may need to do some leg work to find your work life harmony and as such may not find it straight away. I would say my work life balance at medical school is good.

Ilektra:

This entirely depends on your year of study! In first year, you get half a day on placement and your main role is to take histories from patients and some basic clinical skills (blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate etc). Second year is fairly similar, but you might be allowed to do take bloods or put cannulas in patients. Third year onwards, when you are entirely clinical and on placement, you have more responsibility and are allowed to do more advanced clinical skills (like inserting catheters or suturing patients). Moving to fourth and fifth year, you can have your own patients. This allows you to take histories, examine them and propose a treatment plan to your attending doctor and discuss the case with them. At no point do you have the responsibility to treat or discharge patients, because you are not yet a doctor!

Sanaa:

In 1^st year, we can only communicate with patients so take a history, take observations (oxygen saturation, temperature readings, blood pressure, pulse). In second year, we are trained to do practical skills such as venepunctures (take bloods), cannulas, physical exams, urinalysis and other practical skills. In hospital we are allocated a ward and have to get our mandatory skills signed off with a doctor we are working with. Doctors may assign tasks like take a history from a patient and report your findings back to me, or they will allow us to perform skills. In GP, we are with the nurses or allocated to a GP where we observe patient consultation and practice communication skills as well as practical ones listed above.

Aaron:

Little in first year and more as the years go on. So, in first year the most involved we must get are taking vital signs such as blood pressure etc. We may be lucky enough to help take stitches out etc if consultants feel we can, but this is not always guaranteed. In future years as our clinical skills get more complex we are expected to do a lot more for our learning. So, by third year we will be a lot more confident and ready to be involved.

Ilektra:

My favourite thing about medicine is attending clinical placements! I feel that you see so many different patients from different walks of life, you talk to them and find out their worries and troubles and at the end of the day you get to help them! I genuinely get so happy when I see patients of mine getting discharged! I think this allows you to understand your own small contribution to patient care.

Sanaa:

My favourite thing is learning about conditions and diseases and then seeing it in real life in placement and putting my learning to practice in a real situation. I enjoy practicing my skills at placement and being able to have early patient contact from first year at University of Leeds is very helpful in building confidence.

Aaron:

Seeing patients. The change from being against your peers to be the best to working together to be the best is also a great aspect of Medicine as we can all pass or conversely all fail so we don’t have to “beat” each other as such.

Ilektra:

In terms of physical exercise, I do climbing and aerial dancing. I also play the guitar and piano, and love to do arts and crafts nights with my friends! I love being outdoors and go on hikes, so being so close to the dales works really well!

Sanaa:

Personally, I enjoy going to the gym and swimming so I make time for this on my weekends and some evenings. I also enjoy spending time with my college friends and catching up with them. In my spare time I watch series on Netflix.

Aaron:

Climbing. Hiking, Cycling. Although not a hobby I volunteer and have paid work working in the outdoors and with young people of which I enjoy. Always a win when you have work that you enjoy.

Ilektra:

As someone who has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and takes medication for it, I don’t believe your anxiety should deter you from applying. While anxiety impacts different people differently, in my experience, you can still ensure you are able to communicate effectively. There is plenty of support on a university level to assist you with things you might struggle, in my case exams. Communication skills are built slowly and as a medical student you have enough time to get things wrong, get feedback and try again, before you get things right! As long as you understand how your anxiety might impact your learning and find ways to mitigate for that, you will be fine! In general, medicine is a career that fits extroverted people more, but you will find most doctors or medical students suffered from anxiety at one time or another.

Sanaa:

The University of Leeds are really good at providing support and helping those with anxiety when it comes to presentations, talking to patients and group-work. Throughout your years at University, they train you to take part in a lot of tasks that involve communication so you can practice these skills in front of audiences and teachers and are provided with effective feedback to learn from. By training students beforehand, it makes it less nerve-wracking when going to placement and having to carry out patient histories by yourself but there is always help available. If you struggle with anxiety don’t let it deter you from medicine as the University will teach ways to try and overcome this.

Aaron:

I would definitely recommend Medicine still. Doctors are still human and everyone including the medical school recognise that too. There is so much support here at Leeds (and there will be wherever you go) that will be able to help you navigate managing medicine no matter what struggles you may have with anxiety or anything personally. I say if this is something you want to do and you show you have the grit and determination to give it a crack then everyone will be 100% behind you and do what can be done to support you in becoming a fully qualified doctor.

Ilektra:

I think attending a one-month clinical placement for two consecutive years is probably what differentiated me from other candidates. Through this I was able to show commitment and perseverance, and my own understanding of the profession. This really allowed me to reflect on if this would be the right career path for me, so I wrote my personal statement and attended my interviews with a clear understanding of the difficulties I might face along the road.

In addition to this, I was a volunteer in refugee houses for unescorted minors during the last two years of college. For me, this was something I wanted to do irrespective of medicine, as the refugee crisis back home was deteriorating for half a decade. This was my, small, way of contributing to its solution, and I was able to reflect on the communication skills I acquired in my personal statement.

Sanaa:

My research on patient cases, reflection on my work experience and linking it to my personal skills and qualities is what made my application good. Grades have a big impact too, but grades only get you as far as an interview offer. The interview is assessed separately and determines whether you receive a final offer or not. I believe my interview answers made the biggest difference to my application and allowed me to express all my medicine experience.

Aaron:

Reflection, reflection, reflection. It is great that you may have shadowed a surgeon or that you knew you were destined to be a doctor since you took your first breath but if you can’t reflect on the experiences and skills you have acquired and the things you have done then you might as well not mention them. Everyone has done similar things or sometimes the converse but what I think made the biggest difference to my application was my ability to draw the key reflective aspect of my experience. Yes I did Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but this showed I had commitment to a cause and demonstrated my ability to remain calm under pressure and problem solve. Or yes I shadowed a thoracic surgeon but more importantly I learnt the importance of working cohesively with a multidisciplinary team and understanding the appropriate way to communicate information adaptively to each patient to improve patient outcomes and care.

Similarly I could quote an example of when I showed a particular skill. For example if I said “listening is an important skill of a doctor, I demonstrated this when I guided at hospital to ensure patients got to their appointment on time and easily.” (this is just an illustration of my point not the exact wording I would use). Also it sounds stupid but grammar, punctuation and spelling is a small but important thing you can do to ensure you are not being negatively affected due to this.

I also reserved a few examples or things I did for interview as I wanted to be able to draw from things that were not a repetition of what I put in my personal statement. Interviewers may ask questions like when have you demonstrated x skill or what did you learn about the medical profession from work experience and having some extra things that weren’t on my personal statement while still ensuring my personal statement was strong was helpful I think.

Ilektra:

So, the SLC company covers tuition fees and a maintenance loan (home students) for your 3-year degree and an additional year, whether that’s an intercalated bachelors or an additional year if you had to resit. If you choose to go for an intercalated masters, the SLC covers your tuition fees and maintenance loan, you just must submit an application for a postgraduate loan (as the fees are higher). Now at this stage, you will have done 4 years of studies and the NHS covers your tuition fees for any additional years after 4^th year. So, for me, I got a loan from SLC for years 1-3 of med school, then a postgraduate loan from SLC for my intercalated MSc, and tuition for years 5-6 were covered by the NHS bursary.

As of 2023-2024 funding: The NHS bursary covers your tuition for additional years after 4^th year, for both home students and EU students, but not international students. For home students, it also provides you with a non-means tested bursary of £1,000 and a means-tested bursary depending on household income. It is important to note that the NHS bursary, irrespective of family income, does not cover the same amount you would have previously gotten from SLC.

Sanaa:

Start your personal statement with what initially made you choose this degree, maybe a personal reason or something you saw that initially interested you. Split your personal statement up into sections of about yourself and why you chose this degree, work experience, volunteering, personal hobbies and how you relax from studying. Every point you make about your work experience or volunteering, always link it back to yourself and what skills you have that allow you to be a successful candidate. Remember your statement is all about you and your experience so make it personal and as unique as you can!

Aaron:

It isn’t as big as GCSE to A Levels but still a step up. The step up to the Gateway programme is less than up to year one.

We are taught a lot of information and a big challenge is knowing what information is the most important to learn and least important as we can’t know absolutely everything which is different from A Level.

The content is both hard and there is a lot of it. That said in the first year the content is mainly just high in volume instead of difficult but as the years go along the difficulty increases while the volume remains quite similar. In Medicine the content is quite varied as well. It is quite common to just think we learn the main body systems and biological science which is the main part of what we learn as well as the associated clinical relevance of the information but we also have teaching on research techniques, psychology, sociology as well as professionalism, reflective skills and clinical skills and time in placement. So we have a lot to manage. In turn we have a variety of assessments too (e.g. essays, presentations and multiple choice questions).

Some of it is just rope learn, some requires a greater need to understand. There usually isn’t a chance to take the foot off the accelerator as such, as there is usually something to do. It seems like a lot when you are going through it (particularly like myself you are in year one) but as I have been told by years above the first year is the easiest and it is only as hard as you make it. There is plenty of support to ensure you can manage the work load and find the best systems to manage.