2 down, 9 to go

So I've done my FP2 exam which I thought went dreadfully, and my C3 exam which I thought went fantastically (apart from 1 question, but I'm hoping for a high 90 still).

I'm now officially on study leave. I've done 7 days of that and I've found out something about my self: I'm very easily distracted. Please please PLEASE don't make this mistake. I've lost 7 of the most valuable days of revision. No exams at all to stress me out. I can't believe I've made a mistake like this. Especially seeing as there is no space for a do over this time. Eurgh. Silly silly Tara.

1. Get rid of whatever devices you have in your room which can access the internet. That is: phones, laptops, Wiis etc. Get rid of them!
2. Figure out how you revise best. I find that rewriting all of my notes in order to get a whole topic on one A4 sheet works best for me. If you know the stuff well enough, you can condense it comfortably because those notes can be just prompts for your memory. I only figured this out last year. I got the best grades I have ever achieved.
3. Make sure you have a copy of your syllabuses (this is the ONLY time you are allowed to access the internet. Now get rid of that device again). Now you can make sure that your condensed notes cover everything in the syllabus. If they don't then learn whatever you've missed.
4. Papers. Papers. Papers. The most important revision tool. Do at least one paper (under exam conditions) the day before your exam. If you do rubbish in that don't give up hope. Just learn what you missed and try another paper. You should do much better in this one. You'll find out the gaps in your knowledge just in time.

Yes, I know I'm not following the most fundamental rule - don't use the internet - just by posting this, but look at it this way: you can learn from my mistakes.

My head of Sixth Form tells our year group this every morning: You shouldn't be surprised on results day - the harder you work, the higher your grade. Seriously, I reckon she might be right on that one. I worked my arse off to get my grades last year and I swear to God, the modules I did the most revision for were the ones I got As in, the ones I avoided were the ones I got Bs and a C in. Now pretty much all of those As were really high As at that, so that tells you something.

I know if I do mediocre revision I can get AABB, that's not me being cocky, that's me talking from experience. But I want to work hard so I can be bloody happy on results day when I get AAAA. It's so much more satisfying, and if that's what I've been predicted, then why shouldn't I get it?

Work hard and you will be happy. I'm starting to get into the swing of revision now. I've done a little bit of biology and I'm almost halfway through one module of chemistry. I want to have a relaxing summer after my exams. I want to feel confident that I've done my best and I won't be disappointed on results day.

Awesome.

Work Experience

This is a must for any medical school applicant. If you haven't done any yet and you're in year 11 or 12 I'd seriously start organising it. Places at hospitals (always look for hospitals for your experience, GPs will just have you filing and making tea and coffee.) are very competitive. I had to apply 6 months in advance only to be wait listed. I got in in the end, but that was because I wasn't from a "Priority School" whatever that meant. Do a lot of research before applying. You might be at a Priority School after all.

If they say you're too young to do hospital work experience there are other options. I've been working in a nursery for 2 years which is great because it shows you're committed and it fills the young children check box. If you have a family member who's in hospital use this to your advantage. Visit them as much as possible and make friends with the doctors and nurses. After a while, when they find out you want medicine they'll start letting you tag along. If they don't, you take the initiative and ask them yourself. I did this and got months worth of really varied hospital work experience. Hospices are also really good because you can just volunteer to read to the patients or if you're musical play some pieces for them. They do really enjoy this. However because of the sensitive nature of working in a hospice you do need to be 18 to be listed as a volunteer. Back to doing it under the radar. If you know someone in a hospice visit them as much as possible and get to know the people there. I did this quite a lot. This is not for the faint hearted: the people that you're getting close to are dying. You meet them and make a bond, the next week they're dead. If you don't think you can handle this I would not suggest working in a hospice. This doesn't mean you can't be a doctor, but they set the age limit for a reason.

Find out if the unis you're applying to have a minimum amount of work experience you need to do. This is important as they will probably ask you at interview all about it.

DO NOT LIE ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU HAVE DONE.

This is possibly the most important piece of advice I will give you. Your interviewers will be health professionals. They will know if you're telling the truth. There have been cases at interviews where people get asked for a day by day run through of their work experience. If you say you've done a month when you've actually done a week they will find out. A lot more can happen in a month than in a week. Better to say you've done a week and talk about it coherently than try to spread out a weeks worth into a month so it sounds like you didn't actually do much. It might seem like you've wasted your time that month, rather than having a really productive week. Trust me on this one.

4 days to go

So I have 4 days to my first exam. FP2. I'm not so worried about this as there isn't a load of facts to learn, just methods. I've just been doing papers as revision which I find good enough for maths. The same with chemistry calculations. It's not so much learning the methods in time for the exam, it's getting used to using them and finding where I tend to trip up.
I won't be blogging much during the exam season because I'll be examming, but I'll try and keep you updated with other things I've done which weren't in that massive catching up post.

Good luck to anyone and everyone doing their exams!

Catching Up

Well, I've just started this blog, but I only have 4 months before I start medical school.

I'll basically just summarise everything that I've been through to get here:

September 2006: Beginning AS Levels - I chose Chemistry, Biology, Maths and Further Maths with the option of Critical Thinking over General Studies. Critical thinking really helped me with my BMAT, so I would recommend taking this just to gain the skills even if you don't think you'll do well on the AS exam.

December 2006: I'm at Medlink at this point and it was an amazing experience. Met new people who I'm still friends with and really picked up some really useful information and tips... although being told that 60% of applicants don't get a thing really hit me hard, being at that conference gave me the little boost I needed and it showed me who my competition was.

March 2007: We start talking about options for next year and who's considering early entry (you have to if you're going for medicine). Revision was in full swing now.

April 2007: Sixth form trip to New York, New York. It doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do at this point. A week a way from valuable revision over Easter, but it really sorted out me state of mind. When I got back I was in revision panic mode which meant that I did the most efficient revision I'd ever done.

May - June 2007: EXAMS. Nothing much here but as proof that revision really does help I didn't revise as well for module 3 chemistry and that was the only one I found I struggled on. (More on this in the results month). Another stupid moment from me: I went to see Mika in concert the night before my Critical Thinking exam. Wasn't too detrimental as the exam was in the afternoon, but a word of advice - book tickets after the exam timetables have been finalised. We thought we had 3 weeks before our first exams, but the timetable changed and everything was shifted back. Also my 17th birthday. Yet another year without a party.


July 2007: Back to school for a few weeks to start on A2 courses. Starting Biology coursework prep because it's bloody hard. We had to stay on the subjects we were planning on dropping in the event of failing on of the ones we wanted to carry on. Also going to open days at medical schools to find out what they're looking for. Very important. It saves you from wasting places applying to schools which won't look at you. Those 4 spaces on UCAS are harder to fill than you'd think. As soon as Summer starts I go to Medsim. I really enjoyed this. It was like a practical version of Medlink and you got a set of scrubs out of it. I made even more friends here and the experience was amazing.

August 2007: I get my AS results: 4As and a B in chemistry. I got high As on modules 1 & 2 but only a C on module 3, which brought my UMS down to 237. 3 marks off an A. This shattered my confidence because Chemistry is the big one for medicine, and everyone applying will have an A at AS and will have one up on me. Thank God I was beyond determined. Also I sat my UKCAT. It was still in a beta type phase - they got rid of the personality analysis and the abstract reasoning. Semi glad about this because the personality analysis suggested I was bordering on psychopathic territory, but the abstract reasoning was my highest score: 870/900 so I was naturally disappointed as it brought my average down. Critical thinking helped with the first section a lot.

September 2007: Start of Year 13. I've decided to carry on with all 4 A2s because not having that A in chemistry I needed something to show I was better than everyone else. Personal Statement time. I'd get this done over summer because there will be a backlog of all the early entry applicants applying at the same time. You should be close to finalising your 4 choices. If you're applying to a BMAT university you should have registered to do this by now.

October 2007: Early entry deadline. Seriously affected because of the postal strikes so it was extended. Sent off my Oxford application (might as well give it a go... you never know) and sat my BMAT at the end of the month. The only section I had an issue with was the writing section. Most applicants do because us science types aren't built to write essays.

November 2007: BMAT results and first rejection from Oxford. Can't say this wasn't expected because I'd only scored average on the writing section even though the others were quite high. Oxford looks for a score of around 22.0 and above, correlated with your GCSE results. Entry for January modules and resits.

December 2007: First interview! I get a phone call on a Friday night from the University of East Anglia offering my an interview for January. I can't make the first day they offer because I have an exam so they were kind enough to offer me one for later. BE CAREFUL - when filling out your UCAS form and you put a mobile phone number make sure you don't get a new one, or if you have to, keep your old one handy. I found my old phone a while after and found 5 missed calls from the same Norwich number. They'd been calling me for over a month.

Jaunary 2008: Our school doesn't normally do January modules but they started this year. I took a further maths module and resat module 3 in chemistry and module 1 in biology. I didn't need to resit the biology module, but my teacher recommended it in order to recap my memory for the synoptic work this year. I have my interview at UEA and I think it goes utterly abysmally.

February 2008: Nothing special. Still silent on the university front. I start planning my gap year and where I'll apply for the next time.

March 2008: In the space of one week I get an offer from UEA (one of the first to go out), and invitation to an interview from Keele and a rejection from Nottingham. I wasn't too fussed about Nottingham because I'd only applied to make the family happy. I had my Keele interview less than 2 weeks later and I thought it went pretty well. 2 weeks later I get rejected. You win some, you lose some. I wasn't complaining: I'd got an offer from and amazing university! I was out of the 60% of full rejectees.

April 2008: I've clicked UEA as my firm and set about looking for other people going to UEA.

May 2008: This brings us up to date. 5 days to my first exam. Leavers' stuff at school is being sorted out and revision is getting there. I've just performed 2 nights at the school concerts but I'm quite behind on work, so this weekend is spent on making a dent in the massive pile of papers we have to do. I'd much rather organise my own revision: I don't feel prepared to tackle papers yet, but you have to make the teachers happy.