so medicine is one of the most competitive degrees at least in the UK
probably the similar case in other countries as well so any of these
requirements talking about today I think you're definitely going to need to look
at having so the first thing I'm probably the big one for students to
consider is grades now firstly you've got your GCSE grades so you've
got to have maths English and science and then basically as many GCSE's as possible
in grade seven or an eight or even nine in old
terms as many a stars and a's basically for your a-level requirements chemistry is an
absolute must for every single medical university for going straight into a
medical degree if you're eligible for ever reason for foundation years and
such they all have very specific requirements so you have to look into
each University it's go straight into the great degree you've got to have
chemistry your second subject should really be looking at how the biology now
I think there's a very small amount of situations where the universities except another science
instead but ideally to give yourself the best chance you are chemistry and
biology then for your third subjects some people might choose to do and at
the side so you might choose to do biology chemistry physics for example or
biology chemistry and maths now as far as I'm aware Cambridge is the only
University that specifically says that they want your third subject to be a
science subject so if you feel like yes confidently I could get three A's no
problem by doing biology chemistry and maths then if you're happy to do that go
for it but if you feel like I'm doing biology and chemistry and I'm not sure I
can get an A if I was your third science and it is perfectly okay to choose
another academic subject examples like the psychology or history or something
like that so not this you know you choose Business Studies or drama or
dance that's definitely a no but and the third academic subject that you can
get an A in if you feel you can't do third science with biology and chemistry
already is perfectly okay now other qualifications that aren't a levels such as
btec's, access course and things like that
generally aren't accepted for going straight to medical degree so if you're doing
one of those qualifications or you're going into it later you might
need to look at other options like graduate entry medicine foundation in years etc this is
mainly covering going straight to a medical degree and the other thing that
is very important you need to consider is work experience now ideally if you
can shadow a doctor hospital shadow a GP that would be ideal obviously some
people aren't going to be as fortunate to get that a lot of hospitals go to
what you to be sort of 17 or 18 already then if you
want obviously to work with vulnerable people if you're going to a hospital
they might want to do certain requirements and maybe you might not be
able to so that would be ideal of course there's other things like if you can get
a job as a Health Care's and again that can be a bit restrictive age wise but
that's another thing to be looking at if not than any volunteering at all that's
health-related whether that's in care homes sort of help you elderly people
children any sort of vulnerable group of people that you can do any volunteering
with is great and any sort of experience at all you can get such as part-time
jobs to show that you've got good communication skills you work well on
team etc you basically aim to build up as much different experience as you can
that's some relevance and then the next thing that you also have to consider as
I say the certain qualities they'll be looking for so they'll what in your
personal statement that you've got to show that you know you're getting to be a doctor so
you've got to talk about that experience you've got to talk about you know
the information you've learned from that experience you also got to show that you
can they can handle the challenge and show that you've got to show that you know
how challenging the job of a doctor be you've got
this and emotional intelligence that you caring that you're empathetic so
you've got to be showing all these different skills you know you think you
you've got those grades and you've got that work
experience and you put yin the personal statement also just before you
have the application deadline so the dates vary okay they can be sort of a
couple months either way you'll also need to do admissions tests now there
are two that UK use this is the UK well they took the K out so it's now the UCAT test
of it so it's an admissions test which majority a lot of university
take but there's also the BMAT so you'll need to be look at you'll be
doing you will need to look a to at least one of those we apply many people
might choose depending on their strengths to do both and then they can
apply to a couple of universities to take one of them and say three it takes
the other if that matches what grades are since they've got a bit better so
doing both is some of the things that some people can certainly consider doing
and then the other things then after all that they'll also definitely go and have
interviews there every medical degree will have an interview which they bill
they can vary but they're all looking at the same things and say the qualities
are listed there lastly the thing is you'll also need to consider are you'll
have a occupational health sort of check that you have to do so degree so first
thing that was made to make sure you've got your vaccines like your MMR you might
need to have a hepatitis B that sort of thing is done but it's also looking at
whether you can do the job safely so if you have a condition that is manageable
and it can make adjustments for does not mean that you can't be a doctor it's
best to start these discussions early if you do have something it might affect
the course just so they can get things in place and to make sure a lot
disappointed if there is and it's if it's a rare case where I would stop you
doing it but don't be afraid to share that and they will look to work with
your best you can with that and then the last thing you'll have to get a DBS
check done as well as we're sort of anything worker who come you've got to
have one of those so yes that's all the requirements you'll be needing for a
medicine degree now it sounds a bit overwhelming but see it as a tick list
of things you've got to work through and if you've got any questions at all then
please pop them down the comments below or if you have if you think you're
studying medicine you've got any concerns or anything like that please
please leave a comment and I'll be happy to help you as best you can and also if
you think other subjects check out the other
videos in this series and if you are interested to see other videos don't
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