Open Days

Hello All!

So today I thought I would write a little about open days, those potentially wonderful but sometimes boring and repetitive but always useful days where we get to visit universities and medical schools.

Over the summer, I’ve been to a few open days having spent a large majority of the Easter holidays trolling through prospectuses and trying to decide where I was going to visit – potentially the most difficult decision in the medical application process because all medical schools have their pros and cons so, how do you know which one is right for you? This is why open days were invented because, sometimes, you just get this feeling as you go around a university that it either is or isn’t the right place for you!

I’ve been thinking a lot how to write this post because choosing a university is a very personal choice so here’s a little disclaimer – anything I write here is just my personal opinion, feel free to comment saying you disagree (or agree!) and everything I write has only been my personal experiences. Other people may have attended the same place/open day and had a completely different experience or take on the events.

Anyway – as I’ve already said, open days are very important but you can’t go visit every single university that offers a medical course so you’ve all had to at some point pick the 4-10 that you fancy visiting and got yourself to as many open days as your timetable/work schedule has allowed. The only way to do that is to go through websites and prospectuses and maybe even send a few emails to see which courses look like they might be for you. The key thing here, is to have an idea about the course and the universities before you book a place on the open day because there’s nothing worse than trekking all the way from Edinburgh to London to visit a university and realise that it’s absolutely not the kind of place you want to go to.

One piece of advice I have for everyone out there is, medical school is hard to get in to so we all think that we’ll be happy to go anywhere. This is true to an extent because the goal here is to become doctors HOWEVER… you can only apply to 4 (silly UCAS!) so don’t be afraid to be decisive and rule some universities out. Some people have a list of what is important to them – eg: location (distance from home, whether or not its in a city), course structure (traditional, PBL, case-based), facilities (both medical and university wide), extracurricular facilities etc. etc. etc. I think this is quite a good idea as it will help you ‘rate’ (so to speak) each university you are considering and help you to whittle down a very long list to just the key 4.

As you all know – medical school open days get booked up fast because of the high competition for places… something I got caught in when I unfortunately was unable to get onto the King’s College London open day over the summer. Obviously, I was a bit disappointed as I am very interested in applying there so I thought the next best thing would be to get as much detail as I could from the prospectus and website and then I gave the medical school a ring. They were lovely, very helpful and answered all my questions so it was as if I had been on the open day in terms of the information I received. So I have to make a decision, which I am sure many of you will also have to make, which is ‘should I apply to a university I haven’t visited?’ In terms of KCL, my answer is YES because I’ve managed to get a lot of information and I like what I’ve read/heard. Also – they interview, so there will be a chance to see the uni and medical school then (should I be so lucky!!) as well as always being able to organise either a self-guided tour or an individual visit.

The first open day I went to this summer was Imperial College London. It was held at the main hub for those on the GEM courses which is very close to Shepherd’s Bush tube station (for you Londoners out there that like to shop, its just behind Westfields). What was very good about the open day was that, given that it was for a GEM course and was held on a weekday, it started in the early evening which meant that a wide range of people could attend as work/uni would have already finished by then. Imperial is a very impressive university – I am sure you all know its fantastic reputation and there are of course great benefits to being in the biggest city in the UK (eg: a large NHS trust and a larger patient population in addition to the extracurricular and cultural benefits of a big city). Having said that, this can go the other way if you’re not a big city kind of person. The thing that stood out about Imperial was that the medical school concentrated very much on the science of medicine as, according to them, this ensures that all their graduates have a strong foundation in the science. There wasn’t much to see on the open day – you got a tour of the building at the beginning and then there was the usual array of talks which were very useful and interesting.

Speaking of the usual set of talks – the most important one is the curriculum/course structure one because that’s the talk that will differentiate the unis (in addition to location and facilities etc.)

Here comes the opinion bit… I really liked Imperial – to be honest, at first, I was almost a little bit intimidated by it because everyone there is absolutely amazing. They all did very well in either their undergraduate courses or at their jobs. What also stood out was that Imperial took a wide variety of people – everyone had the academics but they also had something else. By that I mean, everyone had an interesting story – one person I met did a very interesting Neuroscience dissertation whereas another had been working for quite a few years in a job that meant they had a high level of people interaction. I think this is a positive as, although it may be harder to get into (due to competition and the fact that they only offer 30 places or so), the wide variety of students means that you get to study with lots of people who will all bring something different. This will be very helpful it you’re struggling with a topic and someone in your course happened to write their dissertation on it! Given my academic background, I really liked the scientific aspect of the course however I completely understand that this might not be for everyone.

Then came Warwick (opinion… which I loved!). I think the biggest benefit of Warwick over all other GEM courses is that it is GRADUATE ONLY. Initially, I didn’t think that this would make that much of a difference but because of this, they offer about three times as many places as other medical schools and there is no ‘merging’ with the undergraduate class. Although, this isn’t really a major issue, it is nice to know that you are not being streamlined but that the course is specifically designed for graduates. Besides, it was very much like the Imperial open day – the talks were very good and informative. In addition to the talks, there were taster sessions in the afternoon so you could sample the learning style and a tour of the campus.

I managed to break some bones a few days before this open day so was on crutches and unable to participate in the tour but instead I drove around the campus and the nearby town of Leamington Spa which is where many medical students live. At a university like Warwick, I would suggest doing something similar, since the university isn’t in a town so it’s quite a good idea to see what the local towns/cities are like because you might end up living or socialising there.

The third open I went to was Swansea – FYI, Swansea take the GAMSAT unlike the other universities I visited which accept the UKCAT. I really liked Swansea – like Warwick it is graduate only and the town is pretty great (not the prettiest place but seems to have everything you need: lots of shops, restaurants, places to go out and most importantly an apple store!!!!). The building where lectures take place is almost next door to one of the teaching hospitals which was great. The talks were informative (as with the other universities) and there was also a taster session. The only reason I’m not applying there is because I have decided not to take the GAMSAT because, due to some other circumstances, I felt that I didn’t have enough time to study properly for it. If it wasn’t for that, I think it would definitely have made my UCAS choices (so essentially, some better organisation on my part would have meant I could have applied!!)

I was going to see Southampton because I really liked the look of it but because the open day was not geared towards studying medicine but was a university-wide open day I decided not to go. The reason I did this was not because I didn’t like Southampton but I have friends there so I know it a little and the course offered there states that it requires Chemistry A Level in some cases. I didn’t take Chemistry A Level so what I have done is contacted the medical school to see if the content of chemistry in my degree is sufficient enough to apply… if the answer is ‘no’ then I didn’t waste any petrol (!!!) and if the answer is ‘yes’ then I’m going to go on a guided tour.

Finally there was Barts (in London). Unfortunately, I found that for a university with such an impressive reputation, this was by far the worst open day I attended. The reason for this was due to the bad organisation – one of the two (only two!) talks organised was cancelled therefore the only talk was about the history of the medical school. Although this is interesting, in my opinion, I wasn’t told anything I couldn’t find out on their very informative website. After that you were placed into groups to do a set of four activities. The first activity for my group was an Information Fair. This was essentially what all the other open days included in their organised talks – admissions information, course information, accommodation, life after uni etc. etc. The problem was that everyone (including me) wanted to talk to the people at the admissions stand (I, for example, wanted to know their UKCAT cut off score which FYI was 2800 last year) so I spent the whole half hour session queuing and only just being able to ask that one question. I did not participate in the rest of the open day because I didn’t need a self-guided tour of the area as I am from London, and should I apply, I’ll probably live at home to save some money so didn’t need to look at the accommodation. As you can probably tell, I was very disappointed by Barts’ open day (not the university itself as its reputation speaks for itself) so sorry if this section was too opinionated for some (see disclaimer above!!!!!) but as I’ve said, this is just my personal experiences.

Anyway, all of that was my experiences of some of the many open days that are available. I really wish I had unlimited time this summer to have seen some other unis but unfortunately that was not the case. Would love any of you readers to comment with your experiences either at the same open days or at others so that everyone can have a bigger picture.

As always, the university websites contain all the useful and factual information so go look at those for facts & figures… didn’t think I should bog-down this already long post with more of those!

I’ll post again soon.

Dr Wannabe xx

Ps – sorry again for the length of the post… I think I need to learn how to be more concise… or maybe be less opinionated!!!

UKCAT

Hello again! Apologies for the MASSIVE delay in posting... It seems that between open days, UKCAT and summer job I forgot about this lovely little blog (awful I know, but I've finally found some free time so here we go!)

Today's post is slightly serious/boring but will (hopefully) give you some valuable information and hints/tips about the UKCAT. I hope you guys find this helpful - it is just my personal experience with it but I think I might have benefitted from some of this stuff at the start of my UKCAT practice time. Right, enough blabber....

The UKCAT - if you're a graduate it is probably the most important entrance exam for English and Scottish Unis (there is, of course, the GAMSAT which is the entrance exam for Welsh, Irish and some English unis - but its a completely different ball game so we'll talk about that another time!) and I know that some undergrad courses also use it. If you're anything like me when you hear about it your initial thoughts were 'ummmm... how on earth does this test show unis that I can be a good doctor and they should take me?!' and to be honest, having taken it and got an average of 780 (pretty pleased with myself there!!!) I still believe that to an extent however there's nothing we can do about it so just get on with it!!! (The UKCAT website does a very good job though at explaining how each section is relevant to a career in medicine as it explains the transferable skills)

Also, you're all probably thinking - 'it's August, this is a bit late in the game to be posting about the UKCAT' which is true but testing continues until October so hopefully this can be of some help to those of you that are still slogging through the abstract reasoning section, tearing your hair out because you just can't see the damn pattern!

UKCAT stands for UK Clinical Aptitude Test and is taken my prospective medicine and dentistry students. It's split into 5 parts, 4 of which are marked numerically (you're given a standardised score between 300-900 in these sections) and the final section is marked in bands (bands 1-4, each of which come with a description of what the band means). Here's the UKCAT website for full details but I'll give a little breakdown/summary below just to give you all a taster!!

http://www.ukcat.ac.uk

Test Format

The UKCAT is taken at Pearson Vue centres (those places where you take your driving theory test) so it is all computerised. This has both advantages and disadvantages - the biggest positive is you walk out of the room and your results have already printed so there's none of that horrible waiting for weeks on end to find out how you did. The negatives are - it's on a computer so if you don't like reading on a screen, you're going to struggle and the biggest issue for most people is the calculator. The calculator is one of those simple on-screen things that takes forever to work (you can use a keyboard to type the numbers which is a million times faster but even so, it's pretty slow).

The test is also multiple choice - this means that even with a guess you have a 20-25% of getting the right answer (some have 5 options, some have 4) so with an educated guess you can have a 50:50 shot of getting it right by eliminating the answers you know are wrong. Educated guessing is an extremely important factor for the UKCAT particularly if you are running out of time or if you genuinely have no idea what-so-ever!

Hint - 

Learn to recognise the kind of question you cannot answer or those that will take too long. 

You can 'flag' these for later and come back to them if you have time at the end - each question is worth the same amount, so don't spend four times the allocated amount of time on a difficult question when you could be getting easy marks in the bag. 

Flagging is an option you have on the top righthand side of the screen that highlights the question so at the review screen at the end of the section they stand out from the other questions. Flagging is very useful because, if you've got any spare time, it lets you go straight to the questions you weren't sure of or you guessed enabling you to spend a bit more time on them. You can flag quickly using the keyboard shortcut ALT-F (this saves time)

If you go to the link I've embedded above, you'll find the various rules at the test centres (eg: you can't wear a watch... I have no idea why!!) and all the ID and time requirements (bring a VALID UK driver's licence or passport and arrive AT LEAST 15 mins early)

Instructions

Each subsection is preceded by an instruction page which you have 1 minute to read. They say the same thing as the exemplar instruction pages on the website but it's a good idea to read it just to refresh your memory.

Hint - 

Use this extra minute to forget about the previous section and move on. You've got the instructions in front of you, so you might as well read them as it will refresh your memory on the task ahead and it will help you move on and forget about the section that you've just finished. 

UKCAT Subsections

The subsections of the UKCAT are taken in the same order with the same timings and amount of questions by everybody. You can't flick between subsections during the test and unfortunately can't 'bank' your time (by this I mean, if you finish section one with 5 minutes to spare, you can't carry those over to the next section).

Speaking of timing - it's a bitch (excuse my language). Generally speaking, the academic level of the UKCAT is not too difficult (unless you particularly struggle with maths for example) so the real issue is finishing it on time. When there's an average of less than a minute (in some cases mere seconds) per question, everyone except those few super-fast geniuses is going to struggle with it. For me, the timing issue was worst for the Quantitive Reasoning (maths) section and in the real thing I finished the section with literally 1 second to spare!!! But don't be disheartened and think you'll never get there because on my first try at home in timed conditions, I only got half way through that same section - practice really does make perfect(ish) with this kind of test.

Verbal Reasoning - in this section you will be given passages and have to answer questions about it. In 2013, new style questions were introduced and these take at least double the time of the traditional 'true/false/can't tell' questions and they involve reading long statements about the passage (if you want examples/more detail look on the UKCAT website for full information)

So, you have 22 minutes in total for this section but 1 minute is for reading the instructions and 44 questions to answer (that's broken down into 11 passages each with 4 associated questions). This works out to around 2 minutes per passage (or just under 30 seconds per question).

Hint - 

My advice would be to go with the 2 mins per passage timing because you need to read the passage to be able to answer the questions (obviously enough!) and if you take the time (around 1 minute is what you're aiming for), answering the questions will take relatively little time. 

On the subject of reading the passage the jury's out on this one - half of the advice says don't read it, just skim it and the other half says actually read it. I'm in the second camp for many reasons:

1. You can train yourself to read faster with practice which is exactly what ended up happening with me 
2. If you've read the passage you'll know where in the passage to look for your answer very quickly 
3. The new style questions are often about the 'opinion of the author' or 'which statement would the author most likely agree with' and if you've not actually read the passage you have a very slim chance of answering these questions correctly 

There are merits to just skimming the passage such as time saving however, in my opinion, it's not worth it

Hint -

This is the first section of the test and you'll be very nervous so chances are the first few questions won't go so well. Try to be as calm as possible - use the 1 minute instruction time to take a few deep breaths and try to calm down. 

Quantitative Reasoning or just maths to the rest of us - in this section you will be given data (so this could be in the form of a table, a chart or a little description of something) and have to answer questions about it. Obviously enough the questions involve some maths calculations which are at GCSE level. 

For the majority of people taking the UKCAT, this is the most daunting section either because they aren't so good at maths/it's been a very long time since they've done any or because of the timing. To all these people - I feel your pain! This was by far the trickiest section for me, particularly because of the timing and to some degree the maths itself because even though I use maths in my degree, its statistics not pythagorus' theorem or any of this other stuff I haven't thought about since I was 16! 

So, you have 23 minutes in total for this section but 1 minute is for reading the instructions and 36 questions to answer - unlike the verbal reasoning, there is no set format for how many questions are associated with a particular data set therefore it is best to think about how much time you have per questions which works out just over 30 seconds per question

As you can see, its pretty tight timing even for a maths wiz because in those 30 seconds you have to have understood the data (which can take quite a long time in some cases), understand the question, work out the maths and select the correct answer. 

The only thing to do here is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE and when you think you've done enough - PRACTICE MORE!! 

I'd also say that this is one of the sections where my first 'hint' about recognising the questions that take too long or that you know you won't ever be able to answer whether you had 30 seconds or three hours and take an educated guess, flag the question and move on is most useful. 

Hint - 

Try to use the calculator as little as possible because it is a very simple and slow to use on-screen thing. The more you practice, the faster your 'mental maths' will become and you'll no longer need it for the simpler questions

The calculator sits in the top lefthand corner of the screen and you can bring it up by either clicking on it or using the keyboard shortcut ALT-C. You can also use the keyboard to type in the numbers. 

Hint -

Using the keyboard for shortcuts and to type in numbers will save you more time than you think and time is the most valuable thing in this section

Before you go into the test, you are given a multi-page whiteboard and a permanent marker - USE THEM! You can use it to note down numbers for calculations or useful formulas (eg: speed = distance/time) and also simple calculations that will save you calculator time.

Hint -

In this section there are often answers that would be correct if you misread the data or if you missed a key step in the calculations. Watch out for these by ensuring that you are using the correct numbers in your formula and you have read the relevant data information (eg: sometimes the description of the data includes some key information) 

Abstract Reasoning - in this section you will be given to sets of patterns (Set A and Set B) and then a 'test shape' and asked whether it belongs to Set A, B or neither set. There are 5 questions associated to each set group. There are also some new style questions from 2013 onwards which require you to either select a the next shape in the pattern or which 'statement' completes the shape (go to the UKCAT website for a full description of the new style of questions). 

In my opinion, this section is the 'weirdest' because regardless of what kind or degree/job you're doing right now, it is pretty unlikely that in your everyday life you will be looking at sets of shapes and trying to find patterns. I also found it the most infuriating section because when you can't see the pattern, there's nothing you can do about it. However, like improving your timing in the Quantitive Reasoning section PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE and the pattern recognition will come to you and you'll get faster and faster

Hint - 

Create a 'cheat-sheet' of things to look out for when you're struggling to find the pattern. 

For example, lines of symmetry, number of corners, shape association, colours etc. etc. etc. 

This is very useful as it breaks down the process of finding the pattern because in some cases, it just jumps out at you and in others, you're staring at a seemingly random collection of shapes

So, you have 14 minutes in total for this section but 1 minute is for reading the instructions and 55 questions to answer. This works out to around 15 seconds per question or for the traditional style questions, just over a minute per set

Like with the maths section, I would say that flagging is very important in this section because when you can't see the pattern (even when you've gone through your mental checklist) you can just guess and flag that group of questions and come back to it. This also saves loads of time rather than just staring blankly at a screen wasting valuable time. 

I personally did not find timing an issue in this section because after lots of practice, I was quickly able to recognise the sets where I could not see a pattern and just guess and flag for later leaving me more time for the ones I was 100% sure of. This allowed me to go back at the end and spend my extra time on the ones I initially thought I couldn't see the pattern for and was able in a few cases to deduce the pattern using my mental checklist. 

Hint -

In most cases there is more than one rule (eg: Set A has shapes with an even number of sides and the majority of the shapes are black. Set B has shapes with an odd number of sides and the majority of the shapes are white). This is very important for the answer 'neither' as the test shape may work for one rule but not the other. 

Decision Analysis - in this section you are given a table of codes (i.e. - a shape that corresponds to a word) which you have to use to translate a statement from either code to english (majority of question) or english to code (less common and more difficult). The answers and the statements may not correspond totally because this section is about using your judgement to select the best answer. There are also a few questions towards the end which ask which additions to the code may be most useful for translating a questions. 

This is the only section where multiple options may be correct - if this is the case, it will say so in the question (eg: select the two best options). 

Hint - 

Use the whiteboard to directly translate the code. 

You may think this will take too long but the time pressure is slightly less in this section therefore it is seriously in your best interest to directly translate the code because than you can compare each answer option to exactly what the code says 

So, you have 34 minutes in total for this section but 1 minute is for reading the instructions and 28 questions to answer. This works out to over 1 minute per question including answering the confidence rating (see below for explanation on this)

As I've said above, the time pressure is not so bad in this section particularly because you'll start to remember some of the commonly used codes (eg: I or personal) by heart and won't need to look them up every time. 

Hint - 

Develop your own shortcuts for words that you know will come up a lot.

As you practice you will see that words like 'opposite' and 'increase' and 'personal' are almost always in the code so if you develop a shorthand for them you'll save time as you're writing the code out (eg: I used an arrow for increase and opp. instead of opposite)

This was my best section, both in practice and for the real thing and I almost enjoyed it (I use enjoyed very loosely and comparing to the fact that I was near suicidal at the beginning of my revision for the test!!!). 

Hint -

Like with the Quantitative Reasoning section, the Decision Analysis section often has very similar answers. The key to deciphering which is correct is looking for code translations that are either missing or used to much (eg: when 'personal' or 'I' is included in your translation multiple times, make sure that the answer you select reflects that exactly)

In 2013, they introduced a confidence rating which is a scale of 1 to 5 asking how confident you are that your answer is correct. For this test season, these are not being passed on to universities so I am not sure how they are being used. Don't stress out or think too hard about them. I used the philosophy that if I was pretty sure that the answer I picked matched the translation I had I picked 4, if I had to chose between two answers I picked 3 and if I guessed (which can happen when you're translating from english to code) I picked 2. For now, the confidence rating you chose doesn't matter so don't waste that valuable time thinking too hard about it. 

Situational Judgement - this is the section of the test that is not numerically marked but in bands. In this section you will be given a scenario and asked two types of questions. The first will tell you who's point of view you must assess the statement from and then rate how appropriate the response is. The second will tell you who's point of view you must assess the statement from and then rate how important it is to take into consideration

This is the final section and many people find that they are very tired so do not concentrate quite as hard on it because they know its not numerically marked therefore it is less important. THIS IS NOT TRUE.  Each university uses this section differently (for example - I went to an open day where they said that they don't look at it, went to another where they said they look at extreme outliers as this could either be very positive or very negative and then another uni said they use it at interview). Even though you're tired, concentrate as hard as you can because the test is almost finished and you might as well try your hardest.

On top of all of that, this is the section that 100% is all about what it's like to be a doctor because it's all about the ethics. 

Hint -

Think like a doctor in this section and the ethical/moral responsibilities someone in such a position has. 

Some questions are often about medical students missing classes/copying and you might think that in real like you would just let it slide but the whole point of this section is that opinions like this in different situations could be dangerous to patients (eg: if a friend has cheated on a test, and they are faced with the subject matter of the test whilst on the ward, they may not know how to respond and this could have very serious consequences for the patient) 

Preparation

So now you know what to expect and what it's all about - how do you prepare for it?

There are many different strategies - some people do a little bit every week from about January until they take the test in the summer. Other people take the test late in October and work a little bit a day throughout the summer and some work with a more condensed time frame where they do lots and lots in a smaller space of time and take the test at the end of that period. 

Like with everything, the choice of strategy is up to you and how you work best. If you think that you would benefit better from a little bit every week for a longer period of time, then make sure you are organised and start early. If you are more like me where you know you'll do better if its the only thing you have to do for a set period of time then work that way. The choice is yours!!!

Hint -

Whichever timescale you choose it doesn't change the fact that the UKCAT is all about practice.

If you go for the longer time period, set aside a specific time each week that is UKCAT practice time so that you make sure you are actually doing something.

If you go for the shorter time period, make sure you have nothing else on and that you are prepared to work over 5/6 hours a day on it until test day because that will be the only way you will fit in enough practice. 

Resources

There are hundreds of UKCAT courses and private tutoring available as well as books and online resources. Essentially, it's what's right for you but there's so much out there that it can seem daunting. 

At the start of my UKCAT preparation I had a few hours of tutoring. This was helpful as it meant the my strengths and weaknesses could be concentrated on however, a course would probably have been just as beneficial because the skills I took from the tutoring would have been taught at the courses. 

To find courses, just type 'UKCAT preparation courses' into google and thousands of hits will come back. I've heard that Kaplan do very good courses - I bought their book and it was one of the better ones so I can imagine that their courses are great. 

Speaking of books - that's the key thing because they will give you some advice which will be helpful but most importantly there will be hundreds of practice questions. I think I bought four books and signed up to an online resource so must have done a thousand or so practice questions and that is 100% the reason I was able to improve my score from my first practice test at home to the score I got for the real thing. Amazon has lots of books - here's a link to some http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=UKCAT and the other normal places to buy books should have what you need. 

My most useful resource was a website called Medify where you sign up and pay for however long you want (I think they have 1 week, 1 month or 2 month payment options) and they have an absolutely fantastic bank of question as well as tutorials that explain everything in great detail and then three mock tests of varying difficulty that you can take. I would very much recommend this resource - particularly if you can't afford multiple options because this is the most comprehensive. They have a 'demo' option where you can try it out and see if its for you which I used before I bought my subscription. Below is the link to the medify website which also has useful information about UCAS and other entrance exams:

http://www.medify.co.uk

They also have a fantastic 'cheatsheet' that has the key points about the UKCAT sections as well as some useful formulae for the Quantitative Reasoning section:

http://www.medify.co.uk/ukcat-cheat-sheet

So - I think that's all I have to say about the UKCAT.... sorry if it was long and boring but I thought I'd tell you all I know. If you guys wanted to know, they say the national average is 600 but that's not necessarily helpful to you, what you need to be aware of is the expectations of the universities you are applying to - it is important to note that it will be a waste of a choice if you apply to a uni that has a cut of 650 per section and you have 600. They have that cut off for a reason and they will not even look at the rest of your application if you haven't made the minimum standard. 

That's it for now - I'll post again soon,

Dr Wannabe x