It's been a stressful two months. I've pulled at my hair, chewed on pens, used enough paper to help wipe out the rainforests and forced myself to work endless nights till 2 or 3 in the morning with the sole aim of passing these A-Levels.
In total I did 10 exams. 4 were retakes, 6 with A2s. The retakes seemed to go alright. I touch wood every time I discuss this because they all technically need to be A. Maths need to be a high A but oh well :/
A2 Law were very challenging. I entered that exam believing I would fail, that it would end here. However three questions that I couldn't have loved more came up. I seriously was so happy that it restored my hope. I can't guess biology synoptic for the life of me. Neither Chemistry's synoptic. Chem 5 seemed to go all right but who knows.
I now have two months till results day. I excited and nervous. I need to plan for the future over the next few days and get a good idea of what's going to happen. If I don't get minimum AAB then it's looking like I'm not going to med school anytime soon. It's possible to get an A in both Bio and Law. Without an A in chem my options are severely restricted but since I can't judge the paper, I really don't know. I'll stop now cause I hate dissecting papers. I refuse to talk about them after the exam because I can't change my answer and will just make me wonder.
More interesting posts to come, I promise. I'm also seriously considering looking at America but I need to research funding. It's unlikely to happen, but just want to know that I can rule it off my list of options.
Good luck for results day just look at as you cant change your results so what options do you have left if you dont get the grades, be it grad entry, resits, studying abroud or persuing another career
ReplyDeleteI'm the same. I had a really bad Maths exam, I panicked and couldn't function at all :/
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping I get the grades too. Good luck! x x x
Congrats on being done! Don't go to America, come to Canada instead! Our health care situation is much much better.
ReplyDeleteIt's over now and if you've put in as much work as you say you have and from my impression of your determination on TSR I definately think you'll do fine. Come'on I'm a waster who did v. little work for my A2s and I'm sitting here just having passed 1st year :) Fatal/Caitlin
ReplyDeleteI would seriously not consider America/Canada, unless you can get some serious funding behind you. It's not that it's a bad choice, I'm just not comfortable paying somewhere in the region of $40,000-50,000 per year for 4 years to try and gain admission for a medical school (which is another $40,000-50,000 per annum) which I would be very unlikely to gain. Idea sounds nice, but reality looks even worse than the UK.
ReplyDeleteHowever, well done for getting through it all, and good luck for August 20th.
Those numbers are not accurate for Canada, you're talking about US figures. In Canada, undergrad fees are about 5000 per year (I think about 15,000 for international students, but once you convert to British pounds that's only about 7000 per year. Med school is about 15,000 per year, I don't know how much it is for international students but it can't be nearly as bad as it is for US schools). Besides, you could do your undergraduate degree in Britain, then apply to med over here, no one says you have to do undergrad here as well.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to make sure you've got correct information!
Toronto international medics are paying in the region of $35-40,000 per year and that's what I based it off, assuming the rest would be fairly similar, apologies if it was wrong. (Couldn't find what McGill charged and UBC had N/A over the fees for internationals on MD)
ReplyDeleteEven so, internationals have a much tougher time getting in anywhere, especially medicine (internationals aren't always allowed onto some medical programmes or some schools will not accept foreign degrees), not to mention finances generally (foreign country, flights home), it does add up.
I'm not trying to crush the idea, if I thought it was a viable choice for him (or me for that matter) I would have promoted it, but I can't justify it myself. Aside from the UK system, I could go to Ireland, and because I'm an EU citizen, the Irish exchequer will pay the tuition fees.
The UK is probably the most international-friendly for medicine. Ireland is good too, or you could try Australia/NZ.. failing that, the favourite of med rejectees: Charles University in Prague
ReplyDeleteAnd a family that earns 50 grand a year should hopefully know how to save. So cost probably doesn't matter as long as the future doc's parents are willing to support him..
ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice guys.
ReplyDeleteBroken Angel: Cheers. There is a long post coming where I discuss all my options. Make a massive plan and just calm my nerves.
Phoebe: Thanks, much appreciated. Good luck too you too.
XE: I LOVE CANADA. I would love to come there for university. I'll definitely research it.
Catilin: Cheers. Always hope I suppose. I just hope all that work helped.
NV: I know debt is a massive issue but they have the oppurunity to earn nearly a quarter of a million in the top specialites. While that's a rare few, stagger that down from there and you've got the remaining students with massive debt some how making it work. Plus every school has specific few spaces for international students, I believe it warrants further research.
Anon: Thanks for the ideas. My family can save but I don't think its fair to ask them to take that kinda hit for me. It's alot of money just when they are moving up and they are now completely debt free.
I do realise I may have got off on the wrong foot here by being the the bastard crushing your idea and may be pushing his point a little too much, but I looked this up not so long ago and I wasn't hopeful in what I saw (and I'll admit it was brief research, but I only need few sentences answers my questions):
ReplyDeleteStanford: UK degree is fine
Hopkins, Harvard, Mayo, Yale, NYU, Dartmouth: want at least 1 year of US/Canadian college study (Dartmouth wants 3 years), reads like you'd need to fill their academics too (usually organic chemistry, general chemistry, biology/zoology, physics, in some cases maths/calculus, languages, social sciences etc)
Arizona, Connecticut, Mercer, Loyola, Kansas, Temple: either resident of the state (Mercer and ~75% of Arizona intake), or must be permanent resident or citizen of the US.
Any schools that did allow internationals and accepted them wanted evidence of funds (or funding/sponsorship) to support the 4 years of study, which is probably how they worked their debt out. Most would not offer financial aid for internationals as well.
Canada was harder to find: Toronto will take up to 7; Ottawa and Queen's will not take any non-residents and Laval, UBC, Montreal and Calgary I couldn't find info on internationals
I'm sorry for the essay, but that's what I found, free free to correct me, but it didn't inspire me with hope and so I'm off the idea. If any info is wrong, I'm sorry, but I did say it was brief research.