Can I see some ID?

2:1. It’s official. The confirmation email came through on Wednesday and my university cannot take my grade away from me now. With my degree sorted and my place at Barts and the London Medical School (pretty much) confirmed, it’s triggered a number of things for me to do.

First, with my result confirmed I know that I am staying in London so I need to house hunt. I hate house hunting. With a passion. It figuratively/literally fills me with dread. Renting a property has so many issues and finding a good landlord is like a needle in a London haystack. Plus one of my housemates is off to Colombia next week until September. This adds stress that I’m trying to ignore right now. I’m looking at Whitechapel and Stratford if anyone knows any good three beds (Do I sound desperate?).

Secondly, meeting the academic requirement is just part of the offer. I have to divulge my criminal and medical status so that I can get GMC approval and the medical school can make adjustments for any disabilities etc. What this means is I need to undergo a CRB check and show my vaccination history. Sound straightforward right? Wrong. Pre-empting my acceptance to Barts (risky I know), I gave my GP the vaccination form nearly three weeks ago to complete. She said it would be a simple job and done by the next day. Several phone calls later and a visit to Glastonbury festival, it was still not done. Finally after three weeks I get the phone call saying its ready. Turns out I’d only had the MMR jab and chicken pops so I’m not even sure what took so long. The plot thickens. Barts would like me to start a Hep B vaccination course. But living in a small town, means everything takes time. Apparently my town has run out of vaccinations this week and I should phone back next week for an appointment. I forgave them though because they gave me a lollypop. Seriously.

Moving on to the CRB check. Not only is it going to cost £50 (can someone confirm this right, I feel like I’m being ripped off), it requires me to show three forms of ID. I thought at first that it was some error. That they meant I had to show one of three forms of ID. Nope. Phoned up and checked. They need to see my birth certificate, passport and driving licence. Bit over the top in my opinion. I’m not even applying for a job, but I guess I’ll be working in a hospital/GP clinic from the get go so they need to check this stuff.

So it’s a bit of a busy time at the moment. Graduation is next Friday. I finally get to throw my mortar cap into the air. I cannot wait! My parents are going to come and stay the night. They’ve booked a hotel and we’ve got tickets for the Shard’s viewing platform. It’ll be a day to remember and it marks the start of an exciting new journey in my life.

Glastonbury '13

Glastonbury is my favourite festival. This is the third time I’ve gone. It is the pinnacle festival and represents music (both undiscovered and cliche) to me.  With the unbelievable headliners The Rolling Stones, I felt the excitement build in the weeks before hand. I live in a very small seaside town in the West Country so Glastonbury is a hop, skip and jump away from me.

This time I went to Glastonbury with three of my friends from university. We camped in Bushy Ground. It’s my favourite field and the best in my opinion. You’ve got a slope; you’re close to John Peel and the Dance Village (now renamed but I refuse to call it anything but the Dance Village); and some of the nicest toilets around.

I won’t bore you with a blow by blow account of who I saw but I will mention some highlights. Haim were the first act I saw on the pyramid stage, a justified decision. They had a brilliant stage presence even after their bassist had a diabetic attack. MS MR, a favourite band of mine, played on John Peel and gave an intimate set. Their vocals held strong and I’m glad that they can sing live. Lastly, Rolling Stones. I would never declare myself a super fan, or even a fan. For a pub quiz I could only name a handful of songs. Yet as they churned out the set list, I realised that the Rolling Stones are so systemic in British society that I’ve heard all the songs and most, enough to sing along. I was definitely there to say I had seen them. Judging by the size of the crowd, I wasn’t the only one. The atmosphere was electric. I was dancing around with strangers and chatting to long lost friends. This is Glastonbury. This is why I go. When I compare it to more commercial festivals (cough Reading), I can’t imagine going anywhere else now.

South West's largest twister board

I say I go for the music, but in reality its really food. It’s like a mecca for food options. I always have the hog roast. I always go to the place that gives free garlic bread with its pasta. Recently I’ve added ostrich burger to must eat. This year I discovered a Spanish tapas bar. For £7 you get a tray bigger than a baby loaded with my favourite Spanish foods: chorizo, potato bravos, chicken skewer, couscous, garlic mayo dip, salsa, olives, pasta with parmesan and grilled red peppers. Mouth watering? We walked past this place so many times that I started to have dreams about it before we finally passed at a mealtime. To top it off, I found a place open at 4am selling churros and chocolate. My Spanish day of food could only be topped by my evening spent in a Mexican day of the dead nightclub.

Glastonbury is amazing. If you haven’t been, you should.

Timetable of a med student

UPDATE:  A more detail post about my first medical student timetable can be found HERE.

It's actually happened. Here I come med school!

Every post starts with an apology. I got a little busy and forgot about this blog….

…but it was worth it because I got in!!!!

I finished my exams in May, got my results back this week and I got a 2:1. I’m going to Barts and the Royal London Medical School in September.

At the moment I’m too excited. I’m not sure what to write. Let me know if you’ve got questions in the comments.

Question Spotting at University

Question spotting is significantly frowned upon by university lecturers.

1. It means you've only learnt a small proportion of the course and are at risk of being tripped up in the exam. 
2. Lectures are lazy and want to reuse questions but still be satisfied that you kind of learnt the course.

My department, SBCS, has a policy of releasing the past three years of exam papers. I know that at Barts, the policy is to release none, completely preventing exam spotting.

Three years is unfortunately or fortunately enough to spot patterns. 

Rule 1 - If you are provided with practice or exemplar MCQs in high quantities, these will be used in the exam.

Rule 2 - If you are given a FAQ booklet about exams and they explain how to do calculations or answer particular questions, they will 99% come up in the exam.

Rule 3 - If you have essay portions like me, then try and find the common themes in the essays. Setting mark schemes for essays in long winded so lecturers will tend to pick four or five topics for essays, saving the rest for shorter questions.

Based on my results, using question spotting for some modules appears to have gained me a C. That means that less than a week's worth of revision for one module has allowed me to pass with a comfortable grade. I don't recommend it as it's a risk that tripped me up in one or two exams but it helped me cut out a lot of crap. I promise I won't do it in medicine (mainly because its impossible as they don't release past papers to stop this)

Summer

Once again I start by apologises for leaving my blog alone for so long.

• Exams are over. Results are in. I turned up to every exam and passed. I am currently on a 2:2 but waiting on the results of my extenuating circumstances from my appendix to bring my results up to a 2:1 
• I am back in Somerset for the moment, working in Wetherspoons. It's shit. I hate it. But its money. Which I seem to have spent.
• I can't remember if I've mentioned this, but my Nan has oesophageal cancer. It is stage 4 and terminal. It has already led to several complications and she's getting weaker as the days go by. I expect her to go into the hospice within the fortnight :( To make things worse, my Grandad has been diagnosed with a kidney lesion. Apparently it has been caught early enough to be treated by microsurgery with no need for removal of the whole kidney. It appears cancer is in my genes because everyone of my Nan's ten brothers and sisters has died from a form of cancer. Now my Grandad has it, I'm sure I will get a form when I'm older.
• I have been researching funding for Medicine. Looks like I can claim independence (from my parents) if I have a kid, get married, am financially independent or my parents die. I don't want a kid, my parents are still alive and kicking and I am not financially independent therefore, I need to get married if I want Student Finance to take my as an independent. 
• Housing is sorting for next year. Load off my mind. It's a three story house with a living room and a garden. YAYYYYYYYY. No risk of being mugged or gas leak. Plus the landlady is amazing!!! 

I realise that this post is very 14 year old girl, with my emoticons and CAPS. Soz babes xxxxx :P

Second Year Exams

So after fully recovering from appendicitis, I had less than a month till exams. I started off very worried but thanks to the motivation of an offer and to do better than 1st year, I am well on my way to getting that essential 2:1.

With four exams done, and four more to go, I am half way through and can't wait to be done. But in the weirdest way I am so glad that I am choose to do subjects that are examined. Many people claim to hate them and prefer coursework, but I love the thrill of opening an exam paper and knowing that you are going to destroy it!

That feeling happened today in my immunology exam. I have loved this subject since the module began and my notes were of such high quality that I was sharing them with class mates for revision (a first for everything I know). So when I opened the paper today, the MCQs were probably the biggest test. I sailed through the SAQs (at university and 33% of my paper was drawing pictures) and my essay was textbook. I feel like Pharmacology all over again (went very well thanks to question spotting).

I've had some housing drama today which has prevented me revising for my exam on Friday. I stress myself out about housing way too easily. But that's another story that I won't tell here.

Third year projects were also released today. I got my top choice. It's a science communication based project. It has zero lab time (yay!) and is all about writing (double yay!). As someone who has written for student media for two years, being asked to write two new scientist style articles doesn't worry me in the slightest. I'm aiming for a high first in this project and I think combined with PBL I should be able to do very well in my third year.

I wish I had more to write about medicine. In just over a years time I will be starting at Barts and the Royal London medical school. Till then, I'm a biomed who knows he should make use of his last year at Queen Mary (I know Barts is part of QM but when you join, you have to disown QM complete to be a BL medic)

My Interview at Barts

When I first started applying for medicine, I heavily relied on TSR and blogs for advice and guidance. Subsequently I have always seen my blog as a learning tool for others following in my footsteps. Now that I have an offer I can share my interview. People can understand what I was asked and how I responded.

Before the interview I was asked to read this article and "hear my thoughts" on the issue.

14th February 2012
I arrive, register and am taken to the Common Room. I am then taken to the Old Library where I sit with a few of my fellow coursemates and some people I don't know. The Old Library is a big, spacious room and they have set up several booths to conduct the interviews. I can hear little snippets of each conversation i.e. "New Scientist", "What would you do...", "Passion".

Me and a friend talk with the medical student. All being 21 we are more confident than the 17/18 year olds next to us, waiting for their interviews.

I'm finally called and the interview knows exactly who I am. It was hard, two guys and the rest girls. I'm Caucasian and the other guy is Asian. If you knew my name, you'd make the same judgement as well.

She leads me to the very last booth in the room telling me about who she and the other interviewer are.

I sit down, announce "So this is it" and they both smile. We begin by discussing the process in which I am applying. Deferred entry for 2013. This moves onto my modules choices for third year of Biomed and I discuss the SBCS restructuring. One of my interviewes is a medical scientist and is very concerned about this. She is a lecturer on my third year module of Endocrine Physiology. We have a genuine conversation on it, before we realise that I'm here for a medicine interview.

We discuss the benefits of having a degree before medicine, and one of my interviewers thinks that all applicants should have a degree before hand because it matures you and makes you a better medicine applicant. I'm loving this interview already.

I am then asked about the article we were asked to read. I start by discussing the journalistic points of the article and then move onto the ethical reasons. I talk for a few minutes, running through my prepared answer and coming to a logical conclusion.

We then discuss a scenario about someone who is obese and would they remain the same weight after the operation. I am repeatedly pushed to defend my opinion at this point. I assumed it was a test to make sure I would stand my ground on the subject.

I am then asked "Why Barts?". I start with my mention of Hackey, Shoreditch and Bagels (all my friends laughed at this). I then move onto clinical reasons such as local prevalent diseases. They stop me at this, as if they have heard enough already and I wish I could have talked about PBL and dissection.

We move on to "What have I done to prepare for medicine?"

I discuss work experience, volunteering, working for DWP. This briefly leads them to review my personal statement and ask me how JD Wetherspoon could possibly be beneficial to Medicine. I explain about my A&E work experience. How I dealt with drunk people in both situations.

"Has anyone tried to put you off medicine?"

I discussed how I know medical students who have cried at exams. That the course was so intense they broke down. This was a difficult answer. I was criticised for this because if students can't deal with exams, how can they deal with being a doctor? I responded and defended my statement.

I also talked about other negatives I've viewed from my work experience and what I know.

"How would I deal with death as a doctor?"

I started off answering this about in terms of a medical student. I was stopped and they reasked the question. I then talked about empathy and professionalism and I knew I had hit the buzz words. Lots of nodding from one.

"Any questions?"

This surprised me. They said it had been "a good interview" and I was very pleased to hear that. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't believe it was over so quickly, so I just ended with "Barts has always been my first choice. Plus I'm in love with the library." They agreed. One of the interviewers wished she could enjoy bagels with no consequences. We all laughed, I shook hands and left.

After
Apart from one job at the student union, I have got every job I have interviewed for. I felt confident about this but at the same time I felt like I could have said so much more. I lived in nervous wait for over a month before I heard. I love the two woman that interviewed me and when I meet them again, I will thank them over and over!

Advice for Barts
Barts are so nice. It blew me away how nice they were. At the same time, I heard from friends that their interviews were not as nice as mine.

In my opinion, Barts made you feel comfortable but were not afraid to push you so that you would defend your opinion/answer. I felt on a few occasions that they were being conflicting, just to see how I would deal with the pressure, how I would respond to the attack on my view.

I can't fault Barts. They were lovely to me and I got an offer. Plus I'm probably known as 'Bagel Guy" in the admissions office.