• Question: how hard was it to become a medic?

    Asked by ana to Adrian, Ali, Charnelle, Deborah, Kit, Phil, Rob on 7 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Deborah Draycott

      Deborah Draycott answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      Getting on to my course was fairly easy, but the amount of study required whilst also working shifts on the wards was really tough at times. Studying at university with students on other courses was quite tricky when they had more free time and and didn’t have to go to work at 6am.

    • Photo: Philip Williams

      Philip Williams answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      I think medical school is really hard. It’s amazingly good fun, and an incredible experience, but it is very full on at times. Doing a clinical placement then the next week having 10 exams in 5 days with no break for revision was very tough. But at the end of the day you have to think about why you’re there: because you genuinely want a career where you can help people and make a difference. If you just want to make money, there’s other careers which are less stressful and better paid! Make sure you want to study medicine because you want to be a doctor at the end of the day.

    • Photo: Robert Cullum

      Robert Cullum answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      Some of my colleagues have told you about the challenges of the course, so I’m going to talk a bit about getting into medical school in the first place, as for most people this is the hardest bit of becoming a doctor!

      It’s a very competitive course, however don’t be put off by looking at the competition ratios which might be as high as 20 people applying per place at some medical schools. Firstly everyone can apply to up to 4 medical schools so that essentially reduces the ratio down to about 4 people applying for every place when averaged out. Secondly, a chunk of those who apply don’t actually have the right grades so that reduces it even further.

      I think if it is something you really want to do, then it’s always worth having a good go at applying. Yes it is a hard application process – you have to have done some kind of work experience, have good grades, have some extracurricular activities and then go through an interview and usually an additional aptitude test to get in(!!!!) but if it’s what you want to do then it’s worth the effort.

    • Photo: Adrian Taylor

      Adrian Taylor answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      I was lucky psychiatric nursing came to me very easily, probably because I enjoyed doing it as a student.

Comments