How to Support Someone Applying to Medicine: Parents & Teachers Guide

This guide covers how to support someone applying to Medicine if you are a parent or teacher of an applicant. Section one is aimed at parents, and section 2 is aimed at teachers. Like our other application guides, it is entirely free as part of Medicine Answered’s commitment to making high-quality information about a career in Medicine free and easily accessible to anyone who is interested.

Section 1: Advice for parents of people applying to Medicine

1) How parents can help their child with their Medicine work experience
2) How parents can help their child pick which medical schools to apply to
3) How parents can help their child with their Medicine personal statement
4) How parents can help their child with their Medicine interview
5) How parents can help their child with admissions tests, e.g. UKCAT and BMAT

1) How parents can help their child with their Medicine work experience

Work experience is mandatory for all medical school applicants. There are two main categories of work experience:

1. Direct observation of healthcare in clinical settings. For example, GP practices, hospitals, community-based healthcare services etc.

2. Working with others in a caring or service role. Particularly with those who are unwell, vulnerable, disabled or disadvantaged. This can include nursing homes, hospices, charities, youth groups, community centres, part-time jobs, e.g. at a shop, customer services, volunteering etc.

Both types are valuable. Medical schools realise that it is difficult to gain the first type of work experience, particularly for those under 18. As a result, almost all medical schools place an equal or higher weight to the second type of work experience. Students should still at least talk to doctors.

Remember, that it is the insight and meaning that an applicant gains from their work experience, rather than what they did, which is the most critical thing admissions tutors are looking for. Candidates must be able to verbalise these insights in their personal statement and Medicine interview to distinguish themselves from other candidates.

Is work experience essential for applying to study Medicine?

Yes. Most other courses do not require that applicants have work experience. However, for applying to study Medicine, it is essential. There are three main reasons admissions tutors need candidates to have done work experience:

1. To ensure that a candidate has a realistic understating of Medicine based on real experiences and research rather than just a strong desire to study Medicine.
2. As evidence to admissions tutors of a candidate’s commitment to Medicine. Actions speak louder than words and organising and attending work experience shows commitment to studying Medicine.
3. As a platform to demonstrate that a candidate has specific traits and skills, e.g. communication skills, reliability, insight etc. “Showing” admissions tutors a candidate has these skills as evidenced by their work experience is far better than merely claiming to have these skills. Work experience also provides a platform to develop these skills further.

Is there a minimum amount of work experience required to apply to medical school?

Most medical schools do not specify a minimum amount of work experience required. A variety of experiences that showcase and develop a range of skills is usually better than many cases of just one type of work experience which only shows or develops a particular skill. What a candidate gains from the experience and can demonstrate to admissions tutors are the most important things.

How can you help as a parent?

1. Start contacting people: The NHS is the UK’s biggest employer with over 1.7 million employees, so it is likely that if you think hard enough, you will know someone who works in healthcare or who knows someone who does. Make a list of everyone you know in healthcare and let your child contact them about gaining work experience. Many hospitals will have a person designated in dealing with work experience queries whom you can reach.
2. Encourage them to make a reflective journal of their work experience: This will get them in the habit of reflecting on their experiences and make it easier when it comes to writing personal statements and answering interview questions. It does not have to be in great detail; often bullet points are best. Make sure it is primarily a reflective piece and not merely a diary account of every circumstance which happened. Reflection includes things such as asking, “what went well/not well?” “why did that go well/ not well?” “what motivated the person to do that?” “why did I feel or think in that way?” “how will this make me think or act differently going forward?”
3. Encourage your child to talk about their work experience: This will get them in the habit of reflecting and talking about their experiences, rather than just keeping it inside their mind. As discussed in the point above, encourage them to reflect on experiences and what they learned and gained rather than merely describing what happened.

2) How parents can help their child pick which medical schools to apply to

Applicants can apply to four UK medical schools via UCAS and an additional fifth non-Medicine course as a backup. We have a free guide on how to decide which medical schools to apply to. The guide is very comprehensive and covers 19 points that you can systematically run through to determine if a medical school is an excellent choice to apply to. It also dispels many myths and clears up many common queries about medical schools and medical careers. We also have a free guide on how to make a 5th UCAS choice.

3) How parents can help their child with their Medicine personal statement

A personal statement must be written by the applicant and be free from plagiarism. You can help your child by helping them to brainstorm ideas and to proofread their medical school personal statement. We have many completely free articles which can help including:

• How to write a medical school personal statement in 10 steps
• A full analysis of a successful Medicine personal statement which received all four offers for an interview (and subsequently four offers for a place). Read More
• Seven things that every Medicine personal statement must include. Read More
• How to show the attributes of self-reflection and personal insight in your Medicine application. Read More

You can also consider personal statement review services which are offered by various companies. Services by reputable and competent providers can add value to an application but these are not essential so do not believe any company that tells you otherwise. Be wary of companies that do not use Medicine admissions experts or professional editors. Medicine Answered have our own professional personal statement review service which you can consider. It offers a unique level of expertise. A professional editor and then a doctor (who received all four offers to study Medicine) will review the personal statement line by line. They will also comment on the overall strength of the application and make suggestions of things which may be asked at interview based on the personal statement. Read More

4) How parents can help their child with their Medicine interview

Success in Medicine interviews is not random. It involves a clear set of steps:

• An intelligent plan on how to prepare – We cover this in our free guide on how to prepare for your Medicine interview in 7 steps. Read More
• Learning key strategies – We have many free articles on these as well as a free database of real Medicine interview questions with examples of full competent answers, analysis, and advice on how to approach these questions. We have a free guide to Medical Ethics and blog articles such as how to deal with hostile interviewers, how to answer opinion questions etc. Read More
• Avoiding common pitfalls – See our free guide on common Medicine Interview mistakes and how to prevent them. Read More
• Practice – Use our free exclusive database of Medicine interview questions and answers. Read More
• Execution on the day – Preparation and practice are one component of success. The other element is execution on the day. Read our free article about dealing with nerves. Read More

There are several ways that you can help your child with their Medicine interview:

• You can practice interview questions with your child. Our free database of questions and answers is perfect for this. You can also comment on things like their mannerisms and body language which we also cover in our free guide. Read More
• Encourage your child to talk about current health news and topics. Encourage them to form their own opinions.
• Talk to your child about their A-levels – this will get them in the habit of explaining concepts to you. Remember, MMI circuits may involve stations which test a candidate’s communication skills such as their explanation skills and patience.
• Talk to your child about their motivation to study Medicine. Again, this will help them to express themselves and crystallise into words what may be fuzzy ideas in their head formed long ago that they have never explained explicitly.
• You can consider a Medicine interview preparation course. Many companies offer these. If delivered by competent people then they can be a valuable experience, but these are not essential. We offer plenty of free resources on our website. Also make sure any courses you attend are held by reputable companies, have a proven track record and be aware of who is delivering the course. Many courses are provided by students, non-medics or inexperienced practitioners. All Medicine Answered interview courses use only doctors and specifically doctors who received all four offers to study Medicine and are experts in medical admissions. This is the minimum standard for all of our courses. If your child is booked on to a course, then our guide on how to prepare for a medical school interview course will be useful. If a one to one approach is preferred, or to cover any specific matters, we also offer Medicine interview tutoring either online or in person. Again, these are only with doctor who successfully passed all four Medicine interviews and who are experts in medical school admissions. We also provide general advice sessions about applying to Medicine which parents are welcome and encouraged to attend.

5) How parents can help their child with admissions tests, e.g. UKCAT and BMAT

The main admissions tests are the UKCAT (used by the largest number of medical schools), the BMAT (used by Oxbridge, and a handful of other medical schools) and the GAMSAT which is only for graduate students. We provide a comprehensive overview of admissions tests (updated for this year) in our free guide. It highlights all the key information including dates, costs, which medical schools use them and has an FAQ section answering common queries. We also have free guides on how to prepare for these tests. Talk to your child about when to take the test. It is usually best to take the UKCAT in the summer before college starts so that they can focus on their A-levels and other parts of their Medicine application, e.g. personal statement during the term.

Section 2: Advice for teachers

This section is about how teachers can help their students apply to Medicine. There is some overlap with the advice we discussed above in section one which was aimed at parents.

1) How teachers can help students with their Medicine work experience
2) How teachers can help students pick which medical schools to apply to
3) How teachers can help students with their Medicine personal statement
4) How teachers can help students with their medical school reference
5) How teachers can help students with their Medicine interview
6) How teachers can help students with admissions tests, e.g. UKCAT and BMAT

1) How teachers can help students with their Medicine work experience

The advice given to parents in section 1 about work experience also applies to teachers. In particular, remember that the insight and meaning an applicant gains from their work experience, rather than what they did, is the most crucial thing admissions tutors are looking for. Candidates must be able to verbalise these insights in their personal statement and Medicine interview to distinguish themselves from other candidates.

An additional area that teachers can consider is arranging for a doctor to come into the school, for example, during career related days or as an event for the Medicine society. Teachers could try and arrange this by asking any teachers or students if they know any doctors who would be willing to do this. Medicine Answered offer various bespoke programmes for schools where our doctors can come into your school or college and give a specialised talk about a career in Medicine and how to succeed in applying to medical school. As a minimum standard, all of our doctors gained offers from all four medical school and are experts in medical admissions with extensive training and experience. See our in-house courses for school’s page for more information. Read More

2) How teachers can help students pick which medical schools to apply to

Teachers and students can read our free guide on how to decide which medical schools to apply to. This is a very comprehensive guide, covering 19 points which readers can systematically go through to determine if a medical school is an excellent choice to apply to. It also dispels many myths and clears up many common queries about medical schools and medical careers. We also have a free guide on how to make a 5th UCAS choice. Read More

3) How teachers can help students with their Medicine personal statement

We have many free articles which will be useful to both teachers and students when writing their medical school personal statement. These are entirely free as part of our commitment to making high-quality information about a career in Medicine accessible. These articles include:

• A full analysis of a successful Medicine personal statement which received all four offers for an interview (and subsequently four offers for a place). Read More
• Seven things that every Medicine personal statement must include. Read More
• How to show the attributes of self-reflection and personal insight in your Medicine application. Read More

Medicine Answered also offer specialised and custom courses for schools covering the Medicine personal statement. These are all doctor delivered.

4) How teachers can help students with their Medicine reference

Teachers are responsible for writing a student’s reference. You should provide your honest opinion about a candidate’s suitability to study Medicine. Our blog article attributes needed to study Medicine and why these are required may be useful. Medical school admissions tutors value the informed opinion of an educational professional. Your reference should not merely be a repetition of a candidate’s personal statement but should work alongside it to enhance it. Try to provide evidence for any claims.

Additionally, any information about any social or educational disadvantages the applicant has overcome are useful as increasingly medical schools take these things into account as they recognise that medical schools need to broaden the backgrounds that applicants come from. In 2009-2011, half of all UK schools failed to provide a single applicant to Medicine. 80 per cent of all applicants to Medicine come from just 20 per cent of schools.

5) How teachers can help students with their Medicine interview

• Regularly, for example once a fortnight, spend some time talking about a topic related to Medicine e.g. medical/health news, the application process, one of Medicine Answered’s blogs or articles etc. This could be in the form of a presentation by a teacher, student or outside doctor followed by a group discussion. This can be to the class or as part of a college Medicine society. Encouraging students to give presentations will increase their confidence and communication skills. The group discussions will also do this and make them more confident in expressing their opinions.
• Encourage group discussion or debate about medical issues. This could include a news item or about medical ethics. You can read our free guide about Medical ethics for more information. In this guide, we discuss the five pillars of medical ethics which are essential to know for Medicine interviews. You can present an ethical situation to the class and divide the students into groups and ask each group to represent one of the pillars of medical ethics, e.g. autonomy. Or you could give the students two pillars, e.g. autonomy and beneficence and ask them to talk about how the balance between these two pillars for a given scenario.
• You could also have a group discussion surrounding one of our application guides, e.g. our guide to mastering body language for your Medicine interview, our guide to medical ethics etc. or one of our blog articles, e.g. how to deal with hostile interviewers.
• You can contact Medicine Answered about arranging a bespoke doctor delivered Medicine interview course for your college.

6) How teachers can help students with admissions tests e.g. UKCAT and BMAT

• Admissions tests are very different to A-levels. They focus on assessing a candidate’s skills in problem-solving and their ability to apply knowledge rather than simply recall memorised knowledge. Candidates will need to learn how to answer many questions quickly and correctly rather than a few done well. It is common not to be able to complete all the questions in the UKCAT or BMAT. Candidates must learn the skill of prioritisation and knowing what questions to skip and come back to later and which ones to simply guess.
• Teachers can help students by becoming more familiar with the UKCAT and BMAT. Both students and teachers can do these by using our free UKCAT guide which includes how to prepare for these tests. Our overview of admissions tests for medical school (updated for this year’s entry) is an excellent place to start. It highlights all they key information including dates, costs, which medical schools use them and has an FAQ section answering common queries. We also have entirely free guides on how to prepare for the UKCAT and BMAT.