Mature Medicine Applicants Thread 2013

another question

yoppo wrote: »

It was tough. Parts were fairly doable but the new context and applications is very wordy which doesn't suit me. I got an A2 in pass but I know the disparity between pass and honours is crazy so I stuck my neck out and done honours. I'm aiming for a C1-B1!

I went to one in Limerick, there is only one anyway! It was good, the teachers were all very good and you go through reams of exam questions, pre's, old course everything! I wasn't given anything because I was older. It was still a hard year. I was aiming for 550 but I have a feeling it could be 520. I think the A2's in biology and Ag could let me down.

My focus weaned a small bit when I got my HPAT results in March/April. I'd advise you to do HPAT right now. If you have the points don't waste time and money. Spend it on the HPAT and ace it!!

I know it is much easier said than done but if say 'you aced the HPAT' does your score have a huge effect on your application? Insofar as drowning out any lack of volunteer experience or any hospital/patient work experience.

SolitaireX

Medme wrote: »

Hi all,

I know theres a similar thread on vet so mods feel free to merge if you see fit!

So im now 30, didn't get a mature med place this year (will try again next year etcetc), I do have enough points for undergrad but they could be improved, (along with my HPAT score) so im contemplating the pros/cons of going back to repeat the LC in an effort to get an undergrad place..

Has anyone repeated the LC to get med/vet at my fine age?!! And any suggestions as to where, im assuming the institute is a front runner? Given that ill be shooting for max points im not keen on self-study only option, ill go all out if i run with it..

Im aware of grad entry - unfortunately not eligible. It seems mature entry is always going to be a 'long shot' given the element of subjectivity in interviewing etc but the undergrad entry is at least black and white!

Any advice on LC as an 'oldie' much appreciated

Only just saw your post, I repeated the LC this year (at the age of 29, turned 30 since) in the institute, I highly recommend the institute if you are going to repeat (the reputation they have is well deserved), they also do a HPAT prep course that's pretty good (you get a substantial discount for being a student and they give you a lot of good practice material and some pretty solid advice for approaching the questions). That being said, it is really weird going back to do the leaving mainly due to the age difference between you and your classmates, some of them were born the year you started secondary school the first time round. They WILL seem like idiots to you, that's because many of them are, there will be a few you can talk to, they will be other mature students (and even then they will be the older mature students) and some of the people you will be competing against for medicine.

If you have any queries let me know and I'll do my best to answer.

another question

Is it a next to impossible task to get work experience in a hospital? Even if you wanted to work on a 'volunteer basis' in a&e at the weekends cleaning up etc. the volunteer area in Sligo is quite small, with any of the volunteer vacancies in areas that don't really deal with helping people or in any areas that would be relevant to an application based on mature years.

homergriffin

another question wrote: »

Is it a next to impossible task to get work experience in a hospital? Even if you wanted to work on a 'volunteer basis' in a&e at the weekends cleaning up etc. the volunteer area in Sligo is quite small, with any of the volunteer vacancies in areas that don't really deal with helping people or in any areas that would be relevant to an application based on mature years.

Your best bet is to get in contact with one of the programmes in an outpatients department of a major hospital and contact the programme administrator directly. Outline your intent to go back to study medicine and ask them can you shadow as an observer. Once you have observed one or two sessions ask them would it be possible to have a discussion with a consultant. With the consultant outline your interest and intent and ask would it be possible to observe for a day in their clinic.

From a personal perspective this worked for me and I managed to get invaluable experience. The consultant, dietitian and nurses were lovely and really made my experience all the better. I will be starting in September in RCSI as a mature student.

I have to note that I also did 6 months volunteering in an occupational clinic with kids who have learning difficulties or praxis issues.

PM me if you need further info.

another question

homergriffin wrote: »

Your best bet is to get in contact with one of the programmes in an outpatients department of a major hospital and contact the programme administrator directly. Outline your intent to go back to study medicine and ask them can you shadow as an observer. Once you have observed one or two sessions ask them would it be possible to have a discussion with a consultant. With the consultant outline your interest and intent and ask would it be possible to observe for a day in their clinic.

From a personal perspective this worked for me and I managed to get invaluable experience. The consultant, dietitian and nurses were lovely and really made my experience all the better. I will be starting in September in RCSI as a mature student.

I have to note that I also did 6 months volunteering in an occupational clinic with kids who have learning difficulties or praxis issues.

PM me if you need further info.

Thank you for the reply. I will definitely PM in a while if that's ok. I have a couple of questions.

RAnnaC

another question wrote: »

Is it a next to impossible task to get work experience in a hospital? Even if you wanted to work on a 'volunteer basis' in a&e at the weekends cleaning up etc. the volunteer area in Sligo is quite small, with any of the volunteer vacancies in areas that don't really deal with helping people or in any areas that would be relevant to an application based on mature years.

I found medical work experience really difficult as well. I don't know any consultants and any hospitals I wrote to either didn't reply or said they couldn't accommodate me.
That said, I got through the whole application process in RCSI and will be starting in September. I had done voluntary work with a local centre for people with disabilities for the past year and had also just started volunteering in Temple Street children's hospital as a play assistant.
Once you have something to show you have really committed to this idea of studying medicine and have had to show a certain amount of benevolence in whatever you have done I think they are happy.

Fiddles44

I found getting any hospital experience difficult as well. To have any chance I would start looking sooner rather than later.

I got offered a place in Trinity this year and I'd definitely agree with RAnnaC and homergriffen. Your experience doesn't have to be just in hospitals. Apply to local nursing homes, daycare centers, sheltered homing organisations that may be local to you. A lot of GPs are willing to take people in for some experience too.

If you want any advice about applying just send on a PM

PingO_O

Hey fiddles, I hope to get onto the work experience quite soon as well, as someone said before on another thread it does feel a bit contrived but I've always wanted to volunteer somewhere anyway so I guess this is a good push to go and do it.

Just wondering did you put your work experience on your cv or is it something they ask you about or both?

How many hours a week did you do volunteer work? I don't work a regular week so I'm a bit worried in that respect.

Fiddles44

PingO_O wrote: »

Hey fiddles, I hope to get onto the work experience quite soon as well, as someone said before on another thread it does feel a bit contrived but I've always wanted to volunteer somewhere anyway so I guess this is a good push to go and do it.

Just wondering did you put your work experience on your cv or is it something they ask you about or both?

How many hours a week did you do volunteer work? I don't work a regular week so I'm a bit worried in that respect.

The only college that asks for a CV is RCSI. I put a short note about the work experience on the CV and then went into more detail about it in the personal statement. They asked a very general question about my experience so I talked about everything.

With regards to the amount of time spent volunteering it varied with the type of volunteering I was doing. Some of it was volunteering full time for about 2 weeks. I volunteer in sheltered housing and this is very flexible. It depends on my work schedule really.I found that a lot of places are delighted to get the extra help so they will work around your schedule and when you're able to spare your time.

Most places want you to get garda vetting before you can start and that can take a few weeks to come through so maybe try applying as soon as possible because it could take a few weeks before you can actually start volunteering.

Work experience was a little different. I had to work around when the doctors I was shadowing were able to take me. I spent about a full week in a hospital setting and then I was in a GPs clinic at different times that suited them.

jplc

Am I the only one who can't sleep?????

PingO_O

jplc wrote: »

Am I the only one who can't sleep?????

Why?? Is the course starting soon?

Edit: saw your other posts, best of luck with the LC, hope you get it

another question

jplc wrote: »

Am I the only one who can't sleep?????

Best of luck tomorrow

jplc

Thanks people, best of luck to any one else who is going to have yet another all night Big Bang Theory marathon!!!!!

spacecat

Just got an offer from UCC completely out of the blue

I am still in shock and a little bit nervous, lol

ruthiecahill

Fantastic news, congratulations!!!

another question

spacecat wrote: »

Just got an offer from UCC completely out of the blue

I am still in shock and a little bit nervous, lol

Well done you, great news.:D

PingO_O

spacecat wrote: »

Just got an offer from UCC completely out of the blue

I am still in shock and a little bit nervous, lol

Congratulations! I see you tried last year as well. Must be extra sweet news to finally get it! Best of luck

livk

Congratulations, such wonderful news! Enjoy it

PingO_O

So I was looking for any kind of prep material on the hpat and realised there is none unless you go for med entry or the company involved but ive seen that there are a few books on the ukcat around.

Does anyone think it would be a good idea to buy one just for practice even if the two tests aren't exactly the same?

livk

A lot of people I know have done many different courses and used lots of different information to study. It all comes back to the crowd you mentioned and how they're generally a league above everyone else. It's a lot cheaper if you sign up with one other person to do it. I'll certainly be doing it this year. Worth the money if it brings the HPAT up. I can't imagine the UKCat would be of much use to you. It really is worth focusing on HPAT stuff only and practicing it over and over.

jamieflood

speeding wrote: »

I started as a mature on the med programme in rcsi this year. Best decision I ever made :-). I love this place. Anyone who wants to ask me anything feel free to pm and good luck with all your applications !

hi plzz let us know how much u had in the hpat

SolitaireX

PingO_O wrote: »

So I was looking for any kind of prep material on the HPAT and realised there is none unless you go for med entry or the company involved but I've seen that there are a few books on the ukcat around.

Does anyone think it would be a good idea to buy one just for practice even if the two tests aren't exactly the same?

I did the course they run at the institute of education (It was relatively cheap because I was a student, not sure what the price is like otherwise) they give you a lot of practice material to try on your own and if you take away only one or two of the problem solving techniques you should see some good results, heard a good few students talking about that med entry course and they said it was good but it sounds like a bit of a rip off.

My advice is to buy all the prep material from acer, get a feel for the type of questions and then see if the UKCAT questions are similar enough to warrant buying the books for practice, if the questions are harder that the HPAT I'd go for it and only give yourself the same amount of time you'd have for the HPAT.

PingO_O

Cool thanks guys, @solitaire that's a good idea because the books on the UKcat are easy enough to get a hold of, so if the questions are in any way similar or harder as you say then ill be practising with those as well.

SolitaireX

As the saying goes "more testicles means more iron", in this case the testicles are practice questions, the iron is your HPAT score!

SolitaireX

So by this stage anyone who was sitting the leaving has their offers, how'd everyone get on?

dtfo

SolitaireX wrote: »

So by this stage anyone who was sitting the leaving has their offers, how'd everyone get on?

Got 545 , missed out on a school leaver place by 4 points. Going in tomorrow to view the scripts so might be sending off for rechecks

ultimatehero

Oh my god dfto, that's an unreal score, all the same. Fair play. Best of luck with the re-checks, make sure to view all the scripts even the ones you think were ok as thats how I got 'upped' 10 points when i did the LC in 2005

dtfo wrote: »

Got 545 , missed out on a school leaver place by 4 points. Going in tomorrow to view the scripts so might be sending off for rechecks

SDCards

Hello everyone,

I have been thinking about applying thru the mature entry route. But unlike most people, I only have a Bachelors degree in Human Genetics and a tiny amount of voluntary work (disabled lady, whom I just helped with getting around and being her friend). I have applied to do a Healthcare Assistant FETAC course but I won't begin working till the beginning of January. Do I have a shot at all? Is there any point in applying?

Otherwise I'm just going to take my offer from Eastern Europe and toil away >.<

SolitaireX

SDCards wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I have been thinking about applying thru the mature entry route. But unlike most people, I only have a Bachelors degree in Human Genetics and a tiny amount of voluntary work (disabled lady, whom I just helped with getting around and being her friend). I have applied to do a Healthcare Assistant FETAC course but I won't begin working till the beginning of January. Do I have a shot at all? Is there any point in applying?

Otherwise I'm just going to take my offer from Eastern Europe and toil away >.<

A lot of people don't have much voluntary work, I advise that if you are serious about getting into medicine to start looking for/doing some volunteer work now so that you have it for making your application in Jan/Feb.

SDCards

SolitaireX wrote: »

A lot of people don't have much voluntary work, I advise that if you are serious about getting into medicine to start looking for/doing some volunteer work now so that you have it for making your application in Jan/Feb.

Hmm. I worked with her for over almost a year and can always go back to her. I also did an observership with a Neonatologist at NMH in Dublin. I rang up TCD and they said the more relevant the voluntary/work experience is to the field, the better your points in the assessment. Is it worth going after the HCA FETAC course?

Or should I just take my Poland offer and get the heck outta here? >.>