On 5th March, Aayushi, Ambar and myself were able to go to a public conference called ‘ So you want to be a doctor’ held at the Royal Society of Medicine. The entire day consisted of many senior and junior doctors, Consultants, General Practitioners and Professors talking to us, giving their own insight into what medicine can offer.
The first lecturer was Dr. Kevin Murphy who is the deputy admission tutor at Imperial College, London. He discussed the importance of getting the right work experience in either a hospital or GP’s surgery which will help you to decide if medicine is for you. He also discussed the structure of the aptitude tests that are compulsory in order to get into the top medical schools. The majority of medical schools ask for students to do the UKCAT whilst 4 others ask for the BMAT. Students must be able to score over the average in order to get to the interview stage. This lecture was followed by Dr. Rashmi Patel (a graduate from Oxford University) who explained his journey getting into medical school and the foundation years since he had finished medical school. He outlined the 2 year programme, foundation doctors undertake in 3-6 months rotations in various disciplines in a hospital and community, in order to acquire essential skills in assessing and managing patients. Dr Patel’s presentation was very humorous but also very interesting as we now know what happens once students graduate from medical school.
One of the main lectures I enjoyed was by Miss Samira Green who is currently in her 4th year of medical school at the Barts and London University. Miss Green was very inspiring because she didn’t get into medical school the first time she applied. Instead her determination made her get into medical school after she had completed her biomedical science degree. She explained that there are many different routes getting into medicine.
Overall the whole experience was very enjoyable and informative. It gave us an opportunity to ask any queries we might have had. On a last note, I would recommend anyone who is interested in medicine to attend to any future events held at the Royal Society of Medicine.
Tabasum Aslam (Year 12)