Applying for medical school can be a highly stressful process and knowing that you have made the preparations necessary to succeed can be a major boost in confidence. Our course utilises realistic settings and up to date interview practices to ensure students know what to expect at every stage of the application process, helping to reduce nerves and thereby increase the chance of success.

Our Medical School Preparation course gives students all the tools they need to be successful when applying to medical school including mock interviews using real and frequently asked questions, interview prep techniques, CV workshops, presentation skills and mock OSCEs. This ensures we can simulate as closely as possible the conditions found in real world medical school interviews to prepare students for what to expect when applying for medical school and help to build the confidence needed to ace the application and interview process.

The Medical School Preparation course runs from 9:30am – 4pm for 5 consecutive days with an hour break for lunch. We teach at a low student to tutor ratio (8:1) meaning that students are supervised and encouraged throughout their course.

Day 1

Morning Session: Applying to Medical School

Following introductions to other students and lecturers, students will have the chance to discuss their current CVs with both the lecturer and the class as a whole. This will give us an opportunity to discuss where they’re going right as well as areas that may be lacking and gives us a baseline from which to work and compare to at the end of the week.

We will discuss why students want to apply to medical school and what their aspirations as a doctor may be this will also allow us to engage in a light form of mock interview questions to help prepare for the types of questions students will be asked when applying for medical school.

Afternoon Session: Careers in Medicine

Building on the morning session we will discuss what careers in medicine are available, their pros and cons and what areas students may wish to focus on. Using real world experience our lecturers will be able to discuss the medical field with students in a confident and factual manner giving students an insight into what to expect if they are successful in their applications to medical school and the career they will then progress in upon completion of their studies.

Day 2

Morning Session: Professionalism

Professionalism is crucial in all areas of healthcare with specific and unique concerns to take into account when considering the role and expectations placed upon medical professionals. This will include aspects external to your time in work which are highly uncommon within other careers; whether this may be personal responsibility in times of medical emergency when not on-call or personal conduct when engaging with the general public there are aspects of being a doctor which may not be immediately apparent prior to medical study.

Afternoon Session: Medical Ethics

Having considered personal conduct and how we must act as professionals ourselves we here move on to the more specific topic of medical ethics. Medical ethics is a largely by committee series of ideas which we must adhere to when practicing and can be a highly difficult field to discuss or consider. We will endeavour to look this thorny topic in the eye and discuss why we believe certain aspects of medical ethics are immutable where others may not be. Students will look at case studies concerning aspects of both medical and everyday ethics and split into teams to debate these topics thus allowing us to defend or even attack our own beliefs thereby strengthening them and gaining a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.

Day 3

Morning Session: Problem Based Learning Session

This session will focus on a problem-based learning exercise similar to that which students will encounter during their time in medical school. Students will be given a fictional account which they will then be asked to go away and work through independently before coming back to feedback individually to the rest of the group on their findings. This exercise is designed to encourage not only an independent learning mind-set highly valued at all universities but also to allow students to admit what they don’t know, to discuss the case study with what information they were able to determine and fill in the blanks through a group dynamic where we can come to a diagnostic and prognostic conclusion for our patient.

Afternoon Session: Communication Skills Roleplay

Communication skills are a core aspect of all healthcare roles; the ability to discuss highly complex medical topics with a layman is a skill to be learned and one which we will all start out at with varying degrees of success. An important feature of discussion with a patient is the ability to speak in plain terms without appearing condescending to avoid either extreme resulting in a patient who feels stupid or talked down to and is therefore less likely to listen to us.

We will also cover more difficult to broach topics including those which patients may have a strong opinion or vested interest in including vaccine hesitancy, smoking, weight and more. We will discuss how we can go about bringing these topics up and the methods we can use to avoid offence or creating a situation where patients may choose not to listen.

Day 4

Morning Session: Pressing Medical Topics

We will begin day 4 by discussing the hot topics within medicine today where students will be encouraged to give their opinion on topics ranging from the pandemic and its measures of control to the increasing average weight in the population. Students will debate on how we believe that these issues can be approached and where we believe the core of the problem lies.

This aspect of the course will also change based on what the most pressing issues in medical news may be at any given day allowing students to discuss the issues at the forefront of the medical community and practice discussing these topics in a confident and capable manner as will be asked of them at interview.

Afternoon Session: Breaking Bad News

Building on our previous study of communication skills we will now focus in more specifically on breaking bad news to a patient or a patient’s family. We will discuss specific techniques and methods we may use, what to avoid saying and how to confidently state bad news to a patient in a way which is clear and concise but caring and considerate of what the patient is going through.

We will cover the differences between a formal and informal approach when dealing with different patients and the pros and cons thereof and consider what style we believe would be best in certain situations. Breaking bad news to a patient is never a pleasant experience but by being confident, communicating clearly and showing compassion in our methods we can support both our patients and ourselves through a difficult scenario.

Day 5

Morning Session: Mock Interviews

The final day of the week will begin with mock interviews using actual interview questions and techniques to be found in many medical school interviews. We will discuss what students have done well and where they need to improve post-interview to give them the tools they need to prepare for their upcoming medical school interviews.

Afternoon Session: Career Discussion

We will close out the week with a discussion on careers in medicine ranging from surgery to general practice and everything in-between. Students will have the opportunity to discuss with their lecturers their specific career paths and gain an insight into how to go about formulating a career plan and progressing into their desired career.

• Students must be studying a minimum of A-Level Biology or Chemistry.
• The course supports university and work experience applications, as almost all universities and employers now require previous laboratory experience before considering an applicant.

During this 5-day course, students will learn skills beneficial for any university application including:

• Understand what constitutes a strong CV
• Confidently engage in mock interview
• Prepare for frequently asked questions at interview
• Act in a professional manner
• Understand how to complete a problem-based learning session effectively
• Develop excellent communication skills for speaking to patients
• How to break bad news to patients and their families
• Debate confidently and effectively over current medical topics