Dear Aspiring Medic,

I’ve found this whole situation rather surreal, almost as if I’m about to wake up and everything will be back to normal, so I have to keep reminding myself that school has indeed shut and that I won’t be taking my exams. 

The way in which our A- levels will be awarded has probably caused many year 13’s stress and worry, as it would be expected to. However, we are all in the same boat and the only thing we can do at this stage is, have faith in the effort we’ve put in up to this point. If you are finding yourself in a position where you see no feasible way of achieving your grades, I cannot stress the importance of keeping up your subject knowledge. It will make revising for the resits significantly easier than if you have to start from ‘scratch’.

After school’s closure, I completed my subjects’ content in the days following the announcement regarding lockdown. This consisted of a few biology and maths topics which I would recommend that any year 13’s do, as this gives you a sense of finality to sixth form, as well as meaning you won’t be disadvantaged at university. Furthermore, I try to do 1-2 hours of what I would describe as top- up revision. This consists of looking over notes and past papers, so that not all knowledge is lost before the start of university. I also try to do some medical reading every day, whether this is from a newspaper or a YouTube video. 

There are so many measures you can take to strengthen your application that you can begin even now, despite formal work experience being temporarily out of the question. The first being UCAT prep. I believe, having done it, that the UCAT is an exam where a person’s score can be improved through practice. I used Medify for my UCAT preparation and I believe that more time spent doing practice questions would have increased my score. Getting a good UCAT score gives you a much wider range of universities to look at and a higher chance of getting into those you do choose to apply for.

You could also start to bulk up on things you’ve read and watched for your personal statement. Interesting videos/lectures/books (not just “This is Going to Hurt”!) whilst being interesting, double up as material to put in your personal statement and a little bit further down the line can make for a good interview discussion topic. I’d also recommend putting in the foundations for your personal statement because it’s never too early to start! Doing things like making a list of all the relevant things you’ve done and what qualities they show will make writing your personal statement much easier. You don’t want to leave it too late as if you do, you’ll have to juggle schoolwork and writing this important document as I did.

The biggest piece of advice that I would give to anyone whether you are in Year 12 or 13 is to make sure you keep your brain engaged and active. I try to always learn something new every day whether that is a card trick, how to do something on excel, or even how to cook something new. This makes me feel that when I move on to the next chapter of my life I’ll be ready to soak up information.

Dola Rabiu, Year 13 Student and Aspiring Medic