This student applied in the 2020/21 application cycle and therefore the selection process at Sheffield may have changed since then. You should read all the information a University sends you about the selection process to get the most up to date details!
Remember to check out the glossary at the bottom of the page for our explanations of all the jargon we medical students like to use!
More about this student
Gender: Non-binary
Ethnicity: White British
I went to a comprehensive school that doesn’t regularly send students to study medicine.
Our Summary
Course: Standard Undergraduate
In person MMI interview
Admissions Tests: UCAT, BMAT
Recommended Resources:
UCAT and BMAT websites
The Medic Portal
Before I made my application…
When did you decide you wanted to apply for medical school?
After my GCSE results came and were much better than expected, previous to that I had wanted to be a dietician
How did you choose what medical schools to apply to?
Proximity to my home where I was needed and affordability, including bursaries and scholarships given
What types of work experience did you do?
Care work (e.g. in residential care), Other healthcare setting e.g pharmacy, physiotherapy, Customer service role (paid), being a young carer
How much work experience did you do?
3 months paid work, 3 days pharmacy volunteering, 2 shifts care work volunteering
How did you find your work experience opportunities?
Through asking someone I knew to take me on
During the application process…
What admissions test did you sit?
University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT): https://www.ucat.ac.uk/
Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT). Note that the BMAT will no longer be used after the 2023 application cycle.
How did you prepare for your admissions test?
I started by reading about the tests and what was expected from each and what they were testing. I started slowly doing questions, reflecting on where I was going wrong, building up to doing whole timed mock exams.
What type of interview did you do?
Multiple Mini Interview:This type of interview usually includes several short interviews or ‘stations’ which may involve different types of questions and scenarios. This is different compared to a panel interview, which may cover the same scenarios/types of questions but be a more ‘traditional’ sit-down interview.
How did you prepare for your interview?
I read all of the questions that they had sent me, spent lots of time on the internet researching the medical school, university, city, how interviews usually go, and my chances of getting in. I used student forums like The Student Room to gain free advice from medical students and practiced answering different questions (on The Medic Portal– free) aloud to myself. I read medical news on my phone (BBC news app- free) to keep up to date on current affairs.
What happened in your interview?
In one station I chatted with a patient, and another there was an abstract problem-solving task. The rest were a mixture of ethical dilemmas, hobbies, my knowledge of the NHS, why I chose that specific uni and course and other general questions. I was mostly put at ease but sometimes pushed in a helpful way.
Glossary
Clinical work experience: Not every student will complete clinical work experience before they apply to medical school. Don’t worry, this is not required to be able to apply. You can use non-clinical work experience (e.g. a caring role, like in a care home) or even reflect on paid work you’ve done (e.g. in customer service) in a productive way. See our guide to this here:
The Medic Portal: The Medic Portal is a popular website that provides resources to help you prepare your medicine application. The Medic Portal has some free resources online but some are paid-for. There are good, free alternatives for preparation available online, so check out our guides and the university websites for details.
Online forums: Online forums can be great spaces to find advice and first-hand knowledge, but remember that it may not always be the most trustworthy source of information. Take what you read with a pinch of salt.
