This student applied in the 2019/20 application cycle and therefore the selection process at Southampton 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
Sometimes students share information with us about their demographics, which may help put their application experience into a bit more perspective.
This student identifies as a White man, and they attended a comprehensive school in the UK that doesn’t regularly send pupils to study medicine. They received free school meals.
Our Summary
Course: Graduate entry
In-person panel interview with group task
Admissions Tests: UCAT
Top tips:
– The UCATs are very similar to online IQ tests, especially the abstract reasoning questions, and so they can be a decent place to find some extra practice questions.
– I would also check out widening access to medicine socieities run by local universities because they will often have free events that help prepare for interviews/entrance exams. I didn’t know about them until after I got into uni!
Before I made my application…
Choosing to study medicine
When did you decide to apply to medical school? During my undergraduate studies!
How did you choose which universities to apply to?
Based on whether they asked for the UKCAT and offered graduate entry medicine.
Completing work experience
What types of work experience did you do?
Hospital shadowing, GP surgery, Care work (e.g. in residential care), Other healthcare setting e.g pharmacy, physiotherapy, Customer service role (voluntary), Customer service role (paid)
How much work experience did you do?
I did lots of work experience in a variety of science and healthcare roles!
How did you find your work experience opportunities?
Through a formal scheme or work experience placement, Through asking someone I knew to take me on
During the application process…
Admissions tests
What admissions test did you sit?
University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT): https://www.ucat.ac.uk/
How did you prepare for your admissions test?
Completed practice questions.
What resources did you use?
Karma Medic was very helpful!
Interviews
What type of interview did you do?
Panel: This type of interview is a ‘traditional’ sit down interview where you’ll be interviewed by a group of people, usually academic tutors and doctors. This differs from an MMI interview, which is based around ‘stations’ which have themes or scenarios attached to them.
Group task: At Southampton, most interviews have a group task, where multiple candidates are interviewed together.
How did you prepare for your interview?
Mostly used the Karma Medic YouTube channel.
What happened in your interview?
We read through my personal statement, and the group task focused on ethics in healthcare system (this has now changed to a problem-solving task).
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.
YouTube videos: There are many current and recent medical students who create videos on YouTube about their experience and advice about applying. Remember that their experience is personal and individual, and may not reflect yours. They might provide some useful advice but remember that they might be advertising paid for services. Take their advice as part of a more holistic approach alongside moderated advice such as ours, and official advice from universities and test providers.
