This student applied in the 2018/19 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 Pakistani man who went to a comprehensive school that doesn’t regularly send students to medical school. They received free school meals.
Our Summary
Course: Standard undergraduate
In person panel interview with group task
Admissions Tests: UCAT
Before I made my application…
Choosing to study medicine
When did you decide to apply to medicine?
During sixth form
How did you choose which universities to apply to?
Applied to universities that were Russell Group but outside of my home city in London as I wanted to experience a different area.
Completing work experience
What types of work experience did you do?
Care work (e.g. in residential care), Other healthcare setting e.g pharmacy, physiotherapy
How much work experience did you do?
6 months of hospital volunteering every Saturday morning.
How did you find your work experience opportunities?
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?
For a month before exams I would do practice questions everyday and review what went wrong. I would come up with ways to make myself more efficient when answering the questions.
What resources did you use?
Medify
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?
Used online resources to prepare for commonly asked questions in advance of my interview. Read up on the latest news in medical research so I could have it as a talking point in my interview.
What happened during your interview?
We were initially given a group task to discuss around a dilemma in the healthcare system. We would share our thoughts and bounce off each others ideas. In the panel interview I was asked several questions about my personal statement, my knowledge on how the NHS is structured and more.
Do you have any further advice?
Really consider whether you want to go into medicine or not. It is a challenging career. Shadow as much as you can so you can get a feel of what a day to day life of a doctor is like, and ask them questions that matter. Ask them whether they regret it or if they would recommend the career. These sorts of questions will help you gauge whether you should pursue the degree or not.
Glossary
Russell Group: The Russell Group is a group of universities that is celebrated for its research output. Not all universities that offer medicine are members of the Russell Group, and not going to a Russell Group University doesn’t affect your ability to get a job in medicine afterwards.
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.
Medify: Medify is a popular website which provides resources for helping you prepare your medicine application. Medify has some free resources online but some are paid-for. There are good, free alternatives for preparation available online, so check out our subject guides and the university websites for details.
