This student applied in the 2022/23 application cycle and therefore the selection process at Nottingham 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, Welsh, non-binary, and went to a comprehensive school that doesn’t regularly send students to study medicine.
Our Summary
Course: Standard undergraduate entry
Online MMI interview
Admissions Tests: UCAT
Before I made my application…
Choosing to apply
When did you decide you wanted to apply to medicine?
Year 9
How did you choose what medical schools to apply to?
Course content and facilities. My fifth choice was based on the university itself as it has the sports facilities I wanted.
Completing work experience
What types of work experience did you do?
Hospital shadowing, Care work (e.g. in residential care)
How much work experience did you do?
I did a day of hospital shadowing. I then worked in a care home during the pandemic. I also did some online work experience for free with Medic Mentor as they were offering it for free during COVID.
*Usually, Medic Mentor’s services are paid-for.
How did you find your work experience opportunities?
Emailing around.
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?
An hour a day for a week and a half before the test. I tried to focus on one aspect for the session and then do a full practice paper at least every other day.
What resources did you use?
PassMedicine was amazing, would definitely recommend it to anyone who isn’t able to spend any money on practicing for their UCAT
Interviews
What type of interview did you do?
MMI: 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 about the course on the website and attended the open day. I researched a bit about the city as well. I also got into contact with my local hospital to ask if they had any doctors willing to do a mock interview with me and was lucky enough to have the chance to do that as well.
What was your interview like?
There was a station that required you to look at a couple cases and then apply medical ethics.
Do you have any further advice?
Starting earlier would have really benefitted me with being fully prepared for applying for medicine. So much stuff I found out the summer of application due to my school not being aware of the process of applying. I know that this isn’t the case in other schools and it means that you’re not trying to do everything in like 2 months.
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.
Online work experience: Some providers are now offering online work experience, such as the Brighton and Sussex Medical School online work experience, or the Observe GP experience by the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Passmedicine: Passmed offers 6 months free UCAT revision, but also offers paid revision support for medical students during their courses. Lots of students use it to help them prepare for UCAT.
Mock interview: Don’t worry if you didn’t have this opportunity. Interviews are designed to take into account that not everyone has the same level of preparation. See our guides and blogs on interviews to find out more about free online resources.
Insiders: Don’t worry if you don’t know people like this. Most students don’t have friends who have already been through the process or healthcare professionals that they know who might be able to support them. You can meet current medical students to speak to at open days, or via free mentoring schemes, but it’s not a requirement for you to be successful. This student is in an exceptional situation!
