A visit from the dean!

Earlier in the week, I was fortunate enough to attend an informal meeting along with the other members of the medical society at my school, with the Dean of medicine at Bristol University. I found the talk very informative and it was good to hear the information from “the man in charge” too. The discussion included a brief summary of different aspects of studying medicine, followed by a number of questions from our society covering anything which we were unsure about as of yet.

One thing that I will be sure to remind myself throughout the year is the fact that A,A,A grades at A2 are now more of a necessity than achievement. Even to be considered for interview amongst the huge number of other candidates would require this much from me. Having said that, at the moment I feel that these grades are definitely within my grasp but it has definitely stressed the necessity for A LOT of hard work in order to get into medical school!

An interesting point I had not yet heard off was the possible introduction of “MMIs” which would replace the regular interview. Currently, most interviews are approximately 20 minutes in length and consisted of a number of previously decided questions. However, the Dean said that he felt these were not a fair representation of one’s true self. Some would have little access to practise interviews, others would be far more nervous than others, and so forth. In order to make the interview process a better reflection of an individual, Bristol University, as well as several others have decided upon replacing the normal interview with multiple mini interviews. These, as the name suggests would be a collection of maybe 7 or 8 interviews each consisting with perhaps one question. The idea is that these would be a better representation of the actual candidate. For example, their communication skills, in the short time they would have in these interviews. So if you are considering medicine it would be in good interests to read up a little on these interviews! Who knows which medical schools will be using them by the time we come to apply!

Thanks,

Sam