• Question: if one wanted to work as a doctor how would they get into the profession and what advice would you give them, what science's would they need to take and what grades?

    Asked by calebjr2018 to Alan, Ciorsdaidh, Lauren, Leonie, Martin, Neil, Shuo on 9 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Lauren Webster

      Lauren Webster answered on 9 Mar 2018:


      One of the critical things about applying to study medicine is not the grades but the experience you have to offer. It is so key to your application. My advice would be to start undertaking voluntary work in some sort of medical profession, ie doctors surgeries, hospital clinics. The universities like how you have gone above and beyond what they have asked for and by doing this extra bit, it has shown you are committed to the profession. As for subjects, I think it still stands that they require Chemistry, biology, and physics along with maths and english. But please look at the prospectus for the universities you are wanting to apply to. Good luck in your studies 🙂

    • Photo: Alan McCue

      Alan McCue answered on 11 Mar 2018:


      To some extent this depends on the university (the entry grades may differ from one place to another). In general, you need to have a reasonable good grounding in all 3 of the main sciences – so chemistry, physics and biology. It is therefore also important to be comfortable with both english and maths as we need these subjects to understand and explain the 3 sciences.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 12 Mar 2018:


      I think Alan and Laura have answered your question. Most medical school will look at a lot more than just your subjects and grades. But you would still have to present an excellent set of grades in biology, chemistry, physics, maths and any other subjects you do.

    • Photo: Neil Keddie

      Neil Keddie answered on 13 Mar 2018:


      Awesome choice of job calebjr2018. I think Lauren really hit the nail on the head with getting as much experience as you can – this is really a critical thing, and something that will be used to rate you applications to medical school.

      Subjects wise – the important thing is to work towards getting your 4 or 5 higher in one sitting, rather than trying to accumulate them over 2 years (medical schools are not so keen on that). The core subjects to focus on are English, Maths, Chemistry and one more science. I think some medical schools favour Physics sat first over Biology, but if you can do both at the same time, that would be even better. Then for your sixth year, probably Chemistry, Biology and Maths is the best choice if you can do 3 advanced higher – they are also a useful subject choice for a wide range of other degrees that you might want to look at as a backup / pre-med year at Uni.

    • Photo: Ciorsdaidh Watts

      Ciorsdaidh Watts answered on 13 Mar 2018:


      There are different routes into medicine. The most commonly taken route is to go from school into medicine at university. This often requires three sciences and high grades (but not for all universities so there are alternatives). Another way into medicine is to do a conversion course after doing a science at university.

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