I have recently recieved my GCSE results in England and recieved 5 B grades and 5 C grades. I am going to college to study Physics, Biology and Chemistry. I was wanting to know, if i recieved high grades at my A levels, would i have a chance to be accepted at Medical Schools in either Enlgand or America? Thanks
Hi, The system of medical training in the US is different to the UK, propective medical students must complete a 4yr college degree before applying to medical school. Your college grades and degree class are far more important than school grades. If you want to go to med school in the states you really need get your undergrad qualifications there too... Tuition fees for medical school in the US are *scary*.... Why spend 8 years qualifying in the US when you can do it in the UK in 5 and with a fraction of the cost... As for your GCSE results... you might want to post your circumstances on the forum at the Barts and the London medical school website: http://microbios2.mds.qmw.ac.uk/vbul/ You'll get much better advice there for applying to UK medical schools as a UK student... Best of luck
I left England after my GCSE's but from friends I understand the jump in difficulty from GCSE's to A-levels (or AS or whatever they're called now) is pretty steep. I don't want to rain on your parade, but do you feel you could realistically achieve A's and B's in A-levels after not getting one A in GCSE's? Because frankly, for the people who you're going to have to compete with, GCSE's were a joke, and most get straight A's in their sleep. Are there other extenuating circumstances that prevented you from doing better? Sometimes the most intelligent people slack and say they'll turn it on once it counts, but most don't, mostly due to lack of discipline, something that can't just be turned on overnight. I have a few friends who graduated from UK med schools that I've spoken to, and they say yes, you could get into a UK school if you ace your A-levels, but I'm sure some of them would still want to know why you did poorly in your GCSE's. You're going to find the work much more difficult, especially with the A-levels you've chosen. A counsellor to help you with study skills and time management might be helpful
Basically, i did not achieve brilliant grades at GCSE because of the papers which i was put in for. For example, in science i was put in for the foundation paper where the highest grade i can achieve is a C. However, i have completed a few higher science papers before for practice and got a grade A on those. Same goes with a few of my other subjects, the only exception being English. Im not trying to shift the blame on to other people but the school i went to would not put anyone in for the higher papers unless they were 90% sure they would get an A because of the fact that their departments want at least C's. I have suprised teachers before at my school by acheiving high grades but i guess they wanted to cover their own backs. As i say, im not trying to shift the blame and at the end of the day im going to have to accept that those were the grades i got. Im going to work solidly at college for the next two years and if i dont ace my A-levels and i end up getting B's and C's then i am planning on doing a degree in something like Biomedical Sciences first and then doing medicine as a graduate program. Either way i believe that if ive got the commitment and dedication as well as the personal skills which are required then i will achieve my goal.
Good luck, just some advice: In the future don't let others tell you what you're capable of. When I did GCSE's some 10-11 years ago, I got to a new school and was put in third set for everything. A month of constant bitching, my parents coming into meet the headmaster several times, and more, constant bitching, and finally by the end of the year I was in set one for everything. Man, years later and I'm still bitter about English education. Who the hell is the school to dictate to you which papers to write?!? From now on, don't take no for an answer! To tell you about the quality of my school, they taught one examining group for Biology and we sat a different examining group in the final!
