Do you dream of studying medicine at university? You’re not alone. An enormous 29,710 students applied to study the subject in 2022 — an increase of 3.5% from 2021.
In fact, medical schools in England are so oversubscribed that some universities are even paying students to study elsewhere after hundreds more than expected met the grade expectations for admission.
This is despite the fact that the UK is facing a shortage of doctors and other medical staff — described as the biggest challenge confronting the NHS. The average UK Medical School acceptance rate is now a lowly 15.6%.
So, what does this mean for you as a prospective medic? Essentially, the quality of your application (your personal statement, University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) and/or the BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) score, and interview) has never been more important.
For this reason, thousands of wannabe students opt for the assistance of application tutors to help them navigate the process of applying for medical school, often to great success.
In this article, we will walk you through the relationship between private tuition and a successful medical application.
What is a medical school application tutor?
You are no doubt familiar with the concept of a private tutor, a subject expert that uses their skills and knowledge to teach students a particular topic. You may even have once used a tutor to prepare you for your GCSEs, A Levels, or other important exams, prior to readying yourself for medical school.
Medical school application tutors are specific to the higher education admissions process, working with students to improve their application and chances of being accepted into one of their top choice universities.
Students have the option of taking either one-on-one or group classes, as well as those that are delivered either in-person or online. Depending on what you feel you need help with, you may prefer to tailor your tuition to one distinct area of the application, such as the UCAT entrance exam.
Tuition agencies such as 6med, for example, offer bespoke tuition from highly experienced medics that scored in the top 10% in their own admissions tests. These tutors “understand how to smash each stage of the application, from your Personal Statement, to the UCAT and BMAT, and onto medical interviews.”
How can medical school application tutors help?
1. Perfect your personal statement
Make no bones about it, writing a top-tier medical personal statement is no easy feat. The anatomy of a stellar personal statement, as Oxford’s admissions department points out, will demonstrate how a candidate matches important selection criteria, including:
- Motivation for medicine
- Ethical awareness
- Academic potential
- Engagement and intellectual curiosity
- Capacity for sustained and intense work
- Understanding of the realities of healthcare
For your personal statement, you have a maximum of 4,000 characters at your disposal — around two pages of A4 paper. As you can expect, this requires you to be frugal with your words in order to meet the stringent selection standards set by medical schools around the UK.
In this respect, application instructors can prove invaluable. They can help you write, edit, and polish your personal statement so that it is insightful, authentic, and memorable on submission.
2. Ace your entrance exam
The penultimate stage of the application process is to take an admissions exam. Depending on where you apply, this will be either the UCAT or BMAT.
As of 2017, 34 UK institutions recognize the UCAT; however, other medical schools, including Oxbridge, Brighton & Sussex, and University College London (UCL), use the BMAT.
If you plan on applying to a combination of UCAT and BMAT medical schools, you will need to take both exams. The tests are used to assess suitability for the challenges of medicine and are notoriously difficult — but don’t let this put you off because there is lots of help out there.
A quick internet search will show that there are many experienced and well-established tutoring agencies that specialize in helping students prepare for the entrance exams. We recommend shortlisting experienced tutors with proven results who have passed the same exam you will be taking.
They should be able to evaluate your performance, point out areas where you can improve, and provide you with tried-and-true strategies to tackle every question.
3. Impress in the interview
One in two applicants typically progress to the interview stage, so if you apply to a maximum of four UK medical schools per application cycle, you have a good chance of getting interviewed at least once.
That being said, applicants can often mistakenly believe they are home-free at this point in the application process, yet this stage is just as — if not more — difficult as the previous two.
If you struggled on the BMAT or UCAT, or if you have other areas of your application that need improvement, doing well in your medical school interview can be a game-changer in getting accepted.
Medical school tutors can be invaluable for this critical and daunting stage of the application process — especially if they have been successful themselves. For the interview, look for coaching to help you prepare for different formats that you may be unfamiliar with, like the MMI. Your tutor should help you debate topics such as medical ethics, facilitate role-playing, offering detailed verbal feedback and practical advice.
Final thoughts
We hope this article has shed light on how tutoring might improve your chances of being accepted into medical school. Good luck with your application.
