So you weren’t successful this time? How to take advantage of your year ‘off’!

by Sarah R, 15 February, 2017
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And even as I’ve said it, I know that no-one here is actually taking a year off. You’re driven and motivated and will most likely be looking for a way to make sure that the next time you apply for medicine, you get in. Why else would you be researching UMAT® Exam blogs? For the many out there that weren’t successful at gaining entry into medicine in the last intake period, join the club of people trying to fill in a year before trying again (We’re getting jackets!). Whether it was your UMAT® Exam, ATAR or interview that let you down, somehow now you have to work out what you’re going to do for the next 6-7 months before the whole process starts again. And while it is a confusing and frustrating period for some, consider this as an amazing opportunity to make sure that next time is the last time you apply!

First things first, what are you going to do to fill the year in? There are three options:

Study something temporarily,
Work or
Use the year for a bit of self-discovery.

The most popular option is the first, that people tend to enroll in a degree related to medicine such as medical science or biomedical science. They use this as a bridge towards medicine, since they cover similar topics and some universities such as UNSW offer lateral entry programs which guarantee entry at the completion of the science degree. It’s a pro-active way of keeping your mind stimulated and it will also ensure you keep a good study regime going.

Alternatively, you can use the year to work full-time and make some money to put towards yourself in the years to come. It will relieve a significant amount of stress if you won’t have to work to support yourself throughout your medical degree.

And finally, if your first rejection has got you questioning whether medicine is the right career path for you, take the year to try a range of different things. You might want to travel and work odd jobs or even move out and adjust to living away from home, as long as you still work hard for the UMAT® Exam and prepare for interviews, you can still do it all.

So one, two or maybe even all three criteria for entry let you down in the last intake period. How are you going to remedy this?

If the UMAT® Exam was your weak spot?

Enrol in a UMAT® Exam preparation course and utilize their MCQ banks and practice exams. Practice is the best way to improve your UMAT® Exam skills, particularly section 3!
Start making vocabulary lists for section 2 so you’re not caught out on a word you don’t know
Read the newspapers and analyze the graphs and tables, this will help with your logical reasoning skills in section 1

If your ATAR was what let you down?

If your ATAR was REALLY close, but not quite there, consider enrolling in another degree for a year and work really hard to get the best mark possible. When you’re applying again, at most universities, your academic mark becomes a 50/50 combination of your ATAR and your GPA (Your university mark) at the time of application. So by starting another degree, it takes some of the weight off your ATAR.
If your ATAR was quite a bit less than the minimum for entry, consider the postgraduate option for medicine entry. You will complete a full degree (Which can be anything you like) and instead of sitting the UMAT® Exam, you will sit the GAMSAT® Exam which you can learn more about here.

Maybe your interview didn’t go so well?

Practice makes perfect. There are multiple styles of interviews for undergraduate medicine. One style in the Multiple Mini Stations (MMI), and the other is the classic interview style with you and one or two other people in the room asking questions. Form an interview study group of at least 3 and have someone as the interviewer, someone s the interviewee and an observer to comment on how it all went down. It’s sometimes hard to see how it is going from the other persons standpoint even if you feel like you’ve nailed it.
Think of qualities that you think are important in a doctor and then think of times in your life that you have displayed those qualities! This is essentially what the interview is trying to work out, who has the qualities that makes a good doctor.

So it’s not the end, you have at least 5 months until UMAT® Exam 2017 so why not start working now! If you incorporate UMAT® Exam study into your life now, it won’t seem like such a burden as it draws closer. Whatever you are doing this year, make sure you make time for you as well. Study is important but you should make sure that everything is in balance to avoid a breakdown that could jeopardize your next chance to gain entry into medicine.