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Medicine without Chemistry...
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hi, I'm new on the boards and I have a question I've been meaning to ask. I've always wanted to go into medicine but chose not to do it at A-Level as I had to put a disproportional amount of effort into it to get a B, and my other grades suffered as a result. I am doing Biology as my science, and was wondering if there are any unis apart from UEA and Newcastle that offer medicine without chemistry. I am taking a gap year in which I should be doing something that'll help me in a medical career, but do not want to have to take a degree before medicine. Could anyone help??? Thanks!!
Post edited by JustV on
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If you PM me I'll give u my e-mail address so you can add me on MSN if you want. However, your best bet is to do a pre-med year at a univeristy which would normally be 6 years instead of the usual 5. I know Manchester does this, not sure who else though.
I know a girl who's doing it and her offer was for all six years of the course (i.e. the pre-med year and the five year medicine course). I can't remember which university she went to though.
Your other alternative would be to do an A-level in chemistry (you could do it in one year) whilst getting some practical work experience so that you could apply for conventional medicine courses.
If you are worried you would not be good enough to get a decent grade at a level chemistry, I'll be blunt and ask if you believe you'll be clever enough to cope with a medical degree. A lot of universities do only ask for a b at A level chemistry (My offer from HYMS is only asking for this). If you are getting less than a b at a level chemistry, medicine may not be the course for you.
Of course, this is only my opinion (and perhaps the opinion of the universities?) but it is something to bear in mind.
Edited to add: I've not found a level chemistry nearly as hard as I thought it would be. The stuff learnt me be a little deeper in that GCSE, but in the same way, a levels are done in modules so you are learning less work at each exam session (I'm learning work from the previous 3 months for exams, instead of over the past 2 years). Also, with the ability of resits and such, you can have more chances and be better prepared than at GCSE.
Have you really not used it? You may have used the skills you learnt from it like being able to analyse things, numeracy skills, being able to present your ideas etc even if you didn't use the context. On your CV it looks really good as people know it's hard and have a lot of respect for people with A level chemistry.
Halo- when you say you were easily a B student did you mean for GCSE? Or for the A level (which you didn't actually do)?
I'd say if you can do chemistry, even if its taken in 1 year, do it. It is likely the medical schools will respect your commitment to studying medicine if you do do the whole course in 1 year.
(also, little bit of advice, getting working on work exp. volunteering and charity work as soon as possible, you can never have enough. No matter how much you think you've got I put money on you'll want more for your personal statement when the time comes!)
Unrelated; their website was also where I saw the link to this website and hence how I learnt of thesite.
Unrelated to the original topic, but I volunteered with the WFT a few times too and loved it. A fair few of my fellow volunteers have been planning to study Medicine, too, so it's definitely a good way of getting experience. The first time I did it was when I was trying to get experience under my belt that was relevant to Nursing. :thumb:
I personally volunteered as a police cadet, doing lots of work in the community aswell as charitable thing, such as sponsored walks etc. I also volunteered at my local hospital on the wards: patient contact is something interviewers are keen on. At the moment I work as a phlebotomist, which is by far the best experience I've had for a career in medicine and universities seem to love it.
I havn't used any of my A levels, ever. I did what I was good at, not what I really enjoyed. After 2 years of college I realised I'd made a mistake, and that's why I didn't go to Uni.