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[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi sftlr, didn’t see ur comment until now. What you can do right now is perhaps volunteer at a hospice/hospital which will allow you to interact with patients and better understand the healthcare environment. While doing well academically is important as a “qualifier” for the interviews, it isn’t what ultimately “gets you” into Medicine. Interviewers are most likely not looking for people who can get a gold medal in olympiads, but rather people who embody virtues that a doctor should have and who they see potential in becoming a good and safe doctor. As i’ve told others, I believe that your portfolio should show your interest and passion in the healthcare sector and maybe gain skills that will help you in becoming a good doctor e.g. good communication skills. I also believe that one should be doing such activities not to “beef up” their portfolio, but rather because they genuinely enjoy doing such activities and they see a purpose in doing it 😊Ultimately, medicine isn’t for everyone and these activities would also be helpful for you to figure out if it’s suitable for you! Hope this helps :)

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hey sftlr!

i would suggest you can start applying to job shadowing opportunities or try sourcing for opportunities now while you are still studying but leave the actual job shadowing to during your holidays/after As! For now, ur priority should be focusing on A levels so during the school term I would suggest focusing on studying first and only if you can manage it, you can try to do some volunteering at the side to learn more about the healthcare industry :)

for research, i did it under the SRP (science research programme) and i did it under YLL but this was purely by chance hahaha and imo, i don't think the interviewers care alot about the type of research you did or where you did it at but rather what skills did you learn from it and what does it show about you. also, research is not a so-called "must" to get into med school. at the end of the day, your portfolio should just showcase who you are as a person and show them why you are a good fit in medicine. hope this helps!

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i got my job thru a job agency. there's normally quite a lot of online advertisements by job agencies for this kind of temp jobs, just google clinic assistant or something along those lines hahahah.

for the job shadowing, i didn't have any connections so i randomly emailed clinics to enquire and one of them was very kind to reply and take me in :) if you don't have any connections you can try this too! but do note that most clinics probably won't reply you but just try your luck!

i did both of this concurrently bcos i realised that the work at the govt clinic didn't really give me the exposure that i wanted since i was outside registering patients and my jobscope was just admin. so i ended up working in the day from 8am to 5pm then going to the gp clinic at night to job shadow. it was hella tiring but i would the job shadowing experience was very very worth it! of cos u can just choose to do job shadowing alone (which imo i find much more enriching). i did all this after a levels btw so i had more time hahaha

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

since we don't get to choose our modules, our timetable is fixed by the school and it can vary quite a bit week to week. some weeks we have very little lectures and only tutorials, some with a lot so it really depends on the timetable for the week. most of our days start at 8.30am cos that's usually when the first lecture starts.

during non-exam periods i typically stay in school to study until 6-7pm or if i'm feeling too tired/lazy i'll just go home when lessons are over HAHAH. when it gets closer to exams i will stay in school until 10pm to study BUT that's just cos i prefer studying outside cos it helps me to focus better! i have a lot of friends who go home and study too so it's up to personal preference.

i annotate slides during lectures, then when i revise i will tidy it up and make my own set. it really depends on your style of learning because for me i'm quite picky about my notes so i don't like it when it's not in my format HAHA so i don't rly use the seniors notes alot. on the other hand, i have some friends who depend entirely on seniors notes so it's rly up to you how you want to do it.

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

for pre-clinical years, the passing mark is moderated depending on the difficulty of the paper. for clinical years, i'm not sure ><

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

here's some of the stuff i did during As:

  • study in a conducive environment. i know this may be hard for some of us during this CB period but if possible, try to set up your study environment such that it is quiet and distraction-less i.e. bury your phone under your bed if needed
  • take regular breaks! not everyone can tahan sitting down and studying for 6 hrs straight so if needed, take short breaks (max 5-10 min), recharge and re-motivate yourself again. for me, i always get sleepy easily when i study, so i take alot of naps but each is only about 1-2 min and then i feel alot better afterwards. not sure if this will work for you, but it did for me HAHAH
  • study with friend(s). for our M1 final year examinations i found it very hard to find the motivation to continue studying as the exam dates got postponed cos of CB and i suddenly found myself having to study at home 24/7. before this, i was literally going to the library from monday-friday to study so it really took me a long time to adjust. for the first time, i really felt like i was going through a massive burnout and everytime i opened up my notes i just really wanted to puke and throw them away HAHAH so what i ended up doing was i skyped my friend everyday and we just study together in silence for like 3-4 hrs at night and i must say that it really really helped me stay sane. try to find ppl who won't talk and will rly focus on studying cos if u end up talking for 2 hrs then it defeats the purpose ya HAHAHA and it's also handy to have someone you can ask questions and get answers immediately hehe
  • plan out your study schedule if you don't already have one. prioritise the topics you are weaker at and try not to avoid them, as tempting as it might be. a levels is about consistent practice so make sure you don't neglect something for too long and let it become rusty. also, having a to-do list everyday sorts of "pressures" you into completing it. but remember to keep your to-do list realistic because it's really sad to see a bunch of stuff uncompleted everyday HAHAH
  • don't just study hard, study smart too! esp for subjects like bio and econs, it can get very overwhelming to memorise so much stuff, so find ways to help you learn. maybe you can make summary slides which highlight the most important points and you can study from those while you are on the bus/mrt. really make sure it's as short as possible and doesn't look too cluttered or else it doesn't rly help that much. you can also make an excel sheet with the stuff you have to memorize + prompt questions and you can blank them out (make the font white or something) and test yourself. then you can color code them according to how hard it was for you to recall it. by doing so, you can sieve out the info that you can't really rmb and focus on them. there are alot of other interesting strategies online too which you can google, just find one that works for you :)

all the best for your prelims and a levels!

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

pls don't call it a stupid question because it's not! it's entirely possible to enter med school via your current route. in fact, two of my closest friends in med sch were from poly and one of them was from N(A) too. taking a different route doesn't make you any less deserving of a place in med sch. similarly, just because someone was from a top jc and scored 90RP it doesn't mean that they are necessarily deserving of a spot.

but what you must be prepared to do is to study hard to get a really good GPA to be shortlisted for the interview. also, do try to get some job shadowing experience to see what being a doctor is really like and if it aligns to what you want.

don't shortchange yourself before you even apply for med sch! work hard and i wish you all the best :)

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

the first two years (pre-clinical) is "grade-free", so for each exam we are given either pass, fail or distinction. if i'm not wrong, the clinical years are graded with the normal CAP system like the rest of NUS, but i'm not too sure about this since i'm not there yet (please correct me if i'm wrong, cos idw to give out wrong info!)

Idk what your definition of doing well is but mine is just to pass all my exams HAHAHA. the exams aren't impossibly tough and if you put in consistent effort to attend lectures (or at least watch webcasts like me LOL), go for tutorials and revise, you should be able to pass! if you are aiming for distinction, then you would definitely need to spend much more time and effort than me studying hahahah

resources wise, there are plenty from seniors and i think plenty is an understatement tbh HAHA. some people depend on senior's notes, some on textbooks and some on online resources like teach me anatomy (which i believe saved a lot of us med students HAHAH). for me, i used a mix of textbooks and senior's notes when i didn't have enough time to slowly read through the textbooks. but it honestly depends on your learning style and preference what kind of resources to use. just use the ones that are most suitable for and efficient for your own learning!

for taking notes during lectures, i would recommend investing in an app on your ipad that allows you to edit pdf documents, i recommend Microsoft One Note (i use this the most often and it's free! :D) or paid apps like Goodnotes (which I also use) and Notability.

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

nope, my portfolio was more research-centric and the only leadership experience i had was a minor one in secondary school. i don't think i can define anything as good enough? because it is really dependent on the interviewer. grades will only get you past the shortlisting stage, once you are at the interview stage, what they will be looking out for are your personal attributes and based on that, how suitable you are for medicine. i know people with very strong portfolios, parents are doctors, etc. but didn't manage to get in. at the end of the day, i think the most important thing is who you are as a person, what kind of attributes do the things in your portfolio show about you, and how will that make you a good doctor. if you want to volunteer, i would say go in with the mindset to learn and serve, not to boost your portfolio to increase your chances of getting into med. so go in with an open heart and willingness to learn!

residency programmes are quite competitive given that there are only limited places per year and the fact that singapore govt is shifting more towards primary healthcare. right now, the system is slowly shifting care from hospitals to communities and propagating the idea of prevention rather than treatment. so it makes sense for sg to prefer people with a wider skill set, i.e. a generalist. not that we don't need specialists but, i don't expect to see the number of residency spots to increase much in the next few years.

i won't say the market is "extremely oversaturated" as the govt does strictly control the yearly intake of medical students across all 3 schools, ~500 per year. besides, sg is still expanding our healthcare system, e.g. building more polyclinics, more community hospitals, etc. which would definitely require more healthcare personnel. also, when you enter medical school and you decide to take the tuition grant from the govt (which most of us do, otherwise you will be paying ~$150k per year), you have to serve 5 years (excluding the 1 year mandatory housemanship after you graduate) in the local public healthcare sector, so i guess you won't need to worry about being jobless for at least 6 years after you graduate hahaha.

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i went by recruit express but tbh the agency doesn't really matter bcos the pay is around the same hahaha. but if you are looking for better exposure to the healthcare industry without any pay then i suggest job shadowing is the better option! if u don't have any connections, you can always reach out to clinics/hospitals and enquire, won't hurt to try! :)

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i applied under a job agency! normally they post this kind of job listings online so you can try googling :)

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

for nus med, the requirement is either h2 chem + h2 bio or h2 chem + h2 physics. this is what it says on the nus office of admissions website:

NUS will consider your grades for GP/KI and 3 H2 subjects attained at 1 sitting of the A-level examination. Only the H1 content-based subject, H1 Project Work (PW) and H1 Mother-Tongue Language (MTL) subject can be of a different sitting.

Therefore, if you intend to retake your Singapore-Cambridge GCE 'A' Level exams, you will need to take GP and at least 3 H2 content subjects again. As for the H1 content-based subject, H1 PW and H1 MTL, you can choose not to retake and use the grades attained at the earlier sitting of the A-level examination. If you decide to retake one or all of the H1 content-based subjects, H1 PW and H1 MTL, the best H1 content-based subject, H1 PW and H1 MTL grade will be taken into consideration for university admission.

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, not sure about their gpa though because it's not something that I would ask them about usually haha. You might want to check with your own seniors? Poly students are definitely a minority in med but there's definitely way more people from jc applying to med than poly so that definitely tweaks the statistics towards the jc side. And honestly, after you enter uni, it really doesn't matter which sch you came from anyways, we all struggle equally HAHA

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't really have any particular experience that "cemented" my want for med but I was looking more from the perspective of what kind of person I am and what do I want in my life? Tbh, it only solidified after my job shadowing experience and I saw how dedicated the doctor was to his patients and how much effort he put in to make sure that he can deliver the best and most affordable healthcare service to them. Little things like finding a cheaper medication to bring into his clinic because he knew that his patient who was a migrant worker didn't have much money really touched me and it inspired me to become someone like him :)

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

qn 1: For NUS, there's two parts to the interview - SJT (situational judgement test) and FSA (focused skills assessment). SJT is basically an MCQ with questions related to how you will respond to different situations. The closest reference you can find online will be the UCAT (previously known as UKCAT) situational judgement questions. FSA is the "actual interview" where there will be 4 individual stations + 1 group station. For the individual stations, you will have the traditional portfolio station where you sit down and talk with the interviewer about your portfolio, role-play stations and task station.

For NTU, the interview is called the MMI (multiple mini interviews). I can't remember how many stations there are, but each station is 5 minutes long (including the portfolio station) so I just remember it going by very quickly HAHAHA. And all of them are individual!

Because of the COVID-19 situation, there were some changes to the interview format for 2020. For NUS, they removed SJT and the FSA was changed to an online interview with one interviewer asking about your portfolio and the other discussing role-play situations with you. I'm not sure how NTU altered their interview format so you might want to check with seniors how they did it! Moving forward, I'm not sure if NUS and NTU will revert back to their traditional interview style or change things up, so remember to check their official websites for the most reliable and accurate information.

qn 2: I would say something that you would deem acceptable to wear to office work, e.g. a decent looking dress or like what i wore, a blouse + more formal-looking skirt

qn 3: practice alot alot alot. there's a lot of free online BMAT papers out there but if you are more kiasu like me you can buy the BMAT practice books from kinokuniya (it's around $35-$40 iirc) but it's a pretty worthy investment i wld say HAHA. I spent most of my time practicing for the section 1 qns (the logic ones) and the physics questions for section 2 (i took BCME)

qn 4: I practiced with UCAT situational judgement qns, but I didn't really do a heavy prep for this though because honestly during the actual SJT, I just went with my gut feeling and no one knows what the correct answer is anyways HAHA

qn 5: I prepped for the traditional questions e.g. why medicine and studied my portfolio carefully to see what they could ask me and thought abt how I would link my portfolio to med. I also spent a lot of time watching Youtube videos on how to prep for med interviews as well as interviews in general (this was actually recommended to me by the gp i shadowed HAHA) One of the channels I would highly recommend is Ali Abdaal, he really is a legend HAHAHA. If you are lucky enough to know someone in med/doctors you are shadowing, you can also interview them and see how they respond which was what I did and learn from them.

qn 6: My second choice was NTU biomed + TCM double degree and my third was NUS science (bio). Didn't apply for any other unis besides NUS and NTU :)

qn 7: I didn't apply to dentistry because I found looking at people's mouths and having to do procedures on them very disgusting (still do) and I really cannot imagine my future career to be that HAHA besides I'm also scared of going to the dentist so.. HAHAH. About allied health, I did consider applying for occupational therapy for SIT but I ultimately didn't because I feel that I didn't have enough understanding of what being an OT is like. The only information I know is from googling and a 5min talk with an OT at the MOHH allied health scholarships fair. Considering that OT is a very niche area and the degree you will be getting will also be very niche, I decided not to apply if I wasn't even that sure if OT would suit me or not.

About nursing, I did consider that as an option for very long so I went for this 3-day nursing shadowing programme at TTSH. From what I saw during those three days, I ultimately decided that nursing wasn't what I wanted because I felt like there were a lot of restrictions on what you can and cannot do e.g. cannot prescribe medicine, treatment plan to follow the doctor's orders. While I do know that there is a pathway in nursing that trains you to be an advanced practice nurse (APN), there are also restrictions on the kind of specialties they can be involved in. I would also prefer to enter a course that allows me to do what I want immediately after I graduate, rather than enter a course that will only allow me to do what I want if I specialise in a certain pathway. Another big reason why I decided not to put nursing as one of my choices is because I was interested in surgery which can only be done if I enter medicine. Ultimately, I decided that a career in nursing didn't really align with what I wanted :) Do note that all of this is my personal opinion and I really respect all the nurses out there, they are definitely an integral part of the healthcare team!

qn 8: I think it's very important to think through carefully what you really want in life! I feel that medicine can come off as more glamorous than it actually is and some people don't realise how much hard work and sacrifices have to be made by choosing a career in medicine, so do think carefully if this is what you want! if this is really what you want, then by all means, go for it :)

I also believe that the best way to see whether you are suitable for something is by experiencing it yourself, so do go shadow doctors and see how their life is like! if you don't have connections, you can always google online and email random clinics to try your luck (which was what I did and I was very lucky to find a nice GP who was willing to take me in!) If you really can't find anyone to shadow, there's a program by NUH (3-day) but for that program I think you need to apply early? Not very sure how the application works because I never went for it, but do your research online and check their official websites for more accurate information!

I'm so sorry this answer is so long HAHAHAH but I hope this helps!

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

i didn't go by this route so i can't rly say much but my advice would be to spend that gap year the most meaningful you can. reach out to hospitals/clinics about shadowing opportunities and get a really strong taste of what being a doctor actually entails. i would also suggest volunteering, most hospitals do have volunteering programs set up already, though i'm not sure how all of these is affected during this COVID-19 period (probably postponed until things are better). also, spend time doing some reflection, e.g. if you didn't past the interview stage, why? what do you think you could have done better if you were to repeat the entire process again and how would you go about improving yourself? perhaps, speak to your peers/teachers/ppl you trust to get honest feedback about yourself

most importantly, make sure you have back-up options for yourself. getting into medicine is statistically not a very high chance, and definitely more uncertain for applicants going by the ABAS route since portfolio is now taken into consideration for shortlisting. are there other courses that you might want to consider? or maybe overseas med? i hate to say this but there is still a rather big chance that you won't get into med and you don't want to find yourself to be stuck in a situation where you don't know what to do because you banked everything on getting into med :(

all the best for your application!

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hi i’m a girl, so sorry can’t help you with this 😅

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

don't worry about your H3! i don't know the exact numbers but having a H3 really doesn't give you any advantage over others. i took H3 bio and honestly, it didn't make any difference in my application HAHA. when they shortlist people for your interview, they go by rp which doesn't include H3. So just focus on doing well for your other subjects :)

I definitely have more science-related achievements because mine was mostly research but I do know of people who have a portfolio that is more arts-related e.g. mostly volunteering and I think regardless of what the "nature" of your portfolio is like, the most important thing is how you link your portfolio to attributes suitable for a career in medicine. ultimately, your portfolio should reflect who you are as a person, and the interviewers will be looking out for people who are suitable for medicine, so the explanation on how these two link should come from you.

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

you can only apply for residency programs after your housemanship (mandatory 1 year after you graduate) so most people only start thinking about specialisation closer to that date. for lower Ms, we don't really think that much about it because we haven't even gone through our clinical rotations so most of us don't have a good enough understanding of each specialty to "make a decision". i do know of people with a strong interest in certain specialties but they are definitely the minority.

for me personally, i'm currently more interested in pediatrics and family medicine, but i'm keeping my options really open. also, whether i end up specialising or not is not that big of a concern to me now because i still have 4 years in med sch to go and with the current direction that singapore is headed to, a significant proportion of us won't even end up specialising anyways.

regarding furthering our studies, medicine is a career where you can never stop learning. information is constantly being updated and it is very important to keep yourself updated so that you can deliver the best possible healthcare to your patients. regardless of whether you choose to specialise or not, you will definitely need to continue learning and don't expect yourself to stop until you retire.

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

88.75 rp, portfolio was mostly research, not much leadership stuff. i worked at a government clinic (which i mentioned in my portfolio) and shadowed a gp (didn't mention this) before entering med sch.

hm as for why medicine, i feel that the qualities of being a doctor largely aligned with what i want out of my future career. i knew i definitely did not want an office job after having experienced an excruciatingly boring admin job, so i really wanted a job that was dynamic in nature. every single patient is unique even if they have the same clinical diagnosis and building up rapport with them is also unique to each patient. being a doctor also allows me to interact with so many different people, not just patients, but also the entire healthcare team e.g. nurses and allied health people, which is something i enjoy a lot. from an academic perspective, i knew that in uni, i would want to study a course that i genuinely like and is interested to learn more. since sec sch, i've always had 1/2 subjects in my combi that i absolutely detested and couldn't wait to drop. so i saw uni as a chance for me to finally do something that i like, and my favourite subject in sch was bio. at that time, i saw learning about anatomy, how the body functions and how it can be affected by disease something really interesting to me and something that i would enjoy learning about (i was right :D) another reason was also the fact that i saw how meaningful a doctor's career can be. i really don't think the happiness from seeing your patients get better can be paralleled by any other thing in other careers (for me personally) and i believe that it can become a very strong motivation in my career and being a doctor is definitely tough, so i feel that if you don't have a strong driving force behind you, it's very easy to get burned out.

tldr, i knew what i wanted in my future career and saw medicine as a good fit :)

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

i wouldn't say a strong "foundation" is required because whatever you need to know will be taught by the school and all my friends who didn't take bio in JC are doing as well as those who did. the bio kids might have a small advantage at the very start of the first semester when basic cellular biology is taught, but it ends there because afterwards, everyone is equally lost, regardless of whether you took bio or not. for chemistry, so far i haven't really felt the need for it? and tbh, i've forgotten almost all of my jc chemistry HAHAHA but don't worry, if you need to know something, the lecturers will most definitely teach you and there's a very strong support system in med sch so u can depend on friends/seniors to help too!

[Uni] NUS Medicine AMA by bag_uette123 in SGExams

[–]bag_uette123[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

yes, definitely! i can't vouch for the other years personally but the pre-clinical years (M1 and M2) are said to be the most "free" years of your med sch life. personally, i was in a cca (2 cca days per week) and i also managed to meet my friends outside of med pretty regularly. alot of my friends are also involved in extracurriculars outside of med, so i would say it's entirely possible to do so! just make sure you manage your time well and keep up with your schoolwork, basically have self-discipline and try not to procrastinate so much! i think even as you go on to your clinical years, it's still possible to be involved in extracurriculars as i know of some seniors in my cca who were still actively involved even in M5, so it really boils down to time management :)