ATTENTION PARENTS: 5 Ways to help your Son or Daughter get into Medicine

Great things never come easy.

Medicine is an incredibly rewarding, secure, well paid and respected profession in Australia.

It is also the hardest course to get into.

Furthermore, the final years of high school are a stressful and demanding time for your son or daughter, and the need to sit UCAT places additional pressure on them during this time.

Thankfully there are ways you, as a parent, can provide valuable assistance to your child to ensure their success.

1. Understand the importance of UCAT

Unlike most other courses, entry into medicine is based on much more than just high academic results.  In fact, even those with perfect academic scores can miss out on a place in medicine. Universities also consider students’ UCAT score!  Yet many students neglect UCAT and interviews, and focus their efforts on academics, only to find that they fail to secure a place in medicine.
The first step is to recognise the importance of UCAT, communicate this to your son or daughter, and then work out a plan to ensure adequate preparation time is allocated to these crucial criteria.

2. Encourage your son/daughter to start preparing for UCAT early

UCAT is very different from school exams and is not a knowledge-based test. It is a test of generic skills over five subtests:

• Verbal Reasoning

• Quantitative Reasoning

• Abstract Reasoning

• Decision Making

• Situational Judgement

It takes two hours and is highly time-pressured so that most students will not finish every UCAT question. Most practicing doctors would agree that it is the hardest single test they ever sat in their career. It is therefore important to start preparing early, as the skills required to succeed need to be developed over time.

3. Avoid missing important deadlines

UCAT takes place in July and the beginning of August. Before your son or daughter can register to sit the UCAT, they need create an online account with Pearson VUE, which they will need for the UCAT registration process. It is therefore important to be organised so that important deadlines are not missed. You can help your son or daughter by researching these requirements.
It is advised that you create your own specific timeline relevant to your son or daughter and record important dates in your calendar.

4. Provide encouragement and support

Your child’s final year of secondary school is a stressful time. Add in UCAT and the pressures of getting into medicine and stress levels can rapidly skyrocket. Significant stress can impair performance and lead to burnout. It is therefore important that your son or daughter feels encouraged and supported, especially when important exams such as UCAT are near. Ensure that they are eating well, sleeping well, exercising and engaging in appropriate stress management strategies. Make yourself available to listen to them when they feel stressed or overwhelmed. Do what you can to lighten their load – for example, read through relevant UCAT information, redistribute chores to younger siblings, create a quiet working environment and drive them to important assessments, such as the UCAT exam. Your actions can have a significant positive impact on their wellbeing and performance.

5. Choose a trusted UCAT provider

There are many UCAT preparation companies available, and the quality is variable. Many are run by medical students. It is vital to choose a provider who is trusted among doctors, teachers and those successful in entering medicine. MedEntry has a proven track record of success, having trained 20,000 doctors over 20 years, and with 3000+ 5-star reviews. You can compare MedEntry here

Helping your son or daughter get into medicine is an invaluable gift to give, and one which will secure their success and happiness in years to come. 

From the parents at MedEntry

PREPARE FOR UCAT