I'm not going to pretend here -- I'm worried about the UKCAT. I've never done a second of it in my life. I've never done a practice paper, or looked at the sections. I'm not too clever when it comes to the mental maths, and the particular classification of my degree has left a certain chip on my shoulder.
Which is, of course, ludicrous. My grade was excellent, and - although you could've done better - it was still good. And many, many, many people are in WMS on less.
But I am my own worse critic and will forever push further and harder. In that light, its UKCAT time.
About six weeks to kick its arse so very royally.
You will know when you read this back in a few months - from a position of having done the UKCAT, from having done the work ex, from sitting in that room on the course etc etc - whether I've bombed, or excelled. There is no in between. An average mark is a bomb, and frankly absurd.
To be a doctor, to have the strategy, and to ever be in a position for a good UKCAT this much preparation has to yield an excellent score. I couldn't do more prep! So from the past I tell you this: if you fuck up the UKCAT this August, consider your options for an MRes and PhD.
Because its never going to get much, if any, better than that. Double the recommended period - some would say triple - an expensive intensive course, numerous strategy talks, the drive of not being out-performed by Jen etc etc etc. You can't do more. You just can't. Not for the UKCAT anyway.
Doesn't that sound incredibly defeatist? Well the "only thing separating you from where you want to be and where you are is yourself" is the mantra I'm going to live by. We have rigorous revision timings -- don't get too stressed out by the exam. Its easy to think of it as the be all and end all - medicine isn't. Arguably, is it the only thing separating you from WMS? Yes.
Experience is easy to get - in fact, already lined up - and the degree outshines every other undergrad qualification out there - in fact it makes the prospect of the curriculum seem rather straight forward.
So its all the UKCAT. Take the mantra of grumpybiomed though, and be relaxed over the UKCAT. The mark is scary, but not horrific. You've had many people tell you that its achievable easily. Now come on, you've been given the resources and the time .... go and smash that thing.
