“I started the research process for applications early – probably during the last term of my second year of undergrad study. I had the course list from Sarah at Study Options and I went through all the info, and then I then went away and came back to it, and found things that I had missed the first time around. So it’s not a bad thing to be early! If you researched six months ahead of application time you’d be fine, but anything between six months and a year would be good.”

“I took GAMSAT in the September before my final year started. Taking it then meant I could start preparing toward the end of my second year, and through that summer. If I had done it in the spring [the March sitting of the GAMSAT test] of third year right before applying then I would have had to do it during my final year work, which would have been a lot to manage. And that wouldn’t have given me any time if I had needed to retake.

The main tip I saw everywhere was that knowing the core material is good, but practicing the exam is best. So I was slowly getting that information through second year and when I got to that summer I could spend all my time revisiting the hard subjects and practicing. Certain tests want you to answer in a certain way, and if you can start picking out some of those patterns, it really helps if you start running out of time because you can make some pretty accurate guesses, and maybe still pick up marks where other students are just losing out.”

“How did I choose which universities to apply to? I put a lot a lot of value on having a work life balance. I know med school is a lot of work, but I definitely ranked schools more highly if they looked like they offered a balance. Places like UQ and Deakin, for example, put a lot of emphasis on sports, and Queensland posted about some of their graduating students and put a lot of emphasis on what they did outside of class and how they were known outside of class, and I thought that was pretty cool because I think that you need that to stay sane!

So that’s how I ranked schools initially, before I got into the details of the programmes themselves. Some schools do a lot of research, or they have a focus on academic study initially – for example a period of studying before you get into a hospital setting. Personally, though, I learn best by just being in an environment and practicing and so I looked for programmes that put you into a clinical setting as early as possible and focus on learning by doing and real-world experience.”

“The interviews were MMI, done online via Zoom. There were around five or six scenario questions which were really interesting. The main thing is to have fun with it – try to relax, try to put yourself in the situation, and think creatively. You will do better for it. There were also questions that were more aimed at me as a candidate. One – which I think is a classic question and I’d expected it – was what do you do in your free time? How do you take a break from studying? I was able to talk about sports and so on. They also want to know about what you do when you don’t have time for sports, so you can talk about catching up with friends, meditating, taking a walk, people say all sorts. One of the textbooks I’d seen discussing this talked about thinking outside the box, rather than just listing activities. I remembered to talk about time management for example. Which doesn’t sound like something to say when someone asks what would keep you sane, but if you manage your time properly you study more efficiently and you are more likely to have time for your activities.”

“Looking back on the whole experience, I am really glad I did everything so early. Doing everything early is better. It means you have to do a smaller amount each day, whether it’s preparing for the GAMSAT, looking at schools, preparing for interviews – all of it.”

“The second thing I took from the experience was how key it is to practice and prepare. You’re not going to know what someone will ask at interview, but you know that they are somehow going to ask about you, they are going to ask what you know about the course, they are going to ask ethical questions – if you have examples from your life that you can easily call to mind to demonstrate how you know that, or how you are good at that, then you can answer anything to a point. You need those general ideas down before you go in.”