Best GCSE choices to choose on the path to medicine?

[watfordgrammarmum]

Hi all
My son , yr 9 , at the moment ( things may change! )is hoping to study medicine and is wondering which subjects are likely to facilitate him - at the moment he his debating between re and pe? He is v sporty but I'm worried pe us a bit of a soft subject but on the other hand would it help him seen more 'interesting' and atypical to your normal medical student? Opinions pls!

[Guest55]

It is most important to get high grades - there is a useful section on the Student Room which you might want to look at.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/medicine#navapply" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not a site for younger students (imho) as the language and topics can be 'adult' but there is a lot of good information.

[ToadMum]

He will have to do some kind of RE anyway so if he has the interest in and aptitude for PE then why not? Assuming that he is also doing triple science if it is offered, plus the basics? If the RE is being offered as am alternative to PE then I am also assuming that he has already had to choose History / Geography / both?

Someone will no doubt offer an alternative opinion, though (ie that you shouldn't even countenance the idea of him taking a 'non-academic' subject if you don't want him to completely ruin his chances) so I suppose really the best advice would be to canvass the opinion of admissions officers at medical schools as to how in four years' time they will view the GCSE choices potential applicants are having to make now.

As Guest55 says, TSR is full of useful advice in amongst the more 'interesting' topics.

[moved]

PE has a lot of physiology - more than GCSE biology.
RE deals with ethics, but depends on the elements offered.

Both would appear to be useful. How about enjoyment?

PS PE isn't that easy.

[hermanmunster]

I don't think anything you actually learn at GCSE makes any difference in a medical course (other than a vague knowledge of greek and latin vocab but that can be picked up later as grammar unecessary).

Will need bunch of high grades at GCSE and if choosing subjects then, so long as the core subjects are covered go for the ones that he is interested in. Suspect RE may be more useful but only marginally.

A levels far more important

(see I managed to stay off any comments about needing woodwork (can be handy), cookery (otherwise will starve when working), IT (someone has to fix it at night), engineering (ditto re nights)

[loobylou]

It's the grades that are important. I think he should go for what he enjoys most. Both have relevance to medicine. I believe there is quite a bit of physiology in PE which is very useful. Ethics are useful - I still see medical students who are very black and white and are rubbish at considering different sides to an argument.

Things will have moved on a great deal from the distant days when I was a medical student but my friends and I spent quite a bit of time in the admissions office (I can't even recall why. I think they must have had biscuits) and the UCCA forms all used to come in via paper in massive great piles and the office staff would weed out the ones whose UCCA forms would even be looked at by someone academic - basically they kept everyone with 5 As (this was the first/second year of GCSEs) and all the other UCCA forms went straight in the bin. I suspect that things are more transparent now and the numbers/grades will be different but that the end result will be much the same. They will care about the GCSE grades but then focus on the A levels.

[hermanmunster]

agreed LL - I interviewed students when the forms were still paper basically to get to interview at all it was predicted A level grades at the time + good range of grade A GCSEs. (no A* in those days..) . of course the difference between candidates, who all looked academically capable on paper, was how they interviewed

[loobylou]

Yes at my university everyone got interviewed. That's how I got in with my grades
I appreciate maybe they don't have time to interview everyone but it does make sense. I see waaaaay to many medical students who are only doing it because it makes their parents proud and they were good at science.

[hermanmunster]

I think that some professional bodies (teaching / medicine) insist that the students are interviewed before going on the course, anyway I think it is very hard to select people when so many of the application forms are full of great results & endless extra curric stuff etc etc