Out of all the ‘getting into medicine’ books I have read so far, this has easily been the most comprehensive.
I think what stands it apart from its cohorts, is that it starts at the very beginning, the history of medicine. The book goes into detail about the progression of medicine from Ancient Greeks where illness was considered to be punishment from the Gods, to Hippocrates and his theories on humours, continuing with Ayurvedic medicine, The Egyptians, The Romans, The Middle East, The Renaissance and concluding with Modern Day medicine — This history of medicine was a wonderful and thought provoking chapter, one to which I will continue to come back and thumb through in the future.
The book continues with the expected entry requirements to medicine with a strong focus on sixth formers and their schools perspective, the role of the secondary school and where to get further information. There is also a detailed guide to medical school interview preparation and how to choose a medical school.
The graduate entry medicine chapter will be of keen interest to my maturer student visitors and for anyone with a degree who is considering entry to medicine through the graduate entry programme. The chapter goes into detail about whether GEP is right for you, by exploration of individual university courses and their content. One example is the degree of patient contact at early stages and the obvious disadvantages including a more intense work load offering less time to catch-up if you fall behind, along with generally shorter holidays and less time for part-work. There is also discussion of the differences between problem and course-based approaches to learning. All in all this chapter is very well written and covers everything a mature student would expect, including interview tips, financing options and a look into BMAT, MSAT and UKAT admission tests.
The final chapters include information on your medical years and how to survive them as well information on the foundation years and what to expect.
Overall this book is an excellent and easy read and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone considering a career in medicine. I give it 9/10.
Amazon Link: http://tinyurl.com/559b89
