With many universities now offering graduate entry programmes, there has become an immediate need for a comprehensive and up-to-date guide on both gaining a place at GEM, as well as the other relevant aspects of a medical career, enter ‘How to Get into Graduate Entry Medicine’.
Topics of the book include reasons why to consider medicine, help with deciding which medical school to choose, the application process, obtaining work experience, entrance exams, interviews, financial implications and career paths in the NHS.
If you’re like me, you’ve read a dozen books by now on how to get into medical school, so how does this one differ? Well, it doesn’t really. If you’re thinking of buying this book because it’s going to offer some alternative insight into GEM compared to all the other books on the market, I wouldn’t — it doesn’t!
A particular chapter of interest for me, however, was obtaining work experience. For those of you who don’t know or recognise the importance here, the majority of medical schools and colleges all require work experience in a health-care related setting, this enables you to examine what it means to be a health-care professional and make sure medicine is the right choice for you. The chapter goes into great detail regarding what constitutes quality work experience and what experiences you should be seeking. There is also useful tips on how to make the experience tangible whilst getting the most out of it. If like myself you didn’t/don’t know where to start or which setting to look for work experience, there is also details included along with information on how to apply.
Overall the book was well written and worth buying if you can afford it, but please don’t expect too much GEM specific related content, because it just didn’t hold-up to the title. I give it 6/10.
Amazon link: http://tinyurl.com/6hq9j2
