Cambridge

Back in July, I managed to convince my parents to take me up to the University of Cambridge for their open day. We left at the ridiculous time of 4:30 a.m. and didn't get home until past 2 a.m. the following morning in an attempt to visit as many colleges as possible.
Fast forward a few months and, after achieving brilliant AS results and getting predicted straight A*s for next year, I found myself applying to Cambridge. I had four colleges in mind: Magdalene, Sidney Sussex, Selwyn and King's. Eventually, I got down to just Magdalene and King's and finally sent my application off with King's being my chosen college.
Skipping a few more months, having already had two interviews at Plymouth and Cardiff, I was over the moon to receive an e-mail inviting me back up to Cambridge for two interviews!
This time, we decided we would stay the night before so that I wouldn't be insanely tired for my interviews. Luckily, we have family in a town just outside the city who allowed us to stay with them. It was great to catch up with them, and fun to stay there (plus they have a parrot which is hilarious!)
To get to Cambridge from their house, we took the guided bus. It was so strange! Basically, the bus follows set tracks, a bit like a tram or train, for part of the journey and then returns to a normal bus to get through the city centre. Even stranger was that it had normal road signs on the tracks and even traffic lights!

The guided bus

The first thing we did when we arrived in Cambridge was find our way to King's college (made easier by all the signs directing tourists to the famous chapel) where we found all the film crews busy filming in the chapel. Throughout the day, we did a little bit of shopping. My parents bought me an owl as a 'good luck' gift, I bought a Christmas bauble in John Lewis, which was a bit of a novelty as we don't have one near us. I also bought a King's college mug just in case I don't go back. The last things we bought were lots of Funko Pops, which were 3 for 2 in Heffers. I already have Ron Weasley and a Thor keyring so I picked up Harry in his quidditch uniform and Emma Swan and Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time.

My gifts from Cambridge (original photo here)

The interviews themselves were really enjoyable. Although nervous and a little apprehensive as to how difficult they would be, they were like miniature lessons where you work through things using your own knowledge. The questions were difficult, but with the prompting and by applying previous knowledge, they were fun to figure out and, even if I don't get a place, I will always remember how much I liked the interviews. I even got a chance to discuss my local bookshop with one of my interviewers as she had been there before!
It was a fantastic couple days away. Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed and wait to hear back from all my unis in the new year.

If anyone is interested in knowing a little more about the interviews, leave a comment and I'll let you know

Plymouth Medicine Interview Part 2

The interview went okay! I'm not as confident about it as I was Cardiff last week, but I do believe it could have gone much, much worse. It was also quite different as I had to fill in a questionnaire first and choose an ethical scenario to answer questions about.
After the interview, I went into the city centre and did some more Christmas shopping. I also bought myself A Tale of Two Cities and got an All Time Low calender for next year. I usually have the Taylor Swift one however, this year, I wasn't as impressed by it and was wowed over by the gorgeous photos of ATL.
Being Black Friday, which even the UK now gets in on, there was, of course, many sales. I'm not really the shopping type, but as we made our way back to the car, mum decided to pop into Saltrock. That was a bit of a mistake. I got three really nice t-shirts (one put back for Christmas) and a really comfy black sweater. Mum also bought some things and we ended up saving £80!

So, overall, quite a nice, relaxed morning in Plymouth. I've also just ordered the last of my Christmas presents on Amazon so that's all the Christmas shopping done. Now all that's left is to count down to the big day!

Plymouth Medicine Interview

After having a rather relaxing week off school, tomorrow I must return to the dreadful 6:15a.m. rise. Although, this time, it's for another interview!
I'm off to Plymouth, which is thankfully only about 40 minutes away, for my second medicine interview. Again, I'm a little nervous but now that I've done one interview, it doesn't feel quite so daunting.
Despite the fact that my top two choices are Cambridge and Edinburgh, Plymouth would be quite a nice place to go to as I will be able to still live at home. Why is that a good thing? Because someone else can still do my cooking and cleaning and be my personal assistant whenever I'm ill.
Living at home while at uni is something quite looked down upon in nowadays, but I think there are many benefits to it. I'm not a party kind of person, so I don't feel like I will be missing out on the 'uni experience' (aka spending every night in a bar). On the other hand, I am really looking forward to moving out and having the independence that will come with any of my other choices.
Another thing I like about Plymouth is that, as it is very close, I volunteer at the hospital associated with the medical school and I did work experience at the medical school, so it is all rather familiar to me.

Returning to Cambridge, I got my BMAT results yesterday, which is the entrance exam to do medicine there. I'm rather pleased with my two main results as I scored above average. However, although I wasn't expecting my essay to be very good, I am still awfully disappointed by my result for it. I hope the rest of my application makes up for it so I still get an interview!

Cardiff Medicine Interview

On Wednesday, I headed up to Cardiff (luckily not too far from home) for my first medicine interview!
I have wanted to do medicine for as long as I can remember, and now that I'm in my final year of sixth form, with this year came the difficult decision to decide which university's to apply to. For those of you who don't know, you can only apply to 4 medical courses in the UK. Cambridge has been my goal for even longer than wanting to do medicine, so that was an automatic choice (although picking a college is a whole different story...). After a round trip to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Swansea with a couple friends, Edinburgh became my second choice after I absolutely fell in love with the city. For the final two choices, I had no idea so ended up just randomly choosing Cardiff and Plymouth.
With good GCSEs, personal statement and UKCAT result, along with top AS results and impossibly high predicted grades for A2, the medicine interview wasn't much of a surprise, although I will admit that the short notice of only one week was a bit of a pain! I was a little nervous about it, with no practice at all, but it actually went okay. It was really relaxed, and having a chance to talk to other applicants and medical students beforehand really helped with that. The questions were mostly the typical ones, with a few harder topics such as social health, but I am fairly confident about how it went. It seems like I impressed the two doctors more than the medical student though, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing really.
Now to Cardiff itself. As I never visited the uni, I think it's fair to natter on about the city itself. I quite like the city, having been there on numerous occasions for concerts such as All Time Low and Fall Out Boy. Although not a shopping fan, even I have to admit that the multiple shopping centres, especially St. David's, are rather magnificent. Of course, my favourite shop would have to be the Lego Store! After many hard decisions, I ended up buying Poe's X-Wing Fighter as I am a huge Star Wars fan (trust me, words can't even explain how unbelievably excited I am for the new film). As this was above £50, they were kind enough to throw in a free Lego Christmas train and even an extra Star Wars figurine, for which I am really grateful. Because of the unexpected freebies, I have decided to put the X-Wing back for Christmas as a present from my beloved dog Merlin.

Overall, it was a really good, relaxed day in Cardiff and now all I have to do is sit tight and wait to see if I get an offer. Oh, and prepare for my interview on Plymouth next Friday...

Shopping

So last night I popped into Plymouth after school with my mum and brother to do a spot of rushed shopping. I desperately need a dress for my uni interviews at Cardiff and Plymouth, so we raced around various shops until I fell in love with one from H&M.
As a special treat for myself, I also bought Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas as Waterstones didn't have Cinder by Marissa Meyer, so I may have an early night tonight reading it. I hope it lives up to expectations!

Introduction

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my blog. The first thing I feel like I should do is give a short introduction to who I am.

My name is Kat, and I'm a 17 year old student at DHSB where I am studying Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Further Maths and General Studies for A-levels. I live in Cornwall, in the UK. I have recently applied to Cambridge, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Plymouth universities to study medicine next year.

I'm a huge bookworm, always with too many books on the go. I also love music, enjoy going to concerts and play the electronic keyboard, whilst dabbling among other instruments such as guitar and saxophone.

I have two dogs - a black lab called Merlin and a black jack russell called Ringo.

I would love to get to know loads of people through blogging, so please be willing to comment and talk to me if you wish.