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

A Tale of Two Cities

So, as I mentioned before, I finally got my hands on a copy of A Tale of Two Cities earlier in my favourite shop, Waterstones!
Charles Dickens is an author I have always wanted to read, especially as he has such a major role in classical literature. I've read the odd excerpt and chapter throughout school, but I've never read a complete book of his.
A Tale of Two Cities has been one that I've had my eye on for years and after reading The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, Tessa's (and Will's) love for it just made me want to delve into it even more.
I had noticed that Waterstones had been selling really beautiful cloth bound copies of lots of classics (and, of course, I want all of them) but AToTC was the one that really caught my eye, especially as the one I wanted to read the most. However, ever since I discovered it, I've been unable to find it, despite religiously checking my local Waterstones in Plymouth every time I was there.
Today I nearly couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. I rushed across the shop, dodging people, and probably sounded a little mad as I exclaimed "They finally have it!" I must admit, mum wasn't too happy about me buying more books (especially as I had also picked up a book for my friend for Christmas) but after spending so long looking for it, I felt that I finally deserved it and I can't wait to start it!
If anyone else has read it, I would love to hear your thoughts (although no spoilers of course - do spoilers still apply to books that are centuries old?)

In other news, I got an e-mail early this evening inviting me to a medicine interview at King's College Cambridge! I am over the moon and was bouncing around my house in excitement. 

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...