Access Into Medical School: Guide - Your community for widening participation in medicine: UCAT training, BMAT training, mock interviews and mentorship.
Mentorship Scheme Archive
A new page will be available for the next enrolment period soon.
1:1 mentorship to help improve your application to medical school
AIMS.Guide are a group of medical students that are passionate about widening participation for medicine across the UK. In addition to our online services, we also offer 1:1 mentorship, connecting medicine applicants with friendly mentors. This is an opportunity to maximise the potential of a student’s application to medical school. We hope that this free service helps improve the diversity of the nation’s doctors by offering under-represented groups free and accessible support throughout the medicine admissions process.
Local and national mentorship for medicine applicants
There are unique mentoring programmes available for different areas. All programmes are designed for students applying to medicine. However, some areas (localities) may benefit from additional resources and support.
Many factors affect what is on offer to a locality. We try to engage most with areas that align with our mission statement and show a need for our services, such as areas of deprivation or poor progression to further education.
If your area doesn’t fall into a specific locality, you can still apply to our Nationwide scheme. You can also email us to request we consider your area.
Get a mentor that is nearest to you
North East of England
This programme has specific criteria.
You must satisfy all of the following for this scheme:
- You will be in Year 12 from Sep 2021.
- You currently live in the North East of England
National
This programme is open to all residents of the UK.
Webinars, group sessions and personalised meetings to support you
We have devised an exciting curriculum that will walk you through every step of the admissions process. Young people on all programmes will receive insight into medicine as a career, life as a medical student, and of course – how to get into medical school! We have developed on online platform, My AIMS.Guide, that will house all of the resources you need to improve your application to medical school.
- Interactive e-learning modules to prepare you for every step of the process
- Chat with others in your group and privately with your mentor
- Recent medicine-related news (useful for interviews!)
- Work collaboratively with your mentor on documents, such as your personal statement.
How can a mentor help with my application to medical school?
1-to-1 sessions with a medical student
The mentorship programme assigns you with your personal mentor, a friendly medical student that you can relate to. They are enthusiastic about supporting you to fulfil your potential when applying to medicine. Your mentor will be available by email, live chat, and video call throughout the mentorship programme and will meet with you each month. Together you can work through the learning outcomes of the programme, learning all about the differences between medical schools, improving your interview skills, and perfecting your personal statement. Your monthly meetings will enable you to ask questions and receive support that is tailored to your situation and needs. Your mentor is there for you.
Small group teachings and discussions
In addition to your personal meetings each month, your mentor will also deliver workshops in small groups. These occur every month, either in-person or by video call, and allow you to begin networking with like-minded individuals! As a group, you will discuss and pick apart topics that are relevant to the medicine admissions process. Discussion, debate and self-reflection are traits of a good doctor, so we provide ample opportunity for you to improve these qualities. There are more key topics to cover, such as:
- Medical ethics
- Work/voluntary experience
- NHS structure and the GMC
- Differences between medical schools
- Personal statement writing
- Interview skills and preparation
Mock interview practice
The programme also offers plenty of opportunity to practise being interviewed. These sessions will draw upon the knowledge you’ve gained throughout this mentorship for medicine. You will be interviewed by your peers from your group in order to feel comfortable in an interview setting. Slowly, you will work up to being assessed formally by familiar and non-familiar faces (all mentors at AIMS.Guide). Students on our scheme will have access to our “interview bank”, a collection of over 100 interview questions that are commonly asked by universities!
Frequently asked questions
The programmes are designed to commence at the beginning of Year 12 (16 years old) and will continue until results day (2 years later). However, we would be delighted to have students join the programme at any time, either earlier or later.
We hope that you form lasting connections and networks from the programme too. Most of our mentors will be eager to support you even after results day, offering study tips and a friendly catch-up to see how you’re getting on at medical school!
Applications will usually open around May for the mentorship scheme commencing later that year. If applications aren’t open, you can always register your interest and return to the website and apply once the form is available. If you’re unsure, Contact us.
All students wanting to study medicine at university are welcome to apply to the programme, however, where you live may affect which programme you can apply to. Currently, we have one programme for students living in the North East region and a national programme that is applicable to all. As there is a limit to the number of people we can mentor, those that meet the widening participation criteria will first be prioritised. Some region’s programmes may also impose a maximum cohort limit. These are shown on the region-specific pages.
We’re thankful to all of our volunteering medical students. It is because of our team that all programmes benefit from a baseline of good-quality mentorship. As a result, all programmes are similar.
However, in some areas we deliver a separate programme that offers additional or different resources. This could include more face-to-face sessions or organised visits to educational institutions. In some cases, the local programme may even offer access to extra learning material, local events, research projects or networking opportunities.
We endeavour to ensure every student receives the most from their mentorship for medicine and that they receive tailored guidance and resources. We are, however, limited by funding and any associated stipulations. We are passionate about improving access to medicine for those from disadvantaged backgrounds so we try to prioritise spending to those who need it most.
At the moment, we have one local programme in the North East. We aim to expand our serviced to involve more local programmes in the future.
At our first session we will ask you to fill out a questionnaire that will help us provide the best possible support. This continues throughout the programme to help us tailor our programme to your needs. This includes adding/changing upcoming events or material. We try to be as transparent as we can with all students and volunteers. If you’re having a problem with the programme, please do Contact us.
The programme aims to prepare students for their medical school application and for life at medical school. We have a curriculum of over 120 objectives so it’s not possible to outline them all here. As a brief overview, the main themes of our sessions are:
- Choosing and going to university
- Medical ethics and the NHS
- Preparing for the admissions tests
- Preparing your personal statement
- The UCAS application process
- Interview skills
- Building experience that will help your application
Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic means that the entire programme is planned to run online. We have a dedicated e-mentoring platform that was set up especially for this programme. Hopefully as the situation improves and in-person interactions are permitted, we will be able to hold some of our events in person.