Medical practice makes perfect

Five young Alumni took time out from forging their medical careers to help Sixth Form boys at the School who are hoping to study Medicine.

The five Old Elizabethans, who all went on to Imperial Colllege after attending QE from 2002 to 2009, gave practice university interviews to the Sixth-Formers just a few years younger than themselves.

Piri Ananthavarathan, Azeem Yussouf, Yathooshan Ramesh, Kareem Ibrahim and Kem Onubogu (pictured, left to right) have all completed their academic training at Imperial and are moving on to Foundation work in Birmingham, Nottingham, High Wycombe, Colchester and Southend, practicing in fields such as psychiatry and cardiology.

Head of Year 12 Liam Hargadon, who organises QE’s mock interview programme, said: “We are very grateful to these recent Alumni for freely giving up their time. They are particularly well placed to conduct the mock interviews because they have been through the application process relatively recently themselves and can clearly remember the sort of things that are asked!

“I was listening to some of the interviews and they seemed fairly tough – the boys were being questioned about various ethical issues, the allocation of budgets and resources and about what they would do when faced with various dilemmas.”

The mock interviews form part of a programme of events that the School runs to prepare boys in a range of disciplines for university entrance. Over the last three weeks of the Summer Term, a number of Year 12 boys are given leave from their normal classes to take part in practice university interviews or for university admissions tests training. The interviews often take place at universities in central London or at the interviewer’s place of work.

In addition to the mock interviews with the five Medical Alumni, this year’s programme involved:

• Twenty-four potential Medics in Year 12 taking part in a training event for the UK Clinical Aptitude Test. UKCAT is a test used in the selection process of UK medical and dental schools.
• Fifteen boys, mainly Economists, involved in Thinking Skills Assessment training. The TSA helps leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, identify potential students with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary for success in higher education.
• Ten Medics going to Green Templeton College, Oxford, for interview training.

Further practice interviews take place during the Autumn Term.