The Foundation Year is designed to allow students who don’t have the necessary academic qualifications, access to the MBBS 5 year programme following the successful completion of this preparatory year. Candidates should be able to demonstrate, through their work experience and personal development that they have the social and organisational skills and motivation needed to succeed in studying medicine. The course is designed for mature students, although applicants of any age will be considered. This course is not open to recent school leavers who have taken, or are re-sitting A levels or the International Baccalaureate. Applicants who have taken non-science A levels in the past may be considered, providing they can demonstrate evidence of additional study and career progression since.
St George’s require a minimum of 3 years’ work experience in a field which involves regular interaction with the public and demonstrate a significant career progression, as well as evidence of formal post-16 study, including professional qualifications which are not necessarily in the sciences. Applicants should be able to demonstrate a reasonable amount of hands-on work experience in a healthcare setting and this will need to be detailed in formal letters with the dates and hours worked and duties carried out, if called for interview.
GCSEs 5 subjects including Science, English and Maths at grade A - C
Applications are assessed on the basis of the candidate’s academic achievements, their UKCAT score, and details of work experience (as described above). Applications for the Foundation year are assessed in late January and all unsuccessful candidates will be informed in February. Interviews for the Foundation year course take place in late March/early April.
The interview at St George’s is known as the Multi Mini Interview or MMI. This is a new way of assessing candidates through a series of short interviews and activities, rather than the traditional single long interview. Candidates will rotate through 7 stations and complete 8 tasks, spending 5 minutes at each station. They will be required to undertake a range of different activities from role play with an actor, answering questions, explaining their thought processes behind a task and practical tasks.
In addition to more traditional style questions, here are some examples of task-based scenarios which candidates would be expected to perform at interview:
These scenarios are helping to assess the following competencies:
Save 24% of Recommended Retail Price by purchasing our Complete Pack for Medical School Entry Preparation. This comprehensive package will help you with your UCAS personal statement, your UKCAT exam and your medical school interview practice. Buy now. Only £41.99 (Full RRP is £55.00).
St George’s is well known for some of its accomplished alumni, such as Henry Gray – anatomist and surgeon who published Gray’s Anatomy and Edward Jenner – smallpox vaccine, amongst others. It’s a small University in comparison with most others, giving it more of a family-like atmosphere and community spirit which helps make it quite unique.
The medical school is located in Tooting which is only 30 minutes by tube into central London, making it a very accessible location for the City, without most of the associated high costs of living and accommodation.
St George’s hospital is one of the busiest in the UK and forms the hub of an extensive network of acute hospital trusts, primary care trusts and social services which offers students a wealth of accessible clinical experience.
The St George’s Foundation year is mainly taught at Kingston University. It provides an understanding of how the human body works from the cellular to the organ-system level. Students will be given an overview of physiology, genetics and molecular biology, cells and tissues, microbiology and chemistry for life sciences. There is also a module in maths and IT. Students will also take an introduction to healthcare which is taught at St George’s.
Upon successful completion of the Foundation year, students can progress to the 5 year MBBS programme which consists of the following:
St Georges offers an Inter-Professional Foundation Programme (IFP) which allows medical students to study alongside students from other medical disciplines including physiotherapy, biomedical sciences, radiography, nursing, biomedical informatics, etc. For the first semester, students on the medical programme share lectures and tutorials with students from these other disciplines which has the benefit of allowing medical to appreciate how these various disciplines overlap and impact on eachother and gain a better understanding of how multi-disciplinary teams combine in the provision of healthcare.
Topics covered in Year 1
Topics covered in Year 2
The SSC in Year 1 is a short essay on a topic taken from a small choice. In Year 2, two SSC projects must be undertaken – one in each semester.
Topics covered in Year 3 Students will do 6 blocks of five week ‘firms’ of:
Topics covered in Year 4 This is split into three main parts:
Topics covered in Year 5 Assistant house officer posts in medicine and surgery
Students take a 5 week SSC in Year 3 choosing from a wide range of topics including literature reviews, clinical skills teaching, lab research projects and audits. A 5 week SSC in Year 4 is a short elective which can be taken at St George’s or elsewhere.
Exams are taken each semester in the first 2 years – a 3 hour written paper (SBAs, MCQs and SAQs), Observed Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) and OSCE. There are exams at the end of Year 3 and written finals at the end of Year 4, which both include an OSCE. The written papers consist of SBA, EMQs and short answer questions. Clinical finals are a long OSCE which is taken in the February of the Year 5.
Anatomy teaching at St Georges takes place once a week in the first two years, in small groups around a prosected cadaver and under the supervision of an antatomist supervisor.
The medical degree programme is taught through a combination of small group tutorials, lectures, practical classes and learning on clinical attachments on the wards, out-patient clinics, operating theatres and in community settings. Students take part in practical clinical sessions, learning clinical skills and examination techniques by practising on other students. They are also expected to spend an equivalent time in independent study. The early years of the programme include Case Base Learning, using a bank of ‘clinical scenarios’ to focus learning on clinical material. The later stages of the course also includes PBL.
Students take their electives in the final year following the final exams. Students may choose where they want to take their elective and there is no restriction on location. The elective period is ten weeks long and six weeks must be spent on placement somewhere in the world. The year is split into 6 groups and each one goes on elective at a different time.
Students have the opportunity to intercalate after Year 2 to study a one year BSc degree. St George’s attempts to offer a place on the intercalated BSc programme to anyone who wishes to take this up and currently this is about a third of all students. The intercalated BSc shares it modules with the final year of the Biomedical Sciences course with a wide variety of modules on offer including:
There is also the opportunity to study modules at other University of London colleges who offer a wider variety of intercalated degrees.
The information on this page is correct as of August 2010
