What books to read for Medicine?

What should you do in Year 12? The most important thing is your A-Level predicted grades! If you don’t get the predictions you need, you won’t be able to apply for medicine - and then all of your extracurriculars and UCAT preparation won’t count. Then you should work on boosting different aspects of your personal statement, specifically boosting the science paragraph and getting work experience for your work experience paragraph. These will both be useful for medical interviews also.

How to build the science paragraph of your personal statement?

This is just a list of some example activities you can do to have additional things to write about in this paragraph. It is all about showing your interest in medicine outside of A Levels and showing that you have taken the initiative to do your own research and education.

• Science cafes - These are events that you may find on Facebook or google where scientists will present an area of research. Search them up and you may find them located near you.

• Read science newspapers (Student BMJ and New Scientist are a couple of examples) + some of the science-related books below.

• MOOC (Free online course) - You DON’T need to pay for the certificate for this - you will not be required to provide proof (but also do not lie, you need to be able to speak clearly about the subject you learn about). Simply complete the course and keep a note of everything which you learnt/found useful and interesting. A good website is FutureLearn.

• Attend medical lectures + events: Look at the Instagram of different medical societies that you are interested in. For example @kclpaediatrics or @uclsurgsoc on Instagram. If you follow these (or whichever medical specialty appeals to you) then you can see if any events would be possible for you to attend. These are good to reflect on for your personal statement and also your interviews.

What books to read to apply for medicine?

I have included a list below of some suggestions for medicine and dentistry. You definitely don’t need to read all of these but I would recommend a mix of more casual medical books telling a story, and more scientific books to show your interest in developing your scientific understanding outside of school.

If you are unsure how these different book categories would link to your personal statement please see this article to explain this a little more:

Medicine Lifestyle books:

• When breath becomes air - Paul Kalanithi

• Black man in a white coat - Daomn Tweedy

• This is going to hurt - Adam Kay

• Twas the nightshift before Christmas - Adam Kay

• Undoctored: The Story of a Medic who ran out of patients - Adam Kay

• Cutting for stone - Abraham Verghese

• Trust me I’m a (Junior) Doctor - Max Pemberton

• Where does it hurt? - Max Pemberton

• The prison doctor - Dr Amanda Brown

• The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry - Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne

• Fake Law - The Secret Barrister - Specifically Chapter 2 is very interesting talking about the Alfie Evans and Charlie Guard case

• Better - Atul Gawande

• Women in white coats - Olivia Campbell

More scientific medical books:

• The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks

• p53: The gene that cracked the cancer code - Sue Armstrong

• Awakenings - Oliver Sacks

• The Doctors’ Plague - Sherwin B. Nuland

• How To Not Die - Dr. Gregor

• Behavioral Insights (MIT Press Essential Knowledge) - Michael Hallsworth

• Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion - Paul Bloom

Podcasts:

• Playing God - Radiolab

What books to read to apply for dentistry?

In terms of dentistry books, I would recommend some of the dentistry-specific books below. In addition, all the science-related books above are relevant to show your interest in science and increase your understanding outside of A Levels.

Dentistry:

• Chicken Soup for the dental soul - Jack Canfield

• The Smile Stealers - Richard Barnett

• The Whole Tooth - Dr Milad Shadrooh

• The Dentist Chair - Brookylnn Nicole

Thank you for reading this article! If you have any suggestions on how we might improve, or any questions, please get in contact!