Table Of Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Application Requirements
- 3 Application Timeline
- 4 Aiming For NTU & NUS Medical Programmes? We Can Help!
- 4.1 Comprehensive Admissions Package
Introduction
If you are looking to enrol in a medical programme in Southeast Asia, Singapore offers 2 strong programmes from NTU and NUS – both are top universities in Asia and the world.
The NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine alternates between being #1 or #2 in Asia, whereas the NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine has a partnership with Imperial, one of the best medical schools in the world.
As such, the two schools only admit a select few to their programmes each year. While top grades are of paramount importance to gaining admission, they are not enough. A prospective applicant needs to have extensive volunteering, medical shadowing, leadership experiences, as well as be able to speak persuasively about their knowledge of and desire to study medicine in the interview stage.
The competition for spots in these schools pays off: according to the Graduate Employment Survey, 100% of NUS Medicine graduates find employment. In the newer NTU medical programme results are just coming in, but students are vying for a chance to be able to study at Imperial as their partner school.
Application Requirements
Here’s everything you’ll need to prepare for if you are looking to get into NTU/NUS medical programmes:
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Proclaimed the best medical school in Asia in 2017, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine offers students an active, collaborative and engaging curriculum with top-notch practical and theoretical experiences
Application Requirements
- Grades: AAA in A Levels or 42+ in the IB.
- Standardized Testing: None
- Focused Skills Assessment (or FSA – happens at the end of March/April): This is a series of stations, each examining a specific characteristic of the candidate. The station can be a mini-interview or performance of a focused task. Each station is standardised. Examiners at each station are faculty members, doctors, allied health professionals, and medical alumni. All examiners are carefully selected and trained before the selection exercise. The assessment will be conducted over 60 minutes.
- Situational Judgement Test (or SJT – also happens at the March/April): The SJT is a 60-minute pen-and-paper MCQ test designed to assess judgement in medicine-relevant situations. All students who have been shortlisted for NUS Medicine must sit for the SJT.
- Recommendations: 2 referee reports
- Personal Statement: 500 words
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Singapore’s second medical school, NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine prides itself with its partnership with Imperial College London. Having been officially established in 2017, the NTU School of Medicine offers an innovative curriculum with plentiful practical and professional opportunities.
Application Requirements
- Grades: AAA in A Levels or 42+ in the IB.
- Standardized Testing: BMAT
- Multiple Mini Interview (MMI – happens in April): Candidates will undergo several one-to-one interviews with different interviewers, designed to assess a candidate’s aptitude and suitability for the MBBS programme. Applicants invited for the selection interviews will complete a series of eight mini interviews, each lasting approximately five minutes, conducted consecutively in eight separate interview rooms.
- Recommendations: 2 referee reports
- Personal Statement: 300 words
Application Timeline
Your standard applicant can start preparing as soon as JC1/IB Year 1, it not earlier. This is because profile building activities work better over a longer period of time.
If you eyes were set on medical schools, you can start preparing as early as Sec 3/4.
Aiming For NTU & NUS Medical Programmes? We Can Help!
Getting into medical schools is not an easy feat – especially when you are caught up in busy school works and extracurricular activities.
At Prep Zone, we offer a wide range of admissions packages to assist you in your medical school admissions journey.
Whether it’s application management, school shortlisting, essay editing, standardised test preparation or interview preparation, our consultants will go above and beyond to help you get into the schools of your dream.
Get in touch with us today, and realize your aspiration with us!
Comprehensive Admissions Package
Our comprehensive package includes unlimited consultation from the time you sign up, till the time you receive your offers. You would be assigned a primary consultant who will schedule regular check-ups and keep track of your timeline and progress.
The comprehensive package includes the following services:
Timeline Management & Personal Advice Meetings
On top of the regular check-up meetings, your personal consultant will always be available to you via call, email, or WhatsApp messages. The personal consultant will ensure that you are on track with your applications, deadlines, as well as extracurricular and academic commitments.
Profile Building Help
Doctor shadowing, including virtual shadowing programs. Most of our students do several different programs. The shadowing can be supplemented with relevant independent readings (which we also recommend) to help develop your knowledge of the profession.
Demonstrated interest in sciences beyond your school science classes. We work with students to identify opportunities and determine what’s feasible for their schedules, but one of the things many students do is the Prep Zone Medical Society. It is a biweekly program via Zoom we started at the beginning of the pandemic to ensure that students could be in a medical extracurricular club.
Relevant and sustained volunteering – We work with some organisations that help students do volunteering, including virtual options. The virtual volunteering activities have really helped applicants stand out and build great experiences for their essay and interviews. The main thing to keep in mind is that despite the pandemic, applicants need to keep working on this even if it’s online.
Online Application Support
If you have questions filling in the online application, we are here to help.
Referral Help (Where Needed)
We can give feedback on the content you’re going to give your teacher for the letter of recommendation.
CV & Resume Editing
Including all resumes required for volunteering, internship, or summer school applications.
Personal Statement Brainstorming & Editing (Unlimited)
A competitive PS essay would demonstrate strong motivation, personal reflection, emotional IQ and soft skills, as well as learning lessons from prior medical experiences. Successful candidates would go through many revisions before writing the perfect essay. Our consultants help with all parts of the essay writing — from brainstorming, to drafting, revising, and proofreading.
And Many More!
- Interview Preparation (Unlimited)
- Free Access To All MMI Simulations
- Post Application Advices
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s covered during interview prep?
The mock interviews cover all the main topics that a real interview will usually cover, such as:
- Motivation to pursue medicine
- Strengths and weaknesses
- Profile-based questions (things the applicant has done, experiences they’ve had, etc)
- Knowledge of the profession (for example, what will the biggest challenge in medicine likely be for you, and how will you manage it?’)
- Knowledge of ethics – including ethical scenarios (a scenario is given, and the applicant is asked to explain what should be done and why; these can be tricky!)
- Knowledge of local health issues and healthcare system
- Knowledge of diseases (for example, ‘tell me what you know about leukaemia’)
- Science-based questions
- Odd-ball questions (for example, ‘describe how to tie a shoe without gesturing’)
- Knowledge of the target program – why pursue medicine at a particular school?
What’s included in the feedback?
We will provide written feedback to the applicant in a document after each session. This may also include additional reading materials to fill knowledge gaps. The various consultants will also have access to each applicant’s feedback document, so everyone is aware of the applicant’s progress.
Who are the consultants?
Our interview consultants include experienced admissions consultants, advanced medical students, and trainers with backgrounds in the sciences. All of them have gone through our training to prepare students for medical school interviews.
