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The new
Foundation Application Form was released on 8 October. On this page, you
will find details of the questions asked in the form. 
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THE FY1 APPLICATION PROCESS
The
application form for the 2008 FY1 recruitment process (entry in FY in
2009) will be released on 27
October 2008 and you have until 7 November 2008 to complete it. The application process is carried out
online and works as follows:
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Each medical school creates an online
record for its students. As well as basic details, the schools enter
details of your academic records in the form of a quartile into
which your performance falls.
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The login and password details are
communicated to you so that you can access the site as soon as the
application process opens
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On the opening day, a new
section of the form appears online, containing a series of questions
designed to test basic competencies such as team work,
communication, understanding of good medical practice and many
others. This year there are 7 questions, 6 of which are essay-based
and must be answered in 150 or 250 words. The seven competency
questions are marked out of a total of 60 points.
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Your academic achievements are marked in
accordance to the following schedule:
- 1st quartile: 40 points
- 2nd quartile: 38 points
- 3rd quartile: 36 points
- 4th quartile: 34 points
A DIFFICULT APPLICATION FORM
The FY1
is one of the most difficult form that you will have to complete in your
medical career for two reasons:
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It
asks for many examples of situations where you have had achievements
or demonstrated particular skills. Such examples are often difficult
to describe in a way that ticks all the required boxes.
-
You
are asked to provide examples at a stage in your career where your
experience is limited, which makes is very difficult to find
examples that are interesting.
The 2008 questions will only be knows in October but
here is an overview of what was asked in 2007 (by itself not that
different to what was asked in 2006).
THE 7 QUESTIONS
The 2007 contains 7 questions, 6 of which
are essay-based. The questions are as follows:
Q1 - Academic achievements
[5 marks]
List your academic achievements
Q2 - Non-academic achievements
[150 words - 8 marks]
Give one example of a non-academic achievement explaining both
its significance to you and the relevance to foundation training
Q3 - Working under pressure
[150 words - 8 marks]
Describe one example (not necessarily clinical) relevant to your
medical training where you have felt personally under pressure
and/or challenged. What did you do to manage this, and what did you
learn from this experience that will be relevant to foundation
training?
Q4 - Prioritisation
[150 words - 8 marks]
Describe one example from your undergraduate medical training of
your ability to prioritise tasks and information from any clinical
or educational area. What was the outcome, what have you learned and
how will you apply this to foundation training?
Q5 - Team work
[150 words - 8 marks]
Describe one example from your own clinical experience that has
increased your understanding of the importance of team working. What
was your role and contribution to the team? What have you learned
and how will you apply this to your foundation training?
Q6 - Integrity & professionalism
[150 words - 8 marks]
Describe one example of a recent clinical situation where you
demonstrated appropriate professional behaviour. What did you do and
what have you learned? How you will apply this to foundation
training?
Q7 - Patient care
[250 words - 10 marks]
Compare and contrast the care pathways you have observed for two
different patients with similar clinical problems. To what extent
did each pathway take the individual needs of the patient into
account? What have you learned from these patients that will be
relevant to your foundation training?
MARKING SCHEDULE
The
mark that you will get will depend on two criteria:
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Criterion 1 reflects how good the example given
is in relation to the question. For example, if you are asked to
describe an achievement, then you will get a higher score for an
exceptional achievement than you will get for a non-descript
achievement.
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Criterion 2 reflects how well the example is
explained and how personal your answer is. A high level of
explanation and personal reflection will attract a higher mark.
However, it would be true to say that Criterion 1 is
the most important as it dictates the level at which your answer starts
being marked, with Criterion 2 offering a bonus. It is therefore crucial that you choose a
good/outstanding example to start with as it will determine how highly
you can score. A basic example will never score highly, even if well
explained.
TIPS TO COMPLETE THE FORM
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Read the question carefully. If the question is
asking for an example, then give only one example. You will not get
a better mark by providing more than one, and in fact you will do
yourself a disservice by spreading the information thin. Stick to
one situation but explain it well.
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Talk about you, not the others. You are here to
sell yourself actively.
Use "I" rather than "We".
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 Use your English appropriately.
Starting every
sentence by "I" shows lack of planning and imagination.
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Split your answer into four parts:
Context:
Set the scene. Describe the
situation or the task that you faced.
Action:
Explain what you did, how you
did it and why you did it. Throughout the answer, make sure that
you demonstrate the skill that the question is testing. There is
no point emphasising what a great leader you were if the
question is about communication.
Result:
Explain how the situation
concluded.
Personalisation & Reflection:
Develop what you
gained from the situation and this helped you evolve as an
individual and future doctor.
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If you are asked to describe an achievement, make
sure that you explain why this is an achievement. For example, "I
obtained high marks in my neurology assignment" is not an
achievement if everyone else obtained high marks too. "I was placed
in the top 5% of my year" however achieves both and actually
constitutes an exceptional achievement. As much as possible, try to
define what makes the event an achievement, either through a ranking
or a description of the amount of competition that you faced.
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OUR DOWNLOADABLE HELP GUIDE
To help you complete the form in the best
possible manner and ensure that you can optimise the number of points
that you will score, we publish a guide every year which is fully
tailored to the current application form.
The guide does not provide model
answers but goes into depth about how each question should be
approached, what the marking scheme is looking for. The guide
also contains bad and good examples to illustrate the points
made and has helped countless candidates get the rotation that
they wanted.
Prepare early. Do not wait until the
last minute to prepare your questions. Order and
download your copy of the
Foundation Year 1 Application Form Help Booklet now.
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