Jessica F

Academic History

University of Oxford, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery 2021-2024

University of Oxford, Bachelor of Medical Sciences 2018-2021 • Upper Second Class (68.5%) with First Class in Dissertation (75%). • Merit – (Top 10% of Year)

Caterham School • A-Levels: Maths (A), Chemistry (A), Biology (A*), English Literature (A)

Dartford Grammar School for Girls • GCSEs: 12A*s – Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Further Maths, English Literature, English Language, Psychology, Music, Spanish, History, Religious Studies

Recent tuition

Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry, Physics

I tutored this student (St. Mary’s School Ascot) in GCSE Chemistry and Physics. We worked on these subjects over a four-month period. She was already a very confident student, receiving 7s in her subjects across the board, however, she had ADHD and wanted mentorship in exam techniques in order to help anchor her revision and push her into the top grades. She achieved 9 in Chemistry and 8 in Physics.

Edexcel GCSE Maths

I tutored this student (Dartford Grammar School for Girls) in GCSE Maths. We worked on this subject over five months, from her mock exam season through to the commencement of her exams. She was quite a confident student in her other subjects scoring 8/9s in most but struggled with maths specifically questions involving algebra and questions involving graphs. When we started she was achieving 6s in her stronger topics and 4s in the more complex ones. We identified her primary struggle was sifting through all the visual representations of concepts (i.e., algebraic expressions, graphs etc) and she struggled to link them to their underlying concepts. To remedy this we reframed Maths as a form of communication emphasising that she already knew how to verbally reason, we simply needed to plug in the language maths uses to reason with us. She went on to achieve a 7 overall.

AQA GCSE Chemistry

I tutored this student (The Harrodian School) in GCSE Chemistry. We worked on these subjects over a one-year period (continuing). She was an above average student across all subjects except Chemistry, and it seemed struggled with the teaching at school (her class’ average score was 35%). She wanted to do triple science as she wanted to study Biology at A-level, but still struggled to improve her test scores. Her main issue seemed to be the conceptual nature of certain concepts in Chemistry compared to the more memorisation-based learning of Physics and Biology and she hadn’t developed a strong basis in the more fundamental chapters of the syllabus to build off of. We decided it would be best to start from the beginning, getting a grasp of the core concepts of Chemistry with visual diagrams and spaced repetition of basic facts. She has now gone on to steadily improve, going from 3s and 4s to 6s and 7s in topic tests.

UCAT

I tutored this student (American International School of Guangzhou) in the UCAT admissions test. We worked together over the course of four months in preparation for her test. She was a high-achieving student, however she struggled with the specificity of the skills tested in the aptitude test and maintaining a good score under the immense time pressure. She felt tuition would be useful as she had stagnated in her test scores, failing to improve from her initial score of 2400 and band 3 Situational Judgement despite consistent revision. Her main problem was she felt unable to identify areas for practice due to the skills-based style of the test. I mentored her in the exam, breaking it down into key question types, and giving her tactical approaches to each type that should could use to supplement her question practice. She went on to achieve a score of 3040 (within the top decile for her application year) on her test with band 2 in the Situational Judgment section, and to receive three offers for Medicine out of four.

Personal Statement Mentoring & UCAT

I tutored this student (Tolworth Girls’ School) in preparation for her application to medical school. We worked on this over a period of six weeks. She was a relatively high achieving student in the sciences, but struggled with longer forms of expression such as essays, and therefore found her personal statement particularly challenging. She also struggled with the Abstract Reasoning section of the UCAT test, and answering all the questions in each section under time pressure. She had received support and guidance in school, however was failing to grasp the reflective side of the personal statement, and couldn’t translate her personal experiences into the qualities and skills that would make her a suitable medical candidate, despite having completed several months of work experience and extracurricular reading. I decided it would be best to start afresh, working together to understand the concept of why personal statements are used for university medical applications, and the key skills and qualities that are expected of medical students and doctors as per the NHS Constitution. Based on this we were able to extract anecdotes from her personal experiences that reflected these qualities, and she was able to achieve a well-structured and deeply reflective personal statement. For her UCAT exam, I recommended tactical approaches to each question type within each section and we went through timed practice applying them until she felt confident to finish each section in time. She went on to place in the second highest decile for her application year for UCAT and she received four offers for interview.

Interview Mentoring

I prepped this international student for her interviews in Veterinary Medicine. She was applying to all Russell Group Universities. She was a very capable student, and simply wanted an idea of what kind of questions to expect and how to best prepare for interviews. Based on this I created mock MMI interviews in which we wen through classic stations and topics and practiced together over three sessions. She received two offers from two invitations to interview.

Hobbies

I enjoy opera singing because it is deeply relaxing and requires a heightened sense of awareness and mindfulness of my body. The physicality involved, from breath control to resonance, helps me stay present and connected to the moment. I also love playwriting and attending the theatre because it allows me to stretch myself creatively. There’s something exciting about transforming intangible ideas into tangible dialogue and settings, constructing entire worlds that come to life on stage. Both activities give me a sense of fulfilment, whether through the emotional depth of music or the creative expression of storytelling.

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