If you’re in your fourth or fifth year, you’ve probably heard something about “MTAS,” which stands for Medical Training Request Service (MTAS). You will use this service to apply for your foundation school and foundation 1 (and possibly 2) year jobs after you graduate from your medical student exams. If your preparation was similar to mine, you’re probably wondering what it’s all about, and even though you’ve been given an hour-long lecture on the process, you still don’t know anything.
Here is a quick guide to the MTAS process:
- Each of you will apply online. Go to the foundation’s program website. Here is a PDF document with an application timeline that gives you the dates for each application process.
- When the applications open, you will be given a login to the foundation’s program website. On this website you will find the application form.
- Your application is scored out of 100.
Your score is made up of…
- Your answers to the set questions (Max 60) – You will be given 7 questions and each one will be scored. Each question requires you to reflect on a personal or clinical accomplishment and indicate how it will benefit you during your initial year’s jobs. Sample questions and answers will be provided for you to review before you receive the final questions. Be sure to look at the sample response styles and try to use the same format. (The questions will be given to you about 3 weeks before the submission deadline, so start preparing your answers early!)
- Your medical school rank (max 40): Your medical school will divide the year into quartiles based on your exam performance. Everyone in the top quartile receives the highest number of points (40). Everyone in the bottom quartile receives the fewest points (34).
Go ahead with the guide…
- There is an area on the application to write about any additional qualifications you may have. Be sure to list any other degrees you have and also any courses you have completed, eg ALS, ALERT, PLS.
- You will also have the opportunity to write about any audit projects you have completed or received any publications in medical school. If you are in your fourth year, it may be worth starting an audit project. They are not too time consuming and will set you apart from your peers.
- You will need to contact 2 doctors to use as referrals. Preferably these are consultants you have gotten to know over a period of time. Obviously try to use people you have impressed! Ask for their permission and get their contact details. They will be asked to submit a brief performance review with them (you do not need to arrange this yourself). It is unlikely that someone will not agree to write a reference about you; however, make sure you’re not rushing to find someone at the last minute – remember your previous attachments.
- Finally, you will be asked to rank the base schools in order of preference.
- Be sure to pay attention to deadlines and start the process early; you don’t want to rush to the end, especially since applications are submitted online. If everyone waits until the last moment to hit the “submit” button, the system will fail, which means your request may be late.
- Once you have submitted your application, you will receive your score and see your assigned foundation deanery.
After this, the process differs slightly for each decan:
- You will be prompted to rank the F1 (+/- F2) jobs in order of preference. This is usually a very time-consuming process, so don’t try to do it all in one go!
- Remember, you will assign your work based on your score. If you have unfortunately scored lower, you may need to be strategic about which jobs rank higher. You are less likely to be assigned jobs that are extremely popular if your score is low; however, if your score is high, this is less likely to be a problem.
That sums up the process. Remember to follow each step and everything should be fine for your admission. The whole process is very daunting. You will hear rumors for years before you apply!
Try to remember that the vast majority of people will enter their preferred elementary school and most people will be assigned one of their top ten ranked jobs.
Remember that people will rank jobs in an infinite number of different combinations, which means that, in general, everyone will be competing for different “favorite” jobs while revising for their med student exams!