Applicants should also start broadening their wider reading, as they may be asked about topical medical and scientific issues in an interview, so they should be up-to-date and well informed. Applicants should read a broadsheet newspaper every day and also try and refer regularly to specific medical websites or journals e.g. New Scientist / Student BMJ (see list in interview section).

It is also recommended that applicants read some popular scientific books especially on more ethical or controversial issues. The following are a good place to start:

1. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
2. The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins
3. The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
4. Language of the Genes – Stephen Jones
5. The Double Helix – Watson & Crick
6. The Red Queen – Matt Ridley
7. Bully for Brontosaurus – Stephen Jay Gould
8. The Private Life of the Brain – Susan Greenfield
9. The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and other Clinical Tales – Oliver Sacks
10. Suburban Shaman: Tales from Medicine’s Front Line – Cecil Helman
11. What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today’s Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty – John Brockman