Away from physical activities, keeping the mind exercised is important. I regularly play with a team, winning several team tournaments. Playing chess has improved my power of concentration, allowing me to stay focused on a task over a sustained period. This is essential in a medical degree as mistakes cannot be made when diagnosing or treating patients.
As there is a great deal of human interaction between doctors and patients, good communication skills are essential. My work experience in a clothes store in the summer gave me a chance to interact with customers and improve upon my interaction skills. The Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award has given me an opportunity to use skills learnt from 8 years of scouting, including numerous first aid courses. I am one year into the award and hopeful of completing it within the next two years.
The road to becoming a practicing doctor is a long and very demanding one but I believe I have the motivation, commitment and ability to succeed. Acquiring various skills through numerous activities, I feel that I will be more than capable of contributing both academically and physically to the medicine course at to a higher education institute.