Super-Curricular Activities for Veterinary Medicine: Reading, Competitions and Projects

Admissions tutors for veterinary medicine read applications against a small number of UK vet schools and a course that runs five or six years with heavy clinical demands, so they look past predicted grades for evidence that a candidate has tested their interest against real bioscience. Super-curricular activity covers the reading, competitions, courses and independent projects that a student takes on outside the A-level syllabus, building the scientific literacy and reflective habits that a short farm visit cannot supply on its own. Tutors weigh how a candidate reasons about what they have encountered, using placements and reading together as evidence of that reasoning.

Formal veterinary work experience has grown harder to arrange since biosecurity and insurance concerns limited routine placements at many practices, and admissions teams have adjusted what they expect to see as a result. Wider reading in comparative physiology, animal welfare science and clinical case discussion now carries real weight alongside any hours spent shadowing a vet, since it shows a candidate can engage with material a first-year course will assume they have already met. A student who can discuss a topic with some precision tends to interview more convincingly than one who can only describe what they watched.

Useful super-curricular work for veterinary medicine spans several forms, from national essay prizes and biology competitions to short online courses, subject lectures, EPQs and small independent projects in animal science or welfare. Some of it complements formal work experience directly, such as reading that helps a student interpret what they saw on a placement, whilst other elements, such as an EPQ on antimicrobial resistance in livestock, stand as evidence of sustained academic interest in their own right. Together they let a candidate show scientific curiosity across contexts wider than a single veterinary practice.

Reading around veterinary medicine and biology

A levels in biology and chemistry give a firm base, but the veterinary course assumes a candidate has already turned some of that knowledge outward, connecting classroom physiology to whole-animal medicine, welfare and public health. Reading across comparative anatomy, animal behaviour, epidemiology and the ethics of animal use gives a student material for a personal statement and for interview, where a tutor may ask what a candidate has read recently and why. This reading tends to land better once a student has some exposure to a practice or farm, since a case seen in person often makes plain why a textbook mechanism matters.

Depth matters here more than breadth, since a tutor will usually ask a follow-up question that tests whether a student understood an idea instead of repeating a headline. Keeping brief notes on what a text argued, where a student agreed or disagreed, and which questions it left open turns passive reading into material that survives an interview. This habit also helps a student notice recurring themes, such as antimicrobial resistance or the welfare cost of selective breeding, that reappear across competitions, courses and EPQ titles.

• Journal and science press: Veterinary Record, In Practice, New Scientist, university research briefings on animal health
• Popular science and memoir written by practising vets deserve critical reading, weighed for evidence, with entertainment value set aside.
• Open-access papers or summaries on welfare science, zoonotic disease or breeding ethics, found through university outreach pages

Competitions, essay prizes and academic challenges

National competitions give a candidate an external, gradeable marker of scientific ability that sits alongside predicted grades. For veterinary medicine the strongest of these are pitched at biology and biomedical science, since no UK competition tests clinical veterinary knowledge directly at sixth-form level. The British Biology Olympiad, run by the Royal Society of Biology, is the most widely recognised of these and rewards the close reading and problem-solving that the first year of a veterinary course expects. Essay prizes run by university biological or veterinary societies let a student develop a single argument at length, a different skill from an olympiad's short-answer format.

A single strong olympiad result or essay prize carries more weight in a personal statement than several partial attempts, so a student is usually better served entering one or two competitions properly, with time to prepare. Where a competition offers written feedback, using it to revise an answer or repeat the attempt the following year turns a single entry into evidence of improvement.

• British Biology Olympiad and the Biology Challenge, run by the Royal Society of Biology
• Essay prizes advertised by individual university biological science or veterinary departments
• School-run or regional science essay competitions, useful practice even without a national profile

Lectures, courses and online learning

Public lectures and short online courses let a student sample topics that A-level biology and chemistry do not cover in depth, such as veterinary pharmacology, epidemiology or the welfare science behind farm assurance schemes, without needing a placement to access them. University vet schools, including the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and the University of Cambridge, run open lectures, taster days and outreach talks through the academic year, some recorded and made freely available afterwards. Free platforms such as FutureLearn host short courses from university departments on animal welfare and behaviour that a student can complete alongside A-level study.

A course or lecture is worth citing in a personal statement once a student can say something specific about it, such as an argument it made or a question it left unresolved, since a list of titles with no reflection reads as padding. Choosing two or three courses to complete properly, with notes kept as a student goes, tends to produce more useful material than starting many and finishing none.

Work experience and exposure to animal handling

Veterinary work experience remains valued by admissions tutors, though most vet schools word their guidance carefully, recognising that biosecurity rules, insurance and limited practice capacity make consistent placements hard for every applicant to arrange. Vet Schools Council publishes guidance for applicants who cannot secure a placement in a small animal or mixed practice, and most vet schools accept a broader range of animal-related experience, including farm work, stable yards, kennels, abattoirs and zoos, as evidence of handling confidence and a realistic view of animal care work.

What matters in a personal statement is less the setting itself than what a student took from it: an observation about how a vet communicated a difficult diagnosis, a question raised by seeing an animal managed under time pressure, or a link between something read beforehand and something witnessed on the day. Recording a short reflection after each placement, while the detail is still fresh, makes this material far easier to draw on when the personal statement is actually written.

• Small animal, mixed or farm veterinary practices, where places can be arranged
• Farms, stables, kennels, catteries, abattoirs and zoos, as alternative or additional exposure
• Charities running animal rehoming, rescue or welfare inspection work

Projects, EPQs and societies

An Extended Project Qualification lets a student research a single question in depth over an extended period, and for veterinary applicants a well-chosen title, such as one examining antimicrobial resistance in livestock or the welfare cost of a specific breeding practice, does more to demonstrate independent scientific thinking than almost any other piece of super-curricular work. The write-up and reference list also give an interviewer natural material to question, which rewards a student who has genuinely done the reading and exposes one who has merely summarised a single source.

Smaller projects, run without the structure of an EPQ, can serve a similar purpose: a short piece of data collection on local wildlife behaviour, a literature review for a school science journal, or an investigation carried out through a Nuffield Research Placement all give a student something concrete to describe. School biology, veterinary or animal welfare societies, where they exist, offer a lower-stakes way to practise presenting an argument to peers before doing so in front of an admissions tutor.

A Year 12 to Year 13 timeline

Super-curricular work sits more comfortably across two years than crammed into the fortnight before the UCAS deadline, and a rough timeline helps a student pace reading, competitions and any placements against exam terms and mock assessments.

Leaving reading and placements until shortly before the UCAS deadline tends to produce a personal statement built from memory, with few notes to draw on, which shows in vague description and thin detail. Starting the habit of brief written reflection early in Year 12 avoids that problem later.

• Year 12, autumn and spring terms: begin regular reading, register for the British Biology Olympiad and any autumn essay prizes, start arranging work experience for the summer
• Year 12, summer holiday: complete the bulk of work experience and placements, keeping brief written reflections after each one
• Year 12 into Year 13, early autumn: start or continue an EPQ if taking one, draft a reading and activity list to work from
• Year 13, autumn term: write and redraft the personal statement, drawing on notes made at the time, ahead of the UCAS deadline
• Year 13, after submission: prepare for interview by revisiting reading and placement notes, since tutors often ask about material referenced in the statement

Writing about it: personal statement, interview and common mistakes

A personal statement earns more credit for showing how a student thought about an activity than for listing it, so a paragraph built around a single placement, book or project, worked through in some detail, usually reads better than a paragraph that mentions five activities in five sentences. Linking two different activities together, such as a book that reframed something seen on a placement, shows the kind of synthesis a tutor is trying to assess and tends to leave a stronger impression than either activity described alone.

At interview, a tutor will often start from something in the personal statement and ask a student to go further, so a candidate should expect follow-up questions that test understanding: what they read after finishing a book, or how a placement changed their view of a welfare question. Preparing means returning to notes made at the time, not relearning material from scratch, and being honest about the limits of what a student understood.

• Listing activities without saying what a student took from them
• Treating a single day's shadowing as sufficient evidence of commitment
• Citing a book, course or competition that a student cannot discuss under a follow-up question
• Leaving reading and reflection until the weeks before the UCAS deadline
• Choosing an EPQ or project title so broad that it cannot be answered in the time available

Recommended resources for Veterinary Medicine

• Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS): The UK regulator for the veterinary profession, publishing accessible guidance on the qualification route and professional standards.
• British Veterinary Association (BVA): The main UK professional body for vets, with careers information and policy positions on animal welfare.
• Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh: A long-established UK vet school whose outreach programme covers animal welfare and clinical science topics for sixth formers.
• Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge: Publishes course structure and admissions information that helps applicants understand what the veterinary degree covers.
• Nuffield Research Placements: A funded Year 12 research placement scheme letting students work on a real science project, including animal and life-science fields.
• The Brilliant Club Scholars Programme: A university-style research programme for sixth formers that develops the independent research skills an EPQ or personal statement project draws on.
• Royal Institution: Runs free public science lectures, including on biology and animal science topics, useful for personal statement discussion.
• Listening to the Animals by Noel Fitzpatrick: A memoir by a well-known UK veterinary surgeon, giving a first-hand account of clinical practice and its ethical dilemmas.

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