Once I decided to apply for medical schools in Poland/Czech Republic I felt quite limited as to where I could apply because I was lacking a physics requirement from high school. (this minor point is in fact haunting me to this very day as we need credits in a subject called biophysics... bleh..)
So the schools I found at the time which I could easily wrap up an application to was Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin and Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow. My hopes of applying to Charles University in Prague was crushed by their physics requirement and lack of mercy to those without it.
Both of my applications got accepted. Pomeranian did not even require an entrance exam, so I would have been good to go as I received an offer shortly before I had to sit the UJ entrance exam around June 3rd 2011.
I was really lazy when it came to studying for this because I was a tad more preoccupied with finishing my last year at Edinburgh University, writing my bachelor dissertation and academic portfolio (oh the joys... what a "fun" time that was...)
The consultant I applied through (eec.no) along with the school itself (UJ) advised us to use general biology books to study for the biology component (55 questions in 2011). If I remember correctly, the recommended book was by Campbell & Reece, which I personally think is a huge waste of time reading through regardless of what your level is in biology. I had a similar book called "Life the science of biology" by Purves et al, and I barely looked up anything in it. For the chemistry component (45 questions in 2011) there were also some recommended books I didn't even consider looking at; even though chem has always been a pain in the ass for me.
Seeing as my academic background at this point was 4 years studying medical sciences (i.e. biology/human biology/pre med/whatever you wanna call it) at university level I felt less of a necessity to spend time "studying" and learning new things for the entrance exam. All I did was reading through the PDF file they give you access to on eec.no. I guess you could also get it straight from the Jagiellonian University as you stay in touch throughout the application process. This basically covered my revision of biology and chemistry. I supplemented this booklet with the invaluable books called "Biology for the IB diploma" and "Chemistry for the IB diploma". I would highly recommend buying or borrowing these books if you know people who have studied the IB programme at high school. They are super concise and include more or less all the information you need.
For the chemistry part I felt that doing questions from the past exams was the most useful way of revising the material.
So if you feel that you have been away from the routine of studying it might be a good idea to start revising bio and chem a little earlier than I did. I think I spent 7-10 semi-efficient days studying and got 70% on the exam which was well within the pass mark in 2011.
They called out our names and sent us into different rooms once the exams has been marked and that must have been the longest 30 minutes of my life. When one of the professors after the longest possible sentence finally announced that "we were accepted at the UJ School of Medicine in English (SME)" we all held out breaths and suddenly an immense joy rushed through the room. Such relief... and I obviously knew which offer I was going to accept when I went home that day.
When it comes to choosing the program to apply for there are some entry requirements to consider. Those who have a high school diploma (with generell studiekompetanse if you are norwegian) with the necessary subjects (sciences) can apply for the 6 year programme. I was under the impression that anyone with a pre med degree could apply for the 4 year programme, but this seemed not to be the case as a norwegian friend of mine who did the same degree as me at the University of Edinburgh got rejected because her BSc was NOT an American or Canadian one... This is why we(even the teachers) refer to the 4YP and 6YP as the American and Norwegian programmes respectively. I have no idea why European BSc degrees are not accepted by the school..
So except for the ridiculous amount of Norwegians at the SME, there is a good portion of Malaysians a number of North Americans and Swedes (and the odd German, French, Equadorian ++). There is a strong sense of community held together by a student union called Copernica and the student governments, especially that of the 6-year programme. These bodies hold various events, both academic and recreational, which the whole school is welcome to take part in.
I think that roughly sums up a few points people who are applying to UJ SME may be interested to know about. If you come across this post and have more questions you may send me an email (nilen89(at)gmail.com) or ask in the comments section ^^
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