Pedro
"Completing the Surrey course and passing the RCVS exam gave me a boost in confidence that continues to propel me forward in my career."
What are the best things about the Veterinary General Practice PGCert?
Nearly every lecture started with, “This is an enormous subject and I’ll try my best to fit it into this lecture,” which was always a fair statement. The staff consistently managed to filter the content down to the minimum required, which was already a massive amount of information. The lectures worked as a guide for further study and for identifying the important details. Without that structure, I would not have been able to juggle work responsibilities and study to the level I did.
The course assigns each student a tutor who spends additional time with them, mostly through Teams calls. In my case, this was Dr Holly Lenaghan. She had a compassionate way of speaking to overwhelmed students and encouraging them to keep working towards their goal. I felt zero judgement from the staff, even when asking the most basic questions.
It is also worth mentioning that I had the best cardiology lectures I have ever had, and I was finally able to understand aspects of cardiac physiology and disease that had gone over my head for many years.
The PGCert exams are one of the most important tools on the course. They are similar to the RCVS Statutory Exam and prepare you both intellectually and emotionally for what can be an extremely overwhelming couple of weeks during the RCVS theory exam and OSCEs.
"I had the best cardiology lectures I have ever had, and I was finally able to understand aspects of cardiac physiology and disease that had gone over my head for many years."
Why did you choose to study this course at Surrey?
As a Brazilian vet living in the UK, I had always thought that qualifying as a vet here was an impossible task. I felt that the content I needed to learn for the exam was alien and inaccessible, and the sheer volume of unfamiliar content was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Someone once described the process to me as “learning Korean and then sitting their GCSEs within a year,” which accurately captured how overwhelming it seemed at the time.
I found the Veterinary General Practice PGCert just as it opened. It was the first time a reputable university had advertised a course claiming to help international vets prepare for the RCVS Statutory Exam. The lack of choice actually helped my decision. As an international vet, I had no idea what I was signing up for, but that risk ultimately paid off.
What are your career plans?
After a long career break, I am starting life as a vet again. Completing the Surrey course and passing the RCVS exam gave me a boost in confidence that continues to propel me forward in my career. My plan is simple: to keep working in small animal general practice, learning to balance work and life along the way, until I feel the urge to specialise.
What advice do you have for anyone thinking of studying this course?
My advice to anyone thinking of applying for this course is to let the course guide your study and, if you can, go further. Practise with multiple choice questions from the course and other sources, and spend time seeing practice in the UK. Above all, be humble, ask questions, and put the work in.
