My Painful Experience
I used the MSAG as I had failed to get into Medicine. A friend had used tutoring and passed. I felt shame for failing, didn’t trust myself and wanted to trust an external authority like Dibah to guide me. I used MSAG for UCAT, Chemistry Tutoring, Interview Prep, Personal Statement, Application guidance, Summer Club and a BMAT course.
When I first applied, before meeting Dibah, I used MSAG for Interview Prep. I did the Mocks and had 1-1 tutoring. The tutors went through model answers. It becomes very robotic. A tick-box exercise. Completely inauthentic, and students memorise model answers and act like it's real.
I didn’t pass my Leicester Interview, despite the training. The model answer they gave me was poor according to the Interviewer.
Dibah established a rapport with me, so I trusted her, thinking she had all these fabulous reviews on her website and was the Top person to get me into Medicine. She recommended that I purchase their UCAT packages (for over £3000). This initially felt like a Golden Ticket. I convinced my Granddad to pay. Her advice was terrible. I followed it to the end. When I did the UCAT the second time, I got a worse score (around 2400 and SJT Band 3)!!! Even though I had prepared 500 hours, according to Dibah, she had seen students work even harder!!!
The idea of tutoring was to familiarise students with the question types. The process becomes robotic and mechanical. My friend got 3200 in the UCAT with no tutoring. The more formulas you get, the slower you become. You have to work through the techniques and decide which one to use. It becomes more stressful. My friend used his gut instinct rather than any formula and skipping strategy and got a higher score than any of the MSAG tutors.
Then Dibah tells me I have burned out. It's true, but she made me burnout due to how she organised the tutoring process. I trusted her to help me, and then she blames me for being burned out. At the time, I blamed myself. Now, I don’t.
I did the BMAT course as I thought I would apply there. The course was good, but my concentration was slow. I applied for a chemistry resit, and it was intense. Dibah lacked empathy, and I had to speak to a CBT therapist to leave it. I also had Personal Statement prep for Graduate Medicine which Dibah had guided me to. They make the PS a tick-box exercise. It becomes boring and mundane. They convinced me I needed another PS as the Medicine one wouldn’t be necessary for Biomed. I feel like it would have worked retrospectively. There is no authenticity in the PS. It becomes very intellectual. Now, I could get AI to produce one for me. It lacks emotion and a human appeal.
In the end, I just left the whole company. I have possibly £1500 worth of credits remaining . Dibah sold me a chemistry package unethically when I was stressed. She didn’t care. It was in her financial interest. Let her take advantage of vulnerable people, offer them false hope, and post only 5* reviews on their website. The Karma affects her and her health. Dibah was drained and stressed and got ill often. I would advise her to meditate, breathe and eat healthily. 10 hour work days can seriously impact health.
She needs to help herself before anyone else. Her anxiety affects her students.
When I was burned out, another piece of terrible advice Dibah gave me was to study 10 hours a day and cram the whole Chemistry A-level content in 2 weeks. It felt terrible. I had been listening to her and been collapsing due to fatigue!
I was once at A&E because of my health condition, which no doubt the stress Dibah caused me contributed to. They could only think of my tutoring. They have lost contact with their own health and wanted to impose that on me.
Parents feel they can throw money at tutoring and secure their child's future. That’s what I thought, too. Trust yourself. I felt vulnerable when seeing Dibah. I trusted her, and she abused my trust. But I learned a lot from this. You are strong and beautiful. Listen to your inner guidance!