January → May: do research on careers in medicine, studying medicine. You don’t necessarily need to know where you want to apply but having an idea would be good. Jott down ideas for your personal statement along the way and start putting them together. Start looking at medical schools, which ones are UCAT, which ones are BMAT.
May → July : you should know for certain by this time whether or not you want to do medicine. Continue looking at medical schools, comparing different ones and finding the best ones for you. Start forming your personal statement and structuring it, getting help from teachers and your peers. Get more info about universities and specific med schools. Register for UCAT on 1st July, and begin your preparations.
July → August: Summer holiday. Continue studying for UCAT, but also enjoy your time off. Make sure to keep up to date with A-level work. Further frame your personal statement, do volunteering/work experience which you can include in it. You may also wish to start preparing for BMAT towards the end of Summer.
September → October: Work mainly on PS finalisation and BMAT prep. You have one month to make sure it’s as good as it can get. The workload is difficult as you'll have year 13 workload in addition to completing your application. UCAS Application Submissions open on 8th September, but many would recommend taking as long as you need. If you feel prepared to submit early then feel free! However, there is no rush, as medical schools will not respond until after the deadline anyway. 15th October is the deadline, then, it's a waiting game. If you took only UCAT, then relax for a bit and catch up on work. If you're taking BMAT, keep working hard. Only a few more weeks. Really push it during the October half term holiday.
November → May 2021: BMAT is on 4th November, then it's a wrap on entrance exams. The results are released online on 27th November. Interviews begin to roll out during this time. UCAT ones generally come throughout November. After that, BMAT universities start giving out interview offers. If you receive an invite to an interview, start preparing right away - the more time you spend getting used to the different formats (MMI, Panel) the more comfortable you will be in the real one. It’s also a matter of patience. You may hear your friends getting interview offers while you have none, but don't worry. TSR is dangerous too, uni threads will be full of people stressing and talking about their interview dates etc. but don’t lose hope, no news is good news. After your interview(s), you just need to wait for the decision(s), and this can be painstakingly long - possibly even months of waiting. But they should get back to you by the end of March/Early April. Hang in there, and focus on your school work during this time. Keep checking UCAS Track, and once you have a decision from each of the universities to applied to, you need to choose which will be your Firm and Insurance choices.