Medicine - average UKCAT score

Myrtille it was easy from looking at TSR for DS to see when Bristol started processing applications and communicating their decisions to applicants. He was rejected in about the first five minutes! (sometime in early Jan).

By contrast Birmingham interviewed him in October and kept him waiting until April to make an offer. A high one too, which may well have been to avoid him insuring with them (in fact when he declined the offer they wrote to him asking whether or not he had an Oxbridge offer).

She could consider Leeds.
Leeds scores candidates based on academic results, PS, work experience and extra curriculars then works down the list calling them for interview. The UKCAT score is used as a tie-breaker where two candidates are otherwise evenly matched.

Consider BMAT too. It might open up other doors but the problem with it is that candidates sit the exam after they have submitted their UCAS forms so your DD should try some past papers before deciding whether it is worth the risk.

Myrtille's right about not applying to Birmingham, and Bristol seems to be utterly unpredictable!

Good luck.

Read every word of each of the medical schools admission policy. Applying wisely is the most important thing in the whole Stressful procedure. Also look at the entry stats on UCAS and look at info onThe Student Room. Bare in mind that some information on the student room is a little off the mark but even so it is useful.
Bristol has previously had extremely high numbers of applicants per place and are also notorious for taking ages and ages to process applications.
You need to play to your strengths. My DC1 had a high UKCAT and got two offers from UKCAT hungry Uni's. He withdrew his application from Bristol as he couldn't be arsed waiting for them to make decision.

Good luck.

Re Bristol, I have two theories based on DD's & others' experience.

1. They seem disorganized in that they overrun deadlines, don't acknowledge applications for ages, keep applicants hanging to the end and then reject people without interview just before closing date. No other school seemed to do this.

1. They suffer from being many Oxbridge applicant's 2nd choice. So they have to have a strategy to filter out the obvious Oxbridge people who are going to accept them as an insurance offer and leave them with a hole come August when they get their grades. DD's friend had 4 rejections including Bristol and got phoned up by them after results came out and offered a place - combination of delight/relief/disbelief!

I'd be inclined to put Bristol on you're list if your grades aren't absolutely top notch especially if you are coming from a more challenged background that would improve their intake stats. They seem to be trying harder than most to take account of the opportunities applicants have had.

Re interviews. I was recommending research not guessing - Trawl the Student Room and you know what comes up at various places. Try one that DD got:
A) How many hours does a Junior Doctor work?, B) do you think that's going to be hard?

A) is easy, B) is a minefield.

Myrtille the one student I do know of out of DS1's friends who got 4/4 this year was utterly perfect in every respect.

Bristol does seem to be quirky. DS1 has 12 A* all taken in one sitting a year early but was rejected before interview very early. He wasn't bothered (had an offer from his first choice in hand) but it did seem odd, to not even interview, since he looks very good in other respects too, on paper.

Is it a good idea to guess the focus of interviews? Not sure. I'd say our experience is: be prepared!

OP, don?t know whether you?ve read it or not but last month I posted a message on another Medicine thread in the Further Education section of MN. See here in the middle of Page 2.

I think she is enjoying it. Notts is a halfway house between PBL and lectures which she likes.
The application process was a rollercoaster. Short summary - She had 11 As and a AA*AA prediction, 725 UKCAT and a poor Bmat. She got a quick offer from Birm (based on GCSEs poss?), An interview and rej from Camb (poor Bmat), an offer from Notts (AAB) and then just before closing date Bristol rejected her without interview. However one of her friends got into Bristol very late on with worse grades and CV hence my comment about no logic to it all.

About 7 from her year got in to medicine. Nobody got 4 offers.
In retrospect, her advice is: Give Bmat a good go with lots of past papers before hand (unlike her!). Mix your choices up - 1 UKCAT, 1 BMAT, 1 that uses neither and 1 other. Go to interviews with an open mind. Nottingham was a filler for her but really impressed her and she's delighted to be there. Try and find out what the interviews might concentrate on - Cambridge was physics, Birm was NHS structure, Notts was duties of a doctor.

Final comment...Think hard before going to London. My D is paying £55-60 rent and living 10 mins from the hospital. Her friends at Imperial and UCL are very envious.

Have you seen this?:

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/UKCAT

Although you have to take what the medical schools say publicly about admissions with a pinch of salt, it looks like an average of 640 will put you in the game at a number of schools.

I'd put Bristol on your list as a school that doesn't use Bmat or UKCAT. Avoid Birmingham as her GCSEs aren't good enough for their cut off. My daughter is at Nottingham and the rumour is they have a cut off in the 700s so best not apply there either.

Best of luck. It's tough but don't worry if you get some rejections, there's no logic behind some of the offers.

I know of two offers this year - both well over 700. One A level age and the other in his early 20's - has amazing GCSE and A Level results and then left before doinga degree and worked in radiography in the NHS.

I?m surprised she took the test at such an early stage. UKCAT goes right through to the first week of October and one gets one?s result(s) immediately after the test even before you leave the test centre. In short, your DD could have used the next two months revising for the test to hopefully achieve a higher score. The danger here is test centres may be fully booked at the later stages and one may have to travel long distances to another centre.

From my observation, successful candidates tend to average around the 700 mark but of course this is not set in stone. I know of candidates getting 740 and not getting an interview and a few cases of 630?ish getting offers! So, don?t give up yet.

But I would advise your DD do the following:

? Write a stellar Personal Statement

? Avoid ?UKCAT hungry? schools e.g. Sheffield

? Ace the BMAT (if she?s applying to BMAT schools)

? Alternatively, apply to ?non-tests? schools, e.g. Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol

Good luck!