Medicine 2020

[EightToSixer]

Ok, so I know it's super early, but I've been hovering at the medicine 18 and 19 threads. DD is keen to apply for medicine in 2020. Is anyone else in the same boat?
I thought it would be useful to share info and stories, it's all a very steep learning curve because despite me now having a PhD and working in a RG university I was late to learning and not a patch on my DD who is very driven and organised.
Hopefully people will find this group and we can share the rollercoaster of the next two years.

They pretty much always go down !

DD has just started in year 12 (so looking for 2021) but we went to the Cardiff Uni open day on Saturday just to have a look around and se the facilities. One thing that struck me was that all the admissions people we spoke with expressed their preference for accepting students who applied after their A-levels, ie those taking a gap year and applying with banked grades.

While I completely understand that it's much easier for the Uni to plan when they accept students with the grades in hand, I did feel that it was a little off putting. The course is already long without being pressured into taking a gap year. Also, if DD did want a gap year it would be hard to plan travel etc until after March as she would have to be around to attend interviews etc.

Has anyone else heard this message at other open days?

I haven’t explicitly heard that from anywhere but I know Exeter gives higher weighting to achieved grades over predicted. Which seems fair really. Predicted grades can easily be inflated while achieved are achieved. Students with the grades have sort of proved their academic capability, I suppose.

The ones which give preference to achieved results are Exeter, Cardiff, Leicester, Aberdeen.

It may be that others will start doing it as linear A level predictions are less reliable than the old modular ones.

That's interesting to know. Anyone know which unis do not base offers solely off interview performance? I have Birmingham, Sheffield and St. Andrews having one mmi station based on sjt score and Edinburgh and southhampton doing a combination of measures. Am I missing anything obvious?

Some of them use UCAT as post of the post interview score - UEA and Aberdeen. Edinburgh 50% of the post interview score is from academics and UCAT (although nobody knows how the calc is done yet). I think there may be others too, maybe the Scottish ones.

I didn't know that about UEA and Aberdeen - thanks. I had read that for Southampton and Edinburgh but Edinburgh is a bit of an unknown this year isn't it?

I guess that might be one advantage of being in Wales and having AS levels as at least that's 45% of final mark to base predictions on.
DD had a BMAT session at school today and said the guy running it was just enjoying scaring everyone so it left a bad taste in her mouth. Thankfully her UCAT score looks even better than she thought in the published interim scores today so she only spent 45 minutes moaning about BMAT guy before getting on with cutting down her PS which is 2 x as long as it needs I be.

I hope the advantage of having AS levels outweighs the disadvantage of high As not being 8s if she has any.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t believe universities really look at AS? Especially in the manner of favouring or not favouring a candidate over another or looking at a candidate in a more positive light. My understanding is that this is because the vast majority of schools do not offer AS levels so it would be hugely unfair.

I think they look at threshold exams now as AS don’t happen any more?

Leeds score ASs if you get a better score for them than for your A levels. Cambridge look at everything. QUB like an AS/EPQ plus 3 A levels.

Don't know whether anybody else looks at them, but clearly they give a more credible base for predictions than internal exams.

On the whole the system is unfair to the people from Wales and NI as it is quite a bit harder to get an A* than an 8.

it is quite a bit harder to get an A than an 8.*
Do you have any evidence to substantiate this? Never heard this before so curious.

I meant " if you get a better score for them than for your GCSEs. "

Yes, it is OFQUAL data.

In 2016 for English 4% of GCSE candidates got A*, in 2017 9% of candidates got 8/9.

For maths it was 7% A* in 2016, 14% 8/9 in 2017.

I have not checked whether it was so much higher in 2018, but it was always the intention that 8 would be a high A/low A*.

Ahh, I see.
I don’t think the date you’ve offered can be used to conclude that it’s easier to get an 8 than an A*.

I’m genuinely curious- DD did both A* and 9-1 GCSEs.

The top 4% got A*
The top 9% got 8/9

Therefore it was easier to get an 8 than an A*.

Obviously some of the 8s would have been A*s, but some As.

Those percentages are cumulative going down the table. 20% of candidates got a 7/8/9 or A/A star in maths (this has always been the case). 11% got 8/9 and 7% got A star. Still not an equal amount, but not quite the discrepancy stated in PP.

Thanks for the correction medicineappstress, yes, you are right.

8/9 aren’t the same grade though?
If 20% of students get A/A* and 20% get 7/8/9, it’s broadly similar

lionfish DD is just starting her 2nd year at Cardiff. From what I remember of the admission talks, some people where quite upset with Cardiff for scoring GCSE grades, and so Cardiff kept pointing out that if you applied with A level results, your GCSEs weren't scored. I don't know, but maybe that's why they came across as preferring people to apply with A levels. Or maybe this year a lot didn't make their offer. I know that in dd's year they didn't accept any dropped grades. (She went straight from school btw)

Yes 7/8/9 is the same as A/A, but most universities who score GCSEs are treating all 8s as As although half of them are actually equivalent to A. That is unfair for Welsh and NI applicants who may have high As which would be 8s.

DS also falls on the wrong side of this as his GCSEs were in 2017 and he missed 2 A*s by less than 1% so they would have been 8s. That is why I am so conscious of the difference. It is, of course, ridiculous that quarter of a per cent in music GCSE affects your chances of getting an interview, but that is how it works for some of them.

@Pepermintea the current Cardiff system adds extra points for A levels to the GCSE score.

A school leaver with 7 A*/8/9 and 2 A would probably not get an interview as they score 25/27. If they get AAA at A level, they get another 6 points - so 31, which is higher than a school leaver can score. I think it is all equal once shortlisted for interview.

@Pepermintea Thanks for the info, is your daughter enjoying the course in Cardiff?

Admissions specifically stated they preferred applications with A-levels in the bag because it lets them plan without the stress of waiting to see how many students achieve the A-level grades to meet their offers. Their points system outlined in the post above shows how they'd always be selected for interview once the AAA at A-level and minimum grades at GCSE were achieved.

They also mentioned that they may introduce an online test for candidates selected for interview to take pre interview but no date has been set for this. Admissions reinforced that they didn't rate using UCAT test scores to identify the best medics so were looking to develop their own system. This could throw a complete spanner in the works as it will be an unknown...

Monkey and Lionfish I didn't realised that the scoring system had changed in that way.

Yes,she is really enjoying Cardiff - both the course and Cardiff itself. She has learnt so much already! She really likes the case based way of learning medicine. Having said that she would probably have enjoyed it wherever she went!