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.

@IownAnIsland

Hi, a bit of a lurker but at the open day the head of admissions for medicine said that you need to be predicted a minimum of AAA to progress to the next stage. Imperial use a “barrier” sort of system so once you meet the criteria for that stage, you move on to the next.

Most applicants will receive A*AA offer but they offer AAA as a contextual offer. They also have a contextual BMAT cut off as well. Imperial doesn’t have a particularly high BMAT cut off generally so your son should be fine !

His A* prediction is not in Chemistry or Biology though.

How far off the A in biology is he? Is it worth chatting to his biology teachers to see if they think dropping his 4th A level and devoting a bit of extra time to biology could push him over the A boundary? I’m talking about biology as my d tells me that the A* in chemistry is harder to get.

My d starts at imperial soon - she’s waiting to hear any day now about accommodation and is very excitedly booking tickets for freshers events. They have two weeks of freshers, the uni SU one, and the med students union one. Her GCSEs were good but not stellar as she was ill across the exams. Her BMAT was 5.7/6.2/3.5A she was in and out of the imperial interview in about 14 minutes and said she preferred it to the MMIs she attended.

She tells me that on the WhatsApp group chat for imperial med freshers, there seems to be a significant number of people who got AAA in their A levels, some who were on contextual offers but some not, so it would appear that there is some flexibility on results day. There are 160 people in the WhatsApp group so it should be a fairly representative sample.

He is 4% off last years grade boundary for A* biology, 8% for chemistry. They were told that too many missed their grades last year in sciences so they were coming down hard this year on predicted grades. It’s about school policy rather than the individual child. I’ve seen this issue come up on a number of posts recently. I wonder is this a new thing in reaction to universities holding a tougher line or something?

You don’t need A*AA predicted.
Most predicted grades are inaccurate -41% over predicted, 6.6 underpredicted.

Well done everyone's DCs who have managed to complete UCAT. Some very impressive scores. My DS sat his UCAT just before summer holidays and managed a good average score and band 2 in SJT. He did very little practice and in my opinion could have done more...He is happy though and has decided not to sit BMAT.

We are seeing Nottingham and Leicester next week.

But l saw on another thread an Oxford tutor saying that “we never make an offer where there isn’t the min predicted grades - ever”. Is that just Oxford l wonder? The minimum requirement seems to conflict with the normal offer range. Why don’t they just say “if you don’t have an A* in Chem or biology predicted then don’t apply”? All this guessing is ridiculous. I’ve seen this question asked numerous times on tsr and here. I’m still not sure!

For medicine at least, you can technically be predicted ABB and apply successfully. It’s unlikely but theoretically there is no predicted grade barrier.

That’s in reference to oxford ^

How is everyone getting on?

We are gearing up for a few weekends of open days - will be visiting Sheffield, Birmingham, Nottingham, maybe Leicester, maybe Edinburgh.

From the research dd and I have done (separately - she has done it and I am trying to be her double check!) she should qualify for interview at most of the above based on what we have seen from previous years. Edinburgh not sure as it also marks the Personal Statement so that is a bit of an unknown.

I am worried I am missing stuff though so glad we are going to the open days. Any thoughts anyone? She doesn’t want the expense of London and doesn’t want to do the BMAT because she thinks she has enough courses she is interested in and (should) be able to qualify for interview at with her academics and UCAT.

It feels like we are onto the next hurdle, trying to choose where to apply based on her strengths and where she is likely to get interviews!

DS1 sat the BMAT in August and said it was hard. He was disappointed by his performance - ran out of time in Sections 1 and 2 plus quite a few questions that he didn't know the answers to so had to guess. Felt quite sorry for him as he said spending a whole summer preparing for it was not worthwhile! Seems like everyone found it hard so hopefully the profile of candidates will reflect the difficulty!

speedyhedgehog Sounds like you and DD are coping well with the hurdles! DS1 will probably apply to a mix of BMAT and UCAT unis, applying where he is most likely to be invited to interview. He sits his UCAT at the end of Sept so we will know all results before UCAS deadline.

What do people think of new Med schools like Kent Medway, Anglia Ruskin, Lincoln?

@242Mummy.DD went to the Kent medicine open day and loved the campus but hated how disorganised they were about the new course, that they hadn't recruited staff yet, the building wouldn't be ready and the staff couldn't answer the questions, so she won't be applying.

DD has one more open day on Saturday in Bristol, but unless things change she's settled on Oxford, Exeter, Southampton and Plymouth. With her UCAT, predictions and GCSEs she should qualify for interviews at the last 3, Oxford always will be a wildcard.

EightToSixer Thanks for sharing! KMMS sounds chaotic! The lack of buildings/facilities to show would be why they are offering 'virtual' open days, I suppose! Lots of potential applicants on studentroom waiting for information, open day confirmations etc. Will also avoid, methinks!

242mummy Sorry he was disappointed by the results but as you say maybe they will all find it difficult this year. There is still the UCAT! Good luck to him there!
Nothing helpful from me regarding the new courses, sorry. Dd not really wanting to look more than a couple of hours away (exception Edinburgh).

speedyhedgehog BMAT results released on 20th Sept so I am keeping my fingers crossed for a miracle. Then UCAT on 30th Sept. Gosh, it's relentless, isn't it!?

Oh I mis read - thought he had had his results like the UCAT ones! Well that's great there is still hope then 🤞

242mummy the Lincoln course is essentially the same as the Nottingham one. The students are Nottingham students and they receive the Nottingham degree. The staff were helpful, friendly and knowledgeable but then they have been running the course for years just not in Lincoln. We got the impression they already have established relationships with local hospitals - current Notts med students do rotations in Lincoln (we met one). The facilities are new and the purpose built med school will be ready for the first intakes clinical years. The campus is lovely and easy walking distance to the city and accomodation. The main difference (apart from location) seemed to be that Notts do dissection and Lincoln will do prosection. The Notts team already teach prosection at Derby with their grad students so that's well established too.

Hi everyone

I had 16 sept for provisional ucat position and was hoping that would be the yay/nay moment for us. Is it best to wait for 30 sept?!

We chose 30th Sept as it's a Monday and I thought DS1 might be rested and ready for UCAT after the weekend (rather than midweek in the throes of schoolwork and tests). Probably won't have any significant bearing! In any case, we will have BMAT and UCAT results in hand before submitting his UCAS form which is the important thing.

I wasnt very clear I think sorry - dd has taken the ucat and has her result but I think they publish the national results mid sept to give people an idea of where they sit. If students still taking the test at end of sept prob best to wait til then! As her GCSEs are not straight 8/9s she feels she needs a v good ucat to even bother applying so I think she’s needs to know her position.

Newgirls - check Bristol criteria, I think they only use UCAT to interview. Also, see what UCAT scores were called for interviews last year. You don't need all A stars / A in GCSE for some universities.

Newgirls Ah I understand now - you meant the mid-Sept UCAT distribution stats! Yes - I'm waiting for that too as it'd be a good indication of the competition. From what I understand, it's usually a little lower by the end of the UCAT tests but not by much.

Bristol - I have it written down somewhere that the lowest score called to interview was 2660 for 2018 entry (stats released by the uni). Not sure about last year.

DD went to Bristol open day yesterday. They don't oxblood a ucat cut off but said they take the top 1000 UCAT scores from applicants and interview those. DD would probably qualify for interview on that basis but decided not to apply at the open day because although she loved the course, she didn't like the city.

Also went to Bristol and were quite impressed with how relatively relaxed it was. No emphasis on seemingly having to have volunteered forever! Will be on DDs shortlist, although she thinks it’s a bit too close to home for her liking. Off to Nottingham next weekend and then we’re done. I am glad as I have Open Day fatigue!

Thanks 🙏 if they tend to go down a little end sept, then mid sept sounds a fair indication. All new to me!