Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 2

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Anyone out there with DC applying or reapplying for Medicine 2023, please join a friendly thread for mutual support and useful advice.

@TODAYISTHEDAYICLEAN sorry, I got that wrong, cut off last year 58.5, still think 59-59.5 this year.

@Monkey2001 thank you for the link you posted. It looks great. We will read these.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne thank you very much for your valuable feedback.
I do wonder if he will manage to study medicine from time to time since clearly he has to work very hard for many years. I will read your advice carefully. Because English is not my first language I might be struggling to explain myself clearly sometimes.

@Monkey2001 sgul site says interviews will be on site this time. I just noticed error in my last reply. Grades are all A not AAA. Unfortunately DS school is not doing any interview practice. He is watching YouTube videos and reading a lot to prepare himself. I am worried that he might be disadvantaged against other applicants. He is trying to practice during his volunteering in the hospital so hopefully real life situations will be helpful. We would appreciate tips to help with problem solving MMIs please

Sorry a newbie here and just realised that I can't edit my posts. Keep typing wrong grades. Just in case it confuses others giving university advice, grades are all A stars

@Monkey2001 Thanks, it is 59, so maybe a bit risky plus, I went to Leicester, so I don't think he is that keen! UCAT of 2930 SJT 3, so we have narrowed it down to Bristol and Newcastle, although this is not as certain as last year due to higher UCAT scores overall. Southampton is a good option, I think. Or do we risk 2 BMAT choices? Any help is appreciated. I know you must be so busy, and I appreciate your replies.

@TODAYISTHEDAYICLEAN Bristol and Newcastle will be fine with 2930. Unfortunately the calculator is not available for previous years, but 2930 is top 8% and last year the Bristol cut off (2870) was 20 above the 9th decile boundary, your DS is 50 above 9th decile boundary.

59 could well be OK for Leicester (I would say 60% chance, so more likely than not), but he has safer options. Is he interested in ARU, Aberdeen (if A level predictions good), Barts (if any extra UCAS points for AS, EPQ, music grades), Glasgow, Plymouth, QUB if lots of 9s at GSCE, Southampton? People do get offers from Sheffield and UEA with band 3, and he would be guaranteed interviews at both of those.

@kk10 mumsnet uses * to bold, so if you put 2 it does not show the stars, but bolds the text between them.

Looks like SGUL has dropped the asynchronous interview, but Imperial has not yet decided whether they are still doing them.

Somebody last year said that Discord was very helpful for interview practice - not something I know about as I think it is social media for young people, but he should look into it. I think you join other medicine applicants and practice questions with each other.

I think @Bimkom might be able to give some info re Discord.

What a great thread! So happy to have all the wonderful advice. We are panicking a little bit about Newcastle with the UCAT score of 2880 (so just on the 9th decile), SJT Band 1, 4 x A star predicted, 10 x 9s at GCSE. Does anybody have any words of wisdom please, considering that their cut off last year was 2850, so right on the 9th decile? What are the chances for an interview at Newcastle? Also, do they use UCAT scores at all if there is a tie-in situation post interviews?
many thanks in advance!!!

@Monkey2001 Thank you. UEA is looking good as the 3 rd choice even though places are much lower than last year; however, I expect it will be similar everywhere. Only BMAT 4th choice to go now!

This is a great thread! We have gone with Oxford, Exeter, Bristol, Southampton and Cardiff, fingers crossed she will get some interviews!

@Victoria1083 it is really hard to say whether 2880 is likely to be OK for Newcastle. Certainly a good chance of an interview, but there are a lot of safer options which would make more sense if he does not love Newcastle. If he loves it and the other 3 are safe, it is fine to have a risky one.

Hello @buckleten . I assume you know that people are constantly warning about the random nature of Cardiff shortlisting, loads of people with 27 points and strong UCAT rejected pre-interview last year, but as you have listed 5, I assume one of them is not medicine.

Cardiff still being soooo helpful.

Yes the Cardiff is non medicine and she doesn't want it anyway as she wants to take a gap year and reapply if things don't go to plan this year.. actually we liked Cardiff when we visited but read so much about how mysterious the selection process is and sadly discounted it for that reason!

Please advice how to prepare for problem solving style MMIs e.g world is coming to end. Which 5 people would you save and why etc

@KK10 my DS would say that the answer is less important than the thought processes you use and that you are natural delivering it. You can prepare for interviews, and the green interview book is useful to structure for that, but a big part of it is being able to think on your feet on the day. That way you won't be thrown if you get a question you haven't practiced for and the likelihood of that happening is very high.

@kk10 I think the packing a suitcase one is the same, why do you choose the things you chose.

Hi. Looking for any advice as we are originally Irish, live in a Crown Dependency and have not managed to visit many universities or travelled much in UK. We just visited Bristol, Exeter, Keele and Liverpool a few weeks ago for a look around. DD wasn’t too keen on Bristol city or Stoke on Trent but liked Keele campus. She loved Liverpool’s campus and accommodation but she ruled out Exeter (although it was lovely) as she didn’t fancy Truro for 2 years.

DD has 3030 UCAT, band 1 SJT, predicted both A* in bio and chem and A in Politics. GCSE 4 A stars and 5A, (double Science AA)

Thinking of applying to Liverpool and Manchester then debating Nottingham, Queens (Belfast) or Keele. She was originally quite keen on KCL but isn’t sure about living in London in terms of how much commuting between locations there might be and accommodation generally.

Would anyone have any advice for strategic applications and should she be going for some safer options? She really doesn’t want to end up with no offers and have to go through it all again next year. She has good work experience with placements in A&E and Pathology, over a year of Hospice volunteering at weekends and had a summer job in a Pharmaceuticals company.

Thanks for any advice - I only discovered this board late last week and I’ve been trying to wade through the old posts but now the deadline is fast approaching!!

Hi @Peachy2005 . Just a few intial thoughts. Liverpool and Manchester both look safe but be aware of Liverpool's low offer/interview ratio of about 25%. Monkey and mumsneedwine will have a better view of Keele but I guess, playing Devil's advocate, I would say why apply somewhere that hinges a lot on assessment of work experience when she has a high UCAT that can be leveraged elsewhere in a more objective way. But, if your DD loves it, that could be a very good reason and one riskier is fine. Have you scored her for Notts? You need the individual components of the UCAT for that. The SJT Band 1 will help a lot, as will the high UCAT though she will drop some points on her GCSEs. Just worth checking the scorer. The cut-off was around 129 last year. I don't know much about QUB but it scores 86% on GCSEs and 14% of UCAT and that really doesn't leverage her high UCAT. Also, many will have perfect GCSEs due to grade inflation in that year group. Maybe a bit risky.

Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle all v safe. Lots are safe with that score. Manchester should be ok if have scored it.

For Notts I'm assuming VR is not v low ! I'd agree that no need to risk Keele with such a high UCAT. UEA, Kent, Southampton all good choices.

@Victoria1083 I can't find anywhere what Newcastle do in a tiebreaker situation. DD was at the open day on Saturday and it wasn't mentioned then. I checked DS's notes from 2 years ago and it wasn't there either. I'm pretty sure it's not PS though as they only read that for red flags. Would highly doubt it was academic stats either as they are quite clear that they are only used in a threshold capacity.

the child’s heart is still set on Newcastle it seems… her first choice is UCL, so fingers crossed that BMAT goes well

Verbal reasoning 740
Decision making 690
Quantative reasoning 850
Abstract reasoning 750

We didn’t realise at all that Keele was considered risky. Are they looking for people who have taken a year off to get work experience?

We are new to the concept of scoring…the talk at her school about UCAS applications is later this week! She has now worked out that she has 136 for Nottingham and 38 for QUB.

Newcastle uses UCAT for tie breaks, see section 14 www.ncl.ac.uk/mediav8/fms/files/MBBS-admissions-policy-2023.pdf

@Peachy2005 have you worked out her score for QUB? There are 6 points for UCAT and 36 points for best 9 GCSEs so the 5 As lose 5 points, giving her 37/42. The cut off was 37 this year, but widely expected to increase as there are so many top grades around. QUB treats 8s as As, but cut off may well be 38, so not worth taking the risk unless she loves QUB. She should work out her Nottingham score, but it should be fine. As others have said Liverpool has a low offer to interview rate, so I would not choose it if I had a high UCAT, but if she loves it, them fair enough. Manchester fine.