Medicine - 2024 Entry

[LaMereDuChat]

Just thought I'd start a thread for anyone else who feels like me... Dd has just announced that she'd really like to apply for medicine. It seems pretty much impossible to get into and I'm dreading the process as the odds are stacked against her - private schooled, grades a bit iffy as she's chosen a language as an A-Level and it's hard, though she loves it. Anyone want to join the pity party 😬?

Hi
Hoping you lovely people could give offer some advice. Ds sat his UCAT and scored 2840 band 1. His split was 650 vr, 710 dr, 800 qr and 680 ar. He was really keen on Newcastle and Nottingham but these look a bit risky and not sure if it is a good idea to include both? He was also looking at Southampton and Sheffield. He didn't like Manchester. Thanks

@BlueMum16 Nottingham has a beautiful campus. Sheffield is campus too. UEA but not north.

@randomrandomium have you calculated the score for Nottingham? I would say that ucat doesn’t look so risky at all but it depends on gcse results. Prob is quite risky for newcastle.

His GCSEs are good but I calculate his Nott score as 121

@BlueMum16 - Keele is one of the few unis that wants A*AA rather than just three As, hence being seen as harder to get into.

that Score doesn’t seem right for notts @randomrandomium. My dd got 133 with a lower ucat. But she did only drop one for GCSEs I think (or none).

@Randomactofkindness are you doubling his score for VR (so the total for UCAT is 120. He will get 60 out of 60 for SJ1 and then 16 for VR (8x2) then 10 for DR, 10 for QR and then 8 for AR so a total of 104. You then add in 8 GCSEs, (a 9 is 4 points, an 8 is 3 points etc) so if he has 8 GCSEs at 8 or 9, he's due at least another 24 points??

Sorry I had a typo, his sjt was band 2. His GCSEs were 9s

Hello - just a quick question if that is OK from a position of fairly little knowledge as yet - my DD has only just done her GCSEs so starting A levels in September, so would be looking at 2025 entry. She has long thought about doing Medicine but now seems absolutely adamant it is the only thing she wants to do. She was lucky enough to shadow doctors for 2 weeks this summer in a Neurology Hospital and obviously absolutely loved it. I am aware this won’t have given her a rounded view of her would be experiences but she is, generally, extremely keen.

My question is about GCSE requirements. She is not sure how she has done and i know we will know soon enough but i see here that she would need at least 7 7s. Is that correct? I think she should be fine but I was jsut wondering if this was a blanket requirement? IMperial doesnt seem to state any requirement for GCSEs at the moment for example. I am sure GCSEs matter as they can form part of the admissions score but where does the 7 7s come from and if she doesn’t achieve that, does that mean there is no hope for her? She would be willing to resit of course. She is extremely academic but had health issues during the exams and may have not done herself justice - although she may be just being too anxious. Thank you very much

@Randomactofkindness I don't think 121 will be high enough for Notts. It's really tricky without SJ1 as you lose 15 points straight away.

Thanks Africa, that was my fear. I need to tactfully suggest he looks at other options!

@Stranger3 it is not a blanket requirement. From what I remember Plymouth just needed 7 passes (4 and above), Bristol ask for a 7 in maths but only a 4 in English. If GCSE results are not as high then look on the chart posted above. Those with GCSE in the big column include it in the calculations along with other things like UCAT score. Avoid these if GCSEs are lower. Look at the other unis individually to see what their minimum requirements are.

Hopefully she will have done better than expected. Sometimes the school can include details of the health issues around GCSEs in a reference. To be safe though I would just avoid those which use GCSE score in their calculations.

@Unexpecteddrivinginstructor thank you thank you. I (and DD) have so much to learn still about the whole process, and of course hopefully she will have done better than expected but it’s great to hear there are options even if not.

@Stranger3 Which A levels is she planning to do? It is a busy few years with work experience, ucat/bmat next year and interviews. It is important she choses ones she can perform well in.

Hi,
I have a question about the 5th course , I wanted to understand that if we add the 5th course in UCAS is there any advantage? My nephew only wants medicine so he doesn't want to add the 5th and he would get a gap year if he cannot get in on the first try, but I saw somewhere that there may be courses in extra.

But if we add it, then can we still use the clearing? (how would it work?) I don't him to miss the first few important hours. These all hypothetical but I am trying to be ready for all the scenarios.

Dd didn't use the fifth option because she also planned to reapply. I know some like to fill it so they have an offer when all their friends do but for her it would be like admitting she might not get an offer. She also didn't have the headspace to think about what to put down. Happily she got offers so didn't need extra. I think though that you can add later so if she hadn't got any offers she could add a course in March and then reject it so she could use Extra.

For clearing he just needs to have rejected the fifth choice offer and have no other offers when finding a place through clearing, he can do that at any time up to when he looks for places in clearing.

Priorities now though are ucat, personal statement, interview prep (dd had two before Christmas) and of course sixth form study.

@Unexpecteddrivinginstructor she is planning to do Chemistry, Biology and English Literature - by far her favourite and best subjects. Problem is she is now particularly worried about how she did in Chemistry- i think she got particularly stressed out about it because she is also moving to a considerably more academic school for 6th form and she needs an 8+ there to do Chemistry (and Bio too) for A level. So this is the other thing - if she misses the Chemistry grade she will potentially need to decide between a less academic school where she can do Chemistry or, if her overall grades are good enough, going for the very academic school which is great at sending people to medical school - but without the Chemistry A level! (on the assumption they still admit her but ask her to choose a different subject). I understand Medicine Chemistry might be possible but considerably more complicated - although presumably she might find some other way to take the A level.
I have been ranting about this in a separate thread but given the Medicine angle specifically, should have started here!! Thank you so much for all your advice

Thanks, I understood .

Adding a comment so that I will get updates as want to refer back to this thread. DD only going into year 10 on Sept (but wanted to be Dr since she was 5) so will be 2027 intake if successful!

Same, DS going into Year 10 and he's been saying he wanted to be a doctor for a long time too. He already attends Med Soc so he's aware of UCAT, etc. The school organised psychometric testing for the students when they were in Year 9, DS said his came out 100% Medicine, 98% Economics. I know the focus for now is his GCSE, he'll be taking one subject in Year 10 and the rest in Year 11 but it's really enlightening reading these threads to see what lies ahead, although many things will probably have changed before then.

@Stranger3 she would be limiting her options if she doesn't do chemistry but there are quite a few universities who 'only' ask for Biology and another science which could mean maths or physics or even psychology for some of them. Worth doing some research even if only to make her feel more relaxed. Hopefully she will get the 8 anyway.

Hi @DTTop ! Good to meet a fellow parent of a yr 10 (come Sept) who wants to apply for med school. Don’t really want to crash this thread but equally wanted to reply to you. I’d not heard of Med Soc - is that medsocuk.org or something else - when you say “attends” it sounds like a club or association rather than an online platform.
My daughter has joined St John’s Ambulance Cadets but not had her training yet so not been on any events so far. We thought by it was a good mix of volunteering with a medical theme. Interesting that your son’s school did the psychometric testing - is that a private school or state? My daughter is at a state school, but it is a high performing one in an affluent area so I don’t think it will allow her to access any of the university schemes out there to encourage young people to apply. Think it has to be off her own back so we’re looking into every avenue to increase her chances.
These threads are a little worrying but I am
hoping we’ll soon have a Labour govt who will try to improve conditions for staff in the NHS but that could be wishful thinking…

If you have Med School wannabes in the UK then please feel free to join our friendly Parent group.
Please answer the questions and tick the boxes to join!
www.facebook.com/groups/ukmedschoolparents

thank you @Unexpecteddrivinginstructor - this is super helpful.I will do some research - if only just to reassure her as you say

If you end up being on a waiting list for medicine can you stay on that whilst at the same time accepting the fifth choice?