Medicine 2025 entry - part 2

[HGC2]

Not sure how to link old thread, can anyone help me do this?

Onto UCAT and personal statements now - good luck everyone!

Congrats to your DD @W0tnow , she must be very excited! Just saw the scoring sheet for this year on their website and it has changed a lot! Achieved grades get an uplift compared to predicted and the offer is now Astar AA! But the rule of thumb of needing 3 Astar predictions if you’re non-WP still looks to be spot on.
@Midnight001 i think Exeter take the official UCAT deciles but apply the scores as if they are the bottom of the decile, rather than the top (which is how UCAT present them) But as they’ve changed all the scoring from last year, it’s not as useful to know, as you can’t calculate an Exeter score and then compare with the cut off last year. If it helps, DD would have got a score of 82 from the new scoring but no idea if that will be enough for an interview this cycle.

Apologies. Posted an old one

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recruitmentsites/documents/BMBSAdmissionssPolicy20255(V6).pdf

Ou need v good predicted and v good UCAT now.

@Sybill @mumsneedwine thanks both. Unfortunately it still seems a bit high for us. Guess it was just wishful thinking!

Just back from holiday and catching up - getting ready for what I anticipate to be a fraught few months. Thank you for the new thread @HGC2 and good luck to everyone’s DC who still have UCAT to tackle.

Wow to the Exeter table. Looks though having achieved grades is worth more than moving from 7th to 9th decile.

Hi All, after she was unable to sleep most of last night, DD took the UCAT today and sadly it’s bad news for us. She just went to pieces because of how difficult the AR section was and it was downhill from there. She scored 2450 overall and got Band 2 SJT.

This is the lowest she has ever got, lower than all of her Medify mocks she has ever done. Her best section was VR (670) and she did ok on DM and QR but AR was a disaster (540).

Her GCSEs are good but not amazing (all grade 7-9) and she is predicted AAA at A-Level but it still looks like it won’t be enough. Obviously she is defeated today and has given up hope of going to medical school as she doesn’t want to defer a year and try again next year - I honestly think UCAT just isn’t for her.

I'm trying to find some hope for her so if anyone has any glimmers it would be greatly appreciated. I’m looking at the 6-year gateway options as DD would be contextual for a few Universities, but her heart was set on Newcastle which is clearly unobtainable now (even though she qualifies for Partners).

Not really sure where to turn next tbh…..

In terms of medicine that is unfortunately low, but it is only a bit below the average score obtained by potential medicine candidates who are collectively some of the brightest students in the UK. So she is still up there amongst the best university candidates even if medicine isn’t her path.

@ElaineC77 sorry that your daughter feels defeated right now, it’s just so stressful for them isn’t it but I suppose it’s just apply to the right places and interview as well as she can, easy to say I know

I will DM you re 6y.

my dd interviewed at 3 of the 6y ones and got offers at all three with a similar ucat.

are you say on what grounds she qualifies for partners please?

all is not lost, I will help you

Oh bless her @ElaineC77 , it is a very tough process. There will be lots of very knowledgeable folks on here who will be able to help guide you and hopefully will come up with some options. Ones that spring to mind to consider are Sunderland, Keele, Aston and perhaps Brunel and UCLan? And maybe Bangor? But it sounds like the 6 year option could be a better option - good luck to you both

@ElaineC77 it looks like you already have help for the 6 year courses. But here if need anything more.
If she qualifies for partners she may v well qualify fit gateway courses too.

niceday23 if you’re on this thread - your DC got exactly the same UCAT score as my DD - we also had a few tears but are readjusting.

I met someone today who said his son got a Cambridge medicine offer with Ucat of 2620 (admittedly with excellent academics and 2 years ago) so clearly it’s not everything.

DD had already ruled out oxbridge but she did want Sheffield and maybe St Andrews so she is still gutted but also honestly she did the best she could (highest mock was 2900 but that was an outlier) and I don’t think it’s an unfair reflection of her ability.

Hoping for a Kent interview as we live in Kent and DD has a medical condition so I’d like her to be local and pragmatically it might mean she could live at home years 4 and 5 and commute to placements. Has anyone any experience of applying to Kent and how they look at the attainment 8 cut off? They seem to compare the applicant’s attainment 8 (DD has 83, best is 90 if you have straight 9s) against the school’s attainment 8 and look at them in some vague way relative to one another. Dd was at grammar school but not a super high achieving one and I think school attainment 8 was about 62. I have no idea if that’s competitive - we asked admissions guy and he just said her attainment 8 was ‘very good’ so ‘worth applying’ ..

we were considering exeter as DD can probably get up
to three A* predictions (mad, there is apparently negotiation between kids and staff around this, within reason, so why would any uni use predicted grades and then not even make the offer the same as the predicted grade requirement ! ) but the new formula means she’d get 82 or something if ucat bands are same as last year (she’d have just scraped 7th decile by look of it) and there’s no info on cut off - so I guess it’s just too risky.

Good luck everyone! it’s an epic process ..

My DD got 2750 today, hopeful that for most Scottish unis as a Scottish student that will be enough

Last time I looked St Andrews was around 2950 mark for RUK places.

You probably have safer options

Cambridge was still using the BMAT two years ago. I think they are only using the UCAT for this year ono.

Apply strategically you may get an interview or 2 and one is all it takes. After the interview stage I don't think the score will matter or at least not in my experience - I got 4 offers but my UCAT was 3000 Band 1. I definitely found with proper preparation the interviews are super manageable. The Band 2 is a positive because at least no Universities will instantly reject that!

Try and see how high you can get the predicted A levels and if GCSEs are decent that's good news.

If eligible for any University schemes definitely apply and see if you get onto them because they could really help. If contextual like you mention they may lower the cutoff just enough to be interviewed and at that point you have a great chance

I wouldn't rule out a gap year and redo Ucat if your daughter is motivated to study medicine. You say UCAT may not be for her and I can sympathise because it does feel impossible sometimes but with practice you can definitely get a better score next year. No matter what you choose I'm sure it will end up working out and there are plenty of other careers out there.

Thank you. She is contextual for Notts and as they double the score for VR and also score SJT B2 well, I was looking at the 6-yr there?

@ElaineC77 if are meets there definition of contextual then she should qualify

www.nottingham.ac.uk/studywithus/ugstudy/courses/UG/Medicine-with-a-Foundation-Year-Bachelor-of-Medical-Scs-w-Hons-U6UMEDCF.html

www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/applying/contextual-offers.aspx

@Thefatbutteredpig Kent look at your GCSEs against the rest of your school and contextualise - no one knows exactly how.
Keele value work experience but has become hideously popular because of that.

Yes she’s ruled out at Andrew’s but sad to do so .. hmm I guess the Cambridge thing may have been misleading then I did think it sounded odd!

I think she’s considering Lincoln (or notts if she can get the sports scholarship which actually I found out Dd has competed nationally in her sport so it’s worth a shot), UEA, Kent and either Liverpool or St George’s (although she really doesn’t want London), also maybe keele . Sunderland she says too far.

Bangor i know nothing about but she wouldn’t want to have to learn Welsh as she hates languages and I think that was part of the course.. ?

Plymouth it looked like she wouldn’t have made cut off.

hull York also looks like she wouldn’t have made cut off last year.

dundee possible but hardly any RUK places.

aston possible - she would have been on cut off last year.

anyone putting physiotherapy 5th choice? Is that possible? She was going for biomed but a lot of those places seemed to be in clearing anyway. And she’s rather to hands on than in the lab with nhs experience..

Sorry meant @islaoo

Its probs looking at Lincoln 6y too. You need to check she can apply for both but they use the same criteria as they are linked Med schools

@mumsneedwine
really knows her stuff re Notts / Lincs

@islaoo you don't need to learn Welsh 😊. And it's a lovely Uni with a fantastic course - not as crowded on wards as London Unis so more individual teaching I hear.

@Thefatbutteredpig 😂 my DD was at Notts but things change so fast. Lincoln is decoupling from Notts now so they might change their criteria next year. It's a lovely city

My son interviewed with Notts via athlete scheme - fast track straight to interview. Do Lincoln not offer it too?

UEA is lovely and the sjt is used as a virtual station. Uea are transparent, look at the foi on their website showing the ucat scores they interviewed.

Dundee have something like 15 RUK places so big gamble

Liverpool interview a rather large cohort and their interview to offer ration is therefore low.

Lancaster/Leeds/BSMS the old bmat unis might be worth a calculated punt.

Hi Isaloo
Thanks for post - I think DC will repeat UCAT next year. I just don't know what to think really, she is predicted A A A with an EPQ (probably A/A) . She is so disappointed ( a whole page of mocks all of which were high after the first two) and it looks like the UCAT cut offs results are getting higher and higher every year. She will apply this year anyway and see if she gets an offer but she is adamant that she does not want Aston, Cardiff, Keel or UAE. so not sure what that leaves her - not much I feel. I also looked at Exeter and truthfully I cant figure out their UCAT decile probably 7th or 6th to be conservative so score of either 82 or 78. How do we know what score was needed to interview?