Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

Starting a new thread for parents of prospective medical students looking to start in 2026.

It is a bit of a grind working through Medify but worth it and both my DC had friends whose practice scores improved a lot towards the end of their prep. Also, some had not been doing brilliantly right up to the end in the prep and they did well on the day. It's a bit like building up for a marathon and trying to sit when you are peaking. Specifically for verbal reasoning, DC got a short term subscription for Medentry just before the end as that was a good boost. Is this still relevant @mumsneedwine?

Purely anecdotal but the DC I know/know of who took a gap year, either due to missing grades or not getting an offer, did better in UCAT second time round.

My DD got a very high UCAT score last summer (2025 cohort, so due to start this autumn). (She was a massive outlier at her large college and plenty of the others with a range of UCAT scores have ended up with good offers too.) She sat it in early August because we were going on holiday afterwards. If she hadn't felt ready she would have shifted it to September though, and I wonder if that skews the scores - people only do it if they feel they are at their peak in August, and the September scores include those who feel ready and those who don't. I think doing it when you feel ready (or as ready as you can) is the most important thing.
Wishing them all lots of luck.

Thank you for all the encouraging stories! Just wondering…because this year ‘only’ has the three sections without abstract reasoning, do you think the grades will go up and accordingly the cut off grades? I didn’t think of this until I spoke to a friend whose child was heading to med school a couple of years ago but missed it by a grade. She said ‘oh it’ll be easier now…’ I guess she said that because it would appear that you’d only spend time on 3 sections rather than 4.

It will be exactly the same - grades won't change. UCAT scores will still be split into deciles. Might be slightly easier as fewer applying after doctor strikes and knowledge that pay and conditions are not that great anymore.

And it's definitely an exam that you need to peak for. Performance starts to go down once you start over thinking things. Good luck ! It's horrible.

Great thanks. I guess she was thinking and I kinda agree that if one has 100h of revision time split across 4 sections, one could spend 25h x4. But now that it’s 3 sections, you have 100/3 so 34h per section spent to revise. Which might mean the students could potentially do better since they’ve got nearly 10h more
revision time per section.

Scores this year will likely be higher than 3/4 of last year. But doesn't really matter as it's all about how you do against others. It's going to be a bit if a guessing game for cut offs (but so is every year).

Hope all of you are doing well. My DD has started UCAT prep in July, mostly on Medentry but 2 weeks ago we added Medify and she's now using both. She is not very confident yet as mock scores are all over the place but progress is being made each week. No UCAT tutoring. The test is booked for the 7th of September. She's decided to drop 4th A-level (Physics) and now has a list of unis she's looking at more closely - thanks @mumsneedwine for your list!

UCL
Bristol
Leeds
Exeter
Southampton
Newcastle
KCL
Sheffield
BSMS

A couple of questions: are these unis all fine IF she gets a high UCAT? Any other suggestions/alternatives? Also, she has no idea what to put down as 5th choice. Is it advisable to choose a uni from the same list as above? How do people choose the 5th choice, should it be a safer choice (e.g. Birmingham Biotech) or rather an aspirational choice (e.g. Imperial Biotech).

Thanks.

PS. Her details:

• A-level predictions: Biology, Chemistry, Maths - all 3 A*s
• relevant GCSEs: 9 Biology, 9 Chemistry, 9 Physics, 8 Maths, and 6 English Language. (Rest of GCSE grades: 8865 and A FSMQ additional Maths)
• 2 years of volunteering experience (1 year local guide unit helper + 1 year in an NHS outpatient clinic)
• 2 weeks of medical work experience in 2 NHS hospitals (1 week local hospital + 1 week residential trip for her Gold DofE)
• 1 week selective summer school "Biology for Medicine"
• comprehensive state school with results higher than national average
• no contextual factors

Please check the 6 in Eng Lang meets the criteria - for list it will but some need 7. Not near a computer to check (think Sheffield might ?).
All should be good if get high UCAT, with the first 2 needing an insanely high one. Just check all the criteria v carefully.
5th doesn't really matter. Would they take it or reapply ? If want to be a doctor then a gap year is much easier than graduate medicine.

Scrap that. 6 is fine. Things change !

Thanks, I only know of Edinburgh asking for 7 in Eng Lang.

My concern is GCSE scoring unis...

Re: the 5th choice, she isn't sure yet. I guess it would be good to hold a good offer in case of no medicine offers... that way she would have the option of no gap year and going into research (or applying to graduate medicine later).

DD’s uCAT booked early September. She has 4 days work experience in a GP and that’s going really well.
She’s looking at Newcastle and Sheffield as first choice, then probably Leeds and Hull/York (with preference for Hull campus). She’s going to choose BioMed as her 5th option.
Her predicted are 2 A star and 1 A. She hits four of the contextual requirements.
She’s also done a contextual outreach summer school at one of her uni choices. Hopefully it will be enough!

She doesn’t need to decide her fifth choice now. It is only the medical applications that needs to be in by mid October - her fifth choice can be added any time before end of January.

DD has started mini mocks as she has been putting it off but seems to be doing ok with QR, DM and SJT. VR is still a struggle and I think it will just be that way, so she is hoping the a good QR and DM will make up for it!

DD is fed up with it but we have less than 3 weeks to go now so it won't be long until she is done.

On the subject of it being 'easier' this year, some opinions are that it may be lower scoring because AR was easier to master than the others so most people tended to score really well at AR. Even UCAT state it was the most coachable part so I wonder if that might affect scores.

I just wish this was over and done with as no decisions or plans can be made until the results are known and sometimes I feel DD and I go around in circles discussing what ifs.

There is definitely a tendency to see how students have scored very highly on social media making it feel demoralising if getting more average scores whilst preparing. We are just being DDs support crew, trying to keep her motivation going for now 😂.

My DD is panicking a bit about UCAT as she wants a really high score to get into UCL (her aspirational choice) and is doubting herself. I keep telling her that's normal and that as long as she does lots of timed practice she will be fine come test day.

I'm also discussing with her various what if scenarios and keep telling her that any med school offer represents a high achievement, and that it's great that she's aspiring / working to get into UCL but that's mega competitive and let's take it step by step...

At the moment she is doing one full timed mock every morning, then lots of timed pratice for various sections, and some untimed practice as well. Percentages on Medify & Medentry are improving so that's good, but there is still some variability with some of the sections.

She's taking a few days off end off the bank holiday weekend and I hope those will help her mentally (although she's telling me she is thinking she should do mocks during those days... I do think it's a good idea to take a couple of days off completely, though)

It's a really good idea not to have a favourite before UCAT. Until you know where you'll likely get interviews it's best to try and have a short list instead. Easier said I know.

Hello. Can someone please offer some advice for my nephew who is interested in medicine with a foundation year for Sept 26.

BBC at A level. Chem, Bio and Maths Achieved.

9988888888 at gcse

ucat 1820 B2. Scored 620 on VR.

Looking at Notts , Hyms, Leeds and Bristol gateway 6y med courses. He meets the contextual criteria.

My two sat the ucat a few years ago so out of the loop now.

Would this ucat score work ? It looks like it could be too low for Bristol

Looks like he scores 48 for Notts gateway course

Any help gratefully received.

@Thefatbutteredpig I'd usually say it is quite a low UCAT but this year I think it's worth waiting until the interims come out next month as then we'll have a better idea of this years deciles. Bristol might not be the best choice and VR low for Notts, but his good GCSEs might make it better (not a bad score).
Lincoln worth a look, and Newcastle Partners if qualify (they accept BBB for 5 year course).

@Thefatbutteredpig sorry, just seen he's got BBC. Assume Bs in Bio and Chem ? Any chance of retaking one this year for Partners if has time ?

Hi. Hes got BBC

I thought the VR may be ok as its the foundation year course hes interested in.

Annoyingly, Lincoln have upped their 6y med to BBB whilst Notts have stayed with BBC

1820 is scoring around 2440 on the scales for last year with AR.

Hi DD got two weeks to go. Getting just over 2000. Is this enough? Any hints for improving the VR section. Doing well when doing individual sections but can’t seem to pull it all together when doing mock. Many thanks.

@Thefatbutteredpig I think his scores will be good enough for everywhere and close for Bristol. But it's hard to tell what deciles will look like so better informed in a few weeks. Foundation courses are open to so few candidates it does vary each year. He has a great chance !

@Sarah1235 for VR, read the question and answers first, then skim read the text to find key words that match. If it's a particularly long practice passage, guess, flag and move on. Answer as many as can as easier ones will come along. Hope that makes sense !

Thank you x

thank you! I looked at a UcAT calculator. 2000 this year might be enough to make it, not sure. It’s going to be a stressful 11 days!