Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

Last years Aus UCAT scores. Deciles pretty similar.

I didn’t interpret PP as saying the deciles differ rather than you need higher deciles to get in in Australia. Though I note not all medical schools there use UCAT.

Oh I see. I agree then, those that do need it need top decile usually, but there are other options available. Not really relevant in here anyway as not many people can afford to go to Aus to study 😊.

No idea what's going to a good score this year ! I'm hoping the deciles might be lower. But I'm guessing because of the scores I've seen - v few over 2,000.

Where are you seeing these scores @mumsneedwine Do you mean on social media generally?

@PurryGrowls I'm part of several medicine applicant groups helping both WP and other students become doctors. I see several hundred scores every year (still only a handful of the total !).

@mumsneedwine Ah - interesting. As AR was considered one of the toughest sections in previous years you’d expect the average score to increase with its removal - or am I wrong on that? I’m very new to this, a few months ago I only had a very vague idea of what the UCAT actually was!

@PurryGrowls it was also the easiest prep for. So it's really hard to know what scores will do. Interims out mid Sept so not long to wait.

Just wanted to thank the Op for starting the thread and all the regular contributors. It has been so useful over the last few months. When DS first talked about studying medicine I had no idea what I didn’t know! The thread has definitely helped me support him. So thank you.

DS opted to sit the UCAT in the first half of the summer holidays which I was dead against but it worked out well for him. Just the university selection, interviews and A levels to go!

Good luck 🍀 to all those students sitting it in the coming days.

(I’ll go back to lurking and learning from the knowledge here!)

If you look at reddit UCAT thread there are lots of posted scores

There are. But anyone can post anything so I'm always wary. And people only tend to post if they've done well 😊

@mumsneedwine Are you seeing a difference in scores to last year then - if you had the same insights?

I had a look at the Australian scores to see if their interims would give a flavour for uk ones. Was surprised to see how different they were. On old money, 2022-2024, their 5th decile averaged 40 points higher, the 7th 70 points higher and the 9th a stonking 117 points higher. (Eg in 2024 their 9th was 3060 compared to our 2920)

curiously, at the top end that outperformance was almost all in AR. Quite why antipodeans are so good at AR is probably a complex sociological-educational issue 😀

Looking in “new money” ie taking out AR, those average outperformances become 33, 60 and 20 respectively. So still significant at the key 7th inflexion point. So I can understand the pp’s comment about what a competitive score looks like in Oz.

FWIW, their 5th decile 2025 interim score (all they released) is up 20 points on last year.

AR actually tended to score higher than the other sections in the last few years, which is why just multiplying by 75% slightly underrates this year’s scores (see the UCAT restatement tables) But the difference could easily be swamped by the sort of change in overall performance that one can often see year on year, so not really worth agonising about too much (although it is very tempting to do so while waiting ….)

If universities generally require higher UCAT scores then there may be more self-selection in who sits the test there

@PurryGrowls because of the new scores it's hard to compare. AR was always a weird section as some people got 900 and others 500. When other sections round be 650-700. It's whether you can see patterns quickly.

@MiceandFrogs there are just a lot less places vs applicants. The deciles are similar (40 points is nothing over 4 sections) as there is a range of people sitting it.

Interims will be out around 15/9. I'll post in here as soon as I can if others forget to look.

Of course, silly me. We had already seen that.

I too am grateful to have somewhere to discuss the intricate details of applying without overloading DD too much!

I understood AR was the 'easiest' to score highly on with a lot of practice, backed up by a couple of YP who took it last year, but based on a sample size of 2 😂.

We are having a chilled day before the big one tomorrow, I've even made an apple crumble to add to the 'we are not really taking UCAT tomorrow' vibe! DD is remarkably ok I think she is now just resigned to what will be will be.

One hurdle to jump, then another load to tackle after, it is definitely not an easy path for our YP to follow.

16000 people sat it in Australia this year

Good luck tomorrow. I found UCAT hideous and I wasn’t even taking it! I remember waiting for DC to come out and trying to compose a neutral expression on my face until I saw theirs, preparing myself to leap into consolling or congratulating. Whatever happens, it will be over and she doesn’t need to look at those mocks again!

@bluefineliner my Ds was convinced he had done badly, he didn’t even read the letter until he got home, he was so scared 😟

In fact he had done well, although not as well as in the mocks. He was very nervous the night before and couldn’t sleep, so I suspect that nerves and tiredness brought his score down.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow !

Has everyone finished with their open day visits? I'm off with DD to UEA next Saturday and Nottingham the Saturday after. ARU is beginning of October and then we're waiting for one at BSMS which doesn't appear to be until June next year!! DD is 2027 entry though, we do have time.

@SuperSue77 DD is also a 2027 entry. We are going to Southampton on the 14th and then Liverpool on the 20th. In October we are going to Notthingham and Exeter. We are also thinking about going to Newcastle in November but we might leave it for next summer.

Hi @Peachy80 exciting to hear about your DD's visits. We went to Southampton in June after GCSEs had finished. DD liked it, and so did I - they have building works ongoing on campus and they will be opening a new medical building for September 2027!

That's quite a spread geographically! We are southeast based and DD doesn't want to go too far - Nottingham is the furthest north we are planning to visit - but of course we may need to rethink once UCAT results are known. Nottingham might be off the cards too as top relevant GCSEs are 99998886. If only they accepted English Lit in place of Lang it would be 99998888. The English language is currently being remarked so we're hoping it will go up to a 7, but that would still mean she is down 5 pts on GCSEs.

We considered Exeter but it is the start of DD's half term and we are contemplating a half-term trip to Germany, so it might clash.

I have started a thread for 2027 applicants if you wanted to join:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/5402235-too-early-for-a-medicine-2027-thread

Only me and the mum of a 2nd year medic so far!