Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

@SuperSue77 we live in London and DD wants to see all the medical schools that are 2 hours away by train. She doesn't want to stay in London. Your DD has amazing GCSE results, congratulations. Thanks for the update on Southampton. I have joined the 2027 thread. Thanks for setting it up.

Open days after the October application deadline may not have much by way of medicine talks or tours. There will be something but it may be much more limited.

DD has done UCAT this morning, 2180 B2! She is very happy and we are hoping will mean she can apply to Newcastle but it might be borderline? Obvs need to get the deciles, but based on last years it would be 9th.

So far Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool and Lancaster are on the list, do these sound ok?

GCSEs 99999999998, predicted 3 A stars.

Phew....

Well done!!! I hope you’ve lined up some celebrations!!

@bluefineliner Amazing and big congrats to your daughter… she’s definitely got options now, a great feeling I’m sure!

@bluefineliner How did your DD find the test compared to her mocks?

Congratulations to your DD that's a solid score. My eldest DD is at Lancaster studying Natural Science and really likes it. It's a 5hr drive from where we are, but it's been fine.

Well done to your DD @bluefineliner that's a great score.

My DD's not taking it until 17 September so so has seen her friends go through it with mixed results. The takeaway though is that practice and preparation really does pay off.

@coffeegirl73 I'm sorry if this message comes too late but I'll answer since it might be helpful to others. My advice to those looking specifically for medical work experience opportunities is to start looking early, ideally year 11 if possible. We have no connections in healthcare, so it was a lot of research... which I helped her with. Also, DD's comprehensive state school offered very limited support for med school students, and very late in the process!

My DD did the virtual ones (BSMS, Observe GP) the summer before starting year 12. After that, she applied for volunteering gigs and medical work placements at one of our local NHS trusts. There aren't too many opportunities, especially for 16-year olds (DD is August-born). And most are restricted by post code. One of DD's friends also tried at local GPs but with no success.

DD was interviewed by our local NHS trust and was offered a weekly volunteering slot in a local outpatient clinic, but the whole process took over 6 months due to interviewing, background checks, induction days, and NHS backlog in processing applications (!) They require a min 6-month commitment but DD will continue volunteering pretty much until end of year 13 as this also counts towards her Gold DofE requirements (minimum 1 year volunteering).

Then she found an opportunity to do a 1-week medical work experience placement at another local NHS trust. This had minimum GCSE grade requirements and it was super helpful as she closely shadowed specialty doctors for a full week.

She also did a 1-week residential trip at Dorset hospital - this was organized by Hampshire council. For this one we had to pay about £800 (accommodation, meals, transport), but as my DD is doing Gold DofE, it also counts towards her residential Gold DofE requirement.

And in year 12 from Feb-July she took part in a weekly webinar series organized by KCL, which was incredibly helpful as they covered lots of medical topics and even UCAT and admission prep. If your DC is a state school student from a comprehensive / non-selective school, there are no contextual requirements. KCL organizes this annually.

Finally, she was selected to take part in Eton's course "Biology for Medicine" (see ESUPC) but this is for state schools pupils that are within commuting distance of Eton. It has minimum grade requirements (min 7) and teachers must recommend you. This was the only in-person summer school we found that didn't have contextual requirements.

PS. One of my friends pointed out the Dorset hospital residential stay might not 'count' towards medical work experience, as you have to pay for it. I don't know if that's true or not, but my DD found it extremely interesting and helpful. (and well organized!)

I believe there are a few organizations with similar offerings but they are more expensive than the Hampshire one. We would've done it anyway as DD needed to do a residential trip for Gold DofE, and it was either that, or a biology field trip she was looking at.

Speaking of paid stuff, I forgot to mention that DD also did a British Red Cross first aid course (£70 for a full day course) which she also found v helpful.

It's not about what you do, it's about reflecting on what you've learned from it. Doesn't need to be in a medical setting. Any long term volunteering is good - or a customer facing job.

But being able to talk about the role of a doctor, the NHS and the MDT is vital, which is why the BSMS MOOC is great.

@mumsneedwine agreed. My DD volunteered at her local girl guide unit as a helper for one year before she decided to apply to med school, and that was v helpful and probably would've given her sufficient stuff to reflect on? BSMS was fun too.

It's a shame it's so hard to get an NHS wex placement or volunteering role. I really do think it's invaluable as it gets them exposed to the hospital environment early and perhaps helps them decide whether they want to be a doctor or not.

Having said that, DD shocked me when she did her hospital wex placement, as she came home after the first day saying she absolutely loved it - her placement was in acute medicine, not really for the fainthearted. She enjoys her volunteering role as well, and it's mostly interacting with elderly patients who are recovering post op. I'm dreading the hospital environment myself, and have great appreciation for anyone who works in a hospital - it's such a tough job, and super-tough to get into uni, not to mention the residency years! Not really sure how my DD choose to apply to medicine, but I really hope she makes it. Biological sciences (her initial choice) sounded so much easier😁

PS. I'm ranting on here but really have no one to talk to about it, and think I'm more anxious than DD about UCAT - her test is booked next week.🙏

@inaeits a great career. My DD loves her job, although sometimes despairs at the NHS. Good luck for next week.

@MyGreyBiscuit thank you, well I had to go straight to work after so celebrating will have to wait but DD has enjoyed her afternoon of freedom from study today.

@PurryGrowls So DD did mainly medentry mocks and the UCAT C and D which were supposed to be the closest to the real thing, she actually did slightly worse in the real thing (2300 ish in UCAT mocks) but luckily came out ok still. She did better in VR than expected worse in DM (said it was harder than any she had done before) and really well in QR. She had heard from friends that the DM was particularly tricky. Bit of a lottery really and I think luck on the day. When is your DDs exam?

@notsoperfect33 DD is keen on Lancaster and we are going to their open day on 13th Sept so hoping that will be useful. It is only 1hr 20 mins from us, which is a draw for DD too as well as hopefully meeting entry requirements now.

@AlphaApple your DD has plenty of time now for more practice, my DD improved the most in the last week.

What advice on Liverpool? Although DD meets entry requirements it has a low interview to offer rate so would it be more of a risk because of that? She is quite keen on it but obviously want to make the most of her chances.

Hi good folk,
Hope we all have a good start to year 13! And to those of you who are still early in the cycle, hope your children have great starts to 6th form. DS is going in tomorrow to help with the newbies coming in.

I’m feeling slightly worried about the 4 choices. With the FOMO, I worry that we end up choosing the wrong places and end up in a not so good place (by that I mean no interviews or no offers).

so, I’m here consulting with you all.

on our long list, we having KMMS, St George’s, QMUL, Sheffield, BSMS, Southampton, Manchester, Liverpool.

we are in the south east. The NW schools will be the furthest, but we do have family.

ucat 2240 B2
A star A star A. EPQ A or A star
gcses 999887776 (English lang 7, science and maths 9987)

will these be ok? Too many aspirational? Someone said they thought St George’s and QM will be asking for A star AA and therefore will be risky?

i have @mumsneedwine ‘s amazing spreadsheet but I’m getting foggy eyes and abit of fatigue from all of this!

many thanks all. Also any other suggestions welcomed.

@MyGreyBiscuit all good choices. V different teaching styles amongst them so maybe short list be looking at that more closely.

@bluefineliner Liverpool do interview more so ratios lower. But that doesn't really matter as you just need to prove yourself in the interview ! It's a great city and course.

@MyGreyBiscuit I've PMed you about the London schools.

Hi
Is anyone else considering Nottingham?

DD wanted to look at it but I am struggling to find info on 2026 yet. As far as I can tell from their website they score GCSEs out of a max of 32 (4x8 for all 9s) and UCAT out of a max of 50 (max 10 points for top of each section scoring, double for VR). So on this basis DD would score 31 for GCSEs and 34 for UCAT so 65 in total out of 90.

Last years cut off figures are more like 130 so I have no idea what I am looking at!

Feeling she won't have enough for this but can't confirm, is it me?

Thanks for any help.

@bluefineliner did you add in the SJT score ?

We’re thinking of Notts too @MyGreyBiscuit My daughter hasn’t sat her ucat yet. I think she’ll get a lower score than yours but hopeful that a sjt band 1 will pull up her score to 34 too. And she has 31 for GCSEs.
I thought the cut off was 126 last year - but even so, looks like it’s not enough…

The old Notts score was out of 152 I believe

@mumsneedwine can I ask about kings and how they calculate the final score to invite to interview..? I’ve looked at your spreadsheet and in the notes there were things like ucat 5 points, sjt 2 etc? Many thanks.

also @PurryGrowls - no we aren’t considering Notts. Don’t think ds will get in on GCSEs even though he did well. Even with his ucat scoring full marks he’ll be at the lowest minimum based on last year’s cut off.

Yes I did and discovered that the scoring has changed this year. SJT this year is a max of 10 points, included in the total UCAT score of 50. Last year SJT was a max of 60 points on its own, added to the other parts of UCAT making a total of 120 for UCAT.

So just scaling that to this year makes DDs score way too low to apply. Luckily she isn't that bothered so we are browsing others as back ups now. Birmingham is also out as too risky and not contextual.