Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

@bluefineliner no profound words of wisdom but lots of empathy . It is frustrating when the calculation methods change, a sown loses even the sense of thresholds, although I suppose the ones that shroud the process in mystery are even more annoying 😀

I only saw the 77 score on TSR.

DN is looking at the year 6 course at Hyms.

With the ucat that your dc has - have you considered UEA?

if applying strategically, UEA is worth a look as the decision to offer a place is based on 50% ucat score and 50% interview.

My dd is there doing medicine. Its a beautiful campus, plentiful modern accommodation and early patient contact.

Seems crazy that even your daughter's excellent GCSEs and UCAT score might be deemed risky! I wonder if this will have the effect of putting off some students who might otherwise have applied – and lowering the threshold again.

I had no idea that applying to med school was like playing poker!

Hi all, my DD has just sat UCAT this morning and I'm happy and relieved, but she's slightly annoyed she didn't get over 2,250 as she wanted top 5%. She was getting over 2,250 consistently in Medify/Medentry in past couple of weeks. DM was harder than expected, VR as hard as expected, and QR as easy as expected. SJT - she thought it was hard but she got B1.

Stats below:

UCAT score: 2180 B1 (QR 880, DM 670, VR 630)

A level predictions: 3 A stars in Biology, Chemistry, and Maths (and A in Physics' but she will drop this - she just needs to inform the school this week).

GCSEs: 999888665 (relevant: Biology 9, Chemistry 9, Physics 9, Maths 8, Eng Lang 6)

super curricular/wex:
1 year volunteer in an NHS outpatient clinic
1 year volunteer local girl guides unit helper
5-day medical work experience placement local NHS hospital
5-day medicine residential NHS hospital
5-day selective summer school Biology for medicine at Eton
1-day British Red Cross first aid workshop
online learning: BSMS, Observe GP, Kings College medicine webinar series, Plymouth medicine workshops & e-mentoring
other: Gold DofE, Jack Petchey

Is this below a good list? Is the UCAT enough for UCL? Obviously we will wait for official deciles but we'd like to be prepared when they are out.

Short list: UCL (highly aspirational), Exeter, Sheffield, Southampton or BSMS

Others considering: Bristol (but their UCAT threshold was so high in past years so maybe not), QMUL, SGUL, HYMS

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. We do have the spreadsheet from @mumsneedwine but would be good to hear opinions.

Thanks!

PS. Forgot to add contextual info: non-contextual / comprehensive state school with attainment higher than natl averages.

Congratulations and well done! I hope you will be celebrating!

I have a question about the next step…choosing schools and the school report etc for the ucas application. do we get to see what the school writes? We’ve been ask to send in any extenuating circumstances so I’ve done that. Many thanks!

You can ask the school to see the reference but they might refuse.

In that case your child can make a FOI request to UCAS and get their whole file. But of course that will be after 15 October.

Personally Id request a meeting with the guidance teacher or whoever is doing the reference, to make sure they know that all the supporting info needs included. I’ve found that schools don’t always undertand the importance of this.

Thanks. I’ll see how it rolls and then ask. I don’t have much concerns in how they present my child but I don’t want them to reduce him to an illness but on the other hand also not to over egg it!

Sorry if this has already been discussed.
Does anyone know how Leeds weight their GCSE requirements for inviting to interview…we are thinking about this as one of the choices.
predicted AAA
ucat 2220 band 1
Gcse
3x 9’s- Bio, RE, History
5x8’s- Maths, English lit, sociology, d/t, chemistry
2x7’s - physics, economics
2x6’s - further maths, English language
Thanks

Hi,

I'm not sure if I am allowed to do this but I'm sure it will be removed if not. I found this strategic application document on TSR which is an absolute mine of information! It is collated by myUCAT.co.uk and a lot of effort has been put in to it for every medical school.

If it isn't accessible on here drop me a PM and I'll try and send.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vxhlJpv2HrHAW42h-7htcTE64LeY1RoC/view?pli=1

From what I have read UCAT will be fine for Leeds. They score 8 GCSEs which need to be 8/9s according to any information I have managed to find. Leeds are known to be opaque in their selection process. My DD is applying there (it is our nearest uni which is a nice coincidence) and she has a friend at school who is starting there this month. Their UCAT was 2940 and 8/9s in GCSE.

There's a link to it on the My UCAT page too, so it's freely available 🙂 It says the 2026 version will be available later this month:

https://learn.myucat.co.uk/strategic-applications

@RM26 😂seems I am little behind in my research abilities! Wonder if the 2026 version will be out in time to be useful to this year's applicants.

@bluefineliner Sorry, I didn't mean it to come across that way! I just meant don't worry about it not being allowed - it's fine! Thanks for sharing 🙂

Thanks for this @bluefineliner I hadn't spotted it yet despite endless trawls of the internet! A mine of info... like you say, hope the 2026 one comes out in time to be useful!

@bluefineliner I think he said he'll be publishing a new one in Sept. Let's hope it'll be in time for our applications!!! He seems to have built a huge following - was recently in Singapore doing a symposium on strategic applications!

I believe MedicHut have one updated for 2026.

https://medichut.com/strategic-applications/

But you do need to input your details to get a copy emailed to you. I did it last year - will do it again this year when I get a minute.

He's great. Gives really good info.

This link should work (info for 2026 strategic applications)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Au9uYNahrJzbBPa87D4HN-V_lI6fibds/view

Thanks for all the documents and links 🙂

Anyone considering Oxford or Cambridge might find this useful too. It's not medicine-specific, but does have a short medicine section. There's a description of every college too, which might help narrow them down.

https://www.uniadmissions.co.uk/the-big-book-of-oxbridge-applications/

@RedGingham did your DD manage to choose a couple of colleges, or is she thinking of making an open application?

@RM26 Thank you for the link to the Big Book, looks useful. Have forwarded it to my daughter. She has chosen 2 colleges after a weekend of online research but is wavering on her first option as one of the teachers with Oxbridge knowledge says it's one of the more popular colleges and it might be better to chose another. Still time to finalise colleges it seems, the school wanted an early idea to make sure applications are spread among different colleges.

Australian UCAT percentiles are out

That is interesting. So slightly higher scores proportionately?

Are these the finalised percentiles? I know the UCAT finalised ones tend to be a bit lower than the interim ones.

Finalised. But in Aus you need a 90 percentile at least and for some universities 96/97 percentile. In the UK the percentiles are much lower. So some perspective..