Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

Surely brighton is better than border line? And last year Exeter went down to 74, albeit I don’t know if that was a tail of last minute extras, but surely, again, Exeter with three A stars is a sensible option? Cant remember Sheffield off top of my head.

so, well done her!

Exeter should be fine. And BSMS. Never certain but 7th centile usually good enough for Sheffield too.

congratulations @Peanuts79 !! hope you do have a celebration tonight!

Thank you!! That's reassuring - I'd written against Brighton 2000 reasonable and 2080 safe which made me doubt things.

Hi! My DD is loving the course - early patient contact as they start in GP practices the 2nd week of semester 1! She enjoys the lectures as some of them are quite the character! The med school were very supportive too when she was very poorly early on with sepsis 🤦🏼‍♀️ They do 3 (I think…..) summative assessments throughout the year which they have to pass then 2 exams at the end of semester 3.
She lived in Endcliffe which was great and now living in a gorgeous flat in Broomhill.
She loves Sheffield and it was her favourite from the very beginning (not a good idea to get a favourite!!) She had 4 interviews and 4 offers - her UCAT was 2900 B1 - without AR it was 2170. She got Astar A A in her A levels - her offer was AAA. If she had done an EPQ the offer would have been AAB when firming but she did AS level CS instead!
Happy to answer any more - if she’s around on that Saturday (no idea what her plans are at the moment) then I’m sure she would meet you for a coffee to chat

I’m new to mums net. I was visiting Liverpool university with my daughter on Saturday and a very lovely lady said to ask @mumsneedwine for a copy of her useful spreadsheet? Struggling where to apply, Daughter was disappointed with her 1890 UCAT, had all A* bar 1A in GCSE’s and is currently predicted AAB in Maths, Biology & Chemistry A level. Has put Cardiff down so far so needs to pick 3 more. Any suggestions?

@Mumof21981 My daughter has the same UCAt score and was wondering the same Has all 9/8s at GCSe and good predicted grades in Maths/Chem/Biol. I am so confused by how the medical schools choose and which ones will write off a low UCAT score. @mumsneedwine you seem to know everything about this process! It is so confusing.

Hi lovely humans. Pop me a Dm with an email (leave gaps so no scrambled) and I'll send spreadsheet over. Def options !

Was Exeter cut-off score 74 last year? This seems very low compared to previous years. My daughter loved the open day but worried her score - 76 - too risky.

Non contextual it was 84 (not certified by Exeter, but lowest we know of).

Hi all. I've just found this thread - annoyingly as DD's form has already had to go into the school for checking. Could someone please tell me what the scores are that you've all talked about e.g. 72/80, 65/90 ?? My DD is not a massively high achiever but has done well in general terms and lots of wex. Thank you 😊

@monkeytennismum depends on the Uni as each one scores differently. Where has she applied ?

@mumsneedwine thank you for responding. I appreciate they are different for each uni, I just don't understand what they represent. So in e.g. 72/80 - what does the 72 mean and what does the 80 mean? Thanks again 🙏

Oh and she's put Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster and Lincoln for her med choices, Bath non-med for 5th choice.

I agree 74 sounds low for Exeter, but that is what they said over the phone a couple of weeks ago ago

Some universities just decide who to interview based on their UCAT score - from your list eg Liverpool, Manchester etc. a small number have a more complex calculation where they attribute their own scoring scheme to the UCAT score, GCSEs, sometimes SJT - I think Lincoln do that (or did last year anyway). The selection method is explained on each website and you can also see it summarised in various places. Look up thread for sources.

@mumsneedwine, (or anyone else who might know!) I was hoping for a bit of advice..DS scored 2010 on his UCAT and would love to apply to Mcr.. he thinks his score is too low even tho Mcr Uni website says they predict that 1800-1900 will be a competitive enough score?
Was just wondering if you thought it was worth the risk??
TIA

@monkeytennismum We were looking at Lincoln, which uses the same scoring scheme as Nottingham (see details on their website) – GCSEs, plus UCAT (doubling VR points), and also points for the SJT band. The score is out of 82 – last year, it was out of 152, so your daughter's score needs to be scaled to make comparisons to previous years.

hi @monkeytennismum essentially, you should just look at those universities that you've put down and look at their specific entry requirements. Some of them have a more complex way of scoring your grades, using a combination of UCAT score, GCSEs, predicted A levels, contextual and lumping them altogether and coming up with this score. Not all universities do that. So, don't panic. I don't know what my kids score is out of 80 or whatever, but that's because we've applied to those universities that don't seem to do these calculations (at least, I hope not!!).

For example, my DC's GCSEs score were good, but when added up in the way Nottingham wants, was falling short - we then decided against applying there because there was no real point as he'd already lose out in one category, even if he more than makes up in the UCAT category. In the end, we did do the maths and he came out borderline for interviews, so our decision was the right one.

Good luck!

Has anyone tracked down confirmation of what Lincoln's method is this year, now that they have seperated from Nottingham - are they definitely using the same Notts scheme as last year? On their website I can see a passing reference "Interviews are offered to candidates based on scores as calculated by our selection process" but can't see anywhere that describes the process. Maybe I am just overlooking something obvious....

It’s not on their website as far as I can see, though I saw elsewhere (can’t remember where now!) it’s the same score scheme as Notts.

Why Lincoln can’t make it clear is a mystery - who knew applying to med school was such a complicated maze. As posters have mentioned up-thread, it’s tough on those applicants who don’t have someone to help with the endless internet trawls looking for scraps of info!

It was definitely the same as Noots last year, when they were still unified. I just wondered if they would break out in new directions this year. I guess their reliance on the info on the previous unified site might be why they are hopeless at explaining for themselves this year.

so, Monkeytennis, looks like your child will have / should have checked their score against the Notts scoring system.

Or post her GCSEs and UCAT score (including the separate sections) here and someone will doubtless be able to check.

Ah thankyou so much @Randomactofkindness this is fab info. And if your DD was up for a chat on the 18th then that would be amazing but completely understand if she has better things to do on her day off!

Thank you everyone, this has been really helpful. She did lots and lots of research, so I'm hoping she did the cross - checking 🤞🏻

So looking at this - a 2010 B1 on UCAT with 8/9s in GCSE and AAA predicted in chem, biology and maths isn't enough for either Sheffield or BSMS?! We're also looking at HYMS, Liverpool and Anglia Ruskin but thought we were being quite realistic in also considering Sheffield and BSMS...oh dear...

@Mumof21981 We're looking at Hull York medical school which I think your DD has all the points for - one of my DD's friends has gone this year and is absolutely loving it (Hull campus rather than leafier York Campus!) - it is a crazy-making process though isn't it?