Medicine 2026 entry - part 1

[rockstuckhardplace]

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

Manchester has a different way of teaching to most others - v PBL heavy. I personally love Liverpool.

UCAT is horrible. Only consulation is it’s horrible for everyone.

UCAT have updated their historical test statistics to reflect what they would have been without AR.

https://www.ucat.ac.uk/results/test-statistics/

This shows that a score of 2,000 this year would have been 7th decile last year.

DD has just graduated (this week!) from Liverpool so happy to answer any questions re medicine there or the city in general!

As DD has not yet done her first mock I have no idea if this is doable or not.

Don’t put too much store by her first mock. Most people seem to make a bit of a mess of that. (Though they also seem to reach a plateau quite quickly - hence not needing more than a few weeks revision)

good morning! Can I ask, what are these mocks people are talking about? Are these UCAT mocks? Where do you do them? Are they in medify?

@MyGreyBiscuit in Medify but also some on UCAT website. Also physicsandmathstutor.

Thank you @mumsneedwine !! When should we start doing mocks?! He’s been doing practice everyday and seems fairly confident in the quantitative reasoning. Maybe averaging 700+?

@MyGreyBiscuit maybe do one now. And then one a week until few weeks out and then ramp
it up. There is a limit to how many each site has, but good to practice the timings. But 700+ is v good.

Thanks @mumsneedwine we are about 4 weeks out so I think with school finishing on Friday, we will have to ramp it up. To be fair, he’s already awake and had breakkie so maybe he’ll get moving and get one done before lunch.

I feel quite sorry to be honest. His buddies not doing medicine are all off now, or working to save up money. Many of these are also 3A students, so it’s not a case of ability…but just more hoops to jump through.

another question - sorry so many! He has had a chronic illness since he was 4 - as a result he’s immunosuppressed (and on weekly chemo jabs and another jab). I don’t know how much to say or for his school to mention in the personal statement. I don’t want him to come across as ‘disabled’ in anyway (again, not an issue, but we’ve never had to apply for a blue badge whereas I know of others (through a social media platform) who have done) but he will require a fridge for his injections when he goes to university. I have spoken to the support office when at open days and they’ve all been very chilled and said of course, we’ll get a fridge etc no problem. So I’m not concerned about that side of things, just about the statement… I guess what I’d want is for the statement to reflect his resilience in getting such excellent grades and leadership roles at school…? He’s under the care of Great Ormond St and will transition to UCLH adolescents team.

@MyGreyBiscuit mist won’t even read his PS but vivid mention it as an example of why he’s interested in medicine. Can use at interviews to show resilience and also an understanding of how a patient feels. And there is a disability/illness (can’t recall it’s name) form that Unis have so make sure he completes those.

And make sure he gets out with his friends. UCAT should not raid over your life !

Brilliant thank you @mumsneedwine ! Forgot about the bit where he can mention his interest.

yes we are ensuring we are still doing fun things. Yesterday friends came round and he played some Wii and that sort of thing and we went out to the pub for a party with friends. Today he’ll be going to do his volunteering in the afternoon.

we go away for a week to the lakes but he will still bring his stuff along to practice. Fingers crossed.

@MyGreyBiscuit your DS sounds like he is on top of things UCAT wise, well done him. The mocks are on medify/medentry and just form part of the practice. I think they advise once you've familiarised and practiced timed and untimed to move on to mocks. They do advise a 'diagnostic mock' at the start to see where you are working from, which is the one my DD has been avoiding so far. She is doing individual subset questions and just plodding through them. She has 6 weeks left now so feel she will be ok timewise and don't want her to feel pressured just yet.

I agree your DS will have some solid insight to being the patient for him to draw on at interview.

Thanks @bluefineliner ! Ah, I recall my son talking about diagnostics…or a mock earlier on or maybe that was me asking him about it. I don’t remember much. With work and other child and menopause, I’m just about keeping it together! Lol!!

Yes he’s done the bits and bobs in individual sections…and I think he probably needs to spend a bit more time on the verbal reasoning. Good luck to us all! Have you got holidays planned?

@MyGreyBiscuit yes VR is going to be difficult for DD, too the passages are so long! Speed reading skills need to be sharpened.

We are away for a week abroad and get back one week before her exam. It is a very lazy week where she can chill out by the pool so she will have to be doing mock exams whilst there. Can't see it being a problem as she would be reading anyway so she accepts UCAT will have to take priority despite the holiday. There will still be lots of time for fun too though. It is hard coordinating annual leave for both parents, school holidays and now an exam 😂.

@bluefineliner have a great holiday! Where are you off to? We’ve booked a week in October half term. I need some time away! First time we are doing it since the kids started school!

For VR read the question first then scan read for matching key words in the passage.

@MyGreyBiscuit.Any chronic illnes should be mentioned in a UCAS reference under "Extenuating Circumstances" section where the referee (head of Sixth Form or anyone responsible for the UCAS applications at her school) can explain any health related situations that might have impacted or impacts her academic performance.

Might need to prompt school on that. But if it’s already been taken into consideration in exams it’s unlikely to carry much sway I’m afraid.

Thanks! I wasn’t looking for leniency. But more to contextualise his application. Ie I don’t think there are many who’ve been blue lighted to big London hospital and have weekly injections for example. Or weekly then monthly blood tests. And as we all know, most won’t read up or know specific diseases are beyond ‘oh asthma’ (I have it…).

the consideration for exams was because we were in a&e the weekend before exams started which resulted in not sleeping for 3/4 days. If that didn’t happen, the exams officer wouldn’t have known what he has. We’ve never had consideration taken into account previously.

@MyGreyBiscuit always worth mentioning. And he has great things to talk about at interview (but if a silver lining to the traumatic time you’ve all had ). Make sure whoever writes his reference is reminded as otherwise they might forget - I can’t always remember everyone’s history 😩

Thanks @mumsneedwine ! Yes I was thinking his current form teacher doesn’t know I don’t think. And I’m not sure how they will be writing the statements for the children but will remind them when we go back in September. He’s now off volunteering at the hospice. Will see him at dinner time.

Manchester has a different way of teaching to most others - v PBL heavy.

Manchester doesn't use PBL for new entrants to the 5-year programme. It has switched to team-based learning (TBL). I'm not sure to what extent their TBL resembles actual TBL: I've been told they miss out some key steps of formal TBL, but I don't know how reliable my source is. The graduate-entry programme still uses PBL.

You should contact the universities’ disabled student services quite early to discuss adaptations/support (including ‘fridge) - I am not sure how early but I have heard they can get booked up at the start of the year so you might want to enquire once applications are in as to when best to approach them.

He will also be assessed by occupational health to determine if his condition will impact his ability to train and work as a doctor and what adaptations may be needed for that (eg not working around infectious diseases).

Thanks @MiceandFrogs that was also a concern of mine…about whether they will decide he can or can’t train as a doctor. He’s had methotrexate for a year when he was 4-5. And then restarted it last year when he had the infection and his bloods weren’t stabilising. And he’s now on tocilizumab which has also worked very well. We have a meeting in September with the consultants to see whether they will be moving him off them, or reducing dosage. In between those periods, he was drug free, and functioning as one would expect, a regular child, teen.

Hi, I fear I am a late joiner to the group and have read everything on it since DD decided TODAY she wants to apply for medicine for 2026 entry. Zero UCAT prep but have just booked an end of Sept date.... She has had no idea what she wants to do and looked at everything but today did work experience watching surgery and says she has never felt more inspired in her life!!

This group and all the insight is incredible! Bizarrely I think DD probably has ticked a lot of the work experience boxes though she is keen to do more.

She's predicted 3 A stars in chemistry, biology and maths, also sat AS further maths this year. GCSEs 9998888877.

Not need to move away from our thinking Durham and Bath her favourite unis after open days and start with a clean sheet! Jeepers....