Too early for a Medicine 2027 thread?

[SuperSue77]

Just wondered if there was any interest in a medicine 2027 thread for those of us with YP going into year 12 who plan to apply for medicine? I've seen one or two lurking previously and will try to tag if I can find their user names. Just conscious that I am always posting on the 2026 thread, yet DD is a year behind them and so my comments aren't so relevant.

Please come and join me here if you are interested.

Sorry, link didn't work for some reason: https://www.medschools.ac.uk/for-students/applying-to-medical-school/entry-requirements/?course_type=standard-entry-medicine

Thanks. I do revise every year. And entry figures are from the Admissions teams so I use their official numbers.

The spreadsheet is for my students, who don't take anything but A levels, so if anyone does other things they'll need to research themselves !

Feeling a bit flat here this morning. DD’s English Lang came back and has not changed. It’s a relief it hasn’t gone down, as we started scaring ourselves that that could happen, but I think it pretty much rules out Nottingham and Leicester. We’re booked to go and see Nottingham in a fortnight (I booked a non-refundable hotel and bought her railcard!) I just hope she doesn’t fall in love with it. She knows that your stats determine where you apply, not your heart, but it still feels like a blow.

@QueenMabby it's a long road if don't want to be a doctor. They'll have to do at least 2 years on wards, v likely more, not including at Uni. If want to do research why study medicine ?

@mumsneedwine- partially because she thinks she wants to be a pathologist and the options are wider if you go into that via the medicine route rather than the clinical scientist route. Also, she may want to be a doctor - she’s just not decided yet!

Hi
We didn't do any univ tour or open day, just went to local one for inspiration .
So for Nottingham we did campus visits which you can book (some other univs have that also) we did that also for Bristol . This was all after we found out his UCAT results and we shortlist univs. The ones we could not get campus visit we booked virtual open day and looked at youtube as it filled with videos.

Thanks for starting this thread. DS would be applying next year for 2027, he's starting Yr 12 tomorrow. He's done work experience: a week at the GP and one week at our local hospital.

Radiology is possible too I suppose?

DS did some work experience at the start of Y11 at the pathology department at Cambridge University. He mainly plated agar and obnserved/helped with PCR. It's really difficult finding work experience at the university or at our local hospitals, but sounds like we need to keep trying.

@mumsneedwine and all, DS has ADHD and ASD, and got a GCSE grade of 8 in Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, 5 in Geography and 4 in Drama and Spanish. His English Language grade was 3 but he passed a Functional Skills English Level 2 exam, which I understand is equivalent to a GCSE grade of 4. He's starting A-levels in Maths, Biology and Chemistry.

Looking at your list, only 4 universities would be open to him (Brunel, Plymouth, QUB and QMUL). Is medicine a complete no-go for DS? Are his chances applying to international universities better?

@SuperSue77 if her VR is good and has band 1 Notts still possible with a couple of dropped GCSE points.

Thanks @mumsneedwine but unfortunately she is down 6 pts in total, as her others are 9999888. I had a pipe dream that her language would be remarked at her predicted grade of 8 and one or two of her 8s which were all close to the 9 boundary might have gone up too (not actually sent them for a remark but with teachers to assess) which might have brought us close enough.
I suspect VR will be her weakest section too!

I am clueless but what’s VR? Is it part of the UCAT?

Verbal Reasoning. Notts give it double points.

Ah. I didn’t know that. Is Notts a particularly good uni for medicine? I feel so behind on the knowledge stakes! We have no doctors in the family.

SuperSue77 I am sorry to hear about the remark news. Some exam boards are super mean. I think it is still worth to visit Notthingham. We can only shortlist unis next year after we know the UCAT scores. We have sent my DDs English litreture report script to my DD's English teacher and asked her opinion on remark. She got a 7 and needs 2 marks to an 8 but we are worried that they downmark her so might not go ahead.
I am curious about your views on Notthingham so please share your experience here after the open day visit. We have booked ours in October but might reschedule it for next summer.

@QueenMabby I don’t think any med school is better than any other in terms of producing doctors. All are overseen by the GMC and you either pass and are a doctor or not. There are loads of student surveys as to which students find particular med schools better or more supportive, but the impression I get from what I read it that most students love the med school they are at and if they pass their exams they emerge as qualified doctors and have equal status in finding their foundation years positions (they do it by randomly allocating a number to each person which determines who gets their first choice I believe).

I don’t think Nottingham rates high up in the UK med school ranks, I think students tend to aspire to Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL, KCL and Bristol, but having looked at those, I don’t think they would suit my DD, as whilst she is bright, she is not super academic. I heard that in Cambridge they have to write an essay a week - I told my DD that and she crossed it firmly off her list! But from what you have said about your DD I think it would be a med school she would thrive in.

Nottingham appeals to my DD for a number of reasons: it was my first choice uni that I didn’t make the grades for, so I think she would like to go to show them! (I did maths, not medicine and ended up at my insurance which was Manchester). Also, the catered halls are attractive to her! The campus looks beautiful and it is a Russell uni, and as much as I tell her it doesn’t matter for medicine, most of her friends are not doing medicine and so don’t understand that, so she wants them to think she is going to a top uni. These are all the wrong reasons I know, but I still have a love affair with Nottingham myself and so that’s the appeal to us!

@Peachy80 I hope your DD’s remark is more successful if it is summited. I will report back on UEA after this coming weekend and on Nottingham the week after.

I still feel BSMS would be a great fit for my DD and only an hour’s drive for us too. The sunniest campus in the UK apparently! They have a ‘Campus Meet & Greet’ in March next year so hoping to go along to that. And they only want grade 6 GCSE in maths and English Lang!

My DD went to Notts. Loved it. It has a low student satisfaction score because they made some admin errors 6 years ago after which they made many changes for the better.

Thanks for that long reply @SuperSue77. My best friend went to Nottingham way back when and I visited her regularly. It’s a lovely campus. Definitely one to add to the list! Dd definitely looking at Oxbridge so will need to compare the two courses - not sure she’d like an essay a week either! We have Warwick booked for next month (albeit registered for biochemistry as she wasn’t thinking about medicine when we booked it). Not sure if it’ll be on her list but we’re Midlands based so we use it more as a “this is what a uni looks like” trip. We did the same with ds.

Morning @mumsneedwine and all.

Any thoughts on chances for DS to get into medicine given his GCSE 4 equivalent grade in English? Is it even worth considering?

There are of course other possibilities for DS in the biological sciences.

Hi. My son wants to study dentistry. He’s in Yr 13 but hasn’t done that well in Ucat (1860 band 3) so will likely reapply. @mumsneedwine-are you able to share the dentistry spreadsheet as the medics one looks fantastic🤞

Hull York, Brunel are his only options. And Hull score GCSEs so others would all need to be 9 and have a fab UCAT. Can he resit it this November ?

DM an email to send it too. It's not been updated for this year (I've had no dentists). But it's still valid for basic information.

@mumsneedwine are you familiar with how the attainment 8 is calculated? I asked in another group but no one knew for sure.

I believe you count the English lit score if higher than language and that you can double that score if they took both Englishes. But in order to do this, do you need to include English lang somewhere within the overall score? She got an 8 in lit and 6 in lang, 9 in maths and overall 99998888776

So I think it is
9 x 2 (maths)
8 x 2 (English lit)
999 (science)
888 (other)

And the 6 for English lang isn’t included in the score, but the fact that she passed it allows her to double the English lit score?

Is this right?

Thanks @mumsneedwine !

DS appears to have a disorder of written expression and I don’t think will be able to get a higher grade with English in a November re-sit. He was 17 marks off Grade 4 in the English Language GCSE, and had dropped English Literature because of his difficulty/inability/block/loathing for writing anything longer than a couple of sentences, especially if not science related.

He had a weekly 1-1 English tutor for the whole of Y11, ADHD/ASD weekly psych support, ADHD meds, hypnotherapy, extra time and computer use for exams plus numerous talks with us so he understands the importance of getting a good grade in English. I’m restarting a previously unsuccessful search for an educational psychologist who might be able to help DS.

I don’t think he’ll be thrilled or motivated to re-take it, but it’s certainly something to seriously consider as his GCSE result is so limiting.

SuperSue77 I think English is counted twice if both English lit and English lang are set. I might be wrong

Thanks. What is not clear though is whether both have to be included in the score, that’s the bit that isn’t clear to me.