Medicine 2026 part 2

[mumsneedwine]

Thought I'd start another one.

Thankyou @Thefatbutteredpig - very much appreciating the reassurance!!

Just received interview invite from Manchester. UCAT 2310

Waiting to hear from Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds

An avalanche of interviews on our thread! Well done to all!

It looks like the Manchester cut-off is around 2060 for non-contextual. We're sad for one of our DD school friends; he was rejected last week with 2050 B2 - so close :(.

DD is actually the only one with a Medicine interview so far (out of three candidates). The other two were rejected by Manchester, Cambridge, and I believe NCL. Being such a small group they set up a WhatsApp to share resources and news. Interestingly enough they all applied to different med schools, there is literally no overlap between them.

Leeds advised they will be out end of Nov so should see some soon by close tomorrow I guess

I see Notts interviews are trickling out too - internationals first

Nottingham received today. Home applicant. 2470 UCAT, 3 A * predicted

Congrats @France8857 that's a fantastic UCAT!

It looks like Sheffield has started to send invitations to international applicants. Fingers crossed for all our YPs who applied there!

Thank you! Sheffield is one of ours too. Hopefully January invites.🤞🤞

Congratulations. Fabulous Ucat score !!

Thanks @Vista123 at DD's sixth form info evening the Head of Sixth form implied they are open to optiministic predicted grades if students need them for applications (I doubt they'd agree to unreasonable ones, but I've heard that some schools won't predict above an A even for the best students!) so with DD's commitment and work ethic I think 3 x A* could be possible. And as you say, Southampton will depend very much on the UCAT!

Thanks for the suggestions @Thefatbutteredpig but those two have been ruled out for being too far north! We're from down south and she doesn't want to be too far from home. I think Keele is the furthest she feels happy with.

@SuperSue77 at my DD's school there is a rule: you can only be predicted A* if you consistently achieve in year 12 mocks and tests what they call a medium A or a high A (we have 3 bands for each grade for some reason: low-med-high). And they also look at GCSE performance - overall average and also the grade in that particular subject. They are very strict when it comes to predictions.

Having said that, the head of Physics is known to be stingy and unless you're a genius he won't predict A* :)

Just saw on reddit that Keele received over 2700 applications and competition is 16 / place. That's insane if true! 😮

Oh my goodness - what a lot of applications! It would be really interesting to hear how many people applied to each uni and how many they each interviewed and offered. Does this info get published anywhere? I think someone said that FOIs are submitted to them all and collated so that anyone can see that info, but not sure where that is (if it exists).

@France8857 wow great ucat, well done on the Notts interview.

Invites are coming out faster now, a couple of DDs peers have 3 out of their 4 already. @inae I saw that too about Keele, imagine having to trawl through 2700 personal statements!.

It would be interesting to see how the applications have been spread out this year as I am sure there are trends each year for different unis. Just hoping DD has picked the 'untrendy' ones 😂.

Still waiting for Leeds which I was hoping would be this week, so still time. Grateful for having one confirmed already though. I think when you spend a lot of time on social media med application pages/sites you get a skewed view of how competitive this is. We only see mostly interview offers rather than the alternative and it does give a sense that most applicants get 3 or 4 interviews, even though logically you know that it can't be so.

‘Optimistic predictions’ can come back to bite you on results day if offers are at the same level. Though, equally, it is unfair of schools not to predict A star if that is a realistic possibility when they are used for making offers.

Few universities adjust offers in accordance with predictions. Just a few high performing outliers. Generally it is just a fixed tarrif.

If a university offers are three A stars then it does no favours to pupils who are unlikely to get three A stars for schools to predict them. They will just be devastated on results day. If offers are less than that then it is unfair of universities to give weight to more A stars when schools have such variable prediction policies.

fascinating to see the various invites and you're right, the impact of social media with all these posts is quite significant... particularly in seeing posts from the young people (I'm assuming they are from them because they just sound different from parents!!).

I must say though, these posts or owners of these threads (I'm not talking here) need to be responsible and ask people to say specifically what their own scores are. Seeing a 2400B1 reject and then afterwards finding out that there were internationals, or didn't have sufficiently high predicted or GCSEs or whatever does not help the rumour mill.

No Uni needs 3 A star predictions for medicine. Except for Exeter there is no real benefit to having them.

I know it's hard but take most of social media with a hefty dose of cynicism. Info can be wrong, or not apply to your application. Until you are rejected you are still in your game.

V nice that interviews are coming out earlier this year. Finally back to pre Covid days.
Good luck !

No Uni needs 3 A star predictions for medicine. Except for Exeter there is no real benefit to having them.

I was using A star as an example. The problem with ‘optimistic predictions’ apply at all levels for all subjects.

The schools give optimistic predictions because the universities give inflated requirements to make themselves appear more desirable. Then come clearing they are scrambling about for students and massively drop the grades required. Post qualification application would make more sense.

I keep telling DD to not look at social media too much because there's such a lot of rubbish (e.g. not on this thread but I've seen posts on MN saying all kinds of ridiculous things about applying to uni, has to be said @mumsneedwine does a sterling job of talking sense on them all).

@JaninaDuszejko agreed on the post qualification application. Many countries do that and it seems fairer. I never understood the system based on predictions. Or, they could base offers on formal AS exams sat at the end of year 12 - which should be mandatory for all schools.

Oh, and I also think interviews shouldn't be used by med schools. Paid interview coaching & mock circuits make a big difference in interview performance. And even with free stuff, many kids are at an advantage (e.g. anyone who lives in London can attend 3-4 free MMI mocks). And interviews are a huge cost to med schools - not only money but also time, they are spending a few months every year on this and I'm sure it affects teaching provision in unis.

UCAT prep is a bit more accessible as you really only need a £30 subscription for a couple of months. UCAT and AS results & GCSE grades would be a fairer system IMHO.

As someone who has carried out numerous interviews (not med school), I disagree about not needing interviews.

I don’t think interviews are any less fair than exam results - yes some people can be coached for interview, but you can also have expensive tutoring for exams that won’t show up like schools do. But more importantly than that, especially given medical school is the gateway to becoming a doctor, there are always candidates that look great on paper but who turn out to be a very clear ‘no way’. Coaching might make a small difference in ranking of otherwise reasonable candidates but it is those definite ‘no’s that make the interview vital. There is nothing in exam results that shows ability to reflect on your behaviour, honesty/ethics, interpersonal skills, etc.

In terms of post-result applications, that is more like what happens in Scotland with Scottish students. Medical schools academic requirements are Highers and most people apply with these in hand. They still get conditional offers based on their S6 study but these are often relatively low eg two Bs despite taking three or four exams . It also means the Scottish students applying have already had an extra tier of selection before they apply - their Higher results.

I think actual exam results should be used for universities... and I say that as an academic working in a university. It's entirely bonkers trying to game the system.. from universities saying 'we take 3As when actually 3Bs is more usual', and 6th forms predicting way over the actual ability/skill. I know someone who managed to persuade their teachers to move a B to an A star and that opened up universities that they'd previously not considered. The parents thought they wouldn't achieve it - they didn't (not med).

I think the interviews is a good idea in principle. We all know of doctors and medical teams who lack people skills... what I find more difficult is the vast styles and approaches the different universities adopt. So if our children are so lucky to get 4 interviews, then there's the possibility of prepping 4 vastly different ways for the interviews. Online MMIs, inperson MMIs, asynchronous MMIs, panel interviews, picture round, role play blah blah blah. they are 17. I know when I was 17 I would not have been this articulate. I don't think our head prefects would have been this articulate either!

Some Unis don't look at predicted grades, even for medicine. Post application would be hard as A levels are out 2 weeks before Scottish students start. Would need v fast interviews !

I think there's nothing wrong in everyone taking time out post A levels. Call it what you want... working time, exploring time, reflecting time, chilling time, volunteering time...

I'm 'forrin'. We finished A levels in November and local university started in July/august. If people wanted to apply to UK/US universities that started in July/August, it's the same wait. If people wanted to apply to Oz, they'll wait a whole year. I worked, did my driving lessons etc. It was a good break.