Medicine 2026 Part 3

[MyGreyBiscuit]

Hi everyone, here's the new thread!

AQA bio here too - my daughter was still a bit queasy and felt she wasn’t at her best. Also hated the graph questions but thought the rest was ‘OK’ - though some unexpected things apparently. Normally her favourite bio paper so she was a bit disappointed. Onwards and upwards!!

We're OCR so ignore my comment about plants.

AQA Biology here, DD very happy with it. She was OK with Chem on Tuesday (also AQA). Her third subject is Geography and she has just one paper left to do on Monday.
The end is in sight!

For potential medical students this is just the beginning.
Written exams, osce's, membership, consultant exam, job application
Plus almost every patient is a potential exam.

Re: Maths Pearson paper 1. DD said it was fine, but she didn't seem as content as with her sciences papers. However, she did say that a lot of her friends were worried when they came out of the exam room. Apparently there is an online petition signed by more than 15000 people, to review that paper.

Five done, seven to go. Four of those five done this week and no major drama yet so I'm grateful. Four more next week and three the week after. DD expects paper 2s and 3s to be harder and I'm hoping she can keep her spirits and energy up. Bloody hard.

I do think our YP are aware of this, maybe not the difficulty as they are not at that point yet, but these are all very hard working, high achieving people who are facing one of the first of many very challenging exams of their career/profession.

I do not think it is unreasonable to be understanding of this and allow them to adjust to the stress levels without making them think they will not be good enough for medicine if they find A levels stressful.

Clearly as their parents we also feel the stress they have too, so maybe over worry about them. These YP are some of the most resilient of their cohort to be able to get to this point and despite these exams I am confident my DD will make an excellent Dr if she gets into med school.

Hear hear @bluefineliner !

Well said. A levels are tough as so many exams, on v different subjects, over a short period of time. If it wasn't stressful I'd be worried !!!

That maths paper was horrible !

I'm not a parent (though my niece is off to med school - unconditional offer - in September), but am a retired teacher and headteacher. I don't think the poster who said it was 'almost over' meant the whole shebang - they were just remarking on this particular phase.

A levels are absolutely brutal and for prospective medical students - who face more barriers to their desired degree course than most others - the prospect of failure can be devastating.

yes I think that's it - not at all belittling other students who are going through the same gruelling set of exams, but it just seems for these aspiring med/dent/vet med students, the limited number of spaces coupled with the many 'steps' along the way (getting fantastic GCSEs, then the predicted grades, UCAT scores, choosing schools to apply, getting interview offers, doing well in interviews, getting actual offers, and now getting the best grade for these 3 exams) is nigh on impossible.

I don't think any of our YP are under any illusions about how tough med school is going to be. But the end of this particular (and incredibly stressful) long stretch really is in sight. Getting to this stage has felt like an insurmountable challenge at times and there is the very real fear for many that they could still fall short at the final hurdle.