A level choices for medicine

[Kensingtonia]

My daughter is currently choosing A' levels. She hopes to study medicine. Her school - a super selective in the London area - is adament Russell Group universities will only accept math+chem+biology and not Physics as an alternative to maths. This is contrary to what the universities publish on their websites as their admission criteria (most state biology/chem only) and from other websites I was under the impression that the BMAT etc were gaining increasing importance in selecting applicants. My daughter greatly prefers Physics to maths and wants to do English, history or a language as her fourth AS. I have no reason to disbelieve the school as they send a number of girls on to do medicine; but wondered if anyone else had a different experience. i.e. accepted at a Russell Group uni in the last couple of year for medicine without Maths A' level. For financial reasons she would hope to stay in London and would probably be looking at Imperial or UCL as preferred choices.

[Kensingtonia]

Thank you all again for your comments. I met a newly qualified medic from a RG Uni yesterday (a relation of a colleague) and while he did maths several of his friends did not. He thought that AS maths was relevant to some work they had done (his non-maths friends had not known how to approach it at first) but not crucial. Having stalked other schools sixth form prospectuses I found one that suggested maths/biology/chemistry but the others don't seem to think maths is necessary or at least don't mention it as such.

[sugartongue]

Dsis went to a Russell group uni for medicine (in fact the uni for medicine) with A levels in Chemistry, Biology and French! I was always told that it was Chemistry that was the subject that mattered. Call the unis she would apply to and check!

[Myrtille]

Go on then....which uni is "the" uni for medicine?....lol

[gettingalifenow]

I was wondering that too myrtille. I'm guessing the answer will be Cambridge but I wouldnt fancy saying that in front of an Imperial or UCL student!!

[ellisbell]

Chemistry is certainly the most sought after A level by med schools but quite a few schools also like Biology, so taking both increases choice.

Something that is also important is consider is how they will demonstrate their commitment to medicine. Starting to volunteer now in a hospice or hospital will help their application. They don't have to shadow surgeons in London teaching hospitals.

[Myrtille]

The truth is there isn't a premier institution for medicine. There are so many factors to consider when rating a medical school that none of them top every requirement. It depends how you weight the different factors as to which you think is best. You then have to try and get throught the random selection process.

[mich54321]

You can get course recommendations direct from the link at this website
www.russellgroup.ac.uk/informed-choices.aspx . It tells you which courses are the best to take for your area of medicine. It does say that it is good to take a separate subject to science/maths to show a wider outlook and tells which courses work well together and the implications of not doing all 4 subjects.

[gettingalifenow]

Thanks for the link, mich, the medicine specification is very clear in that. I can't seem to copy in the paragraph but it is clear that options can be severely limited with choice that dont include Biology.... (Chemistry is a given)

[ErrolTheDragon]

OP - has your DD thought about what her 'fall back' would be if she didn't get a place at medical school (there are plenty of kids with excellent GCSEs from excellent schools who don't, for whatever reason). Would her preferred A level choices also support that subject at a good uni ?

Is doing AS maths a possibility for her? (I think maths will still be in the old two-part format). Quite a few of the girls at DD's (non-superselective) GS did 5 subjects to AS (and some to A2) if they included sciences and maths. (Obviously only the ones who could manage this without sacrificing grades!)

Anyway, as I think a PP has suggested - she should email the admissions tutors at two or three of the places she thinks she'd be likely to want to apply to and ask for specific guidance.

[Merclady]

As levels maths physics chem biol and Latin

A levels chem biol Latin


2015 offers to Edinburgh and queen Mary's

[hellsbells99]

Zombie thread!

[noblegiraffe]

Some fuckwit has been going around spamming ancient threads with adverts for their services. It's not just this one.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Arggh, sorry I didn't check the date.

[swingofthings]

As it goes with all threads, would be interesting to know what OP's DD ended up doing and where she is now!

DD is hoping to go to Med school and is taking Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths. FM being to support her default route if she doesn't get in Meds as I believe it doesn't count as an extra A level if you're already doing Maths. However, she has decided that if she doesn't get in, she will want to study Maths at Uni (her strongest subject from far) and to get into one of the tops, she would need FM.

In regards to Physics, I would really have liked to know how OP's DD did because of all the kids who did triple sciences for their GCSEs, the vast majority preferred Physics out of the three subjects. This lead to DD's best friend deciding to take it at A levels (instead of biology which she used to enjoy more). It's early days, but so far she says that she isn't enjoying it as much as she did for her GCSE.

[sunshine75]

History teacher here - and regularly have kids doing A-Level history who get into top med schools with it (usually with an A/A* grade alongside chemistry). In fact, their ability to argue and debate usually helps - as does studying 20th century British history and the formation of the NHS.