Medicine with these grades?

I'm just about to go into year 13 and so have been to a few university open days. Wanting to do medicine you're always told oh you need (insert crazy amount of A/A*s at GCSE). But with more research I've found this is mainly false however it does provide great advantage. So I wanted to see people's opinions on whether it would be wise for me to use all 4 of my choices avaliable for medicine.

GCSEs:
A -Biology
A -Graphic Design
Distiction and Merit -ICT
B -Chemistry
B -Physics
B -Core Science
B -English Language
B -Methods in Maths
B -Application in Maths
B -Spanish
B -Drama
C -English Lit
C -French
C -Citizenship

Unofficial Predicted Grades:
AABB -AS Level
A*AA -A Level

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

HopelessMedic

Do you mean at GCSE level or a level? You just have to do your research and applying smart and to your strengths.

Reply 2

The_queenb

Original post by HopelessMedic

Do you mean at GCSE level or a level? You just have to do your research and applying smart and to your strengths.

Sorry, at GCSE level I mean

Reply 3

HopelessMedic

Original post by The_queenb

Sorry, at GCSE level I mean

What are your grades? If don't have loads of A* at GCSE then avoid the uni's that place a heavy emphasis on GCSE's such as Oxford, Cardiff, Birmingham probably Cambridge as well. Focus on your UKCAT/BMAT and PS then apply to the uni's that look more at those parts of your application. Good Luck

EDIT: Now you've posted your grades also have a look at each uni's specific GCSE requirements in certain subjects like English, maths and science as sometimes they specify you need an A/A*

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

The_queenb

Original post by HopelessMedic

Okay thank you so much. I've been doing that so ive managed to narrow down to newcastle, cardiff, Leicester, hull york, leeds (taking into account preferences). Could you recommend any others? And tips for PS?

Reply 5

Mrs House

Original post by The_queenb

I think Cardiff are GCSE heavy.

Reply 6

HopelessMedic

Original post by The_queenb

You should definitely avoid Cardiff as they need 5/6 A* min to be competitive. I haven't started looking in depth yet so I'm not sure about the others, sorry. As for PS ive only done a few drafts so I'm no expert yet, but I found that it is better to write a long one with everything you have done on it and then cut down from there instead of worrying about the limit now cause then you might miss stuff out. Also after writing one draft leave it at least a day then come back, I did this and realised most of it was terrible :smile:

Feel free to message me if you want any advice and ill try to help as best I can

try bristol

Original post by HopelessMedic

Feel free to message me if you want any advice and ill try to help as best I can

Ohh okay haha, thats no problem. Okay yeah I'll do that, haha thank you, i will :smile:

Reply 9

Mutmit287

Original post by The_queenb

Your biggest disadvantage will be your Bs in maths, english and science, a lot of medical schools have it written that you require a certain number of A grades to be accepted. From the above I can tell you now to avoid applying to: Cardiff, Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham, Edinburgh, QUB, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, HYMS, Bristol, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Nottingham, Leicester, SGUL, Barts, Kings, Dundee, Keele, Manchester, Sheffield, Exeter, UEA and UCL.
For the above medical school you either dont meet the minimum requirements (which is the case for most of them) or you will not be able to gain an interview as your GCSEs are well below what has been deemed as competative in previous years.

Universities which will accept your GCSE grades are: BSMS (requires the BMAT), Glasgow (Requires very high UKCAT), Newcastle/Durham (requires very high UKCAT), Plymouth (requires good UKCAT scores in each subsection), Imperial (Requires very high BMAT) and Southmapton (Requires high UKCAT).
For the 6 medical schools above you meet their GCSE requirements and after that GCSEs are not considered any further in the selection process meaning that providing you meet other criteria to become a competative applicant you could have a chance at an interview.

I know I have ruled out a lot of medical schools above but the fact is that it would be a massively wasted application if you apply to them as you are highly likely to be rejected. its all about playing to your strengths, for you that means avoiding any medical schools that take GCSEs into account when assessing pre-interview because so many candidates will have higher GCSEs than you meaning an interview is very very unlikely. I will say that all the information above may not be 100% accurate so please do your own research, admissions policies change so often and my information may be outdated. If you would like to discuss any of this any further feel free to PM me.

EDIT: also have a look at whether you qualify for access schemes or foundation years due to your household income, family circumstances or school you went to :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 10

Mutmit287

Original post by okey

try bristol

OP will not meet the GCSE requirements.

Original post by Mrs House

I think Cardiff are GCSE heavy.

Original post by HopelessMedic

Feel free to message me if you want any advice and ill try to help as best I can

For the past 3 years you have needed a minimum of 8a* grades to gain an interview at Cardiff for medicine, apart from Oxford it is the second most GCSE heavy uni out there as it uses nothing else to assess candidates except GCSE grades pre-interview. That figure is not to say that it doesnt change year on year, but because most medicine applicants have high GCSE grades and because Cardiff use the UKCAT post interview it is becoming a more popular place to apply for people with lower UKCAT scores and hence the 8A* cut off has remained fairly consistent year on year.