Closed - The "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread [Part 1 of 3]

Scroll to see replies

Can I apply to Keele with predicted grades of AAA and UKCAT average of 650?

As they say they do not take predicted grades into account?

That's always been my understanding of it, but you may want to check with their admissions team. The offer they make is likely to be A*AA though.

Reply 7981

MED_AW

Original post by meddad

In the last few years the 8th decile has always dropped by about 40-50 points between interim and final scores, so whereas prelim 8th decile last year was 2800, it dropped to 2750 when final results were published. If previous years patterns are followed it would put your score well into 8th decile :smile:

Aw lets hope so! Thanks for the info! 😁 what’s your story with regards to medicine?

Reply 7982

meddad

Original post by Edgyname

I got a total of 45/56 is this good enough???

In previous years that's been borderline to get through 1st sift. Then they add your PS score to your 1st sift score to decide who to interview.

If your 1st sift score is borderline you are then playing catch up with the higher scorers, so your PS has to score more highly than a proportion of them to gain an interview.

Reply 7983

meddad

Original post by AdamWW

Aw lets hope so! Thanks for the info! 😁 what’s your story with regards to medicine?

Myself and @GANFYD on here are just parents who's kids applied 4 years ago, and we just try to help out with the knowledge we've gained over that period. I'm retired and take the day shift, whereas GANFYD is an insomniac GP who takes the night shift when she can.

Or sometimes we just disappear entirely for days on end when we decide to get our lives back for a while :smile:

Reply 7984

meddad

Original post by timmyboi98

Advice??
Going into 3rd year of a Medical Genetics degree.
UKCAT 685 Band 2
Which 5 year A100s or even any 4 year GEP programmes would you recommend?
Many thanks.

I've not got much knowledge of people applying with a degree, but I will list the UKCAT cut off scores for those Uni's using UKCAT as their primary ranking tool, as applied to undergrad applicants

Sheffield - 672 last year

Manchester - interview top third of UKCAT nationally so 7th decile (top 30%) fits that ok (667 last year). Usually best to wait for final UKCAT deciles to be published to see if that changes.

Bristol - using UKCAT only for first time this year. They say that if they had done that last year the cut off would have been 665. Of course the profile of applicants could be different this year, particularly as they have changed their criteria

Newcastle - according to their website it was 645 last year, but 667 the year before

Southampton - historically on their open days they mention 640, but I couldn't find anybody on TSR last year with an interview below 667

Glasgow - 663 last year

Plymouth - last year 600, indicating 583 on their website for 2019 entry

St Georges - between 630-650 last 3 years

St Andrews - have had minimum cut off below 620 in recent years

Exeter - 667 last year if you also had A*A*A* predictions at A level. You could check how they treat degrees.

It may be worth applying with your GCSE grades if you have a good number of A* grades

Reply 7985

meddad

Original post by khangee

Hi.my understanding is UCAS point based on A level qualification whether achieved or predicted.WRT to queen Mary they look at A level and max one could achieve 168 if predicted 3A*.but looking at their website quite confusing seemed like theit UCAS points based on old way of scoring when A* has 140 points and A has 120 points.open for discussion.

They describe a UCAS tariff of 312 as being "high", and it's clear from their examples that many people apply with much lower eg: somebody getting an interview with a tariff of 144.

If they were applying the old scoring then given that most people will be applying with AAA they would all score 360 and the low tariff example of somebody getting an interview with 144 means that person only had one A grade at A level.

I've never seen anybody suggest that they're using the old UCAS scoring. A lot of people applying seem to have 4 A levels.

Reply 7986

GANFYD

Original post by khangee

Barts use the new UCAS scoring to work out tariff points. They just have a lot of people with 4 A levels, extra ASs and EC qualifications apply

Reply 7987

Pkachu

UKcat 2530 SJT band 1. Short list from distance, university requirements - AngliaR, Barts, St.Georges, Plymouth. Would welcome any other suggestions please. Thanks.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 7988

Fawsley5

Original post by meddad

See my post 7806.

Based on previous years, it looks quite promising for you. It's important to wait for the end of testing score before you finalise your decisions though.

It also may make your Southampton option more feasible.

Thanks Meddad - really helpful...

whats your view on applying to Bristol? With my score of 2670? - is that enough. I am now trying to decide between Manchester and Bristol - with preference to Bristol. Thanks.

Reply 7989

sadeyes_sadgirl

Original post by meddad

I don't know anything about contextual offers, but I assume that if you are close to the requirements for a standard offer of interview, then you would be a strong candidate on a contextual basis.

If you manage to get AAA predicted for A level and meet minimum academic requirements (which I assume you do), then your UKCAT score alone was above the standard cut off scores for interview at:

Sheffield - 672 last year (although SJT Band is used as a virtual MMI station so counts towards interview score)

Manchester - interview top third of UKCAT nationally so 7th decile (top 30%) fits that ok (667 last year).

Bristol - using UKCAT only for first time this year. They say that if they had done that last year the cut off would have been 665. Of course the profile of applicants could be different this year, particularly as they have changed their criteria

Newcastle - according to their website it was 645 last year, but 667 the year before

Southampton - historically on their open days they mention 640, but I couldn't find anybody on TSR last year with an interview below 667

Glasgow - 663 last year

Plymouth - last year 600, indicating 583 on their website for 2019 entry

St Georges - between 630-650 last 3 years

Also look at Liverpool - in their first sift they mark 9 x GCSE’s with 2 points for A*/A and 1 point for B grades. You need to achieve a score of 15 to be considered further. This process is advantageous to applicants with mostly A grade GCSE rather than A*, because they are treated the same in scoring terms.

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/schoolofmedicine/documents/Guidelines,for,applicants,direct,from,school,college,offering,GCSEs,Alevels,2019,entry.pdf

Candidates are then ranked by UKCAT. The last three cut off scores have been 615 (last year), 640 and 625.

In terms of your Personal statement you seem to have strong examples to use for it. The only problem with the PS is that the assessment of it is very subjective, so how highly it's marked is unpredictable. Bristol, as mentioned above, are no longer PS heavy for standard entry. King's don't use PS in deciding on interview for standard entry.

UCL and ICL use BMAT for standard entry, not sure on contextual.

Sorry, I haven't been able to answer about the contextual aspect, but if you get predicted AAA there are plenty of options even if you applied for the standard routes. May be check out the contextual arrangements for some of those?

Thank you so much! I really appreciate this!

Reply 7990

meddad

Original post by Fawsley5

Manchester is probably more predictable. They say that they interview approximately the top one third of UKCAT applicants nationally. Last year the 7th decile boundary was 667.5 (top 30%). True to their word, the Manchester cut off for standard applicants (ie: not their holistic assessment) was 665.

Bristol are using UKCAT only for the first time this year. It has always been an enormously popular Med School for applicants. They say that if they had applied a UKCAT cut off last year it would have been 665 based on those who applied there. What we don't know is whether their move to UKCAT only will attract more higher UKCAT scorers.

So you could get an interview at either, but Manchester seem to have a stronger link to 7th decile historically.

Other things to throw in (pure supposition) but the highest UKCAT cut off last year was Sheffield at 672.5, which was 5 points above the 7th decile. There are overall more medicine places available this year, and there is one more UKCAT only Med School (Bristol) to attract high UKCAT scorers, so they could be spread across more Uni's.

Based on that, your guess is as good as mine, but I certainly wouldn't make a decision on either until the final UKCAT statistics are published, although at the moment it's looking more favourable this year than it was at this stage last year with your score.

It may depend how much you want to go to Bristol, and how "safe" your other options are. If you have three safe options, then some people decide to have a punt at their favourite, even though it's borderline, or just plain less predictable.

Hope that ramble of mine makes sense, and is of some help

Reply 7991

meddad

Original post by Pkachu

UKcat 2530 SJT band 1. Short list from distance, university requirements - AngliaR, Barts, St.Georges, Plymouth. Would welcome any other suggestions please. Thanks.

Will be able to give you better advice if you post your GCSE stats and predicted A level grades :smile:

That will rule some in or out

Reply 7992

slynch6020

HELP NEEDED!!!
Hi! I am an Irish student and am planning on applying to UK medical schools for 2019 entry. I had some questions which I was hoping someone could answer for me.

Firstly I'll give you my stats but they are quite different from a UK student's stats so I understand if you don't know as much about how they are viewed.

Junior Cert results: 9 A's ( A is the highest you can achieve, no A*'s), Higher Merit in English, and 2 B's ( French and Art so not very relevant to application)

UKCAT Results: Av;753 Band 1

I have had lots of experience in the medical field such as
-Mini-med courses
-shadowing doctors
-doing admin and secretarial work for doctors
-working with med students for exams
-doing videos for teaching resources
-I have read This is going to hurt and am planning on reading the man who mistook his wife for a hat before I complete my application.

Extra-curricular:
-Hockey all through secondary school (both A and B teams and captained the B team for two years)
-Irish Senior Debating captain
-I also did English debating during my time in sec school
-Member of Senior and Junior Orchestra through sec school
-Speech and drama silver medal distinction
-Piano completed grade 6
-Violin completed grade 8

Volunteer work:
-coached younger children hockey 4 nights a week for a whole year

Charity Work:
-I did a computer drive throughout my school and its local area for charity which fixes old and broken computers and sends them to schools in Africa
-followed that up by going out to Africa and organising and teaching a debating course for girls in the schools over there
-Also spent 3 days shadowing doctors in the capital city's hospital in the Paediatric Oncology ward.
-I have also helped out with a charity since I was younger by doing campaigns, promotional videos and helping out at the warehouse.

Predicted Grades:
I haven't received these yet but I expect to receive upwards of 4 H1's and 2 H2's, Probably will receive 6 H1's.( I do 8 subjects)

Im not sure about my personal reference because I don't know the 'correct' way to write it but I bought the medify course so hopefully I can get good advice on it once I have finished writing it. Also I expect a decent reference.

Hoping to apply for(ATM):
-Edinburgh
-Glasgow
-Imperial
-Not sure but possibly Cambridge/ Exeter/UCL/KCL

So the questions I wanted to ask are
1) How good are my stats and do I stand a good chance of receiving an offer (not incl interview)?
2) Because I have a high UKCAT would you advise applying to more than 2 UKCAT colleges because apparently the BMAT is A-level standard of science subjects which is a higher standard than the LC science subjects so I probably wouldn't do as well on it but I still will study at A level standard?
3) will the colleges that require BMAT take it into account at all that Irish students are not at the same level for science subjects as UK students?
4) Is the UKCAT quartiles the same for Irish students applying to UK unis?

Thanks very much any help is appreciated!! :smile:

IF ANYONE HAS ANY ADVICE WHATSOEVER I WOULD BE SUPER GRATEFUL BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE I AM FAR MORE UNEDUCATED ON THIS TOPIC THAN THE AVERAGE UK APPLICANT AND THE CLOSING DATE FOR UCAS APPLICATION IS LOOMING!!!!!

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 7993

leverarch

Original post by meddad

It's hard to tell what's happening with Birmingham. @GANFYD played with the calculator a few weeks ago and thought that it was indicating a cut off around 7.8, although I'm sure she wouldn't see that as definitive. It's possible, I suppose, that they've tweaked the tool since then, but I don't know. Also, I put some stats into the scoring which would have just scraped an interview last year (at 8.082) - this year those same stats would have scored 7.722, slightly lower because of the change in UKCAT weighting. I have also previously commented that each UKCAT decile is 0.444 apart in the scoring, so if the decile boundaries shift then that score of 7.722 in my example could reduce to 7.278.

Finally, last year Birmingham said that a score of 7.0 would be considered for interview (but not guaranteed). The actual cut off for people without contextual data was just above 8.0.

You can check the contextual aspects for Birmingham on the following link, but I don't know how they apply it in their scoring, only that they say it's not taken into account within their tool. Don't assume that you won't get contextual points - some of the post codes and schools in here surprised me
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/requirements/contextual-offer.aspx

In summary then, you need to weigh up all that information and see whether you think it's worth the risk. That may depend on how keen you are on Birmingham, and how strong your other options are.

I hope that helps, even if it doesn't answer your question.

I'm a bit unsure on how to interpret the interim results released today, regarding your example- have the deciles shifted and if so does it stand at 7.278 as per your example? (Sorry if this is a very obvious and silly question)

Reply 7994

jmott40

At the moment from the interim there seems to be around 11000 who have taken the test, do you think this will be near 24000 by the end of Sept?
Are there less people doing it this year?

Reply 7995

meddad

Original post by jmott40

At the moment from the interim there seems to be around 11000 who have taken the test, do you think this will be near 24000 by the end of Sept?
Are there less people doing it this year?

Last year 10,274 had taken the test up until 8th September, and 24,844 had taken it by the end of testing.

Reply 7996

Raznix

Hey everyone where would be best place to maximise getting interviews? My stats are 2.1 predicted biomed A*BB 2*A 6A 3B and 670 Ukcat Band 3 SJT Much appreciated!

Reply 7997

meddad

Original post by leverarch

I recall your UKCAT was 672.5. If the final national deciles fall in line with the preliminary results then you will be further above the 7th decile than you would otherwise have been. So, for example, based on last year's UKCAT results you would have been 20 points above the 7th decile boundary of 2670 ie: in roughly the top 27.5% of candidates. If the final national results do fall you may be in the top 22.5% or top 25%, or any other figure you want to speculate based on how far they may (or may not) fall. If that did happen then your score is stronger this year than it would have been last year, particularly with UKCAT only Uni's with a cut off historically around the 7th decile. Where they may have appeared very borderline based on last year's figures, they may appear more of an option.

A note of caution here: please wait until final UKCAT results are published before making any firm decisions, and be aware that last year's relationship with 7th decile may change according to the profile of people applying to any one particular Med School.

For Med Schools like Birmingham the advantage you gain is less clear-cut. For starters, they only use UKCAT as 40% of their scoring, rather than 100%, so any potential advantage is less. Secondly they work out their own deciles based on the UKCAT scores of people applying, and that profile could change.

For me, that's impossible to predict. All I can say is that the higher you are in the national decile scoring, then the better your chance, but that's just stating the obvious.

Reply 7998

Cait_mitchell_

I have six A*’s, 3 A’s and 2 B’s at GCSE, 4 A’s at AS including maths which I have dropped and have predicted AAA/A* in biology, chemistry and psychology. I also got 2710 in the UkCat which averages at 677.5.
I am thinking of applying to Manchester and Liverpool for definite but unsure between Bristol, Southampton, Sheffield and St George’s for the last two options. I am looking to apply to unis in which I will have the highest chances of getting interviews for opposed to any specific ones/locations but want to avoid Scotland and preferably London. Just wondering if anyone had any advice as I am unsure if it would be too much of a risk to apply to the UkCat ranking unis with my score?