Would it be pointless applying for medicine at university without 4 A's at AS?

Katherine1996

I had a talk at college a few days ago and the speaker said that this is pretty much the case, but I'm not sure if this is just for certain universities.
I haven't received my AS results yet, but I know that I messed up a few exams, so probably haven't got 4 A's. This said, my teachers understand this and I did well in mocks; therefore I'd like to think my predicted grades will be okay, so long as I do a few resits.

Would it be pointless applying to university in October? How bad do AS results have to be for no university to consider a candidate for medicine?

Thank you for your time :smile:

Reply 1

Ben10001

I would say definitely not. If you get AAAB or even AABB it doesn't matter yet, ultimately it's final A2 grades the top unis are interested in. Apply to some ambitious unis and some safe ones in your UCAS. If things go wrong next year, you'll get on a medicine course somewhere as long as you have some As

Reply 2

Beska

21

As long as you get predicted AAA (or higher) and your AS grades are not ridiculously low (i.e. predicted AAA with EDD or something) then it wouldn't be a problem for the vast majority of places. Cambridge springs to mind as a medical school that wants high UMS in your AS levels. You probably haven't done as badly as you think anyway!

Take a look here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Medical_School_A_Level_Requirements

Reply 3

Helloworld_95

19

Nope, I got interviews with BBC and AAAb predicted. It does make it a bit more difficult to meet the offer though.

Reply 4

coldhell

10

No, it's not pointless but you have to be predicted AAA or something like that because medicine is really competitive. They're just saying that because if you don't have AAA, there will be a tremendous pressure to meet those offers. You have to have a strong personal statement, sound interview, and stellar grades at GCSEs to be competitive. Lastly and more importantly choose the right university! One of my friends has applied to really top unis for medicine with the likes of Imperial, Oxford and KCL but I'm not widely surprised that they got straight 4 rejections, despite getting really high grades at GCSE and their AS levels. It's due to the fact they've got a fairly average UKCAT and BMAT which ultimately made them a much weaker candidate, so you need to do your research on this! Choose a university based on your strengths!

Reply 5

XXSimmyXX

3

Original post by Helloworld_95

Nope, I got interviews with BBC and AAAb predicted. It does make it a bit more difficult to meet the offer though.

what unis were the interviews with
Im kinda expecting Cs and Ds do you think i shouldnt bother applying this year? The reason for getting them grades is I think i did ok in the exan and then really bad im the secind exam, so im thinking if i resit 3AS exans next year it is still possible for ke to get grades however my predictions from school will be low (i qualify for a reduced offer of ABB if that helps)

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 6

Helloworld_95

19

Original post by XXSimmyXX

what unis were the interviews with
Im kinda expecting Cs and Ds do you think i shouldnt bother applying this year? The reason for getting them grades is I think i did ok in the exan and then really bad im the secind exam, so im thinking if i resit 3AS exans next year it is still possible for ke to get grades however my predictions from school will be low (i qualify for a reduced offer of ABB if that helps)

Posted from TSR Mobile

Imperial, Barts and Glasgow. I think if you get Cs and Ds you should be taking a gap year because your predicted grades probably won't be high enough and look into other careers (nursing is a pretty good option at the moment)

Reply 7

Katherine1996

OP

Original post by Helloworld_95

Nope, I got interviews with BBC and AAAb predicted. It does make it a bit more difficult to meet the offer though.

I am currently predicted A*A*A*A, but I know that this will definitely go down a lot once I get my AS results.. it's really annoying because I know I can do well as I did well in my mocks for AS, but I seriously messed up a couple of exams and may get U's in a few modules.

With the B's how close were they to A's? And say I got something like BCCD at AS (with one module in each pulling the grade down), would a prediction of AAA be believable to universities, and would those AS grades be too low? Or in that situation would I be better resitting modules with my A2 exams and applying after a gap year?

Reply 8

Helloworld_95

19

Original post by Katherine1996

I am currently predicted A*A*A*A, but I know that this will definitely go down a lot once I get my AS results.. it's really annoying because I know I can do well as I did well in my mocks for AS, but I seriously messed up a couple of exams and may get U's in a few modules.

With the B's how close were they to A's? And say I got something like BCCD at AS (with one module in each pulling the grade down), would a prediction of AAA be believable to universities, and would those AS grades be too low? Or in that situation would I be better resitting modules with my A2 exams and applying after a gap year?

I think one was a high B (chemistry) and one was a low B (Biology). I think whether an AAA prediction would be believable from BCCD would depend on whether there were any extenuating circumstances (which would be outlined in your reference).

Then there's the matter of getting the AAA prediction in the first place, for me two of those As were from maths which I got a C in at AS and in Psychology which I didn't get an AS grade for as I missed the summer exam so I only got those A grade predictions because my teachers had complete faith that I was better than my AS grades showed. I would have gotten an A grade prediction for biology too except I had a new teacher for year 13 who wasn't comfortable predicting so much higher without knowing me for longer.

Would it be pointless applying for medicine at university without 4 A's at AS?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you