BMAT and Oxford

Hi, from the Oxford uni site (link below), I realised this:
The lowest BMAT score for an applicant auto-shortlisted in 2007 was 48.25

http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/courses/preclin/applying/assessingchances

I thought the average was like 5 on section 1, 5 on section 2 and 9 on section 3
Therefore, the total would be 19

So, how did the lowest BMAT score for the auto-shortlisted applicant become 48.25? I'm confused :s-smilie:

Are Oxford applicants just super genuises, have I misunderstood what the website is saying, or is it a mistake on the university's behalf?

Reply 1

nexttime

its out of 33 in total i thought. I am also confused - i think a mistake??

i'm not sure they just collate the three scores into one though - i thought they looked at them individually. maybe this number has been randomly thrown up by the system they were using, i don't know :s-smilie:

Reply 2

Isometrix

i think it means the lowest-scoring person who got auto-shortlisted had a score in the top 48.25% of all applicants...which from the table would mean he had between 8-9 % of A*s.

Reply 3

*Princess*

Isometrix

i think it means the lowest-scoring person who got auto-shortlisted had a score in the top 48.25% of all applicants...which from the table would mean he had between 8-9 % of A*s.

Hmmm that sounds like a reasonable explanation
I guess I'm going to have to email them just to double check though

Reply 4

Shayilalraya

*Princess*

Hmmm that sounds like a reasonable explanation
I guess I'm going to have to email them just to double check though

he's right...it clearly says "Rank in BMAT as % of applicants"

Reply 5

SamWalters

It means that if all of the applicants were ranked in order of their BMAT score, he would be 48.25% of the way down the list

they are looking to shortlist the people in the top percentiles of the BMAT scores, so really, its about how you compare to other applicants, not just your score

Its a shame they dont show values for what sort of scores the applicants were getting