GCSES and medicine

Hey there. I'm not going to comment on GCSE requirements as I don't know enough. But being brutally honest, you need to do very well in your A-levels to be considered for Medicine. As it stands, your grades do not reflect someone getting A*s at A-levels. Of course you can work hard and get there, but this is where my advice comes in. Give up on Maths. Biology and Chemistry will be tough enough, and you'll most likely need to retake GCSE Maths to get a 6 anyway. Adding Maths to your A-levels will only make things more difficult, and without sounding too harsh your grade profile hasn't been outstanding thus far - in terms of Medicine grades.

If you have the drive, I 100% believe you will get there. But my advice is not to make that journey even more difficult, especially when most Unis will not have a strict third subject requirement.

I agree but I thought maths was compulsory or at least an attractive subjects for unis when wanting to apply for medical schools. also in regards to my gcse profile I completely understand how it doesn't look that great but i would like to point out that I completely missed 3 years of secondary school (yr 8, 9 and 10) but in yr 11 I decided to get my ass in gear. this is without any classroom teaching, independent studying and trying to manage my mental health issues. would you reccomend retaking all gcses alongside some extra ones e.g history, sociology to make my profile look better at the end of yr 13?

I got 4 in English Language
And 6-5 in combined science back in 2019. I didn’t know gcse were important for med, and I had circumstances

I just finished A levels in bio, chem and maths (I got 6 in maths gcse) and I’ve got A*A*A* for these subjects

I’m planning on applying for med so I need to resit my English Language to get that to a 9 (or 6) and I’m doing triple science to get 999

Hopefully it will boost my application. My advice for you would be to resit your English language next year, because most med schools want 6 anyways and possibly retake triple science instead of double

Most medical schools require chemistry and biology. Only Cambridge requires 3 out of maths and science. You could resit your gcse’s but it would be hard to balance that with A-levels. Getting a high UCAT score will allow you to apply strategically to universities with a lower weighing on GCSE’s.

I was thinking of taking them at the end of yr 13 on a gap year but do you reccomened taking them as soon as possible? also do you recommend adding extra gcses such as history, sociology, health and social studies etc?

Just take them before A levels imo. That’s what I wish I did, and now I’m stuck resitting gcse. Benefit if that is it’s easier though so it’s up to you. When your 18 and seeing everyone go to uni, it really hurts. what you need to resit is English Language mainly and probably your sciences.

Most Med unis want above 6-5 in science

so in other words, a high UCAT score is more important than GCSES regardless of the grades. also I was thinking of taking my gcses at the end of year 13 so I wouldn't have the stress of a levels anymore

so the resit for gcses is this November but do you recommend taking just the core subjects (English, maths and science) by themselves or adding some on?

so the resit for gcses is this November but do you recommend taking just the core subjects (English, maths and science) by themselves or adding some on?

How many GCSE’s do you have? Most medical schools need a 6 in maths and English lang gcse but you don’t need 20 GCSE’s to apply to medical school.

I have 5 gcses the core ones

You should probably take more then to get at least 7 or 8

I think my plan would be to resit triple science, maths, English and take another extra gcse so that would give me 7 gcses at a higher grade as im aiming for A's or A*