i got a low ucat what do i do

i just done my ucat and i've done really bad. i got 2150 band 3, do you think its worth applying to unis this year or should i take a gap year?

i just done my ucat and i've done really bad. i got 2150 band 3, do you think its worth applying to unis this year or should i take a gap year?

Hi - so the first is to not be too hard yourself and to understand that a lot of current medical students didn't get high scores the first time either. You're right that your score is too low for universities, so you have a couple of options left. Before thinking about these, you should also reflect on your UCAT performance - did you leave enough time to prepare and study properly, or did you rush it? Did you feel confident going into the exam, or were you winging it? All of this is important to determine whether focusing on purely UCAT next year is in your best interests.

Beyond that, you should first consider applying for the BMAT and studying for this if you feel like your A-level results are strong enough for Oxford and the other BMAT universities. The next is to consider applying to a undergraduate courses that you're interested in (e.g. biomedicine, biology, chemistry etc.) regardless of whether you want to take a gap year and apply for medicine next year again, because many students opt go through the graduate-entry medicine route too (4-year course). As a graduate you'll also have the option of sitting the GAMSAT which opens up the opportunity to apply to more universities. This also gives you the opportunity to mature throughout university.

If you haven't sat your A-levels yet, by far the most important thing you can do right now is to concentrate on maximising your A-level results, as they need to be strong in order to apply to many university courses anyway, medicine included. Do let me know if you have any questions.

Hello
For the UCAT, I didn't feel very confident going into the exam but I did better than average in one section and flunked the rest. I didn't prepare enough as I only left 2 weeks revision until the UCAT exam but I think what I learnt from it was that it was a good experience for possibly next year. With the BMAT, I'm not too keen on it because it seems harder than the UCAT and my a level predicted is AAA, which is good considering I come from a poor background. I just want to focus on a levels. In that case, do you think it makes sense to take a gap year and do the UCAT again or apply to a course that will allow me to get onto medicine at some point?

Hi, sorry for the late reply.

So if you have the ability to achieve AAA, then you can definitely score well enough in the UCAT to receive medicine interviews. But you do need to spend a lot more time on it next year, I'd say at least 2 months over the summer assuming you choose to do some relevant work experience alongside as well.

BMAT is not necessarily harder, just different. Given that you have no other options to get into medicine in the UK, I would say studying for BMAT over the next 3 weeks and giving it a good go would be worthwhile for you. I understand you may just want to focus on A levels, but a 3 week period of juggling both should not affect your ability to achieve AAA in the end. After October 18th (the BMAT exam date) all you'll have left to do is A-levels for the rest of the academic year. If your exam does not go well, you'll have the chance of doing UCAT & BMAT again next year anyway, but on the off chance that you do get a decent score, you may be able to get interviews at BSMS/Imperial and other such universities.

If you're set on undergraduate medicine then I would personally say giving the BMAT a shot this year is worth it. Alternatively, you have the option of applying to biological sciences etc. at Oxford/Cambridge and other universities by the 15th Oct deadline too, and then perhaps pursuing 4-year medicine as a graduate, so if you choose to do this then it might be worth skipping the BMAT (as you can only take the exam after selecting your university choices). It's really down to your goals and how well you feel you may be able to perform on the BMAT with 3 weeks to revise - I would consider looking at the past papers on the Cambridge Admissions website and figuring things out from there.

Hope that helps but let me know if you have anymore questions.