Do I stand a chance?

I am currently in year 12 and I am planning on applying to study medicine next year, currently I have predicted grades of AAAA for physics, chemistry, biology and maths for AS level, and I do believe I can get A*A*A*A in my A levels, and do well in my UCAT and Interviews, I have also done a few supercurricular's such as reading medical books, work experience for 2 weeks in a clinic and I plan on doing some more in the summer holidays. The problem is that I got ABBBBCCD in my GCSE's as I did not take studies seriously during that time and did not revise even once for my boards, I got the D in English language and I plan on resiting it to get a B or more. For two of my choices in the UCAS I plan on applying to Cambridge and Imperial would I have a good chance of getting in or would my GCSE affect my odds significantly. And what else can I do to improve my chances of getting in.

Reply 1

TSR Hippocrates

Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. :biggrin:

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Reply 2

ismaelishere

ur bad gcse grades simply means u have to apply more stragetically to unis that don't care about gcse grades during the application process. u still have a chance if u get a good UCAT, as often a good UCAT can make up for bad GCSE's.

Imperial does not care about gcse or a level grades whatsoever as long as u meet entry requirements, e.g. A*AA in a levels is seen the same as A*A*A*A* and same with gcses, they r both meeting entry req.. imperial instead test the aptitute of students by purely ranking students based on UCAT and then the academic portion of the interview. cambridge do not care as much abt gcses but i dont know to what extent, email them if u want to make sure.

hope that helps, feel free to ask any more questions

Reply 3

po101

Original post by ismaelishere

ur bad gcse grades simply means u have to apply more stragetically to unis that don't care about gcse grades during the application process. u still have a chance if u get a good UCAT, as often a good UCAT can make up for bad GCSE's.
Imperial does not care about gcse or a level grades whatsoever as long as u meet entry requirements, e.g. A*AA in a levels is seen the same as A*A*A*A* and same with gcses, they r both meeting entry req.. imperial instead test the aptitute of students by purely ranking students based on UCAT and then the academic portion of the interview. cambridge do not care as much abt gcses but i dont know to what extent, email them if u want to make sure.
hope that helps, feel free to ask any more questions

Thanks a lot that does help, you said imperial won't care about gcse's as long as I meet the entry requirements, so how do they choose who gets invited to the interview and who does not?

Reply 4

ismaelishere

Original post by po101

Thanks a lot that does help, you said imperial won't care about gcse's as long as I meet the entry requirements, so how do they choose who gets invited to the interview and who does not?

they rank purely on UCAT results and the top 1000 or whatever number they pick get interviewed. From that they then decide who gets the place.

Reply 5

ismaelishere

Original post by po101

Thanks a lot that does help, you said imperial won't care about gcse's as long as I meet the entry requirements, so how do they choose who gets invited to the interview and who does not?

here is it in imperials words:

Our minimum requirement is for grades AAA in three A-levels including Chemistry and Biology, with a standard offer being A*AA (with the A* in Chemistry or Biology). When initially assessing applications, we look at predicted grades, not AS level or GCSE results. If these are sufficient then you will proceed to the next stage of the assessment, which is the UCAT. All applicants who are predicted AAA will go through to the next stage of the selection process (the UCAT grades), thus a candidate predicted 4 A*s has no advantage over one who is predicted AAA. Applicants with the highest UCAT scores are invited to interview and offers are made based on interview performance. Please note that any offer made will be our standard as above.

Reply 6

ismaelishere

ur takeaway here should be u can hide ur gcses but in the process sacrifice ur brilliant A level being considered and role the dice based on UCAT. honestly idk how bad ur gcses r compared to everyone else, so idk if its worth it. if u get super good UCAT defo apply imperial tho. its ur choice ulrimately.