I'm not convinced

I keep hearing it: "you don't need maths for a level to do medicine" so why do I keep seeing medical applicants with maths a level? Almost all of them! I really don't want to be disadvantaged, I have yet to see a successful medical applicant without the maths a level. Can anyone actually give me examples of people like that? Those without maths? How much maths does medicine have? Could it be self taught/practiced without maths a level? I heard the science subjects such as chemistry are becoming more mathematical which I think is good. Please someone help clear things up for me

I keep hearing it: "you don't need maths for a level to do medicine" so why do I keep seeing medical applicants with maths a level? Almost all of them! I really don't want to be disadvantaged, I have yet to see a successful medical applicant without the maths a level. Can anyone actually give me examples of people like that? Those without maths? How much maths does medicine have? Could it be self taught/practiced without maths a level? I heard the science subjects such as chemistry are becoming more mathematical which I think is good. Please someone help clear things up for me

There are plenty of examples here who don't have Maths: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=865511

There's very little Maths in Medicine. The A-Level Maths I've done hasn't been used at all - any maths is mainly just GCSE Maths.

You don't need maths to do medicine. There is some stats in research but you'll get taught what you need or you'll work with a medical statistician. Drug calculations certainly don't require a-level maths.

Correlation doesn't equal causation. Just because a lot of successful applicants happen to have maths does not mean they got in because they did maths. It is just that the sciences and maths tend to go well together/ people who enjoy sciences quite often find maths fairly straight forward/ because of the false assumption that maths is needed for medicine.

Medical universities are generally very transparent with what they're looking for. If they wanted maths they would ask for maths.

tl:dr YOU DO NOT NEED MATHS TO DO MEDICINE.

Oh thanks for telling me that. Have you studied maths a level or know anyone who hasnt in your year?

I'm a graduate and a current student, not an applicant, so its not really applicable.

Searching for anecdotes of people who haven't done maths isn't really going to help. There are people who haven't done maths who get in to medicine. Its less common because of the reasons I listed above (mainly because of the stupid myth that you need it). Knowing that So and Sos friend didn't do maths but got in to medicine isn't going to make the decision for you.

If you want to do maths, do it. If you don't like maths, or will struggle to get an A, don't do it. Its as simple as that. As long as you have biology and chemistry you will still have every medical school (bar Cambridge, and depending on your GCSEs) open to you.

The reason why I asked for examples for those who got accepted without maths a level was for evidence that medical schools still accept students without it, not so that I can I assume that I will get in too.

Anyway, thank you very much for your help, really appreciate it

Cambridge seems to want Maths at A level and if you want to make a competitive application at big universities you will need it. I dont know why but its just there...

No no no no! Maths does not make you 'competitive'. Its as simple as that.

EDIT: only one college at Cambridge requires maths. The others require 3 sciences, so you can do physics instead.

True. On the medicine page they do say the following
Although some Colleges consider applicants offering only two science/mathematics subjects at A Level (or equivalent), please note that the success rate of such applicants is much lower.In the past three admissions rounds, 97 per cent of applicants for Medicine (A100) offered three or more science/mathematics A Levels and, of these, 26 per cent were successful in obtaining a place. Of the three per cent of applicants who offered only two science/mathematics A Levels, just nine per cent were successful in gaining a place.
You can find the above page here

And that is Cambridge. The only exception to the rule. But again, that includes 3 sciences/maths, meaning you can still be competitive without maths if you have bio/chem/physics.

Doing maths confers you no advantage at any other university offering medicine. If you want to be 'competitive' get AAA (with chem and bio included) and smash the UKCAT and BMAT.

True. On the medicine page they do say the following
Although some Colleges consider applicants offering only two science/mathematics subjects at A Level (or equivalent), please note that the success rate of such applicants is much lower.In the past three admissions rounds, 97 per cent of applicants for Medicine (A100) offered three or more science/mathematics A Levels and, of these, 26 per cent were successful in obtaining a place. Of the three per cent of applicants who offered only two science/mathematics A Levels, just nine per cent were successful in gaining a place.

You can find the above page here. Maths wouldn't necessarily make it more competitive but Cambridge still want a very science related subject as your third A2. It would make your application more competitive if you did Physics or Math over something irrelevant.

So this combination is okay? Chemistry, biology, english lit, spanish and french (I dont wanna do physics)

So this combination is okay? Chemistry, biology, english lit, spanish and french (I dont wanna do physics)

Please don't overburden yourself! I've seen it so so many times on here - people do too many subjects and end up with, for example, AABBB or AAABB or whatever rather than getting AAA/A*AA/A*A*A/etc.