Am I wasting my time? :(

Hey guys, just did my ukcat a few hours back. I'm currently a graduate doing psychology and I really want to pursue medicine after. However, I got a score of 680 average and it puts me in a really tight spot in terms of university choices.

The thing about me is that although my ukcat score is okay, I lack A level chemistry. God typing this is actually making myself feel stupid. Many universities want and require chemistry. How screwed am I? Is my dream of studying medicine really achievable or am I just a delusional git? :frown:

Reply 1

HopelessMedic

I'm pretty sure as a graduate a-levels mean nothing, but check the admissions for each uni

Reply 2

Workaholism

UKCAT shouldn't be an issue - IF you apply to the correct universities. Mine was 625 and I was fine.

Reply 3

amidelusional

Original post by HopelessMedic

I'm pretty sure as a graduate a-levels mean nothing, but check the admissions for each uni

from my understanding, most of the uni's require chemistry unless they're the accelerated courses, which I doubt i'll be able to get into due to my low ukcat score

Reply 4

HopelessMedic

Original post by amidelusional

from my understanding, most of the uni's require chemistry unless they're the accelerated courses, which I doubt i'll be able to get into due to my low ukcat score

Admittedly I don't know that much about GEM, but I'm pretty sure that once you have a 2.1 they don't care about your a-levels. I may be wrong tho, so check the uni admissions pages

Reply 5

liam__

Original post by amidelusional

Ok, 680 probably won't be enough for 4 year courses, and as a (soon to be) graduate you won't be eligible for another student finance loan for the 5 year courses.

As far as I'm aware, not having A-Level chemistry is a dealbreaker for most 5 year courses. However, I know for sure that Durham/Newcastle allow grads to apply to their 5 year course and as long as you have a 2:1 they will take that as their entry requirement; 680 would probably have been enough for the past few years also- you do have the lack of student finance loan problem though.

You need to individually go through each uni and see if they accept grads on the 5 year course, and what their stance on no A-level chemistry is.

Could you take the BMAT or GAMSAT? That would open up more unis to apply to.

No you're not screwed and certainly not delusional, but a gap year may be necessary (which is not a bad thing). I had a HCA job for a year- earned some money and great experience to carry into my application. Good luck.

Reply 6

Freyr

Original post by amidelusional

Sit the GAMSAT. I was like you, a graduate witout A Level chemistry, I applied a few years back and I decided to do the UKCAT first, if my score was low, then i'd do the GAMSAT.

Fortunately for me, I did score highly, however, I knew that if i performed poorly, there were still many GAMSAT school to apply to that didn't require A Level chemistry

Reply 7

amidelusional

Original post by Freyr

Ah I would love to do this as my dream is to become a doctor and I would do anything to become one but due to family circumstances, I doubt I will be able to take a gap year :frown:

I guess I have no chance