How much do GCSE's matter for Medicine?

since medicine is a very competitive course , gcse's matter a fair bit than other courses

Even if I say for example I had A*'s at a level, a strong personal statement and work experience etc?

Would you advice re sitting some GCSE's to bring them all up to the required standard?

Even if I say for example I had A*'s at a level, a strong personal statement and work experience etc?

Would you advice re sitting some GCSE's to bring them all up to the required standard?

If you had achieved A*s at A-level, I wouldn't think that they'd pay much notice to GCSE grades.

just btw Newcastle don't even look at GCSEs so as long as you meet their minimum entry requirements and UKCAT cut off you'd probs be fine

As the title suggests, I'm wondering how much Universities look at GCSE's when choosing their med students, especially if say for example the student has top grads at AS & A2, a strong personal statement, and a range of different examples of industry related work experience? I'm worried that my GCSE's may hinder my chances even though I can ensure the rest of application is very strong.

Does anyone have any knowledge on this, or if you know of any Uni's in particular that don't care too much about GCSE's then please let me know..

P.s I was thinking of applying to Newcastle 🤓

What are your GCSE grades?

They're not good, especially by Medicine standards, but I'm confident I can get high a level grades.

They're:
English Lit - A*
English Lang - A
Core Science - B
Additional Science - B
History - B
Geography- B
Sociology - B
Food tech - B
Religious Studies - C
Maths - C (hoping to bring this up to an A/A*)

At least you passed everything. In my opinion, anything lower than a C is a problem when applying for medicine. Your chances will probably be greater if Maths goes to at least a B. But honestly if you are in Year 12 like me, make sure you utilise this year and get the best possible grades you can, because having done a good research in medical school requirement (I want to do Medicine too) A-Levels, Personal Statement, Addmission tests and work experience and other factors are considered more than GCSEs.

For Newcastle University, the grade requirements are AAA, so make sure you can achieve that. In my opinion, GCSE's are only important when applying for Oxbridge, which is why I am not going to apply for Oxbridge (I got 3A*, 5A and 3B) but instead I am going to consider Imperial or Queen's Mary.

Hope this helps.

Thank you!! I know I can definitely get AAA at A level, hopefully maybe even slightly better, so I'm hoping I'll have a good chance. I'm planning a lot of different things for work experience/extra curricular stuff so I'm hoping that will help me out, especially to improve my personal statement!

I really regret what happened with my GCSE's, if I'm honest I remember a teacher at my school telling people not to worry about GCSE's because "they don't matter once you go to university anyway" so I thought as long as I got grades high enough to do my alevels that i could just start concentrating on my grades from alevel, what I didn't realise was that she didn't know I wanted to do medicine and that advice was more aimed at people who wanted to do less competitive courses at Uni. Oh well, I suppose you live and learn, I'll definitely be putting 100% into my alevels though!
I hope that you get offers from the unis you apply to! Good luck! Do you already have work experience can I ask by the way?

As the title suggests, I'm wondering how much Universities look at GCSE's when choosing their med students, especially if say for example the student has top grads at AS & A2, a strong personal statement, and a range of different examples of industry related work experience? I'm worried that my GCSE's may hinder my chances even though I can ensure the rest of application is very strong.

Does anyone have any knowledge on this, or if you know of any Uni's in particular that don't care too much about GCSE's then please let me know..

P.s I was thinking of applying to Newcastle 🤓

depends on undergrad or grad entry. undergrad, read other posts on this thread. grad entry most dont care

Just to correct what someone said before, what you would be applying for after a first degree is graduate entry medicine, not postgraduate medicine.

Anyway, use GEM as a last resort - it's a lot easier and cheaper to enter medicine at first degree level.

At least you passed everything. In my opinion, anything lower than a C is a problem when applying for medicine. Your chances will probably be greater if Maths goes to at least a B. But honestly if you are in Year 12 like me, make sure you utilise this year and get the best possible grades you can, because having done a good research in medical school requirement (I want to do Medicine too) A-Levels, Personal Statement, Addmission tests and work experience and other factors are considered more than GCSEs.

For Newcastle University, the grade requirements are AAA, so make sure you can achieve that. In my opinion, GCSE's are only important when applying for Oxbridge, which is why I am not going to apply for Oxbridge (I got 3A*, 5A and 3B) but instead I am going to consider Imperial or Queen's Mary.

Hope this helps.