medicine

Yes. You can look at how universities used GCSEs for 2021 entry here (note that this has had some changes for 2022 not yet added): https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/results/gcse/medical-school-gcse-requirements

Both Newcastle and Cambridge do not have minimum requirements for GCSEs.

whys that? i thought medicine was competitive??

It is, don't get me wrong!

The thing is that all universities have different ways of whittling down the competition. Oxford and Cardiff reject anyone without 9 8/9s at GCSE, but you could get in with only A*AA and AAA predicted respectively, and a lower UCAT score for Cardiff, for example.

Newcastle has no GCSE requirements, but selects entirely based on UCAT. Their cutoffs are regularly 2800+, so around 85%+ of students will not have a high enough UCAT score to apply as that's around the 85th centile. Cambridge requires A*A*A at A level and a high BMAT, then interviews around 80% of applicants so selection is heavily based on interview as well. Those methods work for them to cut down student numbers.

so its basically unis have differnet ways of finding the ideal medicine student whether it be ukat gcses etc

so its basically unis have differnet ways of finding the ideal medicine student whether it be ukat gcses etc