Pick 2 medicine courses or just gap year

Hey asking for a friend here

He unfortunately didnt get the grades. Got A*BB
So he is thinking of applying to have 3 biomedical sciences courses and 2 foundation year medicine courses. I advised him it would be better to take a gap year and apply since he is adamant to apply for medicine anyway

But I was not sure if it is possible or not. Any advice here is appreciated thank you

Reply 1

username5319484

I think you need WP flags or something to be eligible for foundation courses for medicine but I'm not too sure about that. Definitely don't apply for biomed if you want to go into medicine as GEM is more competitive, expensive and time consuming. It's better to just apply to the foundation courses and take a gap year if you get no offers.

Reply 2

world2change

Yh that is exactly what I told him. I even told him that foundation courses (well most of them) you need to be eligible for the widening participation criteria as well - which he doesnt really have. The grades are the only issue as well as UCAT

The 2 foundation courses he found dont really look at predicted grades much, and doesnt say much about widening participation criteria as well. ( Nottingham and Lincoln I believe he is trying but I dont know much about them tbh) he is not eligible with other foundation courses

I will tell him its best to take a gap year
Plus its not really wise to apply to 2 medical schools only right?

Reply 3

world2change

Yh thanks thats what I thought thank you.

One last thing, mainly for curiousity, are foundation year medicine courses more competitive than undergraduate then? Just something I was thinking about since I have plenty of classmates applying for them instead of undergraduate because of their grades. Its another thing I discussed with him as well, but didnt want to give him wrong info. Its what I observed

Reply 4

world2change

Ok thanks. I know what to tell him now. Thanks for your help

Reply 5

TCL

Just checking you know that he needs to resit the A levels in his gap year - it wasn't discussed here, but taking a gap year and re-applying with same grades won't help! Is there anything to stop him re-sitting this year and applying with grades pending (like everyone else)?

Reply 6

world2change

Original post by TCL

Not really no. Yh I told him he would have to resit his a levels anyway during a gap year and after talking to him just now he is pretty convinced to do this now. Thanks

👍👍

Original post by hungrysalamander

Thanks I will tell him. Thats what I told him just wanted to make sure I was right not giving him wrong info.

Reply 9

TCL

Original post by world2change

Not really no. Yh I told him he would have to resit his a levels anyway during a gap year and after talking to him just now he is pretty convinced to do this now. Thanks

What are the grades and subjects? Liverpool and Leicester accept A*AB (with A*/A in Chem), so that could take some pressure off the resit. Would need to double check whether a summer resit increases the grade, would have been fine for autumn exam. I would advise him to plan A levels this summer and apply now. If he is eligible for foundation year, fine to apply for a mixture of A100 and A104, if the A104 applications were successful offers would be unconditional, A100 would be conditional.

Reply 10

TCL

Also, if he is eligible for widening participation, is he eligible for contextual offers? Newcastle BBB for Partners, Bristol ABB for people from a massive list of "aspiring" state schools, but both of those want very good UCAT.