OXford reapplicants for medicine: Do they ever get in?

Do you want to be a doctor or an OxBridge student?

If it is the former, really do not worry about a rejection from them - it's what you do after qualification that counts, and the application for F1 jobs is blinded to your medical school.

If it is the latter, apply for something less competative.

Reply 2

cam1000

3

yep i known a guy who reapplied to oxbridge, and got on offer 2nd time after bieng 1st rejected.
Also know of a person who got an offer 1st time, didnt get the grades, reapplied and got an offer again

Reply 3

darzona

3

I know someone who got no offers for medicine last year (I don't think they applied for oxbridge though) and then reapplied this year, including Oxford. He now has an offer from Oxford, for the college of his choice.
You have to resit BMAT if you apply to oxbridge for a second time - this is what I was told when I specifically asked oxford/cambridge)
Good BMAT scores - look at the averages on the website (http://www.bmat.org.uk/results.html), unfortunately the most recent ones there seem to be 2005, it's a guideline but the averages do vary - this year's science paper average was fairly low and seems to have been generally acknowledged to be a difficult paper.
From what I know, Oxford are more likely to reject pre-interview on the grounds of a low BMAT score whereas Cambridge tend to interview most people regardless, so you have a chance to redeem yourself if you got a low score (although they will reject pre-interview on these grounds if they have a high number of applicants). Certainly Cambridge have asked people to talk further about their bmat essay at their interview, so if anyone's concerned about their essay-writing they should be aware of that.

Reply 4

Kicky

2

I'd say anything over 6 in section 1 and 2 and over 9 in section 3 was good for BMAT according to the results explanation sheet that I got. On the Oxford website they interview people according to a table with the number of A*s at GCSE and the percentage that you needed to be in to get an interview. I think you had to be in the top 3% of BMAT scores if you had no A*s, then the percentage increased the more A*s you had. The chances of getting an offer once you have an interview are then 1 in 2.5
Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 5

I have applied to Oxford 3 times (the first two times for Physics and Philosophy, 3rd time for medicine). On each occasion, I was 100% certain the interviewers had no idea I had applied the year before. So if you want to reapply, I don't think you will be discriminated against for being a reapplicant as they probably won't know that you are.

However, I don't mean to put you off, but think very carefully about whether studying at Oxford is actually that important to you i.e. more important than studying medicine anywhere else. If you get an offer elsewhere this year, you will have to forfeit that offer to reapply to Oxford next year. It's possible that you will then be rejected from all universities next year, end up with no offers to study medicine at all and you'll feel pretty gutted. Also, having been to Oxford on three seperate occasions for interviews, I can tell you the novelty of the surroundings, atmosphere, architecture etc. wears off fairly quickly and virtually everyone I know at Oxbridge is having nowhere near a good a time at university than my friends elsewhere.

Finally, as for the BMAT, Oxford use the BMAT score along with your GCSE grades to determine who they invite to interview - after that, everyone is on a level playing field. The way it works is, they first look at your percentage of A* at GCSE, then they use that determine how good your BMAT score needs to be to get an interview. For example, if you have 100% A* at GCSE, your BMAT score needs to be in the top 60% of scores attained by all applicants. If you have no A* at GCSE, your BMAT score needs to be in the top 2%. Check the oxford website for more details.

Hope this helps. Personally, I wouldn't take the risk of reapplying on a course which is as competitive as medicine, but then that's me.

Reply 6

Landy3693

I don't know much about re-application, but i do know that oxford select for interview by using the following system...

Imagine a cube, the x and z axis (is there a plural of axis?!) are your BMAT score. The y axis is your GCSE A*% (so BMAT is more important). So when both your scores have been applied to this you end up with a cube of a certain volume. They then take the top X number of volumes and invite them to interview. Whether or not they would then bring up you being a re-applicant at interview i really dont know...

Reply 7

cowsgomoo

13

do you even want to be a doctor?!

Reply 8

Schmeevey

1

hmmmm i remember thinking about reapplying....but that was when i was rele depressed after being rejected...and was more like dreaming about it etc.....but now, considering reapplying is even stupid.........why? cos i rele doubt id have as much fun at oxford than at nottingham (my first choice now).....so im happy bappy.. :smile:

im afraid I dnt have any useful info for u Mystery.. :p:

Reply 9

Schmeevey

hmmmm i remember thinking about reapplying....but that was when i was rele depressed after being rejected...and was more like dreaming about it etc.....but now, considering reapplying is even stupid.........why? cos i rele doubt id have as much fun at oxford than at nottingham (my first choice now).....so im happy bappy.. :smile:

Just looking at your signature, tempting fate a little aren't u? How u know you're going to get the grades for nottingham or have they given u unconditional?

Reply 10

Schmeevey

1

Johnny C.

Just looking at your signature, tempting fate a little aren't u? How u know you're going to get the grades for nottingham or have they given u unconditional?

hmmm sorry :s-smilie:

i guess i am tempting fate a little....not an unconditional no...

Reply 11

Marie05

1

just thought i'd mention this concerning GCSE / BMAT scores for Oxford interview. What Johnny C explained is correct (to what it says on the Oxford website) but when i applied to oxford, got invited for interview and then rejected....i started to notice that if you had done amazingly well at GCSEs(eg 12 A*s) and didnt perform on the BMAT (eg 18 - which is average), you were most likely to be rejected without interview. I compared my GCSEs to a lot of rejected without interview peeps and mine were often not as good, and my BMAT wasnt amazing..BUT was good enough considering how well i did at GCSE/school i went to...does that make sense? So i concluded Oxford really care about what sort of education/school you attended and try their best not to discriminate.

Just thought id mention that. I respect Oxford.

Reply 12

Landy3693

I got a similar impression when i went to oxford open day from the admissions tutor. He was asked by someone who was clearly from private school whether it was true that oxford favoured people from state school. He was a bit uncomfortable when answering and in the end tried making the point that if a starving refugee with little education managed to achieve slightly worse results than someone "with every educational benefit" is it not more of an achivement. Although he put it somewhat unusually he made it fairly clear they take your standard of education into account, and in my opinion rightly so. The government have put some pressure on oxbridge to admit more state educated students, so it doesn't suprise me that this is the result.

Reply 13

I think Oxford are very fair in terms of interviewing and the offers they make. I really think its important to give special consideration to those who have attended bad schools and oxbridge generally do that quite well through their access schemes.

What hacks me off a little bit tho is the government setting oxbridge quotas on the percentage of state and private students they can accept. Many sixth form colleges are equivalent to or outperform many private schools (academically speaking). For this reason, it would be fair for all if the majority of oxbridge applicants were assessed on academic potential alone. I know this is what oxbridge say happens, but when they are being forced to meet quotas, how can this be true?

Conflicting Interests: Went to a private school (only because of a scholarship), got rejected from oxford :biggrin:

Reply 14

How do you separate out academic potential from the rest of the stuff that goes hand in hand with a better school - be it state or private - such as interview coaching, having academic support and allowing confidence in abilty to grow, the specific 'getting in to OxBridge' coaching sessions, etc?

Reply 15

Fluffy

How do you separate out academic potential from the rest of the stuff that goes hand in hand with a better school - be it state or private - such as interview coaching, having academic support and allowing confidence in abilty to grow, the specific 'getting in to OxBridge' coaching sessions, etc?

Having interviews that are designed such that those with "interview coaching" etc. have little or no advantage. Having interviewers who are interested in the academic potential of interviewees, not how confident or well-trained for interviews they are.

Btw, my one "getting into oxbridge" session couldn't have prepared me worse for my interviews at Oxford. It was made out that they were going to ask me lots of questions about books I had read and what I did in my free time, when the reality of oxbridge interviews is that they are an academic grilling from the second you walk in the room

P.S. I seem to be getting some bad rep for participating in this thread so I think this'll be my last post here :smile:

Reply 16

Johnny C.

Having interviews that are designed such that those with "interview coaching" etc. have little or no advantage. Having interviewers who are interested in the academic potential of interviewees, not how confident or well-trained for interviews they are.

Btw, my one "getting into oxbridge" session couldn't have prepared me worse for my interviews at Oxford. It was made out that they were going to ask me lots of questions about books I had read and what I did in my free time, when the reality of oxbridge interviews is that they are an academic grilling from the second you walk in the room

P.S. I seem to be getting some bad rep for participating in this thread so I think this'll be my last post here :smile:

Some schools start coaching from 1st year...

I didn't ask for blue sky thought - I asked for specifics - how exactly would you do it? It's impossible to remove the effects of nurture from academic potential - after all potential is usually something that still has to be unlocked...

Reply 17

As happens at Oxbridge interviews already:
The interviewers ask questions that draw on knowledge all applicants have, but require them to apply that knowledge to abstract or unfamiliar problems. There is little or no coaching that can prepare people to deal with these questions, because they are by definition "unfamiliar".
Secondly having interviewers who don't care that you:
a) sit upright
b) put your hands on your lap, don't cross your arms
c) have a nice suit
d) Look them in the eye when talking
e) shake their hands when you leave

Reply 18

Johnny C.

As happens at Oxbridge interviews already:
The interviewers ask questions that draw on knowledge all applicants have, but require them to apply that knowledge to abstract or unfamiliar problems. There is little or no coaching that can prepare people to deal with these questions, because they are by definition "unfamiliar".
Secondly having interviewers who don't care that you:
a) sit upright
b) put your hands on your lap, don't cross your arms
c) have a nice suit
d) Look them in the eye when talking
e) shake their hands when you leave

Please - even asking 'surprise' questions, does not remove the bias... It's 'easy' to adapt what you know to most situations, especially with regard to 'coaching'.

And with regards to your last two points - there is a body on information which relates these characteristics with a) lying and b) psychopathic tendencies...

On the whole, and removing the OxBridge/academia thing, medicine is about all round ability, not academic ability...

Reply 19