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GCSE's for medicine

I'm desperate to study medicine but am sitting my GCSE's now and pretty sure I'm going to get all As and Bs (which i know is bad news)
Is there anything i can do know to improve my chances (aside from work experience which I'm currently doing in a special needs school)?? or have I blown my chances already?
Thank you!
Original post by Ellieeeee12345
I'm desperate to study medicine but am sitting my GCSE's now and pretty sure I'm going to get all As and Bs (which i know is bad news)
Is there anything i can do know to improve my chances (aside from work experience which I'm currently doing in a special needs school)?? or have I blown my chances already?
Thank you!


As and Bs are not the end of the world. For now, focus on doing as well as you can in your exams and see what results day brings.
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Avatar for Jakir
Jakir
14
Original post by Ellieeeee12345
I'm desperate to study medicine but am sitting my GCSE's now and pretty sure I'm going to get all As and Bs (which i know is bad news)
Is there anything i can do know to improve my chances (aside from work experience which I'm currently doing in a special needs school)?? or have I blown my chances already?
Thank you!


Medicine is not just about your grades - it's about you. Improve school activities and outer school sports clubs etc. Get good medical work experience even if you have to pay. Good luck :biggrin:
Original post by Jakir
Medicine is not just about your grades - it's about you. Improve school activities and outer school sports clubs etc. Get good medical work experience even if you have to pay. Good luck

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Original post by ForestCat
As and Bs are not the end of the world. For now, focus on doing as well as you can in your exams and see what results day brings.


Thank you! i guess I've just read a lot on how competitive the course is and have become disheartened :smile:
Original post by Ellieeeee12345
Thank you! i guess I've just read a lot on how competitive the course is and have become disheartened :smile:


It is competitive, but very few things would ever rule you out completely. Good luck with your exams!
My school always gave the advice that if you don't get at least 6A*s at GCSE then don't bother applying, and to be competitive you need at least 7. Think Birmingham and maybe Nottingham operate or operated an 8A* cutoff too. We always had a fair number of would-be medics too, about 15% of the year, so they had quite a lot of experience with it. That said I don't doubt that if you offered high UKCAT scores and good A level grades you could have a good shot applying post A level. Bear in mind every single applicant who stands a chance will have done work experience/shadowing, so it's hard to stand out in this respect, it's more of a box tick. Maybe the requirements were stricter with people from my school because of its reputation, but at the same time it was a top priority of the school to get as many people into university as possible, and it preferred to get people in for something than to have them try and fail for medicine.

If you got mostly A*s at A level and 700+ on UKCAT that should help offset it though.

Btw I don't study medicine but I was planning on studying it up until year 12 so I went to all the help sessions at school and everything, plus I have a lot of medic friends...none of this makes me an authority though and I implore people to correct me if they have more information.

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