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How to become a doctor with these grades?

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Original post by 09craige
You literally have no chance. I was told I would never make it as a doctor and I got 8 a's and 4 b's


who ever told you that is a ****ing **** who does not have a clue. I have friends who got worse and are doing medicine. You just wouldn't be able to apply to 25% of medical schools with those grades. thats it.
Reply 41
I think it's easy to look at your results and say "Give up now" or "People that get much higher grades don't get in" but I don't think that will be helpful to you in any way.

If you're set on wanting to do medicine then it'll probably be a good idea to possibly re-sit some of those exams. There's heavier emphasis on GCSE's now that AS grades no longer play a big role in the application process so I would highly recommend speaking to someone in your Sixth Form/College about re-sitting to give yourself a better chance. I know some Sixth Forms/Colleges do allow you to re-sit while doing your AS Levels, provided you'd be willing to do the work in your own time.

Then I'd say focus on getting good AS grades throughout the year and if the school you go to does AS exams at the end of Year 12, the higher you score the better chance you have at getting higher predicted grades.

It will be a lot of work but if medicine is what you want to pursue then I say go for it. If you can get experience in a hospital/GP environment to get a feel for the job then I'd encourage you do it. It will help consolidate if medicine is the right course for you.

Best of luck!:smile:
Reply 42
Original post by moshe015
Sorry I'll explain. Theoretically with: English retake, top A levels and wise appliying you could have a chance. The problem is that if you were not capable of getting better GCSEs than those then you won't be able to achieve As in bio and chem and even if you did you could not cope with med school so yea, no realistic chance.

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Original post by Mathsmad123
You have 2 UK unis only. Plymouth and exeter (for exeter you will need at least A*A*A at a level) If you had a B in english language you'd have more options available. So retake this and see if unis will accept it?


Most medical schools don't accept resits, even for GCSEs
(edited 7 years ago)
You still have a chance. ignore the people saying you don't. Go through the GCSE requirements for each uni, and email any unis to ask if they will consider you resitting English ( you will almost definitely need to resit to stand a chance).

You won't have a shot at getting into any uni that considers GCSE's, so your UKCAT/BMAT will need to be very good, and make sure your personal statement and A-level predictions are as good as they can be.
You have a decreased chance among the many applicants who have straight A's in their GSCE's. The other sections of your application will have to be stellar for you to even be considered (PS, interviews, work experience UKCAT/ BMAT).

The majority of posters here have said that either your chances are very low or that you don't stand a chance. I know it's not what you want to hear of course but make sure your 5th non-medicine UCAS choice is a degree that you will enjoy.
Why do you want to be a doctor?
Reply 46
Original post by Hutch28
Most medical schools don't accept resits, even for GCSEs


Unless OP applies for foundation year, which they can resit their GCSE, but not A-levels (such as Nottingham, which one of the admission tutor told us during summer school).
Reply 47
Original post by kkboyk
Unless OP applies for foundation year, which they can resit their GCSE, but not A-levels (such as Nottingham, which one of the admission tutor told us during summer school).


All universities are different and even going for a foundation year course doesn't guarantee all will accept GCSE resits(if they even offer a foundation year).

At the end of the day it will say on their website the entry requirements. It doesn't hurt to resit it(so long as it won't distract you from your A Levels), as both would need to go on UCAS anyway so the unis will know and have both grades, it just depends whether they will allow it.
Original post by GradeA*UnderA
Nope, they don't really care. Maybe you mean Oxford?


Nah I'm pretty sure in regards to medicine they are both GCSE heavy. I remember on the Cambridge website they had some stats about avg number of GCSE's per applicant and they were pretty high but I can't find it now.

In general oxford is more GCSE heavy than Cambridge though.
To be completely honest with you, your chance of medicine is quite low simply because very few medical schools accept C in English language. That doesn't mean that's the end of it. If you achieve great A levels and UKCAT you can apply to unis that don't care about GCSEs but your options are extremely limited for which medical schools you want to apply to. Most medical schools require a B minimum in maths and English
Reply 50
Original post by najama_
What? Why is everyone else saying i have absolute no chance?


because we tried/ saw people try lol
Original post by alldayniqqa
Nah I'm pretty sure in regards to medicine they are both GCSE heavy. I remember on the Cambridge website they had some stats about avg number of GCSE's per applicant and they were pretty high but I can't find it now.

In general oxford is more GCSE heavy than Cambridge though.


That's more to do with the fact that people who achieve A*A*A are very likely to have good GCSE grades, hence the averages, rather than it being an absolute requirement.
Original post by najama_
My gcse grades are
B - english lit
B- religous studies
C- sociology
C- english langauge (2 marks off a b but they wouldn't care anyway)
B- Maths
2 B's for science
E- art
E- media.
I will be doing a levels next year, hoping to get A's.
I want to pick biology, chemistry and religous studies.


No chance u havent even picked maths for a level
Original post by Mr Dee Mented
No chance u havent even picked maths for a level


And that is relevant how?!
Original post by ForestCat
And that is relevant how?!


No uni is gonna take someone with those grades and is not doing maths - well none of the good unis will anyway?

Why do you come across as being argumentative? Chill - she asked for opinions she got it!
Original post by Mr Dee Mented
No uni is gonna take someone with those grades and is not doing maths - well none of the good unis will anyway?

Why do you come across as being argumentative? Chill - she asked for opinions she got it!


Yeah, she got your opinion. It is certainly not fact. Apart from one college at Cambridge, no university requires maths for medicine. Nor is there some kind of preference for it.
Original post by najama_
My gcse grades are
B - english lit
B- religous studies
C- sociology
C- english langauge (2 marks off a b but they wouldn't care anyway)
B- Maths
2 B's for science
E- art
E- media.
I will be doing a levels next year, hoping to get A's.
I want to pick biology, chemistry and religous studies.


With 5B grades, 2C grades and 2E grades it will be very very hard for you to get accepted into medicine, there is no point me lying to you here.
What will hold you back most is by far your C in english language, in fact most medical schools require a minimum of a B, and a lot of them will not take GCSE retakes into consideration, so if you are going to apply for medicine resit english language and make sure you do your research before you apply and check and triple check that you meet the universities requirements.

I always say this to people who post similar threads, your GCSE performance is very much below average of that of a medicine applicant. You need to stand back and have a good look at yourself, did you try hard for these GCSEs? did you just turn up without revision? Alevels are much harder (believe me) and getting an A at Alevel after 2Bs in dual award science is going to be very hard unless you work solidly. If you worked really hard for your GCSEs then do you really think you will be able to get the A grade? Medicine is a highly saturated course where AAA/A*AA is the minimum, and 95% of applicants will likely achieve this. I say this because there really is no point in you wasting time and energy on undergraduate medicine if you are not going to get AAA as then you will be back at square one. If your willing to work then I wish you the best of luck but be honest with yourself!

Original post by hello654321
many unis don't have gcse requirements. maths is fine but you may need to retake eng lang especially and aim for a b grade, seems like you could do it


Imperial is the only medical school with no GCSE requirements currently, sadly this individual would be excluded from most medical schools as they would not meet the minimum GCSE requirements (this is before even being deemed competitive enough to be invited to interview) - medicine is very very competitive.

Original post by najama_
But, isn't the minimum requirement 5 A's. That's sad. I have been told though that if you do bio med, and get 2:2, you can transition to medicine.


The minimum required differs from university to university.
You would likely need a 2:1 or above to get into grad medicine, and even then this is very very competitive and expensive.

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