Would I stand a chance doing medicine at Cambridge?

What will they use instead of UMS though? Nothing else seems as good a predictor.(I haven't kept up with these AS changes though, so I don't really know what's going on...)

Really? I thought there was a very strong correlation between UMS and offer (as with lots of other courses)?

Yes it has the best correlation but still...



"Very strong" is definitely over-egging it. it's generally between 0.36 and 0.48 (ignoring Maths). For medicine it's 0.38 - which is between "weak" and "moderate".

The fact is, UMS is going and we'll learn what Cambridge will do about it shortly.

For Medicine (which is what this thread is about) I suspect they won't change much because they already have an extra test in place (i.e. BMAT).

Other subjects will be more interesting...

.38 is good in this context. What is there that's as good?

And BMAT is worse than GCSE grades at predicting tripos results. Although I guess gcse and BMAT will be all the paper results they have to go on...

Yes for medics there's nothing better (although we don't know the effectiveness of interviews, for example).

But it is what it is. Cambridge wanted to keep AS-levels but no other uni's supported them - so the gov has forced through the change. I can't see them implementing so extra test for medics - but you never know.

What did they do in pre AS-level days?

Yes for medics there's nothing better (although we don't know the effectiveness of interviews, for example).

But it is what it is. Cambridge wanted to keep AS-levels but no other uni's supported them - so the gov has forced through the change. I can't see them implementing so extra test for medics - but you never know.

What did they do in pre AS-level days?

I think in an educational context such as this, you simply aren't going to see really high correlations.

There's an old PDF online showing some very old research for medicine looking at interview scores and the MVAT (BMAT precursor).

I think the correlations between interview score and Tripos performance was 0.078. (Although presumably interview score may also be factoring in stuff like "empathy" etc, which isn't tested in Tripos, which will obvs push the correlation down.)

I'll see if I can find the document. It might no longer exist on the internet though...

I think even around 10 years ago, they may not have asked for UMS. And even then, the BMAT hasn't been around that long. Might just have been GCSEs, AS grades, and interview in those days...

EDIT: Found the document: http://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/109717-medical-and-veterinary-admissions-test-validation-study.pdf

Physics has nothing to do with medicine! Its a ridiculous thought if you think you have to take physics for medicine!!!!


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