Medical School

Hi,

I’m also interested in medicine and got my results on Thursday, and one of the first things I did was compare my results to the medical school GCSE requirements which you can find on loads of different websites (happy to say I meet all of them), but it’s worth noting that a lot of medical schools have very basic GCSE requirements like 6s in Chemistry Biology Maths and English for example. Not all medical schools use GCSE grades as part of the decisions for offers, but as a basic screening, although having competitive grades will help if you apply to medical schools that use a hollistic approach to giving offers.

Personally I’d say that if you have at least 5 6s including Chemistry Biology Maths and English, there’s little point retaking GCSEs. I got 5 9s and 4 8s but got a 3 in art, I’m not retaking it because no university would take too much note over 1 bad grade in a non essential subject. If you don’t meet the requirements then consider retaking, I know a lot of universities don’t like people retaking A levels (some dont even consider A level retakes), so I’d imagine retaking MIGHT put you at a disadvantage, but you should probably email the admissions offices of different medical schools to find out.

I'm not aware of any medical schools with particular concerns over GCSE retakes; A-level retakes aren't accepted by some medical schools (although 18 currently do accept A-level retakes, in various manners). Perhaps contact the medical schools you are considering applying to and ask them directly what their policy on GCSE retakes is. Bear in mind some may have specific requirements of a particular grade in e.g. maths or English language; if this is the case, you will need to meet this before you start the course. If your GCSE Maths or English is below a B (6) you may want to consider retaking that.

Also not all medical schools weigh GCSEs that heavily - for example Cambridge don't put much weight on them. Provided you do well in A-levels and UCAT/BMAT you will still potentially be able to apply to medicine, as long as you do your research to identify the medical schools which don't put much weight on GCSEs and which do weigh more heavily the aspects of your application that are stronger (e.g. UCAT score, for example).

You'd be surprised! Edinburgh have scored GCSEs for years and last year your 3 in Art would have dropped your score drom 10 to 2!!
Also have an effect on your likelihood of an interview at Oxford.

However, you are generally right that the odd bad grade will not affect your chances at most med schools adn a resit is not worth it

Yeah I did an access to medicine course with Lancaster University and they said they don’t consider GCSEs as anything more than a basic screening process, and yeah I know for some of the more competitive/prestigious universities it’d knock me back but I’m not planning to apply to them

The most competitive med schools are BSMS, Aberdeen, Dundee, ARU, UCLan and Bristol, all of which have pretty basic minimum GCSE requirements!
The way med schools select applicants for interview is very idiosyncratic and bears no resemblance to their competition ratios. For medicine in the UK, no med school is considered more pestigious than any other

Fair enough, I’m going to email about and see what different admissions offices think but I really don’t think one D would hold me back too much in most cases.

Nope, it absolutely won't!
Your original post just said "no university would take too much note over 1 bad grade in a non essential subject" and there are just one or 2 where they will

Can you still go to Medicine if you didn't do that great in your GCSE's but got A*A*A* at A-level?

brooooo ive been thinking about that since results day. What did you get for your gcses? as in top 8?