Official: Brighton and Sussex (BSMS) A100 2023 Entry Applicants and Offer Holders

Hello, Just wondering, with the new scoring system this year does a minimum score of 6 in bmat section 2 mean 3.0 on the BMAT as this converts to a score of 6 on the system or does it mean a raw score of 6.0 or above? Thanks

On their website it said “As part of our agenda to widen participation to medicine, we aim to reserve 30% of interviews for applicants with contextual data. To select for interview, we rank applicants based on their BMAT score, with top ranking candidates invited to interview. Applicants with contextual data are ranked separately from the wider applicant pool.”
Does that mean that it might be more competitive for contextual applicants because they’re fighting for only 30% of the interview places. And how does this work? Because it’s a BMAT shortlisting uni so doesn’t everyone who meets minimum GCSE and A level requirements and the BMAT cutoff get interviews anyway? What if there are more than 30% contextual applicants who meet requirements for interviews? I’m kind of confused?

It is not more competitive for contextual students as less than 30% of applications would be contextual.

There is a lower BMAT cut-off for contextual students.

On their website it said “As part of our agenda to widen participation to medicine, we aim to reserve 30% of interviews for applicants with contextual data. To select for interview, we rank applicants based on their BMAT score, with top ranking candidates invited to interview. Applicants with contextual data are ranked separately from the wider applicant pool.”
Does that mean that it might be more competitive for contextual applicants because they’re fighting for only 30% of the interview places. And how does this work? Because it’s a BMAT shortlisting uni so doesn’t everyone who meets minimum GCSE and A level requirements and the BMAT cutoff get interviews anyway? What if there are more than 30% contextual applicants who meet requirements for interviews? I’m kind of confused?

As said, it is likely that less than 30% of applicants will be contextual. Regarding cutoffs, contextual applicants will be ranked separately to non-contextuals. Cutoffs are set based on how many they want to interview, once they have all BMAT scores, e.g. if they want to interview 100 people and only 100 applicants get a score of, say, 18 or above, 18 will be the cutoff. So they will never have more people meeting the cutoff than interview spaces because the cutoff will be set such that they are the same number. Does that make sense?

What is the cut off likely to be like this year? It was 17.3 last year so will it go up or remain stable

Hey,

It might be a bit hard to predict because they are putting more emphasis on section 2 this year (doubling you're score for section 2) so there's more weighting on it. This wasn't the case last year so I think it might be a bit difficult to predict.

I’m guessing you’re applying to Brighton this year. What other choices have you put down

Yes I am- also did last year but rejected pre interview
It seems we have put down similar options this year- I think I recognise you from the HYMS thread!
HYMS
Brighton
UEA
KMMS
How about you?

Lancaster , Brighton, UEA and Plymouth I think. I have Liverpool as one of my choices but I think I’m gonna switch it to Brighton. I did pretty well in my bmat last year so hoping to replicate again this year

Ah okie, so two unis in common
Best of luck with the exam!!! I'm sure you'll smash it!