Picking A-Levels For Medicine

Im currently doing my final year of my GCSEs and now I have to choose my A-Levels. Oxbrige is what I am aiming for and I'd like to study medicine. The requirements are A*AA for Oxford and A*A*A* for Cambridge with both needing Chemistry and one of Biology, Maths, Further Maths or Physics. However, I also love computer science so I'm wondering which options would be the best for me to ger into medicine.
Currently I am thinking Chemistry (as it is essential), Computer Science (I enjoy it and I believe I could be able to get an A*), but im unsure whether to pick Biology or Maths. I pretty sure they prefer Biology but I'd like Maths more.
What are the best A-Levels to pick in my situation - should I just take all sciences or swap one for Computer Science instead?

Original post by SaamAzimi

Im currently doing my final year of my GCSEs and now I have to choose my A-Levels. Oxbrige is what I am aiming for and I'd like to study medicine. The requirements are A*AA for Oxford and A*A*A* for Cambridge with both needing Chemistry and one of Biology, Maths, Further Maths or Physics. However, I also love computer science so I'm wondering which options would be the best for me to ger into medicine.
Currently I am thinking Chemistry (as it is essential), Computer Science (I enjoy it and I believe I could be able to get an A*), but im unsure whether to pick Biology or Maths. I pretty sure they prefer Biology but I'd like Maths more.
What are the best A-Levels to pick in my situation - should I just take all sciences or swap one for Computer Science instead?

bio, chem, maths (with cs as a 4th)?
bio, chem, computer science?

Reply 2

SaamAzimi

OP

3

Original post by erin11

bio, chem, maths (with cs as a 4th)?
bio, chem, computer science?

I was originally going to pick 4 but advised not to as it could impact my scores on the others. However, im think your right and im leaning towards bio, chem and cs

Reply 3

melancollege

Universities Forum Helper

18

Just as a note that if you're applying to Cambridge Medicine, the vast majority have three Maths / Science A-Levels (of which Computer Science is not included). From 2017 to 2019, all successful applicants took Chemistry, 98% took Mathematics and 97% took Biology. The numbers for Physics are not mentioned exactly but you can assume that the number who only took two Maths / Science A-Levels is very small.

That being said, I wouldn't say that it's worth tailoring your A-Levels for Cambridge specifically. As long as you have the right A-Levels to get into a Medicine degree somewhere, it really doesn't matter which one you go to. You may also want to consider that some universities also prefer Biology A-Level.

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 4

SaamAzimi

OP

3

Original post by melancollege

Just as a note that if you're applying to Cambridge Medicine, the vast majority have three Maths / Science A-Levels (of which Computer Science is not included). From 2017 to 2019, all successful applicants took Chemistry, 98% took Mathematics and 97% took Biology. The numbers for Physics are not mentioned exactly but you can assume that the number who only took two Maths / Science A-Levels is very small.

That being said, I wouldn't say that it's worth tailoring your A-Levels for Cambridge specifically. As long as you have the right A-Levels to get into a Medicine degree somewhere, it really doesn't matter which one you go to. You may also want to consider that some universities also prefer Biology A-Level.

Thanks very much

Reply 5

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by SaamAzimi

Im currently doing my final year of my GCSEs and now I have to choose my A-Levels. Oxbrige is what I am aiming for and I'd like to study medicine. The requirements are A*AA for Oxford and A*A*A* for Cambridge with both needing Chemistry and one of Biology, Maths, Further Maths or Physics. However, I also love computer science so I'm wondering which options would be the best for me to ger into medicine.
Currently I am thinking Chemistry (as it is essential), Computer Science (I enjoy it and I believe I could be able to get an A*), but im unsure whether to pick Biology or Maths. I pretty sure they prefer Biology but I'd like Maths more.
What are the best A-Levels to pick in my situation - should I just take all sciences or swap one for Computer Science instead?

As above to be competitive for Cambridge you need three STEM subjects (CS would not count among those). Those only doing two core STEM subjects are vastly less likely to be invited to interview or to score competitively enough at interview to get an offer. Every other medical school (including Oxford) don't care what your third subject is. Note though Oxford is very GCSE heavy and if you don't have a full set of 8/9 grades you will probably not be competitive there.

You should not be getting hung up on any one medical school as it doesn't actually matter where you get your medical degree from. Medicine isn't investment banking, nobody is looking at where you graduated. In fact, the NHS (which is the only provider of graduate medical training posts in the UK) takes the GMC stance that all medical schools are equal to the logical extreme and in fact blinds recruiters from your medical school to ensure they can't see where you graduated so avoid any potential bias.

You should be choosing medical schools tactically based on your application profile, considering what your GCSE results are like, the A-level subjects you are taking, your predicted grades, UCAT score, etc. After that your major considerations should be teaching formats, location, facilities and societies/etc provision by the uni and so on. "Prestige" or "rankings" are the absolute last thing to consider (i.e. don't consider them at all).

Reply 6

McGinger

20

List of the entry requirements for all UK Med Schools for 2024 entry - uk-medical-school-entry-requirements-2024-entry.pdf (medschools.ac.uk)

Remember to spread your 4 choices - include at least one unglamorous choice like Sunderland or Edge Hill, because it doesnt matter where you train as a doctor. If you want to be a doctor for the right reasons you wont regard this as a vanity contest about just 'getting into Oxbridge.

Picking A-Levels For Medicine

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