A level choices for Oxford medicine

Hi all,
I'm about to start year 12 and still don't feel very certain about my a-level choices. I'm hoping to study medicine and currently considering applying to Oxford uni as an aspirational offer. I know Oxford doesn't explicitly say Maths is necessary, but as a large proportion of their successful applicants have maths, I wanted a second opinion as to whether maths a-level is important to do.
My current choices are; Biology, Chemistry, History, English and an EPQ (if I have enough time).
I achieved a 9 in GCSE maths and an A in the FSMQ so I think I would probably be able to do maths a-level if it was a hugely important part of an application, but I don't really enjoy maths and think I would prefer to spend my time studying English.
In addition, I'm only planning on doing 3 a-levels in year 13, so would most likely be dropping English or Maths at the end of year 12 anyway. However, as I'm planning to do an EPQ, I think English might be a huge time sink and Maths might require less effort as I've already done the FSMQ (which covers the first term and a bit of a-level maths).
I want to know how important/useful it is to have maths a-level for medicine at Oxford and whether it's feasible to do my chosen 4 a-levels and an EPQ. Any advice at all would be hugely appreciated!

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Your subjects are fine but you don't need 4 and you don't need an EPQ. I'd suggest dropping one of the extra subjects and the EPQ to just do 3 A-levels - you don't get "bonus points" for doing more (I think there is one medical school that does still do this, I forget which one - maybe QUB? Not Oxford though).

Maths isn't required or preferred, you can see on their admissions pages that applicants with 2 STEM subjects vs 3 STEM subjects are similarly successful; therefore it's just a case of evidently people self-selecting out of applying to Oxford who aren't doing maths (or physics) despite it not influencing your likelihood of successfully applying.

The main factor for applying to Oxford are your GCSEs - they are extremely GCSE heavy in shortlisting and you realistically should have 10+ A* equivalent (8/9) grades with few if any As (they also shortlist based on proportion of A* equivalent grades as well as total number). If you don't have that you're probably not going to be competitive for Oxford (although equally this doesn't really matter since which medical school you go to doesn't make a difference).

Reply 2

elenat0708

Original post by artful_lounger

Your subjects are fine but you don't need 4 and you don't need an EPQ. I'd suggest dropping one of the extra subjects and the EPQ to just do 3 A-levels - you don't get "bonus points" for doing more (I think there is one medical school that does still do this, I forget which one - maybe QUB? Not Oxford though).
Maths isn't required or preferred, you can see on their admissions pages that applicants with 2 STEM subjects vs 3 STEM subjects are similarly successful; therefore it's just a case of evidently people self-selecting out of applying to Oxford who aren't doing maths (or physics) despite it not influencing your likelihood of successfully applying.
The main factor for applying to Oxford are your GCSEs - they are extremely GCSE heavy in shortlisting and you realistically should have 10+ A* equivalent (8/9) grades with few if any As (they also shortlist based on proportion of A* equivalent grades as well as total number). If you don't have that you're probably not going to be competitive for Oxford (although equally this doesn't really matter since which medical school you go to doesn't make a difference).

Thank you! So far I’ve got 9 9s and 2 8s at GCSE (plus an A in FSMQ) and will be sure to keep this in mind. I’ll definitely consider dropping another a level.

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by elenat0708

Thank you! So far I’ve got 9 9s and 2 8s at GCSE (plus an A in FSMQ) and will be sure to keep this in mind. I’ll definitely consider dropping another a level.

In that case I think if you aim to just do 3 A-levels (plus minus EPQ - it won't make a difference for Oxford but if you have a neat little project you wanted to do anyway that fits into the mould of the EPQ assessment, no reason not to!) you should have as good a chance as anyone :biggrin: