Medicine at Cambridge too ambitious?

I understand that. The main reason I want to study at Cambridge is because of its traditional teaching style, which I believe would be best suited to me and my style of learning. In addition to this, the use of tutorials and a scientific/academic emphasis appeals to me. I know and have been told about the “med is med” mindset but if I’m going to apply to university I feel as though it should be one I’m happy going to and one which I know suits me and helps me fulfil my potential. It may be Cambridge for some and it may not be for others, that’s okay.

Thank you for your response.
I have taken all things said on board. I assure you my reasoning to apply to Cambridge goes well beyond its prestige but never mind. Despite the fact I will be disadvantaged by my GCSE grades, I am still motivated to apply to Cambridge and will put in the effort needed to prove myself. Thanks once again.

Currently Y12 student studying maths, biology and chemistry. Aspiring to do medicine. Thinking about applying to top unis. I kind of gave up on my hope to apply to Cambridge after receiving my GCSE results which I was somewhat disappointed with. I am also thinking of Imperial and UCL and I am pretty sure they don’t look at GCSEs, mostly just UCAT. My GCSEs are:
9: Biology
9: Chemistry
9: Physics
8: Maths
8: German
7: Geography
7: Religious Studies
7: English Lit
6: English Lang
5: Business
I understand that Cambridge looks at the whole application holistically (including GCSEs) but I completed them at a high achieving grammar school so that kind of works against me. To be honest I was just lazy and not serious enough last year. I am doing well now however. On track for A*/As in my predicted grades. In addition to this I am currently partaking in many super curricular activities and am also doing volunteering. I have seen similar posts on TSR (albeit with slightly better grades) asking the same question and many retaking and people saying not to bother. Considering almost everyone at Cambridge has strings of 8s and 9s at GCSE and medicine is an especially competitive course, should I become more realistic? Should I retake (I’ve been thinking about English Language and Business, perhaps R.S.)? Should I Just not bother about Cambridge and just strengthen my application for other universities. I don’t want to regret it if I don’t apply and I know I can strengthen other areas of my application. Also how important are extra-curriculars like sports and music?, I’ve kind of stopped everything this year. HEEELP. Thank you.

I am genuinely curious if you, or anyone else for that matter, thinks that retakes in my two lowest GCSEs would be worthwhile, and would appreciate any advice on that aspect.

Happy to see this! I applied for med at Cambridge this year, and I had teachers criticise it. Yes med is med, but at the end of the day if you’re lucky enough to have realistic options (which I thankfully was), then just apply where you’d like! I am really keen on research and intercalation which are reasons why I applied, but also I just really wanted a Uni with surroundings that made me happy (mainly greenery and gardens and not more modern buildings, don’t know modern architecture makes me feel gloomy haha), and with the fact that medicine will be a demanding degree at times I think being somewhere you’re comfortable is best. That being said try and refrain from making it your only goal in your mind in case your UCAT is disappointing and it’s not as realistic.
In terms of resits I can’t offer much advice sorry. Considering it’s your sciences where you have 9s I don’t think it would make you a definite no, but then again Cambridge is quite ambiguous at times. I think your best chance is smashing UCAT and having good supercurriculars and predicteds, therefore making your whole application stronger and also relevant to other med schools. If any I’d resit to english language, I don’t think they will care much for business gcse.

While Oxford is not suggested with your GCSE results, Cambridge is still a possibility, if you have a good UCAT. Though post interview offer at Cambridge stands at 21-24%. Their holistic review of GCSE is slightly lower compared to A and UCAT, but it's still one components of review.
UCAT is the key to med schools, as it stands unfortunately. So apart from academic, super curricular activities, you need to ensure you achieve high at UCAT.
Coming back to Traditional teaching, apart from Oxbridge, UCL offer traditional teaching too. St Andrew does a mix of traditional and some clinical in the first 3 years, remaining years of clinical will be done at partner unis.
As for Cambridge or or, it's prestige to be able to get into Oxbridge but reality is that no one would ask where you graduate from at F1 and beyond.

I'm Scottish (how could you have guessed 🤣) so I can't give much advice on GCSE retakes as we don't do retakes here in Scotland.
If you think you will end up getting a higher score than your last, your school will let you and you it won't have a negative impact on your a-levels, I don't see why not.

Thanks so much for the reply! I completely agree with you with the fact that modern architecture can be somewhat dulling. Do you mind telling me your GCSEs and UCAT score, I’m just wondering what kind of score would be needed to compensate for my GCSEs. Also can I ask what super curricular activities you completed and mentioned.
I wish you the best of luck with your application this year!

Yeah of course. I may look daunting tho as one of the ‘straight a students’, but they do stress that they are very holistic and I think I’ve seen people in past years who had 6s in some GCSEs get in.
I got 14 A*s GCSEs (welsh) and then a UCAT of 3230 B1. Which was much higher than I was expecting. I was aiming for 2800+ which is usually around top 20%. I haven’t seen many people online who got an interview yet to see what the average ucat scores were. I don’t think I was at the lower end at least, I’d say if they were mean they’d have a estimate ish cutoff of around 3000, and I think if they’re more generous 2800ish plus. Again I *think* if you have a high UCAT score this may compensate for lower GCSEs and vice versa.
That being said UCAT scoring is changing for your year (abstract reasoning has been taken out). So yours will be out of 2700. If we say 2800-3600 was roughly 80%, I’d give you a goal of 2160 out of 2700, which is roughly 720 per subsection (out of 900 each). I know this is all estimates but it’s also Cambridges first year using UCAT for me so no one knows how much emphasis they have on it. So for the sake of Cambridge and just increasing chances of getting in everywhere I’d try and aim for 700+ in each subsection average.
Supercurriculars I did loads 😂 but I think you should focus in on a few that interest you. I read some books, watched webinars, did science olympiads if I could, essay competitions, summer schools, documentaries, podcasts… a lot! I’d choose a couple that interest you, and if you for example read a book that really interests you, develop this further by looking into something else on that subject and sort of grow on your academic interests. For example reading a book on cancer, then you’re interested in a treatment they mentioned so you watch a ted talk on it, which leads you on to an article on xyz… I only mentioned a few of these things in my statement. Honestly just pick the ones you enjoy and you’ll be able to write reflectively well on them!
Hope this helps

Can I ask how you prepared for the UCAT to get such a high score, like how long did u spend and what resources did you use. Thank you!

Do you realise that it doesn't matter where you train to be a doctor - its exactly the same qualification.
The NHS is not going to ask 'which Uni', and neither will your future patients. And no-one curtseys to you in the corridor just because you went to Cambridge.