Should I have applied for Medicine despite my UCAT?

My UCAT score was a real bummer mostly because I had surgeries in summer which prevented me from studying the UCAT. My result was 2170 Band 4.
I am a Scottish S6 student, with 5 A's at Higher (Biology ,Chemistry, Computing Science, English, Maths) from S5 and predicted 3 A's at Advanced Higher (Chemistry, Computing Science and Maths).
I know I could have made a killer application for Medicine: really positive references, personal statement with my experience as a patient who has had multiple neurosurgeries. I potentially could have justified my lack of work experience and UCAT result with this; for extenuating circumstances.
The only thing keeping me back from applying for Medicine was my UCAT (I am a widening access student, so with the 10% uplift I would have had 2387. I would have also far passed the lowered entry requirements academically).
I have applied for Gateway to Medicine courses.
I'm feeling pretty bad about myself not applying because I feel like there could have been a chance for me in Scottish universities.

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 1

dddfffr

7

honestly i think you made the right choice. I think you could’ve gotten into Aberdeen medical school (potentially, only as they put ucat uplift on top 75% of candidates scores)

but my friend with a UCAT of 2390 got rejected straight away from all her scottish choices, and unfortunately most times the unis don’t really look at the other things (even your amazing experiences!) until you reach the UCAT threshold.

I wouldn’t worry about it because gateway courses lead you into medicine anyway, and everything happens for a reason!

I also hope you’re feeling better after your surgeries! and you are SO STRONG after having all those surgeries and i think that you are worthy of getting into medical school :smile:

Reply 2

stilllearning123

16

Original post by gabberb

My UCAT score was a real bummer mostly because I had surgeries in summer which prevented me from studying the UCAT. My result was 2170 Band 4.
I am a Scottish S6 student, with 5 A's at Higher (Biology ,Chemistry, Computing Science, English, Maths) from S5 and predicted 3 A's at Advanced Higher (Chemistry, Computing Science and Maths).
I know I could have made a killer application for Medicine: really positive references, personal statement with my experience as a patient who has had multiple neurosurgeries. I potentially could have justified my lack of work experience and UCAT result with this; for extenuating circumstances.
The only thing keeping me back from applying for Medicine was my UCAT (I am a widening access student, so with the 10% uplift I would have had 2387. I would have also far passed the lowered entry requirements academically).
I have applied for Gateway to Medicine courses.
I'm feeling pretty bad about myself not applying because I feel like there could have been a chance for me in Scottish universities.

I'm sorry to hear you missed out on a higher ucat score.
Are you planning on reapplying next year to undergraduate courses or are you going to try again for gateway?
It could also be the case you got a hard question bank for the ucat, it happens a lot as the questions are different depending when you take the ucat.
Best of luck.

Reply 3

paub

11

apply to aberdeens gateway.you have a good chance of getting in. the ucat will need to be resat when you apply for the full course. all the gateway students got a place in the 24 inteviews.

Should I have applied for Medicine despite my UCAT?

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