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Med School A Level Requirements

I'm an incoming sixth form student for next year and I have goals of applying to med school. My current A Levels are Chem, Bio and Sports/ Exercise Sciences. Most unis state that they want Bio and/or Chem, but normally don't specify what 3rd A level they want. Is sport sciences acceptable for someone who wants to apply to medicine? It's a subject I'm interested in and I already meet the requirements for the practical elements.

Before anybody says to take maths, I am moving to the UK from Canada so my maths knowledge is very far behind. It is also not my strongest subject. I am working on improving it, though, and am catching up in Chem and Bio.

Reply 1

Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. :biggrin:

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The "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread
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Medicine A-Level subjects queries
Work Experience and Voluntary Work

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Official Undergraduate Medicine 2024 Entry
Graduate Entry Medicine 2024 Entry
GAMSAT 2024 / 2025 entry discussions megathread
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Medicine 2024 entry for resit / retake / gap year applicants
A100 Medicine for International Students 2024 Entry
Medicine Interview Discussion 2024 Entry
2024 entry A100 / A101 Medicine fastest and slowest offer senders
Medical Schools Index 2024 Entry

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Official Thread: (Undergraduate) Medicine 2025 entry
Official Thread: Graduate Entry Medicine 2025 Entry
GAMSAT 2025 / 2026 entry discussions megathread
UCAT 2025 Entry Discussions Megathread
Medicine 2025 entry for resit/ retake/ gap year applicants
A100 Medicine for International Students 2025 Entry
Medicine Interview Discussion 2025 Entry
2025 entry A100/ A101 Medicine fastest and slowest offer senders
Medical Schools Index 2025 Entry

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Official Thread: (Undergraduate) Medicine 2026 entry
Official Thread: Graduate Entry Medicine 2026 Entry

Useful Articles:
GCSE Requirements for Medicine
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Work Experience as a Graduate or Mature student
Medicine Personal Statement Advice
Medicine Personal Statement Advice (Graduate Entry)
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What to do after an unsuccessful first application
Funding medicine as a second degree

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Reply 2

Original post
by Sisi_Char
I'm an incoming sixth form student for next year and I have goals of applying to med school. My current A Levels are Chem, Bio and Sports/ Exercise Sciences. Most unis state that they want Bio and/or Chem, but normally don't specify what 3rd A level they want. Is sport sciences acceptable for someone who wants to apply to medicine? It's a subject I'm interested in and I already meet the requirements for the practical elements.
Before anybody says to take maths, I am moving to the UK from Canada so my maths knowledge is very far behind. It is also not my strongest subject. I am working on improving it, though, and am catching up in Chem and Bio.

don't need maths unless you want to apply to the top unis ( oxford/ Cambridge )

as long as you have chemistry your options are very wide and even more so with biology aswell

i think with bio and chem you can apply to nearly every med school apart from oxbridge as far as I'm aware ( 99 percent sure )

regarding pe - they don't normally care abt your third if you can get an A in it then its a good choice ( also pe alevel the bio side overlaps with alevel bio ) so it should be a good choice!!!!

hope this helps I'm also same age a you so

Reply 3

Original post
by Sisi_Char
I'm an incoming sixth form student for next year and I have goals of applying to med school. My current A Levels are Chem, Bio and Sports/ Exercise Sciences. Most unis state that they want Bio and/or Chem, but normally don't specify what 3rd A level they want. Is sport sciences acceptable for someone who wants to apply to medicine? It's a subject I'm interested in and I already meet the requirements for the practical elements.
Before anybody says to take maths, I am moving to the UK from Canada so my maths knowledge is very far behind. It is also not my strongest subject. I am working on improving it, though, and am catching up in Chem and Bio.

Hey, dont worry!! most unis say Chem is mandatory and Bio too. The third can be anything, i know a few people doing medicine and dentistry who had subjects like English, Humanities and Arts as their third!! As long as you get A*AA minimum in your A levels, a good predicted grade for end of year 12 mocks and a good UCAT score, your all good

Reply 4

Original post
by arnav_1630
Hey, dont worry!! most unis say Chem is mandatory and Bio too. The third can be anything, i know a few people doing medicine and dentistry who had subjects like English, Humanities and Arts as their third!! As long as you get A*AA minimum in your A levels, a good predicted grade for end of year 12 mocks and a good UCAT score, your all good

Hey what do you mean by end of year 12 mocks. Our school does AS official exams r those end of yr 12 mocks because the highest u can get is an A . We have Jan mocks but I don’t know why we have AS exams ?? So which is the predicted ucas grade??
(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 5

Hi I would look at specific course requirements for each of the unis. Some require a humanities subject or maths as a third subject. Our daughter had to change her A level choice (wanted to do same as you) because her uni choice wouldn't accept PE / Sports Science as the third subject. She opted for psychology for the third A level. Really is dependent on each uni so definitely worth trawling through the course requirements for all of them. Good luck!

Reply 6

Maths is not normally required as an A level BUT you generally do have to have a GCSE level 6 or equivalent in Maths and English. If you are moving from another system so won’t have these GCSEs you might want to contact the medical schools you are interested in to determine if you need to show an alternative.

Reply 7

Original post
by Logic1
Hey what do you mean by end of year 12 mocks. Our school does AS official exams r those end of yr 12 mocks because the highest u can get is an A . We have Jan mocks but I don’t know why we have AS exams ?? So which is the predicted ucas grade??

Our school doesn't do AS official exams, but if yours do, they will most likely use the AS exams for the predicted UCAS grade, check with your teachers

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