Applying to medicine without perfect grades

1

Hi! Can a medical student please advise me on how to strategically apply to med school without perfect grades. I see a lot of med students with all 9s at GCSEs and all A* at A level and to be honest it can be a little disheartening. I only have 9(RE), 9(English Literature), 9 (History), 8-8(Combined Science), 7 (Spanish), 7(Geography), 7(English Language), 6 (Maths), 5 (Computer science) at GCSEs, obviously good grades but there's med applicants with even better grades. Tell me specifically what I can do to make my application more competitive and how to apply strategically please!!!!

Reply 1

user070711

6

Original post

by saldana5

Hi! Can a medical student please advise me on how to strategically apply to med school without perfect grades. I see a lot of med students with all 9s at GCSEs and all A* at A level and to be honest it can be a little disheartening. I only have 9(RE), 9(English Literature), 9 (History), 8-8(Combined Science), 7 (Spanish), 7(Geography), 7(English Language), 6 (Maths), 5 (Computer science) at GCSEs, obviously good grades but there's med applicants with even better grades. Tell me specifically what I can do to make my application more competitive and how to apply strategically please!!!!

Hi! I’m not a medical student but I have applied this year with similar grades to yours. I’ve received offers for interviews from all my universities and am currently waiting on responses. But after you’ve received an interview your grades don’t matter much then! If you look on websites like medicmind and the UKCAT people, they all tell you entry requirements and universities that actually care about gcses. The most important thing is definitely the UCAT for the majority of universities but i know places like Lancaster do appreciate higher grades. I applied to Hull York, Brighton & Sussex, Bangor and Sunderland. The best way to strategically apply is definitely research. All universities are very open about their requirements for medicine! I hope this helped :smile:

Reply 2

user070711

6

Original post

by saldana5

Hi! Can a medical student please advise me on how to strategically apply to med school without perfect grades. I see a lot of med students with all 9s at GCSEs and all A* at A level and to be honest it can be a little disheartening. I only have 9(RE), 9(English Literature), 9 (History), 8-8(Combined Science), 7 (Spanish), 7(Geography), 7(English Language), 6 (Maths), 5 (Computer science) at GCSEs, obviously good grades but there's med applicants with even better grades. Tell me specifically what I can do to make my application more competitive and how to apply strategically please!!!!

In terms of making your application more competitive - work experience is always the best way to go! It shows you’re dedicated and that you have an idea of what the future as a doctor might look like for you. But, the fact that not everybody will be able to do work experience is appreciated! If you haven’t done any it’s not the end of the world - having extra curriculars or things you’re passionate about are really useful for medical schools because it shows you’re a motivated person and have skills that are applicable to a medical / hospital environment x

Reply 3

chewy55555

6

Not a medical student, but I currently have offers to study medicine at Edinburgh and Cardiff next year. (Still waiting for Plymouth and Bristol)

It's very important that you do your research. Go onto a bunch of Universities sites and look exactly what metrics they use to measure an application. You want to be looking for universities that don't look at your GCSEs whatsoever and you should be absolutely fine. For example, Cardiff use GCSEs heavily so don't apply there or you won't get an interview.

It can also be really useful to go to a bunch of university open days, often they will have a station dedicated purely to the application and academics and you can talk to someone in their admissions office about your situation. For example, I visited Bristol, Plymouth, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Southampton, Nottingham, Keele and Birmingham before applying.

There are two other very important metrics when it comes to academics: Your predicted A levels and your UCAT

Obviously you want to be trying to aim for A*A*A* but you would probably be safe with AAA. Again look how universities score them, if it is just a cut off then AAA is fine. If it is a scoring system then you probably need slightly higher.

Your UCAT is probably one of the most important things in you application. Some universities won't even look at your GCSEs and give offers purely on your UCAT and/or A level predicted. For example, Bristol give interviews purely on their UCAT cut off (3010 this year). So try and do as best you can on that. I took mine right before the start of Y13 in September and got a 3220 (basically meant I was guaranteed an interview). I used Medify which I found was a really good website but there are plenty of others out there. Again lots of information on how to revise for UCAT online and at open days.

Academics are important for receiving an interview. Apply to universities that most suite your academics (depends on how heavily they weight A levels, GCSEs and UCAT) as you will be most likely to receive an interview. Once you have secured an interview, then it is a level playing field. Most universities will ignore all your previous academics and go solely on how you perform at interview. Get lots of practise with any doctors, healthcare professionals and teachers that are willing to help you.

Definitely something you want to be doing is work experience. Any experience/volunteering you can get in a hospital, care home or even just working (eg bar, restaurant) is amazing! You can talk about it during your personal statement and during your interview. Remember to note down things that really stand out to you. This could be how the Multidisciplinary team works together, demonstration of empathy/compassion by nurses and doctors , conversations you have had with doctors about how the NHS works and any other soft skills you've witnessed/ you've demonstrated. Stuff like this shows the interviewer that you have a good understanding of how the NHS works and makes you a strong candidate.

Try and get onto a university pathways programme close to where you live. For instance, I did Peninsula Pathways (Plymouth uni) and I got a week of work experience, a tutor and online workshops. More stuff you can talk about at interview. If you are eligible and deemed as widening access you might even get a reduced grade offer/ reduced UCAT/ guaranteed interview!

Lets say worst case scenario, your academics don't quite go the way you planned and maybe you didn't have the best UCAT score and you don't get an offer, its still ok!! Take a gap year and reapply the next year. You will be applying with your actual A levels so your GCSEs won't matter (you're actual A levels are proof that you are academically capable) and you can redo your UCAT (you aren't stuck with what you get the first time). Plus you have time during the break to improve your application so you will have a much better chance of getting an offer the second time round.

I hope this helps, don't loose hope! Just by posting this on the student room you have demonstrated how eager you are to study medicine so let nothing stop you!

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 4

medkhi9

10

Original post

by saldana5

Hi! Can a medical student please advise me on how to strategically apply to med school without perfect grades. I see a lot of med students with all 9s at GCSEs and all A* at A level and to be honest it can be a little disheartening. I only have 9(RE), 9(English Literature), 9 (History), 8-8(Combined Science), 7 (Spanish), 7(Geography), 7(English Language), 6 (Maths), 5 (Computer science) at GCSEs, obviously good grades but there's med applicants with even better grades. Tell me specifically what I can do to make my application more competitive and how to apply strategically please!!!!

Your GCSEs are fine.

Get Work experience
UCAT- get as highest as you can as it will help immensely.
Predicted grades- not too deep (depends on the unis) but depending on where you want to go AAA - A*x3.

Once you have these ( so by September of y13) look at where you can apply. Make a list of everywhere you want to go. Out of them, make sure you exceed the minimum requirements.
Use past year stats for them for unis and you should be fine.

Reply 5

medkhi9

10

Original post

by medkhi9

Your GCSEs are fine.
Get Work experience
UCAT- get as highest as you can as it will help immensely.
Predicted grades- not too deep (depends on the unis) but depending on where you want to go AAA - A*x3.
Once you have these ( so by September of y13) look at where you can apply. Make a list of everywhere you want to go. Out of them, make sure you exceed the minimum requirements.
Use past year stats for them for unis and you should be fine.

Also make sure you find out if you are contextual, that way your grades are reduced so if worse case scenario and you don’t get the triple A for Alevels you always have that reduced offer as an insurance.

Reply 6

Jonjon7

Universities Forum Helper

14

Original post

by saldana5

Hi! Can a medical student please advise me on how to strategically apply to med school without perfect grades. I see a lot of med students with all 9s at GCSEs and all A* at A level and to be honest it can be a little disheartening. I only have 9(RE), 9(English Literature), 9 (History), 8-8(Combined Science), 7 (Spanish), 7(Geography), 7(English Language), 6 (Maths), 5 (Computer science) at GCSEs, obviously good grades but there's med applicants with even better grades. Tell me specifically what I can do to make my application more competitive and how to apply strategically please!!!!

Your GCSE will be fine for a lot of med schools. Just ensure when it comes to choose your med schools, do not pick those with emphasis on GCSE scoring as part of their interview invitation process, eg. Oxford, Newcastle, Leeds (totally opaque on how they assess GCSE but good GCSEs are needed although there have been few cases of lower GCSEs applicants who were invited to interview), QUB. Some of these listed med schools also uses GCSE as post interview scoring metric, so you don't want to lose out on this - so best avoided if possible.

The two most important thing now, that you need before applying to med schools are predicted A levels and UCAT.

Unfortunately UCAT is the key to interview selection and at some med schools, used as post interview measuring metric too.

Reply 7

Jonjon7

Universities Forum Helper

14

Original post

by Jonjon7

Your GCSE will be fine for a lot of med schools. Just ensure when it comes to choose your med schools, do not pick those with emphasis on GCSE scoring as part of their interview invitation process, eg. Oxford, Newcastle, Leeds (totally opaque on how they assess GCSE but good GCSEs are needed although there have been few cases of lower GCSEs applicants who were invited to interview), QUB. Some of these listed med schools also uses GCSE as post interview scoring metric, so you don't want to lose out on this - so best avoided if possible.
The two most important thing now, that you need before applying to med schools are predicted A levels and UCAT.
Unfortunately UCAT is the key to interview selection and at some med schools, used as post interview measuring metric too.

Forgot to mention avoid Cardiff as well => GCSE scoring.

Applying to medicine without perfect grades

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