applying for medicine with a bad english GCSE

2

Hi im a year 13 student and before my GCSE results, i wanted to pursue medicine for uni but then for my GCSEs, i got mainly 8's and 9's and 1 7 but for english i got a 5, which really put below. so i decided to not do medicine and i ended up not doing the UCAT but for year 12 AS level results i got AAAB (so predicted A*A*A* as i dropped math this year) in bio chem psychology and math, which i know is quite good. now im having second thoughts and i really do want to pursue medicine but its too late and im unsure on if i want to take a gap year, and the early applications have already closed. what should i do? is a gap year needed?? are there any other courses you could suggest as im mainly looking to work in healthcare or anything science related. i was looking at optometry, but i feel like i could aim higher as the predicted requirements are mainly AAB. please help!!

Reply 1

TSR Hippocrates

11

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

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Reply 2

Aquilegia

Universities Forum Helper

12

Original post

by beastly-microbe

Hi im a year 13 student and before my GCSE results, i wanted to pursue medicine for uni but then for my GCSEs, i got mainly 8's and 9's and 1 7 but for english i got a 5, which really put below. so i decided to not do medicine and i ended up not doing the UCAT but for year 12 AS level results i got AAAB (so predicted A*A*A* as i dropped math this year) in bio chem psychology and math, which i know is quite good. now im having second thoughts and i really do want to pursue medicine but its too late and im unsure on if i want to take a gap year, and the early applications have already closed. what should i do? is a gap year needed?? are there any other courses you could suggest as im mainly looking to work in healthcare or anything science related. i was looking at optometry, but i feel like i could aim higher as the predicted requirements are mainly AAB. please help!!

The options for applying for medicine with a 5 in GCSE maths/ English are very limited. But there are plenty of things you can do.
1) retake your English to try and get a 6 (someone I know retook twice, now has a 6, and is applying for medicine), possibly in the summer, if this wouldn't take too much time away from A levels.
2) Continue pursuing medicine, with a view to seeing what your grades are and taking a gap year. In a gap year, sit the UCAT and retake your english, if your grades are high enough. Also get a job / volunteering to help your application (eg Sunderland, Keele, put less emphasis on the UCAT and more on WExpe).
3) Apply this year to another healthcare course, you mentioned optometry. Remember you don't have to take up the place, but lets say you got AAB/ ABB, then you could take it up, because you would be unlikely to get into medicine. If you got AAA, you could take a gap year, see (2).
4) If you took another healthcare course, you could then still have med in the picture because you can apply for Grad entry (A level grades don't matter)

applying for medicine with a bad english GCSE

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