The UCL Medic

Imperial are one of the original 'big 4' medical schools that has been using the BMAT for many years. They are the only medical school that have a absolute BMAT cutoff and publish this on their website. In this post, I have explained exactly how Imperial use your BMAT score to decide whether you get an interview. The advantage of knowing this information beforehand is that you can judge how confident you are for the BMAT and then decide whether you want to apply. However, it does mean that if the BMAT doesn't do as well as you would like, your other areas can't compensate as the cutoff is a strict one.

Bonjour everyone! Please excuse the French; I have just come back from a week-long trip from Canada for a short family holiday, and the last time I actually had any knowledge of the language was back in my GCSE days (how quickly the last five years have flown...) I wanted to quickly say a big congratulations to those of you that received the A/AS level results you wanted this Thursday - I know how hard it is to get good grades in these exams! And to those of you that didn't get the grades you wanted, just remember that when one door closes, another one opens - you may not end up following your plan A, but if you keep working at it, you will end up loving it in the place that you do eventually end up. The important thing is to not let this stop you from working towards achieving your goals!

Hello everyone, hope you are all having a fantastic summer break! Before I start with the main part of the post, I just want to say a huge congratulations to those of you who got A level and GCSE results recently. The media seem to be unable to not mention the falling pass rates and grade fixing, so getting the results that you have been aiming for really deserves a celebration. For those of you concerned with Medicine applications, it is getting close to that time of year again and so I'm sure that those of you who recently got your AS results will be browsing around as to which medical schools you will be sending your application off to. 

By the time you get your AS grades, most of you will have decided that medicine is the perfect career choice for you. You will probably have done some work experience, started your personal statement and possibly even completed your UKCAT. Everything seems to be falling into place until that brown envelope is handed to you in the middle of August.  Please note that the information below is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change. Please visit the individual medical school websites for updated information.

There is a large discrepancy between medical schools as to how they use your GCSE results for their selection processes. The minimum requirements seem to be a C grade in Mathematics, English and the science subjects with most medical schools asking for B grades at a minimum. This can mean that it doesn't matter too much about your GCSEs, you can still continue with your dream of becoming a doctor! If you have good GCSE grades, then that can be a bonus. However, don't worry if they aren't amazing - they don't need to all be A* grades!

*** UPDATED for 2018 entry, information correct as of August 2017 *** The BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) is the other major admissions test used for undergraduate entry at many medical schools. Historically, it was the 'big 4' that used it i.e. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London and University College London. However, there are more universities adopting it as part of their admissions process. For 2018 entry, the list of medical schools that use it include (taken from the BMAT website): Undergraduate: Brighton and Sussex Medical School (B74)  Imperial College London (I50)  Keele University (K12) Lancaster University (L14) University College London (U80)  University of Cambridge (C05)  University of Leeds (L23)  University of Oxford (O33) Other Medicine courses: Graduate entry - University of Oxford (O33), Imperial College London (I50) Medicine with a foundation year - Keele University (K12), Lancaster University (L14)