Graduate entry medicine and UKCAT advice please

**pablo86** · 06-08-2011, 05:05 PM

hi all,

i have just sat my UKCAT and scored as follows:

VR: 580
QR: 700
AR: 880
DA: 850
Average: 753

my plan is to apply to Warwick, Leicester, Southampton and Newcastle for 4yr GEM. Are these scores ok? how much of an influence will they have? and will my low VR score preclude me from any of these unis?

all advice greatly appreciated

PS: if you are due to sit the UKCAT this year, dont worry so much, the 600 book and UKCAT practice exams are much harder than the real thing

**kaodeve** · 06-08-2011, 06:30 PM

think leicester look at the lowest score so that might be an issue given your lowest is under 600. great average score though and generally 700+ is usually safe for most GEM courses.

best of luck

**rachyroo** · 07-08-2011, 08:19 PM

Leicester used to look at lowest score but have changed their system for 2012, now they give a score out of ten for total ukcat so no problems there

. Southampton only use it to skim off the bottom 25% so no worries there either, only one that may be a bit shaky is warwick as they look at individual element scores and reject those with 'significanlty low' scores. Not sure what they would class as significantly low though..

Newcastle I believe select interviewees purely on average ukcat so you're doing well there! It may be worth looking at Kings as they put a lot of emphasis on ukcat aswell. Great score though (very jealous!) well done

**kaodeve** · 07-08-2011, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by rachyroo

Leicester used to look at lowest score but have changed their system for 2012,

...

thanks for correcting/updating me...

**pablo86** · 07-08-2011, 11:21 PM

thank you both for your advice, i think i am going to stick with my original four choices then.

rachyroo- have you got any more information on the leicester selection process? at the open day they mentioned how you needed something like 18/20 in terms of application scoring (with ukcat worth 2 marks max) to get to the selection day. is this still the case?

the universities all seem quite cagey on the details for UKCAT selection...

**Weddell_Seal** · 08-08-2011, 04:23 PM

I would think you would almost certainly be safe for Newcastle, as RachyRoo says, I think they interview on the basis of UKCAT score. Kings would be a good shout as well, as they put quite a lot of emphasis on UKCAT. Last year they seemed to interview only people scoring around 730/740 +

Warwick average wise you are definitely fine. I seem to remember that they say they tend to knock out people who score 2 standard deviations below the mean on any one subtest. Not sure what mean they take though i.e. whether its the mean of everyone who takes the UKCAT or just the people who apply to Warwick. Anyway, I got 600 on AR last year for an overall average of 720 and I got an interview so hopefully you should be alright. Think warwick put a bit more of an emphasis on ps and work experience than Newcastle though.

Leicester I know nothing about, and Southampton is probably a bit of a lottery as they don't interview.

**pablo86** · 10-08-2011, 01:51 AM

i would apply to Kings and indeed some of the other London unis however realistically i dont think it is a financially viable option for me and in view of the recent developments with regard to NHS bursary/£9k tuition, we are potentially looking at a debt of £22k upon graduation-just in terms of tuition fee loans.

as for southampton is application there considered a gamble by most? i was impressed at their open day and am attracted by the no interview concept as hopefully a good UKCAT score and UCAS application could secure a place but in practice does this result in much more competition? the figures quoted on the day didnt seem to suggest so...