A printable Year 13 checklist for any student applying to medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine. It starts the day the UCAT result lands and runs through choosing four universities, the personal statement and reference, the 15 October UCAS deadline, interview season, offers, results day and clearing. Every one of the 21 steps is a single action with a link to the free guide that helps your student do it.
Written by Dr Akash Gandhi, NHS GP and founder of TheUKCATPeople. Updated 16 September 2026.
Year 13 is a scheduling problem more than a knowledge problem. The checklist gives you the order and the deadlines; the linked guides carry the detail.
Grouped by stage of the cycle. Each step names one action and the page that helps your student do it.
Six weeks that decide most of the outcome. The UCAT score is now known, so the four choices can be made on evidence rather than hope, and the personal statement and reference have to be finished to a real date.
1.Read the UCAT result against the actual cut-offs, not against a feeling
Universities weight the UCAT completely differently, and a score that is weak for one school is comfortably above the threshold at another. Sit down with the cut-offs page and the student's score before any choice is discussed.
Where to send them: UCAT cut-off scores by universityUCAT score calculator and deciles
2.If the score is below their targets, change the choices rather than hoping
This is the hardest conversation of the year and the most valuable. A student with a low UCAT still has good options, but only if they pick schools that weight it lightly or use it as a threshold. Hoping and applying to the same four is how a whole cycle is lost.
Where to send them: Where to apply with a low UCAT score
3.Check every shortlisted course against its own entry requirements
Predicted grades, GCSE profile, subject combination and any contextual criteria all need to be checked course by course. One ineligible choice out of four is effectively a wasted application.
Where to send them: UK medical school entry requirementsUK dental schoolsUK vet schools
4.Finalise four course choices and decide what the fifth slot is for
An applicant may apply to a maximum of four courses in medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine. The fifth UCAS choice has to be a different course, so decide deliberately whether it is a genuine second option such as biomedical science, or left empty.
Where to send them: UK medical schoolsUK vet schools
5.Finish the personal statement against the three UCAS questions
The statement is now three structured questions rather than one essay, so each answer has to do its own job. Read a strong example alongside the guide, then check the student has answered the question asked rather than the question they wanted.
Where to send them: Medicine personal statement guideSuccessful personal statement examplesDentistry personal statement guideDentistry personal statement examples
6.Give the referee everything they need, in writing, by late September
The reference is written by the school, and a good one needs facts the referee does not otherwise have: the work experience, the volunteering, the wider reading and anything mitigating. Tell the student exactly what to send and by when. The Word template below is the fastest way to do this: it has the three UCAS reference sections already set out with prompts, so a referee who has never written one for medicine is not starting from a blank page.
Where to send them: What a medicine UCAS reference needsUCAS reference template (Word)
7.Submit before the 15 October deadline, not on it
Medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and Oxbridge applications are due in mid-October, well before the main January deadline. Confirm the exact date and time on ucas.com each year, and aim to have the application sent several days early so a school-side delay is not fatal.
Where to send them: The UCAS application, step by step
Invitations arrive with very little notice, sometimes under a fortnight, and they land in the middle of mocks. Preparation has to start before the first invitation rather than after it.
8.Find out when each of their universities interviews
The dates hubs aggregate published interview windows by university, so you can see in November whether a student is likely to be called in December or in February. That is what lets you plan around mocks and holidays.
Where to send them: UK medical school interview datesUK dental school interview dates
9.Make sure they know which format each university uses
A panel interview and a multiple mini interview circuit need different preparation. The student should be able to name, for each of their four, whether it is panel, MMI or a hybrid, and how long it runs.
Where to send them: Medicine interview questions guideDental school practice interview questionsVet school practice interview questions
10.Practise MMI stations under time, out loud
MMI stations are short, timed and relentless, and reading about them achieves almost nothing. Eight minutes of talking to a stranger is the practice that works, which is exactly what a school can provide free.
Where to send them: MMI preparation guideMMI tips
11.Cover medical ethics properly, once
Ethics stations are the ones non-medic teachers worry about most, and they are the most learnable. The four pillars give a student a structure that works on almost any ethics question, including ones nobody predicted.
Where to send them: Answering medical ethics questionsThe four pillars of medical ethics
12.Brief them on this year's hot topics and on how the NHS works
Applicants are regularly asked about current pressures on the health service and about the structure they are applying to join. This is background knowledge, refreshed each autumn, not something to revise the night before.
Where to send them: Interview hot topicsNHS interview topicsNHS dentistry hot topics
13.Run one mock interview in school before the first real one
A mock with staff who are not medics still works, because the value is in the student speaking under pressure and getting specific feedback. The mock interview library gives you ready-made packs with stations, timings, interviewer notes and a mark scheme, so nobody is inventing questions the night before.
Where to send them: The mock interview libraryMedicine mock pack 1
14.Send them back through their own reflection log the week before
Almost every interview asks about their work experience, and a student who reads their own notes again arrives with specific examples instead of generalities. It takes twenty minutes and it is the highest-yield revision they will do.
Where to send them: Printable reflection log
Decisions arrive over several months, and a rejection in January when others are still waiting is genuinely hard. Plan for both outcomes early, so results day is administrative rather than a crisis.
15.Help them choose a firm and an insurance choice honestly
The insurance choice only helps if it is genuinely lower than the firm and the student would actually go there. An insurance choice with the same offer as the firm is not insurance at all.
Where to send them: Accepting an offer and the UCAS waitlist
16.If all four come back as rejections, start the next plan in the spring
There are real routes forward: a gap year and a stronger reapplication, a related degree with graduate entry afterwards, or a foundation or gateway course. Having that conversation in March is very different from having it in August.
Where to send them: No offers: what to do nextSupport after a rejection
17.Tell families what results day will actually involve, before August
Parents ask you, not the university. The parents' results day page sets out what happens if grades are met, narrowly missed or missed, so you can send one link instead of answering the same question thirty times.
Where to send them: Results day for parentsThe parents' hub
18.Agree the school's results-day plan in July, hour by hour
Results morning is a scheduling problem with a two-hour window in it. Who opens the results, who phones which university, what a narrowly missed grade means for a confirmed place and what a remark realistically achieves are all decisions better made in July than at eight in the morning in August.
Where to send them: The results-day playbook for schools
19.Know how clearing works for these courses specifically
Medicine, dentistry and veterinary clearing places are few, appear and disappear within hours, and are not like clearing for other subjects. Read the guide in advance so nobody is reading it for the first time on results morning.
Where to send them: Medicine clearing guideDentistry clearing guideVeterinary clearing and gateway courses
20.Make sure someone at school is contactable on results day
A student who has narrowly missed needs a decision in the first hour, and a named member of staff with the guides open is what prevents a panicked wrong call. Agree who that is in July and put the number where families can find it.
Where to send them: The results-day playbook for schoolsResults day for parents
21.Debrief the ones who got in, and use them next year
Ask each successful applicant for a short written note on what they were asked at interview and what they wish they had done sooner. That becomes your best resource for the Year 12 cohort, and costs you one email.
Where to send them: Running a school MedSoc
Prints on roughly three sides of A4 with a tick box against every step. Your browser's own print option (Ctrl+P on Windows, Cmd+P on a Mac) does exactly the same thing.
The Year 12 checklist covers deciding on the course, work experience, supracurriculars and UCAT preparation, term by term. Hand it to your current lower sixth and next September is a great deal calmer.
Ultimate Package students from our 2025/26 cycle, with their UCAT scores and offers, who trained with us for the UCAT, personal statements and interviews.
“Harry got my UCAT up to 2,590, working through the sections I kept dropping marks on week by week. Gemma then ran my interview practice so the MMI stations didn't catch me out, and Dr Akash mentored me the whole way through. I'm off to King's for Medicine.”
“The interview prep was the part that actually moved the needle. Proper mock MMIs, not just lists of questions, and feedback that was honest about what I was getting wrong. I ended up with four offers and firmed UCL.”
“The Ultimate Package kept me organised from UCAT through to interviews. They knew what dental schools actually ask and tightened up my personal statement. Four offers in the end, and I'm going to Birmingham.”
“Vet applications come down to the written SAQs as much as the interview. Dr Rebecca went through my SAQs line by line, sharpened my answers and prepped me for the panels. I came away with four offers and chose the RVC.”
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