Fifteen questions
The questions parents ask
Short answers, because this is a handout. Each links to a fuller guide for parents who want the detail.
1.What is the UCAT, and when does my child sit it?
The UCAT is the admissions test almost every UK medicine and dentistry applicant has to take, and most veterinary courses do not require it. It is a computer based test of reasoning, not science knowledge, so there is no syllabus. It tests how quickly and accurately someone can handle information under time pressure, with a separate section on professional judgement.
It is sat in the summer holiday between Year 12 and Year 13, before the application is submitted, and it can only be taken once in a cycle. Many students start slowly in January or February of Year 12, keep it light through the summer exams and build up over the holiday. Six weeks in August is often too little, and the autumn is too late because the application is being written by then.
2.What counts as a good UCAT score?
There is no fixed pass mark. Scores are reported alongside deciles, which show where a score sits against everyone who took the test that year, and universities set their thresholds against that distribution. A score that was competitive one year may not be the next.
The more useful question is which universities a score is realistic for. Each medical and dental school publishes, or can be shown to have used, a different threshold, and some barely use the test at all while others rank almost entirely on it. Check the score against the cut off table before the four choices are decided.
3.How many universities can they apply to, and when is the deadline?
UCAS allows five choices, but only four of them can be medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine. The fifth has to be a different course, which is why students talk about their back up choice.
The deadline is in mid October, several months before the January deadline that applies to most other subjects, and the reference has to be finished before the application can be sent. So the whole application is written in the first half of the autumn term, which is why schools start talking about it in Year 12.
4.What A levels do they need?
Chemistry and biology is the combination that keeps the most doors open for medicine and dentistry, and for veterinary medicine biology is almost always required. Beyond that, requirements vary more than people expect: some schools require both sciences, some require chemistry and one other, and a few are more flexible.
Grade requirements are typically in the A*AA to AAB range, and most schools also set GCSE requirements. Some look at the whole profile. If your child is choosing options now, check the requirements of a handful of specific universities.
5.How competitive is it to get in?
Very. A strong student can be rejected without having done anything wrong. There are several applicants for every place, most of them strong, and with only four choices a student cannot spread the risk the way they could in another subject.
The ratio changes each year and differs between medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine, so look at this year's published figures. A sensible spread of four choices matters at least as much as how strong the student is.
6.Do they need work experience, and does it have to be in a hospital?
No, it does not have to be in a hospital. Medical schools are explicit that what matters is what a student understood from an experience, not how impressive the setting was. Caring for people in a care home, a pharmacy counter, a charity shop that serves vulnerable customers, or a long running volunteering commitment can all show as much as a week on a hospital ward, and often more.
What matters more is how long they kept it up and what they took from it. A year of weekly volunteering shows something a one week placement cannot, and a student who can explain what they saw and how it changed their thinking is often better placed than one with a longer list. Dentistry and veterinary medicine are different: both expect subject specific experience, and veterinary courses expect it across several different settings.
7.What is the personal statement now that it has changed?
It is no longer one long essay. UCAS replaced it with a set of structured questions, and the student answers each in turn. What is being assessed has not changed much, but the format has, so advice from an older sibling may be out of date.
It also counts for less than many parents think. Many medical schools shortlist mostly on scores and grades, and use the personal statement at interview or as a tie breaker. Interviewers may draw on it, so it still needs to be good.
8.What happens at a medical or dental school interview?
Most schools use an MMI, which is a circuit of short stations. A student moves between them every five to ten minutes and meets a different interviewer and a different task at each: a scenario to talk through, an ethical question, a role play with an actor, sometimes a practical task. A smaller number of schools use a traditional panel interview instead, which is a longer conversation with two or three people.
Each station is scored separately, so one bad station does not sink a candidate. It is unlike anything a seventeen year old has done before, which is why many schools run mock interviews. Getting used to the format is a large part of the preparation.
9.When will we hear about interviews and offers?
Invitations arrive from roughly November through to March, and universities work to their own timetables, so the gaps between them are long and uneven. A student can hear from one school in November and another in February, and the silence in between is normal.
Offers and rejections follow on a similar spread, and some schools hold decisions until they have interviewed everyone. Parents often find this the hardest part of the year. Looking up the published interview windows for your child's four choices at least tells you when to expect news.
10.How do we decide which four to apply to?
By matching the student's profile to how each school selects. Schools differ enormously in what they weight: some rank almost entirely on the admissions test, some care more about GCSEs, some weight the interview heavily, and some use contextual criteria that may apply to your child. Four schools that all select the same way put all the risk in one place.
Then think about what the course is like to study, because teaching styles vary a lot. Some courses put students in front of patients in first year, others teach the science first; some are problem based and largely self directed, others are lecture led. A student who would be miserable on one style can be very happy on another, so talk about it before the list is fixed.
11.What does it cost, and how is it funded?
For the first years, tuition and maintenance work as they do for any other undergraduate degree, through Student Finance. The difference is length: a medical or veterinary degree runs five or six years, not three, and the terms are longer, which leaves less time for paid work.
Funding for the later years of a medical or dental course works differently from the early years, and the government changes the rules from time to time, so check the current position with Student Finance and the university. Many universities also offer bursaries and scholarships that are not widely advertised, so look early.
12.What happens on results day if they miss their grades?
It depends on the university. Some confirm a place with grades slightly below the offer, particularly if they have space, and some do not. The decision usually appears on UCAS Hub early on results morning, before the school opens. If the firm choice is not confirmed, the insurance choice is considered next.
If neither is confirmed, there are more routes than most families realise on the day. Clearing occasionally has medicine or dentistry places, a resit year is a common path that many schools accept (often with conditions), and plenty of students get in by reapplying with a stronger admissions test score. It helps to agree in advance that nothing irreversible is decided before lunchtime.
13.What if they get no offers at all?
It happens to strong candidates every year, and it does not mean your child cannot be a doctor. First work out at which stage they were turned down, because that decides what comes next. Rejected before interview usually points to the admissions test score or the grades against that school's threshold; rejected after interview usually points to the interview itself.
From there the options are reapplying with a better test score and a better chosen four, a foundation or gateway year for students who meet the contextual criteria, a graduate entry course after another degree, or a related career that leads back to medicine later. A planned gap year, with a new test score and more experience, usually produces a much stronger application than a rushed reapplication.
14.Does my child need a private tutor to get in?
No. Students get into medicine every year from schools with no tutoring budget and families who spend nothing, and no part of the application requires paid help. The admissions test rewards practice more than teaching, and the official practice materials are free. A teacher who knows the student is the best help with the personal statement, and interview practice works well between students and with staff who have read up on the format.
If a family is thinking about paid support anyway, be clear what it is for, and be wary of anything sold as a package for the whole application or anything that promises a place or a score. Ask who will actually teach the sessions. Working through the free material first shows where the gaps are. Paying early for a general diagnostic rarely makes sense; paying later for help with one weak area sometimes does.
15.What can I do to help as a parent?
Protect the summer between Year 12 and Year 13. That is when the admissions test is prepared for and sat, and the date cannot be moved. Looking at entry criteria together, not league tables, keeps the four choices realistic. Asking your child to explain how each stage works back to you helps them find the gaps.
Leave the content to them. A heavily rewritten personal statement stops sounding like the student, and they then struggle to talk about it at interview. Knowing the timetable and staying calm is more use to them than another round of edits.
