What do you do if you don’t get the A-level grades for medicine?
A-level results day is getting close. With all the uncertainty this year due to COVID, cancelled exams and teachers submitting predicted grades, it is understandable that students are feeling anxious.
We hope that the vast majority of our students will get A-level grades that match or exceed their offer and that they can start planning for Semester 1 at medical school. But if they don’t, we will give you some tips on what to do next.
Ring the medical school that you have offers with
Medical schools may accept a slightly reduced offer, for example, if the offer is AAA and you have AAB. From experience, if you have more than one grade off the offer, your chances are slim, but you must give it a try. We have had our students say lower grades were accepted as other parts of the application, for example, excellent interview performance, made up for the lower grades.
It is difficult to predict how medical schools will react if you have the widening participation ‘flag’ on your application, so do ring.
Go into UCAS clearing. This also applies if you have no offers.
UCAS runs this every year and tries to match any vacancies with students who want them. This was unheard of for medicine, but over the last few years, several medical schools have been offering places through clearing—St George’s Medical School has had clearing places regularly for a number of years now. Note that you will still need to meet entry requirements, and this can include UCAT and BMAT scores, and you may be called for an interview. Please read our blog about UCAS clearing.
READ OUR GUIDE TO MEDICINE THROUGH CLEARING 📚
The 5th UCAS choice
Think long and hard about accepting your ‘5th choice’. Whilst some degrees offer an ‘accelerated’ route into medicine, you will have several years of study and financial costs to bear for a qualification you may not want in the first place.
Resit your A-levels
Not all medical schools will accept resit candidates, and they may only offer such opportunities to students who have extenuating circumstances the first time around. Resit candidates may require higher than standard grades and other specific entry requirements.
Apply for a foundation year course.
This does mean an extra year of study, but this is preferable to a ‘5th option’. Some foundation year courses may also have reduced fees for the first year. However, some are restricted to certain localities or for students from specific backgrounds. Others may only be open to students with non-science-based A-levels (or perhaps if you only have one science-based A-level). Some, however, do not come with the assurance of progression to a medical degree and may not be accepted by medical schools outside that university.
Here is a list of medical schools that offer a foundation year:-
University of Bradford, School of Medical Sciences and then with Sheffield Medical School (Foundation in Clinical Science/Medicine degree – note progression to Sheffield may only be for widening participation students)
University of Bristol (Only accept students from a specified list of colleges and also a widening participation criterion).
The University of Buckingham (Note this may be taught in Crewe and needs a specific mark to progress to the medical degree)
Edge Hill University (Note may be restricted to applicants from the North West of England)
University of Leicester (Widening Participation Foundation Programme – available to students only from the locality)
University of Central Lancashire (Note this does not guarantee a place on the medical degree, and progression is with open competition)
Take a Gap year
If you have the grades but still cannot get a place, trying and reapplying next year may be acceptable. You will need to focus on why you did not get an offer for this year – was it interview technique, for example? Obtain feedback from the medical schools that did not give you an offer. Use the gap year productively to strengthen your reapplication. Unfortunately, you may also have to resit the UCAT exam, but check with the university.
Good luck with your results, everyone. It is important never to give up, especially if you meet the entry requirements.
