Medical Schools That Accept SJT Band 3: 2027 Entry

20 Sept

Updated 20 September 2026 using the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) Consortium's preliminary 2026 statistics.

You opened your UCAT results, scrolled past the cognitive scores, and there it was at the bottom: Band 3.

Then you went online, found a forum thread from four years ago, and read that Band 3 "basically rules you out". By the time you'd finished reading, you'd half-decided your application was over before it started.

It isn't. Not even close.

Here's the short version: for 2027 entry, only one UK medical school currently refuses to consider Band 3 of the Situational Judgement Test (SJT). Every other school either accepts it, scores it as one small part of a much bigger picture, or ignores the SJT completely. 👇

🧭 What Is SJT Band 3, Exactly?

The SJT is the fourth section of the UCAT. It's 69 questions in 26 minutes, and it doesn't test science, maths or vocabulary. It tests judgement: what a sensible, professional medical student would do when a colleague is struggling, a patient is upset, or something doesn't look right on a ward.

It's also scored differently from the rest of the test. Your three cognitive subtests (Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning) each give you a number between 300 and 900, adding up to a total between 900 and 2,700. The SJT gives you a band from 1 to 4 instead, with Band 1 the strongest.

What the UCAT Consortium actually says about each band

These are the official descriptions, and they're worth reading properly rather than skimming:

🟢 Band 1 — "an excellent level of performance, showing similar judgement in most cases to the panel of experts"
🟢 Band 2 — "a good, solid level of performance, showing appropriate judgement frequently, with many responses matching model answers"
🟡 Band 3 — "a modest level of performance, with appropriate judgement shown for some questions and substantial differences from ideal responses for others"
🔴 Band 4 — "low, with judgement tending to differ substantially from ideal responses in many cases"

Read Band 3 again. Modest. Not poor, not unsuitable, not a red flag. The Consortium is telling universities that you got a fair number right and slipped on others. That's a very different message from Band 4.

How common is Band 3? 📊

More common than the panic online would suggest.

The UCAT Consortium's preliminary 2026 statistics, published on 13 September 2026 and based on 20,794 tests, break down like this:

Band 1: 16%
Band 2: 42%
Band 3: 32%
Band 4: 10%

So roughly one in three candidates gets Band 3. That's around 14,000 students in a typical year. Medical schools know this. If Band 3 were genuinely disqualifying, UK medicine would lose a third of its applicant pool overnight, and no admissions team wants that.

One caveat worth keeping in mind: these are preliminary figures. The Consortium expects around 22,000 more candidates before testing closes on 24 September 2026, and early testers tend to perform slightly better than late ones. The final band percentages will shift a little.

🔴 The One Medical School That Doesn't Accept SJT Band 3

Let's deal with the bad news first, because it's short.

University of Manchester

Manchester's published UCAT policy is unambiguous: "We do not currently consider applicants who achieve Band 3 or 4 in the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) element of the UCAT."

If you clear Manchester's UCAT threshold and hold Band 1 or Band 2, you'll most likely be invited to interview. Band 3 stops the application there, whatever your cognitive score looks like.

Two things soften this. Manchester sets its UCAT threshold in November, after results arrive, so nothing about that school was ever predictable in advance. And its own page notes that the UCAT has been changing and that the policy will be updated when more information is available. Check Manchester's UCAT page yourself before 15 October, because this is exactly the sort of rule that can shift between cycles.

For now, though, plan on the basis that Band 3 closes the door at Manchester. Use that fourth choice somewhere it counts.

One more Band 3 catch: graduate applicants at Kent and Medway

Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS) hasn't committed to figures for 2027 entry. Its most recently published thresholds, though, treat school leavers and graduates differently: school leavers needed SJT Band 3 or above, while graduates needed Band 2 or above.

So if you're applying to KMMS straight from sixth form, Band 3 is fine. If you're a graduate applicant, it currently isn't. That's an unusual split, and it's easy to miss if you skim the page.

🟢 Medical Schools That Accept SJT Band 3 for 2027 Entry

This is the list you came for. It's long, which is the point.

How to read the groups:

🟢 Group one: the SJT is ignored or has no cut-off, so Band 3 costs you literally nothing
🟡 Group two: Band 3 is accepted, but it's scored, so it costs you points you'll need to make up elsewhere
🔵 Group three: the SJT is used only as a tie-breaker or at interview

Policies change every cycle, so treat this as your starting point and confirm each one on the school's own website before you submit.

🟢 Group One: Schools Where SJT Band 3 Costs You Nothing

These medical schools either don't look at the SJT at all or publish no band cut-off. If your band is the thing keeping you up at night, start your shortlist here.

University of Glasgow

Glasgow states it plainly for 2027 entry: "We do not consider the SJT portion of the UCAT." Your cognitive score is what's used to allocate interviews for candidates who meet the other requirements. Band 3 is simply irrelevant.

University of Bristol

Bristol selects for interview on your combined cognitive score, explicitly excluding the Situational Judgement Test. Its threshold moves every year — for 2026 entry it was 2,240 for Home applicants and 2,270 for Overseas — so Bristol is a school for strong cognitive scorers rather than a soft option. But your band won't be the thing that stops you.

University of Oxford

Oxford uses the UCAT for shortlisting alongside GCSE performance, and is clear that it will not use an applicant's situational judgement score at that stage. Oxford is enormously competitive for other reasons, but Band 3 isn't one of them.

Swansea University

Swansea's five-year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB BCh, course code A110) sets a UCAT minimum of 1,900 and states: "We will not assess the SJT component result." The significant catch is eligibility — this course is only open to applicants who live in, and attended secondary school in, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion or Pembrokeshire.

Aston University

Aston says it has no lower cut-off score for the UCAT or the SJT, and that your score is considered alongside all its other entry requirements. It's one of very few schools that publishes no band bar at all, which makes it a sensible choice for anyone whose band is their weakest point.

Cardiff University

Cardiff's admissions information for 2027 entry doesn't mention the SJT anywhere. What it does publish is a decile-based UCAT score: 3 points for deciles 7 to 9, 2 points for deciles 4 to 6, and 1 point for deciles 1 to 3. That's a two-point spread between the best and worst scorers, added to a much larger GCSE score. Cardiff is a strong pick if your GCSEs are excellent, whatever your band.

University of Aberdeen

Aberdeen doesn't use a minimum UCAT cut-off and doesn't publish an SJT band requirement. Your score is judged against everyone else who applied to Aberdeen, alongside your achieved and predicted grades.

University of St Andrews

St Andrews ranks applicants on their UCAT global score and invites roughly the top 650 to interview, with offers then based on interview performance. The SJT band doesn't feature in its published ranking.

University of Buckingham

Buckingham doesn't require the UCAT at all. You apply directly rather than through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), so it doesn't use one of your four medicine choices, and selection runs through academic screening, a computer-based Multiple Mini Assessment and a Multiple Mini Interview (MMI). The catch is cost: UK fees are £41,500 per year, or £186,750 across the 4.5-year course, which starts in January.

🟡 Group Two: Schools That Accept Band 3 but Score It

Here Band 3 is perfectly acceptable — only Band 4 is excluded — but it's worth fewer points than Band 1 or 2. Knowing the exact cost tells you how hard the rest of your application has to work.

University of Nottingham

Nottingham doesn't accept Band 4. Bands 1 to 3 all go forward, scored as 10 points for Band 1, 6 for Band 2 and 2 for Band 3, out of a maximum 10.

That looks harsh until you see the whole picture: up to 32 points for GCSEs and up to 40 points for the UCAT cognitive subtests sit alongside it. Band 3 costs you 8 points out of roughly 82. And here's the part that matters most — Nottingham makes its offers solely on interview performance. Get through the door and your band stops existing.

Newcastle University

Newcastle's 2027 admissions policy states that candidates with SJT Band 4 will not be considered, for both A100 and A101. Bands 1 to 3 are all in play, scored at 5 points for Band 1, 3 for Band 2 and 1 for Band 3 — and crucially, those points are applied at the interview stage, not to get you the interview.

What gets you the interview at Newcastle is your UCAT total, worth up to 60 points on its own, from 60 points at 2,400 and above down to 1 point at 1,810 and below. So at Newcastle, your cognitive score is the thing to worry about. Band 3 costs you four points much later in the process.

Keele University

Keele rejects Band 4 and accepts Bands 1 to 3. For Home applicants it awards 2 points for Band 1, 1 point for Band 2 and 0 for Band 3 within a shortlisting score out of 25.

Look carefully at how that 25 is made up: up to 10 points from your UCAT grade and band, and up to 15 points from your personal statement, marked against Keele's person specification. Band 3 costs you two points out of 25 in a system where your writing is worth more than your test. Keele's minimum UCAT for Home applicants is 1,700, which is one of the lowest published anywhere for 2027 entry.

International applicants face a firmer rule: at least 1,950 and SJT Band 3 or better, so Band 3 still qualifies, but Band 4 doesn't.

University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh will not consider a Band 4 applicant for entry in 2027, and says so absolutely: no applicant, regardless of eligibility for widening access, is considered with Band 4. Bands 1 to 3 are all accepted, with the band converted into a score that is added to your academic score for shortlisting. Band 3 reduces that total rather than ending your application.

Hull York Medical School

Hull York Medical School (HYMS) states directly that you need Band 1, 2 or 3 in the SJT for 2027 entry. Points are then awarded from both your total UCAT score and your band to rank applicants for interview.

University of Leicester

Leicester automatically rejects Band 4 before interview. Bands 1 to 3 continue, and its widening access route explicitly names "a UCAT in the top 7 deciles with a SJT 1-3" as the guaranteed-interview standard — clear confirmation that Band 3 is acceptable. Leicester has no formal minimum score but describes the UCAT as roughly a 50:50 split with academics, and warns that applicants in the lowest two deciles are very unlikely to reach interview.

University of Sunderland

Sunderland requires an SJT in bands 1 to 3 and a UCAT score in the top eight deciles. Shortlisting also uses its Interview Selection Tool, where you write about and reflect on your work or caring experience — a genuine opportunity if your band is modest but your experience isn't. The tool closes at 6pm on 22 October 2026, a week after the UCAS deadline, and missing it ends your application.

Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin (ARU) won't invite Band 4 applicants to interview, and Bands 1 to 3 are fine. Better still, applicants who have received free school meals in the last five years or who are care-experienced are invited to interview regardless of UCAT score, provided they meet the academic requirements and hold Band 1 to 3. There are also uplifts for applicants from Essex and the East of England. You'll need Home fee status.

Edge Hill University

Edge Hill automatically rejects Band 4, so Bands 1 to 3 progress. Its UCAT threshold is set each year according to who applies, and is extended for applicants meeting widening participation criteria or completing its Widening Access to Medicine Programme.

Brunel University of London

Brunel's page for 2027/28 entry says simply: "we do not accept applicants with SJT Band 4." There's no set UCAT cut-off either — selection is based on how you perform relative to other applicants that year.

Queen Mary University of London (Barts and The London)

Queen Mary rejects Band 4 at the first shortlisting stage, so Band 3 survives that cut. Be aware of the other screen, though: applicants below the fourth decile on the overall UCAT don't progress past initial screening. The SJT then reappears after interview, alongside your interview score, UCAS tariff and UCAT score.

Kent and Medway Medical School (school leavers)

As above: Band 3 or better has been the published standard for school leavers, with a threshold most recently set at the 47th centile. KMMS says explicitly that high scorers won't automatically be chosen over lower scorers who clear the threshold, and it judges school leavers' grades against their own school's average rather than in absolute terms. Graduates need Band 2 or better.

Once your score gets you the interview

Your UCAT gets you the interview. The interview gets you the offer.

A mid-range score can win offers when your interview is strong, and even a high one can fall short without preparation. Our interview course is taught in small groups by NHS doctors, with realistic MMI practice and feedback on every station.

See the medical interview course Add a mock MMI circuit

🔵 Group Three: Schools Where the SJT Is a Tie-Breaker or Interview Tool

These schools look at your band, but not as a gate. Band 3 doesn't block anything.

Queen's University Belfast

Queen's uses the SJT at two specific points: on borderline applicants with similar combined academic and UCAT scores, and on borderline applicants with similar interview scores. It publishes no band cut-off. The main pre-interview score is out of 45 — 36 points for academic background and just 9 for the UCAT — so Queen's remains one of the friendliest schools in the UK for anyone whose test results are weaker than their grades.

University College London

UCL uses the SJT to separate candidates who achieved the same UCAT score. It publishes no accepted or rejected bands. In practice your cognitive total is what decides things.

King's College London

King's says the overall UCAT score across subtests carries more weight than individual subtests, and that the SJT "is also taken into account when shortlisting". There's no threshold score in any given year and no published band bar.

University of Birmingham

Birmingham doesn't use the SJT band for ranking at all — it's used at the interview stage. Its application score is 45% academic, 40% UCAT and 15% contextual, with the cognitive score converted by national decile. There's no minimum UCAT cut-off.

University of Sheffield

Sheffield does something unusual: rather than banding you in or out, it converts your SJT result into a score — 5 points for the first quartile down to 2 points for the fourth — which is combined with your MMI performance for a total out of 45. Applicants scoring three or better in every MMI station and the SJT are prioritised in ranking. The published minimum UCAT for 2027 entry is 1,800, calculated from the 40th centile across three years of testing.

Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia

The University of East Anglia (UEA) has no cut-off score of any kind and says a high score is advantageous while a low score doesn't disqualify. Your SJT score is folded into your interview score, and applicants are then ranked on interview and overall UCAT performance together. A modest band with a strong interview is a perfectly workable combination here.

City St George's, University of London

City St George's confirms that for 2027 entry it will be considering SJT banding in its decision making, without publishing which bands are excluded. It does require a minimum of 500 in each cognitive section plus an overall cut-off recalculated each year. Worth watching for an update before you apply.

🩺 Schools That Don't Use the UCAT At All

If your band has genuinely knocked your confidence, remember these exist:

Ulster University uses the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT) for its graduate-entry Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), not the UCAT.
Three Counties Medical School (University of Worcester) accepts the UCAT, GAMSAT or the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). It publishes no SJT requirement, and notes that most shortlisted applicants scored above 1,870 on the UCAT.
University of Buckingham requires no admissions test, as covered above.

🦷 What About Dental Schools and SJT Band 3?

Dentistry follows a similar pattern, with one difference worth knowing: dental schools have historically been slightly more likely to use the SJT as a hard filter, and several treat Band 4 as an automatic rejection.

Band 3 remains widely accepted across UK dental schools, but the policies vary more than in medicine and several schools publish less detail. If you're applying to dentistry, check each school individually rather than assuming, and have a look at our dedicated guide to UCAT cut-off scores for UK dental schools.

🎯 How to Build Your Four Choices With SJT Band 3

Step one: cross off Manchester

That's it. That's the only compulsory deletion. If Manchester was on your list, replace it — don't leave the choice empty.

Step two: put at least one Group One school on your list

Glasgow, Bristol, Aston, Cardiff, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Oxford don't use your band. Including one or two of these means at least part of your application is completely insulated from the thing you're worried about.

Step three: match the rest to your actual strengths

Your band is one variable. Your GCSEs, predicted grades, personal statement and experience are the others, and different schools weight them very differently:

Outstanding GCSEs? Cardiff and Queen's Belfast let academics do most of the work.
A strong personal statement? Keele gives it 15 of 25 shortlisting points.
Meaningful work or caring experience? Sunderland's Interview Selection Tool is built for you.
Confident interviewer? Nottingham makes offers on interview performance alone, and UEA folds your interview and UCAT together.
Eligible for widening participation? Anglia Ruskin, Edge Hill, Birmingham, Keele and Kent and Medway all build this in.

🚩 Check this before you apply

Whatever list you build, do this in one sitting with four browser tabs open:

Confirm each school's current SJT policy on its own website, not a forum or a summary page (including this one).
Confirm the cognitive score threshold too, since for most applicants that's the bigger hurdle.
Check whether the page says 2026 or 2027 entry — plenty of school pages are still showing last cycle's rules in September.
Note any extra deadlines, such as Sunderland's 22 October tool.

Twenty minutes of checking can save your whole cycle.

Don't waste your fifth choice 🎓

UCAS gives you four medicine choices plus a fifth that must be something else. Pick a course you'd genuinely enjoy — Biomedical Science, Pharmacology or Physiology are all sensible — because a strong degree can lead to graduate-entry medicine later. It's a back-up plan, not a surrender.

🔁 Can You Improve Your SJT Band? (And Should You Resit?)

Not this cycle. You can only sit the UCAT once per testing year, so the band you have is the band you're applying with. The next opportunity is summer 2027, for 2028 entry.

That makes the real question a different one: apply now, or take a planned gap year?

As a rough guide, if you have Band 3 with a decent cognitive score, solid GCSEs and strong predicted grades, apply now. Band 3 excludes you from one school. A gap year to fix it would be an expensive solution to a very small problem.

If you have Band 3 and a bottom-decile cognitive score and borderline grades, the band isn't your real issue, and a well-planned gap year with proper preparation and your results already in hand may well give you a stronger second attempt.

If you do sit it again, the SJT is one of the most improvable parts of the whole test, because it rewards understanding how the General Medical Council expects doctors to behave rather than raw speed. Our free UCAT Situational Judgement guide walks through the banding and the scenario types in detail.

🎤 Your Interview Matters More Than Your Band

Here's something that gets lost in all the band anxiety. At most of the schools above, the SJT does its work before the interview and then disappears. What decides your year is the twenty minutes you spend in an MMI circuit.

Nottingham makes offers on interview performance alone.
Queen's Belfast makes offers on the post-interview ranking alone.
UEA weights your interview and your UCAT equally.
Sheffield combines your SJT score with MMI scores for one total out of 45.

Every school interviews more people than it has places, so the room is where the decision happens.

Try these out loud, with a timer set to eight minutes each:

A fellow student asks you to cover for them at a compulsory teaching session. What do you do, and who do you tell?
You notice a colleague on placement has made a drug error but seems unaware. Walk us through your next hour.
A patient tells you they've read online that their treatment is wrong. How do you respond?
Tell us about a time your judgement turned out to be wrong. What changed afterwards?
Why medicine, and why this medical school? Don't mention the campus.

These are here for your own practice, and working through them properly will take you a long way on your own.

What they can't give you is the real thing: a timed circuit, actors you've never met, a buzzer, and an experienced interviewer telling you exactly where you dropped marks. If that's what you're after, have a look at our MMI Courses page, where we run full timed Mock MMI Circuits with individual feedback on every station. 🎯

⏰ Key Dates for 2027 Entry

13 September 2026: UCAT preliminary statistics published
24 September 2026: last day of UCAT testing, with final statistics following shortly after
6pm, 15 October 2026: UCAS deadline for most medicine and dentistry courses
6pm, 22 October 2026: Sunderland's Interview Selection Tool deadline
Early November 2026: UCAT results delivered to universities, and Manchester sets its threshold
December 2026 to March 2027: most medical school interviews

📌 SJT Band 3: Key Facts at a Glance

Band 3 means "a modest level of performance" in the UCAT Consortium's own words
Around 32% of 2026 candidates achieved Band 3 on preliminary figures
Manchester is the only UK medical school currently refusing to consider Band 3
Kent and Medway accepts Band 3 from school leavers but has required Band 2 or better from graduates
Glasgow, Bristol, Oxford and Swansea (A110) don't use the SJT at all
Aston, Cardiff, Aberdeen and St Andrews publish no SJT band requirement
Band 4 is an automatic rejection at Newcastle, Keele, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Leicester, Sunderland, Edge Hill, Brunel, Anglia Ruskin, Queen Mary and Hull York
You cannot resit the UCAT within the same cycle

❓ SJT Band 3: Frequently Asked Questions

Is SJT Band 3 bad?

No. The UCAT Consortium describes Band 3 as "a modest level of performance", and around a third of all candidates receive it. It is genuinely below average, but it's a long way from disqualifying — only one UK medical school currently declines to consider it.

Which medical schools reject SJT Band 3?

For 2027 entry, the University of Manchester states it does not currently consider applicants with Band 3 or Band 4. Kent and Medway Medical School has required Band 2 or above from graduate applicants, though school leavers with Band 3 are accepted.

Which medical schools don't use the SJT at all?

Glasgow states it doesn't consider the SJT portion of the UCAT. Bristol excludes it from interview selection, Oxford doesn't use it at shortlisting, and Swansea's A110 course doesn't assess it. Aston publishes no cut-off for the UCAT or the SJT.

Can I get into medicine with SJT Band 3?

Yes, and thousands do every year. Build a list that avoids Manchester, includes at least one school that ignores the SJT, and plays to whatever your application does best — whether that's GCSEs, your personal statement, your experience or your interview technique.

How many points does Band 3 cost me?

It depends entirely on the school. At Nottingham it's 2 points out of 10 in a system worth over 80 in total. At Newcastle it's 1 point out of 5, applied at interview. At Keele it's 0 points out of a possible 2, in a 25-point score where your personal statement is worth 15. At Glasgow, Bristol, Oxford and Aston it costs you nothing at all.

Is SJT Band 3 accepted for dentistry?

At most UK dental schools, yes. Dental schools more commonly exclude Band 4 than Band 3, but policies vary and several publish less detail than medical schools. Check each dental school's own admissions page before applying.

Can I resit the UCAT to improve my band?

Not within the same cycle — you can only sit the UCAT once per testing year. Your next opportunity would be summer 2027, for 2028 entry.

Does SJT Band 3 affect me after I get an offer?

No. Once you hold an offer, your UCAT result has done its job. It plays no part in your degree, your finals or your Foundation Programme application.

🔗 Useful Links

UCAT and applications

Medical school admissions pages

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The Blue Peanut Medical team is led by experienced National Health Service (NHS) General Practitioners with extensive involvement in medical education, and is dedicated to helping applicants succeed at every stage of their journey into medical school.

Admissions policies change every cycle. Always confirm the current requirements on the medical school's own website before you submit your UCAS application. Last updated 20 September 2026.

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This content is provided in good faith and based on information from medical school websites at the time of writing. Entry requirements can change, so always check directly with the university before making decisions. You’re free to accept or reject any advice given here, and you use this information at your own risk. We can’t be held responsible for errors or omissions — but if you spot any, please let us know and we’ll update it promptly. Information from third-party websites should be considered anecdotal and not relied upon.