Medical Schools That Reward an SJT Band 1 or 2: 2027 Entry

20 Sept

Updated 20 September 2026 using the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) Consortium's preliminary 2026 statistics and medical schools' own published admissions policies.

There are hundreds of articles about what to do when your Situational Judgement Test (SJT) band is bad.

There are almost none about what to do when it's good.

So here you are. You've opened your UCAT results, you've seen Band 1 or Band 2 at the bottom, you've allowed yourself about forty seconds of relief — and now you're wondering what happens next. Does anyone actually care? Does it change anything? Should it change where you apply?

Short answer: yes, at some medical schools it changes a great deal, and at around seventeen others it changes nothing whatsoever.

That's the whole point of this article. A strong band isn't a prize. It's a card in your hand, and cards only win when you play them at the right table. Let's work out which tables those are. 👇

🧭 What Band 1 and Band 2 Actually Mean

The SJT is the fourth section of the UCAT: 69 questions in 26 minutes. 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 on the ward doesn't look right.

It's also scored completely differently from everything else. Your three cognitive subtests — Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning — each return a score between 300 and 900, giving a total between 900 and 2,700. The SJT returns a band from 1 to 4 instead, where Band 1 is strongest.

The UCAT Consortium's own words

Worth reading properly, because the wording is what admissions teams see:

🥇 Band 1 — those in Band 1 "demonstrated an excellent level of performance, showing similar judgement in most cases to the panel of experts"
🥈 Band 2 — those in Band 2 "demonstrated a good, solid level of performance, showing appropriate judgement frequently, with many responses matching model answers"
🟡 Band 3 — "a modest level of performance"
🔴 Band 4 — "low, with judgement tending to differ substantially from ideal responses in many cases"

Notice something important. The Consortium describes Band 2 as good and solid — not "nearly Band 1", not a near miss. Every medical school policy in this article treats Bands 1 and 2 as the safe zone, and the majority of them don't separate the two at all.

How common are Band 1 and Band 2? 📊

This is where a bit of honesty is useful.

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

🥇 Band 1: 16%
🥈 Band 2: 42%
🟡 Band 3: 32%
🔴 Band 4: 10%

So Band 2 is the single most common outcome in the country, and Bands 1 and 2 together account for roughly 58% of all candidates.

That's the part nobody tells you. Band 2 is genuinely good, and it is also genuinely ordinary — well over half the people you're competing against are sitting in the same place. Band 1, at 16%, is the one that actually distinguishes you, and only at the handful of schools that look closely enough to notice.

One caveat: these figures are preliminary. The Consortium expected around 22,000 further candidates before testing closed on 24 September 2026, and early testers tend to score slightly better than late ones, so the final percentages will shift a little.

The honest headline

A strong band rarely wins you a place on its own. What it does is stop you losing points, open a few doors that are shut to others, and occasionally break a tie in your favour. Build your shortlist on that basis and you'll make much better decisions than someone treating Band 1 as a trophy.

🥇 Where a Band 1 or 2 Is Worth Real Points

These are the medical schools that convert your band into a number and add it to your score. If your band is one of the stronger parts of your application, these are the places it does actual work.

🏅 The biggest points gap between Band 1 and Band 2

University of Nottingham

Nottingham has the most generous SJT scoring in the country, and the gap between the bands is wide.

Band 1: 10 points
Band 2: 6 points
Band 3: 2 points
Band 4: not considered at all

Those points sit alongside up to 40 points for the UCAT cognitive subtests and up to 20 points for GCSEs on the A100 course. So a Band 1 is worth a quarter of what your entire cognitive score is worth, and half of what all eight of your GCSEs are worth. There are very few places in UK admissions where 26 minutes of your life carries that much weight.

Nottingham also doubles your Verbal Reasoning score on the basis of its own research evidence — useful to know if you're deciding where a strong verbal performance pays off.

One thing to keep in perspective: Nottingham makes its offers solely on interview performance. Your band gets you through the door in style, then stops existing. 🚪

Newcastle University

Newcastle scores the band too, but the timing is unusual and it catches people out.

Band 1: 5 points
Band 2: 3 points
Band 3: 1 point
Band 4: not considered

Here's the catch. Those points are applied at the interview stage, not at shortlisting, and they carry the same weight as a single Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) station. What actually gets you the interview at Newcastle is your total UCAT score, worth up to 60 points on its own — 60 points at 2,400 and above, down to 1 point at 1,810 and below.

So at Newcastle your band is a bonus station you've already passed before you walk in. Very welcome, but it isn't the thing that gets you invited.

🧮 The school where your band counts towards the offer itself

University of Sheffield

Sheffield does something no other medical school does: it converts your SJT result into a score by quartile rather than treating the band as a gate.

1st quartile: 5 points (excellent)
2nd quartile: 4 points (good)
3rd quartile: 3 points (satisfactory)
4th quartile: 2 points (borderline)

That score is then added to your eight MMI station scores for a total out of 45, and applicants scoring three or better in every MMI station and the SJT are prioritised in ranking. The minimum UCAT score for 2027 entry is 1,800 out of 2,700.

Sheffield is the clearest example in the country of a strong SJT performance counting directly towards your offer rather than just your invitation. Two notes of caution, though: quartiles and bands are not the same measurement, and no band is excluded at Sheffield, so this is a school where a strong result helps rather than one where a weak result hurts.

➕ Smaller margins that still add up

Keele University

Keele's scale is smaller but the context makes it interesting.

Band 1: 2 points
Band 2: 1 point
Band 3: 0 points
Band 4: not considered

Two points out of a shortlisting score of 25 sounds minor until you see 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. Keele also awards an extra point each for UCAT bursary recipients, contextual offer eligibility, and attending school in the Keele region, and ties are broken on Verbal Reasoning.

There's also a minimum: a total UCAT score below 1,700 is automatically rejected — one of the lowest published thresholds anywhere for 2027 entry.

University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh allocates a score to your SJT banding and states that those points "are then added to your academic score to contribute towards your final ranking for shortlisting." Band 4 applicants are not considered at all, with no exception for widening access eligibility.

What Edinburgh doesn't publish is the actual point values for each band. So a strong band helps you here — the mechanism is clear and it's applied before interview — but nobody outside the admissions office can tell you precisely by how much. Plan on the basis that it helps, not on a number.

Hull York Medical School

Hull York Medical School (HYMS) requires a Situational Judgement Test band of 1, 2 or 3 for 2027 entry, applying the same standard to Home and international applicants. Points are awarded from your UCAT performance to rank applicants for interview.

🚪 Where a Band 1 or 2 Is the Price of Entry

At these schools, Bands 1 and 2 aren't rewarded so much as required. If you hold one, you've quietly cleared a hurdle that stops around 42% of the country before anyone reads a word of their application.

🔑 The schools that ask for Band 1 or 2 by name

University of Manchester

Manchester is the single most important school on this page, for two reasons.

First, the rule: "We do not currently consider applicants who achieve Band 3 or 4 in the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) element of the UCAT." Manchester is the only UK medical school that excludes Band 3 as well as Band 4. Simply holding Band 1 or Band 2 puts you in a pool that more than four in ten UCAT candidates cannot enter.

Second — and this is the detail almost no guide mentions — when Manchester has more eligible candidates than interview slots, it states that it will "rank candidates according to UCAT total score and SJT band."

Read that twice. At most schools Band 1 and Band 2 are interchangeable. At Manchester, your band is part of the ranking itself, which makes Manchester one of the very few places in the UK where a Band 1 may outrank a Band 2. If Band 1 is your standout result, Manchester deserves serious thought.

Two practical points. Manchester sets its UCAT threshold in November, after results arrive, so you cannot know it in advance. And its own page notes the UCAT has been changing and that the policy will be updated when more information is available — so check it yourself before 15 October.

Kent and Medway Medical School (graduate applicants)

Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS) treats school leavers and graduates differently. Its most recently published thresholds — from the 2025–26 cycle — required school leavers to hold Band 3 or above, while graduates needed Band 2 or above.

So if you're a graduate applicant, Band 2 isn't just comfortable at KMMS, it's the minimum. KMMS states clearly that it does not commit to the same thresholds for 2027 entry, so treat this as the current best guide rather than a promise.

Keele University (international applicants)

Keele's international route is stricter than its Home route. International candidates need a total score of at least 1,950 and an SJT result in band 3 or better, and are then ranked on total cognitive score with Verbal Reasoning breaking ties. Bands 1 and 2 clear that comfortably.

🚨 The schools where Band 3 and 4 applicants get stopped

You don't need to memorise this list, but it's worth seeing once, because it shows you how much of the field a Band 1 or 2 quietly removes from your path:

Band 4 excluded: Manchester, Newcastle, Keele, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Leicester, Queen Mary, Hull York, Lincoln, Brighton and Sussex, Sunderland, Edge Hill, Anglia Ruskin, Brunel (Home applicants) and Liverpool (Home applicants).

Band 3 excluded as well: Manchester only — plus Kent and Medway for graduates.

Holding Band 1 or 2 means every single one of those doors is open to you. That's the real value of your result, and it's worth more than the points tables above.

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

⚖️ Where Your Band Breaks a Tie

At these schools the band isn't scored and isn't a gate — it's the thing that separates two applicants who otherwise look identical. In a system where hundreds of candidates cluster around the same cut-off, that's not a small role.

Queen's University Belfast

Queen's gives the clearest published example in the UK of a strong band changing an outcome. Its admissions policy lists this threshold for 2024 entry:

"38 points and above, or 37 points and SJT bands 1 and 2."

In plain English: applicants a full point below the cut-off were still invited to interview if they held Band 1 or Band 2. That is your band earning you an interview you would otherwise have missed.

Queen's uses the SJT at two points — on borderline applicants with similar combined academic and UCAT scores, and on borderline applicants with similar interview scores. Its pre-interview score is out of 45, split 36 points for academic background and just 9 for the UCAT, which also makes Queen's one of the friendliest schools in the UK if your grades are stronger than your test.

University College London

University College London (UCL) ranks candidates on total UCAT score and states plainly: "Where candidates achieved the same UCAT score, the SJT is used to further rank each candidate."

Given how tightly candidates bunch at the top of the scale, identical scores are common. For 2026 entry UCL's thresholds were 2,190 for Home applicants, 2,300 for Overseas applicants and 2,080 through Access UCL. If you're sitting on the line with a Band 1, that line is a better place to be.

King's College London

King's says the overall UCAT score carries more weight than individual subtests, and that "the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) is also taken into account when shortlisting." There's no threshold score in any given year and no published band bar — so a strong band is a quiet positive rather than a measurable one.

🎤 Where Your Band Follows You Into the Interview

A few schools deliberately hold the SJT back and use it after you've been invited. If you're a strong interviewer with a strong band, these are excellent places to spend a choice.

University of Birmingham

Birmingham's application score is 45% academic, 40% UCAT and 15% contextual, with your cognitive score converted by national decile onto a 0–4.0 scale. There is no minimum UCAT cut-off.

Your band plays no part in that score. Birmingham states that "the band score for the Situational Judgment Test (SJT) component of UCAT will be used at the interview stage" — so a Band 1 sits in reserve and arrives exactly when the decision is being made.

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 anyone. Crucially, "the SJT component score is included within the interview score", and applicants are then ranked with interview and UCAT weighted equally.

That makes UEA one of the few places where your band is folded directly into the measure that decides your offer. A Band 1 plus a strong MMI performance is a genuinely powerful combination here. 🎯

Queen Mary University of London (Barts and The London)

Queen Mary screens out Band 4 at first shortlisting and also removes anyone below the fourth decile on total UCAT score. After interview, selection "may consider all assessment factors: interview score, situational judgement test, UCAS tariff of entry qualifications predicted or achieved or weighted scoring from degree and UCAT score."

So your band reappears at the final stage, alongside everything else.

City St George's, University of London

City St George's confirms that "for 2027 entry, we will be considering the 'Situational Judgement' SJT Banding scores in our decision making", without publishing how. It also requires a minimum of 500 in each cognitive section plus an overall cut-off recalculated annually. A school that's newly bringing the SJT into its decisions is one where a strong band is likely to be an asset — but email them if it's going to be one of your four.

🌟 A note on widening participation routes

If you're eligible for a widening participation scheme, your band may be doing more work than you realise:

Anglia Ruskin University offers a guaranteed interview regardless of UCAT score to applicants who have received Free School Meals (FSM) in the last five years or who are care-experienced — provided they meet the academic requirements and score Band 1 to 3 in the SJT. Applicants living in Essex also receive a 5% uplift to their UCAT score, and those elsewhere in the East of England receive 2.5%.
University of Leicester names "a UCAT in the top 7 deciles with a SJT 1-3" as the standard for guaranteed interviews through Access Leicester and Realising Opportunities.

In both cases a Band 1 or 2 is what activates the route. Without it, the guarantee disappears.

🚫 Where a Band 1 Counts for Absolutely Nothing

Here's the section that will actually change your shortlist.

Around seventeen UK medical schools either state they don't use the SJT, or publish no band policy at all. At these schools your Band 1 is worth precisely as much as someone else's Band 4: nothing.

Schools that explicitly state they don't use the SJT:

University of Cambridge — will not use the situational judgement score as part of its assessment for 2027 entry
University of Oxford — will not use an applicant's situational judgement score at shortlisting
University of Glasgow — "We do not consider the SJT portion of the UCAT."
University of Bristol — selects on the combined subtest score with the exception of Situational Judgement
Swansea University (five-year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, course code A110) — will not assess the SJT component result
North Wales Medical School, Bangor University — "Currently, these are not considered, but this is subject to change."
Aston University — no lower cut-off score for the UCAT or for the SJT
Cardiff University — publishes decile-based UCAT scoring with no mention of the SJT

Schools whose published policies are silent on the SJT: Aberdeen, St Andrews, Dundee, Lancaster, Exeter, Southampton, Leeds, Plymouth and the University of Lancashire.

⚠️ Why this matters more than the points tables. If your band is the strongest thing about your application and you spend all four choices at Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol and Glasgow, you have thrown your best card away and entered four of the most competitive cognitive-score contests in the country. That's not a small mistake — it's the single most common way a strong band goes to waste.

🎯 How to Build Your Four Choices With Band 1 or 2

Step one: work out honestly whether your band is your best card

Put your application side by side and rank the parts of it:

Your cognitive UCAT total (the preliminary 2026 median was 1,980, and the ninth decile was 2,300)
Your GCSE profile
Your predicted grades
Your personal statement and experience
Your SJT band

If your band sits at the top of that list, it should steer your shortlist. If your band is Band 2 and everything else is stronger, treat it as a clean bill of health rather than a strategy and choose on the other factors.

Step two: if your band is your best card, spend at least two choices where it's scored

Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield, Keele, Edinburgh and Manchester all convert your band into something real. Two of your four choices in that group means half your application is actively using your best result.

Step three: don't let a strong band disguise a weak cognitive score ⚠️

This is the trap. At almost every school above, the cognitive score is the bigger hurdle and the band is the smaller one.

Newcastle is the clearest illustration: 60 points for your total UCAT, 5 for a Band 1. Manchester requires Band 1 or 2 just to be considered, then ranks you on total score first. Nottingham's cognitive maximum is four times its SJT maximum.

So if your total score is below the median, a Band 1 doesn't rescue it — and you should be reading our guide to where to apply to medicine with a low UCAT score alongside this one. If your total score is strong as well as your band, you're in an excellent position and our best medical schools for a high UCAT score guide is the natural next read.

Step four: match your fourth choice to whatever else you do well

Outstanding GCSEs? Cardiff and Queen's Belfast let academics carry the load — Queen's gives academic background 36 of its 45 pre-interview points.
A strong personal statement? Keele gives it 15 of 25 shortlisting points.
Confident interviewer? UEA folds your SJT into your interview score, Sheffield combines it with your MMI stations, and Nottingham makes offers on interview alone.
Eligible for widening participation? Anglia Ruskin, Leicester, Edge Hill and Birmingham all build it in — and at Anglia Ruskin and Leicester your band is what unlocks it.

🚩 Check this before you apply

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 still show last cycle's rules in September.
Where a school is silent on the SJT rather than explicit, email their admissions office and ask directly. Keep the reply.
Note any extra deadlines — Sunderland's Interview Selection Tool closes at 6pm on 22 October 2026, a week after the UCAS deadline, and missing it ends your application there.

Twenty minutes of checking can save your whole cycle. ⏳

Don't waste your fifth choice 🎓

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (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 opens graduate-entry medicine later. It's a back-up plan, not a surrender.

🦷 Does a Band 1 or 2 Help in Dentistry?

Dentistry follows a broadly similar pattern, with one important exception worth knowing.

The University of Manchester School of Dentistry applies the same rule as its medical school: it does not consider applicants who achieve Band 3 or 4 in the Situational Judgement Test. If you're applying to dentistry with Band 1 or 2, Manchester is a school where that result is doing real work for you.

Beyond Manchester, the picture is much thinner. The Dental Schools Council's published entry requirements for 2027 entry list around nineteen other dental schools requiring the UCAT — including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dundee, Glasgow, King's College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Queen Mary and Queen's Belfast — without stating any SJT band requirement at all. Several individual dental school pages say nothing about the band either.

So in dentistry your strong band is best understood as insurance rather than currency. It keeps every door open and removes a risk that Band 3 and Band 4 applicants carry, but only Manchester currently publishes a policy that turns it into an advantage. Check each dental school individually, and have a look at our dedicated guide to UCAT cut-off scores for UK dental schools.

🧠 Should You Mention Your Band Anywhere?

No. 🙅

Not in your personal statement, not at interview, and not in an email to admissions.

Every school that cares about your band already has it. Your personal statement is a tightly limited space that should be spent on what draws you to medicine and what you've learned from your experience, and spending characters on a test result you've already submitted is the least efficient thing you can do with them.

The same goes for the interview. Nobody is impressed by a candidate who mentions their UCAT result, and at several of these schools the interviewers deliberately don't see your scores.

And once you hold an offer, it's over entirely. Your band plays no part in your degree, your finals, or your Foundation Programme application. It's a shortlisting tool with a shelf life of about four months.

🎤 Your Interview Still Decides Your Year

Here's the perspective that keeps a strong band in proportion. At almost every school above, the SJT does its work and then hands over to the interview.

Nottingham makes offers on interview performance alone.
Queen's Belfast makes offers on the post-interview ranking.
UEA weights your interview and your UCAT equally.
Sheffield combines your SJT score with eight MMI stations for one total out of 45.
Birmingham brings your band in at the interview stage, not before it.

Every medical school interviews more people than it has places. So your band gets you into the room — and then the room decides.

The encouraging part is that the skills the SJT rewards are the same skills the MMI rewards: recognising what matters in a situation, escalating appropriately, putting patient safety first, and being honest when something has gone wrong. If you scored Band 1 or 2, you already think in a way medical schools like. The task now is doing it out loud, under time pressure, in front of a stranger.

Try these with a timer set to eight minutes each, out loud rather than in your head:

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?
An elderly patient refuses a treatment you believe they need. What are your responsibilities?
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 and several others set their thresholds
December 2026 to March 2027: most medical school interviews

📌 SJT Band 1 and Band 2: Key Facts at a Glance

The UCAT Consortium describes Band 1 as "an excellent level of performance" and Band 2 as "a good, solid level of performance"
On preliminary 2026 figures, 16% of candidates achieved Band 1 and 42% achieved Band 2 — around 58% combined
Nottingham awards the most points for a strong band: 10 for Band 1 and 6 for Band 2
Sheffield converts your SJT quartile into a score out of 5 that counts towards your offer alongside your MMI stations
Newcastle awards 5 points for Band 1 and 3 for Band 2, applied at interview and weighted like one MMI station
Manchester is the only UK medical school requiring Band 1 or 2, and states it ranks candidates by UCAT total score and SJT band
Manchester's School of Dentistry applies the same Band 1 or 2 rule
Queen's Belfast has previously admitted applicants a point below its threshold on the strength of Bands 1 and 2
Anglia Ruskin and Leicester require Band 1 to 3 to unlock their guaranteed interview routes
Around seventeen medical schools, including Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow and Bristol, don't use the SJT at all
Your band has no role after you receive an offer

❓ SJT Band 1 and Band 2: Frequently Asked Questions

Is SJT Band 1 good?

Yes. The UCAT Consortium describes Band 1 as "an excellent level of performance", and only around 16% of candidates achieve it. It's the only band that meaningfully distinguishes you from the field — although at most medical schools it's treated identically to Band 2.

Is SJT Band 2 good?

Yes. Band 2 is described by the Consortium as "a good, solid level of performance", and it clears every published SJT requirement in UK medicine, including Manchester's, which is the strictest. Its one limitation is that it's the most common outcome in the country, at around 42% of candidates, so it rarely sets you apart on its own.

Which medical schools reward a high SJT band?

Nottingham (10 points for Band 1, 6 for Band 2), Newcastle (5 and 3, applied at interview), Sheffield (a quartile score out of 5 added to your MMI total), Keele (2 and 1 within a score out of 25) and Edinburgh (a band score added to your academic score) all convert a strong band into points. Manchester requires Band 1 or 2 and ranks candidates partly on band.

Does Band 1 give me an advantage over Band 2?

At most schools, no — they're treated as equally acceptable. The clear exception is Manchester, which states it ranks candidates by UCAT total score and SJT band when oversubscribed. Nottingham also separates them meaningfully, at 10 points versus 6, and Newcastle at 5 versus 3. Everywhere else, a Band 2 does the same job as a Band 1.

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

Cambridge states it will not use the situational judgement score for 2027 entry. Oxford doesn't use it at shortlisting, Glasgow doesn't consider it, Bristol excludes it from interview selection, Swansea's A110 course doesn't assess it, and Bangor doesn't currently consider it. Aston publishes no cut-off for the UCAT or the SJT, and Cardiff's published scoring doesn't mention it.

Can a good SJT band make up for a low UCAT score?

Only slightly, and not at most schools. The cognitive score is the bigger hurdle almost everywhere — Newcastle awards up to 60 points for your total score against 5 for a Band 1. The one place a strong band has visibly rescued a borderline application is Queen's Belfast, which has previously invited applicants a point below its threshold if they held Band 1 or 2.

Do I need Band 1 or 2 for any medical school?

Yes — the University of Manchester does not consider applicants with Band 3 or 4, and its School of Dentistry applies the same rule. Kent and Medway Medical School's most recently published thresholds required Band 2 or above from graduate applicants, and Keele requires Band 3 or better from international applicants.

Does a strong SJT band help in dentistry?

At Manchester, definitively — its dental school requires Band 1 or 2. Elsewhere the Dental Schools Council's 2027-entry requirements list around nineteen dental schools that use the UCAT without stating any SJT band policy, so your band mainly works as insurance rather than an advantage. Check each dental school's own page before applying.

Should I mention my SJT band in my personal statement or at interview?

No. Admissions teams already have your result, and the space is far better spent on your motivation and what you've learned from your experience. At several schools interviewers deliberately don't see your scores.

🔗 Useful Links

UCAT and applications

Schools that score the SJT band

Schools where Band 1 or 2 is required

Schools that use the SJT as a tie-break or at interview

Schools that don't use the SJT

More from Blue Peanut Medical

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, and several schools publish no SJT policy at all rather than an explicit one. Always confirm current requirements on the medical school's own website — or by email — before you submit your UCAS application. Last updated 20 September 2026.

Blue Peanut interview course

Done reading about your score? Start preparing to win the offer.

Small-group interview and MMI preparation taught by NHS doctors, in Manchester, London or live online.

Medical interview course Mock MMI circuits

The Blue Peanut Team

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.