Update 28 August 2024

If your UCAT score is low, selecting your Medical Schools carefully is essential. Some universities place less importance on the UCAT score or have lower UCAT cut-off thresholds than others.

Where can I apply with a low UCAT score for 2025 entry?

Did you score low on your UCAT exam? This isolation should not stop you from continuing your application to medicine and your dream of becoming a doctor. However, your choice of medical schools will now be restricted, and you must apply to a university with less emphasis on your UCAT score.

Before you start with your UCAS application, here are a few critical bits of information you need to take into account: -

• You must ensure you still meet the other entry requirements for that medical school. This includes your choice of A-levels, GCSE, and actual or predicted grades. Almost all want to study chemistry or biology, with a few even specifying the third A-level. With GCSE, there may be minimum grades in some subjects, usually Maths, English and Science, as well as a minimum number of subjects with specific minimum grades.

• You must ensure you meet non-academic requirements, including having relevant work experience and adequate completion of the UCAS application form.

• The university from which you get your medical degree is irrelevant to pursuing a career in the NHS. Your employer will want you to be registered as a doctor with the General Medical Council.

• The information below can serve as a guideline. Medical schools can change their entrance requirements, sometimes after the UCAS deadline. Always check the medical school website and even email them if you have specific questions before deciding..

Historical UCAT Scores 2023

• In 2023, the number of UCAT test-takers was 35,625, a decrease of around 700 from 36,374 in 2022.

• The average UCAT score increased slightly from 2,500 in 2022 to 2,516 in 2023, meaning a higher score was needed to stay competitive. Notably, a more significant proportion of applicants achieved a Band 1 in Situational Judgement in 2023, with 25% of test-takers reaching this level, compared to 20% in 2022.

• The average Verbal Reasoning score also modestly rose from 567 in 2022 to 591 in 2023. This increase is particularly significant for universities like Nottingham, which double-weight the Verbal Reasoning section when selecting interview candidates.

• Along with the rise in average UCAT scores, percentile thresholds also increased. To be in the top 20% of applicants in 2023, a score above 2,760 was required, compared to 2,750 in 2022. Similarly, the bottom 20% scored below 2,270 in 2023, up from 2,250 in 2022.

Factors you should consider when choosing a medical school with a low UCAT score

• The university may have a calculated cut-off UCAT score (which means anyone below this is rejected), but it has been relatively low traditionally. You can only use past cut-off scores as a guideline since the medical school may increase the score if it has more applications.

• The medical school has already indicated a relatively low cut-off score. They might only do this once the UCAT results (or interim UCAT results) are released.

• The medical school weighs the UCAT with other factors, such as A-level and GCSE results, but the weighting for the UCAT score is comparatively low compared to other factors. This may allow you to compensate for a poor UCAT score with different aspects of your application.

• Use the UCAT result after the interview as part of a ‘holistic’ approach, the method of which is not always specified. This may, for example, allow you to make up for a lower UCAT score with a better performance in your medical school interview.

Our list of medical schools to apply for with a low UCAT score for 2025 entry

Here is our list of medical schools to apply to with a low UCAT score for 2025 entry. When writing (28 August 2024), this information is in good faith, but medical schools can and do update their entry requirements. Always check with the medical school website before making a final decision.

🎓 Aston University Medical School

• The university website indicated that academic qualifications and UCAT scores should be considered for interview shortlisting, and we then used both these and MMI results to offer a place to study medicine. This process could have been more transparent in the past, but we now have further details.

• All SJT bands are accepted. The UCAT score constitutes 1/3 of the shortlisting process, while academic qualifications account for the remaining 2/3. For the 2022 entry, the average UCAT score for interviewees was 2,631. Aston is one of the medical schools you can historically apply to with a lower UCAT score if you can counterbalance this with high academic qualifications.

• This means you can counterbalance a lower UCAT score if you can score well in the other indicators, which they have indicated are your academic qualifications and, historically, performance in your medical school interview.

🎓 Queen’s University Belfast Medical School

• The university uses a points-based system to decide who to call for an interview. This is marked out of 42, with marks given based on your GCSE performance and UCAT score.

• The school will look at your best 9 GCSEs are awarded points based on your grade in each subject, with 4 points for an A* (or nine on the new system) and 3 for an A (7 or 8) grade, 2 points for a B (6) and 1 point for a C (5). The maximum academic score based on your GCSE grades is, therefore, 36 (which is nine subjects at A*/9 at GCSE)

• The remaining 6 points are based on your UCAT score, so the weight of the UCAT score is significantly less than your GCSE results. The medical school has indicated they can use your situational judgement score if two applicants have the same score.

• They then decided to call for an interview with anyone above their cut-off, 32 overall points and above in 2021. Unfortunately, this cut-off score is going up year on year. In 2023, the total points threshold for the interview was 37.

• In addition, Queen’s Belfast is also a medical school that has traditionally had a lower applicant-to-place ratio.

🎓 University of Sunderland School of Medicine

• The medical school's website states that ‘Scores must be within the top 8 deciles of the cohort and situational judgement test (SJT) must be within bands 1-3’.

• Based on 2022 results, this corresponds to a UCAT score of over 2270, so this is a relatively low UCAT cut-off score. In addition, Sunderland also has a lower applicant-to-place ratio.

• However, for 2023, this meant a score of 2,760 or better, so it is becoming harder to reach this entry requirement.

🎓 University of Birmingham School of Medicine

• The medical school has indicated on their website that ‘weighting will be: 45% academic, 40% UCAT and 15% contextual’. In the past, it was ‘45% academic, 35% UCAT and 20% contextual’. So, the UCAT is continuing to carry more weight this year, but you may still be able to counterbalance this with good academic scores.

• There is no set minimum UCAT cut-off score; your overall UCAT score, including the SJT component, will be ranked compared to other applicants.

• Contextual scores are effectively the widening participation criterion.

• However, be careful of the ‘contextual’ indicators—if you do not meet them and combine them with a poor UCAT score, this could be a disadvantage. However, as the weighting for contextual score has been reduced, this has less of an impact than last year.

🎓 University of Exeter Medical School

• The university website has indicated that they will use data which is ‘weighted to create an Exeter score; 25% coming from the UCAT/GAMSAT and 75% from academic attainment’, the same as last year.

• Therefore, you should be able to compensate for a reduced UCAT score with academic grades.

• The academic attainment relates to your (we assume predicted) A-level results. However, we noticed that having an A* makes a significant difference. The medical school then ranks students based on their Exeter score to decide who to call for an interview.🎓 Keele University School of Medicine

• The university has indicated it does have a threshold – they have stated it can be as low as 2280, which is historically low. Students are also ranked on the ‘roles and responsibilities’ form, which we assume is another written assessment you must complete. Looking at the guidance, we see that it is a significant essay type of assessment.

• If more applicants have the same threshold ‘roles and responsibilities’ score than there are available interview slots, those applicants will be ranked based on their UCAT scores.

• They have also indicated they will give reduced offers if you live in the Keele region.

Apart from your UCAT exam, you must succeed in your Medical School Interview. Come to our medical school interview course and help turn those interviews into offers!

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• 📚 Covers over 50 topics assessed in medical school interviews. Including the traditional ones, such as motivation and ethics, and more modern ones, such as doctors’ use of social media.

• 🎓 Includes role-play, practical sessions, and hot topics, including COVID-19 and vaccination

• 😀 The course is live in person, allowing students to practice MMI stations with expert feedback. We plan to run these in Manchester, London, Glasgow and Birmingham

• 💾 There is the option to log in to the class from home via live webinar on some dates.

• 📼 Complete with over 100 follow-up tutorials and an up-to-date question bank to reinforce your learning. Access us until April 2023 – hopefully, all medical schools will have interviewed by then.