What to do if your UCAT score is low?
Any chances for university with low scores? Do you need to retake a test?
If you sat at UCAT test and didn’t do well as you had expected, don’t worry! Bad things happen to everyone and even the best students facing obstacles in their lives. There are ways to make the most out of low UCAT score, with low scores you can still get offers from medical schools, but you need think very carefully about your next step.
As you know there is not a set threshold, below which a UCAT score is always considered low, but anything below the 4th decile rank would be seen as a low score. In 2023 a low UCAT score is a score below 2450 or 615 per section (international students a low UCAT score in 2023 could be anything below 2700 or 675 per section). Band 3 and 4 are usually considered as low the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) score, but some universities don’t take the SJT score into account, when shortlisting candidates for interviews. Secondly, there are some universities, which don’t place as much attention on the UCAT score or have a lower UCAT score cut off than others. Remember, just because your UCAT score is low for one Medical School does not mean that every School will turn you down.
If you remember the UCAT score is comprised of two elements. The first is the combined score from abstract reasoning, verbal reasoning, decision making and quantitative reasoning. Each section is scored from 300 to 900 points, which means you can get a maximum total UCAT score of 3600 from these sections. The second part of the UCAT score is the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) grade, which in the UK is scored across 4 bands, with Band 1 being the best score and Band 4 being the lowest score. To determine how competitive a UCAT score is, the UCAT consortium and medical schools convert the score into deciles or percentiles and percentiles can give you more detailed information about your score. For example each decile represents a group of 10% of students, for instance, the 9th decile represents a score that gets you into the top 10% of students in a given year.
Sound complicated?
Not necessary, again following the
example with representing scores and percentage being in the 75th percentile means...you have scored in the top 25%.
Worth to remember, every school, including medical, has a unique application system, focusing on different aspects of your application. With the low UCAT score the strategy is to apply to Med School that place more emphases on GCSE and A level grades, and your Personal Statement.
Let see which universities are interested more in you and your academic achievements:
1. University of Birmingham is ranked 84th in the QS World University Rankings, maintaining its position in the top 100 universities globally and placing as 15th amongst UK universities. In the 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings Birmingham is positioned 108th out of 1,400 universities across the globe. This university gives each applicant a score and ranks them for interviews, the score is a weighted sum of your academic and UCAT scores. But your academic grades (GCSEs and A-level grades) make up 70% of the score and your UCAT score makes up only 30% of the score. The UCAT score is taken under consideration, but it only forms a small part of the score used to select between applicants for interviews. There is also no minimum UCAT cut-off score, which makes Birmingham a great choice if your UCAT score is low, but you have good academic grades.
2. Cardiff University ranked 25th in The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023, it’s the highest ranked university in Wales, which also covers the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings with Sustainable Development Goals, including Climate action (ranking 4th in UK), Good health and well being (ranking 5th in UK), Live below water (ranking 9th in UK), Responsible Consumption and Production (ranking 12th in UK) and Life on land (ranking 16th in UK).
Why is this a perfect choice for a person with a low score?
In most cases, Cardiff doesn’t look at the UCAT score at all! They select candidates for interviews based on their academic performance and Personal Statement only. Cardiff ranks applicants based on the top 9 GCSEs with 3 points awarded for an A* (9 or 8), 2 for an A (7) and 1 for a B (6). They then look at the Personal Statements of the top-scoring candidates to make their decision. For what then you need your UCAT score for?
Cardiff uses the score only in borderline situations, when both candidates share similar, very good academic grades and wrote very compelling Personal Statements. But normally they will not look at your UCAT score at all.
3. University of Liverpool with its expansive alumni community includes the first female Director General of MI5; the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey; five Nobel Prize winners, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong and the founder of the Stirling prize for Architecture. They focus is on GCSEs (75%) and only 25% of UCAT score.
4. University of Dundee, according to The Sunday Times 2023 rose three places to 32nd in the UK in the overall table (1st in the UK for Subjects Allied to Medicine, 2nd in the UK and 1st in Scotland for Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering, 3rd in the UK and 2nd in Scotland for Medicine), and for graduate prospect (2nd in Scotland for Bioengineering and Biomedical Science, 2nd in Scotland for Subjects Allied to Medicine).
There is no minimum UCAT cut-off score, so with good academic grades your UCAT test score is less important.
➔ Applying to medical schools that require a low UCAT score isn’t the only solution. You can also place a bet on universities that require the BMAT, Biomedical Admission Test.
This test is used by schools to select applicants for medical and health – related degree programmes. If you missed your shot on the UCAT test, BMAT is your second chance!
➔ If you dream about Cambridge University, there is a good chance to get in. The higher the BMAT score, the higher the chance of being invited to interview. There is no particular BMAT score required for Cambridge because the university takes a more holistic view of your application, 90% of candidates are interviewed. Your personal statement, grades and interview are all taken into consideration with your BMAT test scores.
➔ If you think about University of Oxford, once again they are more focus on your GCSEs and BMAT, with equal weighting given, which means incredible GCSE results can make up for an average BMAT score and vice versa. The UCAT score is a cherry on top, but not necessary a deal breaker. Retaking a test could be the only step for you, if you think options mentioned above are still not good enough for you. However, the UCAT only has one testing window with a score validity of only one year. What this means is that you will have to sit the UCAT each year that you wish to apply for undergraduate medicine.
Second option is consider applying for another course, e.g. Biomedical Science, which could leave the door open to applying for Graduate Entry Medicine later.
Unfortunately, for students with low scores it has been announced by Imperial College London that they will be moving away from the BMAT in favor of the UCAT as the admissions test for all medicine applicants starting in 2024 for 2025 Entry. This means that applicants for Imperial Medicine, starting from next year, will be required to sit a completely different admissions test from applicants of previous years, including those applying in 2023 for 2024 Entry. Cambridge Assessments Admissions Testing (CAAT) and the University of Oxford announced as well that 2023 would be the final year for the BMAT and various other Admissions Tests that they operate, while the University of Leeds has already implemented this year 2023 UCAT scores as the most important factor in their admissions, replacing the BMAT test.
Sources:
https://www.uniadmissions.co.uk/ucat/guides/medical-school-bmat-to-ucat-2025/
https://www.themedicportal.com/blog/what-are-my-options-with-a-low-ucat-score/
