Applying to Oxford or Cambridge for medicine?

Applying to Oxbridge medicine can be a daunting process. We cover each aspect of your application, including the personal statement, UCAT and interview. Written by a past Oxford medicine student, who has worked in the admissions department of Oxford University and as a college preclinical medicine tutor, here you will find everything you need to ace your application.

Course Choice

One of the most important parts of your Oxbridge Medicine application is to decide Oxford or Cambridge. At both universities the undergraduate medicine course is 6 years long, split into pre-clinical and clinical years, with the chance to intercalate in your third year. However, there are a number of key differences between the two:

Cambridge uses full-body dissection, whilst Oxford uses prosection
Cambridge has teaching on Saturdays.
For intercalation, Cambridge offers students a wider choice of subjects to study than Oxford, including humanities.
Cambridge medical school is almost twice as big as Oxford’s.

It is a common misconception that both universities are one and the same when it comes to their application criteria. Understanding the differences can give you the upper hand when applying.

If you have very good GCSEs (predominately 8/9 grades), then consider Oxford, since they traditionally select students for interview based on GCSE grades and UCAT score.
If you feel that you will interview well and that other areas of your application are weaker, then Cambridge may be a better option, considering they interview far more students.
Cambridge requires A*A*A for A level, whilst Oxford asks for A*AA. If you’re not super confident you’ll get that second A*, Oxford is a better option for you.

Personal Statement

As with any other UK university application, you are required to write a 4,000-character personal statement. The key to acing your Oxbridge medicine application is to show both your passion for being a doctor, but also your aptitude and interest for the science behind clinical practice. At both Oxford and Cambridge, there is a strong focus on biomedical sciences, particularly in the preclinical part of the course, where you study a combination of pathology, biochemistry, and physiology, coupled with opportunities for research.

Here is a list of things that could help make you stand out:

Enter an essay competition. Departments and colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge run essay competitions for secondary school students every year. Entering gives you a taste of Oxbridge-style essay writing and shows that you are dedicated and studious enough to spend time outside of school researching an area of medicine. Oxford has a website with a list of current essay competitions, and you’ll find competitions at Cambridge on the individual college websites.
Try to get some form of work and/or volunteering experience. If you can’t find a placement at your local hospital or GP surgery, then online work experiences can be just as valuable, such as that run by Brighton and Sussex Medical School. This will help you make an informed application and will give you plenty to discuss in your personal statement. Ensure you reflect adequately on your experiences, and bring in examples of good clinical practice, such as effective teamwork and empathy.
Undertake lots of extra reading. As an Oxbridge medical student, you will spend a large part of your time reading and researching for your essays each week. However, don’t just namedrop the books or papers you have read, make sure you reflect on what you have learnt and try to find a link to other parts of your personal statement, so that it flows well e.g., you might talk about how you enjoyed studying the heart in biology at school, then decided to enter an essay competition on cardiology, and this led you to an interesting scientific paper on cardiac transplants.

The UCAT

The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) is a test used by many UK medical and dental schools as part of their admission process, including Oxford and Cambridge. It consists of 5 sections and is 2 hours long, and applicants will need to sit the UCAT between July and September before submitting their UCAS applications.

The UCAT can be an intimidating exam to be prepare for, but here are some tips and tricks that can help you ace this part of the application process:

Book your test early - test slots go quickly and you don’t want to end up with an inconvenient date or location. We’d also advise (if possible) avoiding bookings for after the summer holidays, as this can clash with school exams and personal statement writing and risks making the rest of your applications a little rushed.

Know the test format - the UCAT consists of five subsections: verbal reasoning, qualitative reasoning, abstract reasoning, decision making and situational judgment. Make sure that you are familiar not just with the types of questions in each section but also with the number of questions and time available. (It’s also helpful to have worked out the halfway time point for each subtest.)
Start practising early – practice is key to acing the UCAT. Leaving all the revision to just before the exam can mean you don’t have enough time to finesse the necessary skills Practising little and often over a longer period is much more effective – not to mention less stressful and more enjoyable as well!
Rehearse under timed conditions – time pressure is one of the hardest aspects of the UCAT. With unlimited time, many more people would get all the questions right.
Identify your weaknesses early on – don’t just focus on the section you like the most. It’s important that you work out what you find most difficult and improve there, to improve your overall UCAT score.
Don’t linger too long on any one question - if you don’t an answer, guess, flag, and move on! There’s no negative marking, so don’t waste time on difficult questions.

Interview

Whilst traditionally Oxbridge have held their interviews in person, they have confirmed that for 2024 entry interviews will be online. At both Oxford and Cambridge, you typically have at least two panel interviews, lasting between 20-45 minutes each. Your interviewers will normally be the preclinical and clinical tutors at the colleges you interview for. Oxbridge interviews are very different to the MMI structure that most other medical schools use; they are designed to reflect a tutorial or supervision that students at both universities experience on a regular basis. The main focus of the interview is to see how the candidate approaches difficult problems, and especially how they cope with not knowing the answer immediately. The basis of the interview could be discussing an image or article, or maybe designing an experiment. The questions are often designed to start with something familiar from the GCSE or A level science syllabus and then gradually become more challenging.

Here are a few secrets for success:

Think out loud! The admissions tutors want to see how you think and if you’d be a suitable and enjoyable student for them to teach on a weekly basis. Be as interactive as possible – nothing is more boring than just watching a student work out a problem in silence. If you don’t know the answer, then ask for help!
Know your personal statement inside out! Your interviewers will often have your personal statement on the table in front of them and ask you questions based on what you have written!
Historically, the basis of your interview will be on a topic that your interviewers themselves are an expert in. Find out who your likely interviewers are by looking up the tutors at the college you are assigned to and make sure you revise the sections of the GCSE and A level syllabus that correspond to their area of expertise e.g., if your interviewer is a cardiologist, I would advise that you know the cardiovascular system inside out!
A common interview question is to ask you to design an experiment. Ensure you are confident with the basis of experimental design and can discuss the pros and cons of different animal models.

Good luck!