Birmingham Medicine: the admissions numbers

How Birmingham decides, in plain English

1. 1

   Every Home applicant gets one number out of 10.

   It is the sum of three parts: a GCSE score out of 4.5 (that is the 45%), a UCAT score out of 4 (40%) and, only if Birmingham counts you as contextual, a score out of 1.5 (15%). A standard applicant's best possible score is 8.5; a contextual applicant's is 10. Nothing else is scored before interview: not the personal statement, not predicted grades beyond the AAA minimum, not the SJT.

2. 2

   GCSEs are nearly half of it, and only seven subjects count.

   English Language, English Literature, Maths, Biology and Chemistry (each must be at least a 6) plus your two best other subjects. An 8 or 9 in a named subject is worth 4 points, a 7 is worth 2, a 6 is worth 1; each of the two others is worth 2 for an 8 or 9 and nothing otherwise. The most you can collect is 24 points, which becomes 4.5. So a 7 instead of an 8 in Maths costs you 0.375 of your total, and a 6 costs 0.563.

3. 3

   The UCAT counts by decile, not by score.

   Birmingham does not have a cut-off. It looks at which tenth of all UCAT candidates nationally your three-subtest total falls in. The top tenth scores 4.0, the next 3.556, and so on down in steps of 0.444 to 0 for the bottom tenth. Two people with 2,300 and 2,380 get the same score if both are in the 9th decile.

4. 4

   Then everyone is ranked, and the top of the list is interviewed.

   Birmingham expects to interview over 1,100 standard applicants. The lowest score of anyone interviewed is the line. For 2025 entry it was 7.236, and it was the same the year before; for 2023 entry it was 8.067. Birmingham will not say in advance where next year's line will fall, because it depends on who applies.

5. 5

   What the score statistics mean.

   "Minimum" is that line. "Median" is the middle interviewee: half of those interviewed scored above it (8.125 for standard applicants, 8.618 for contextual in 2025 entry). "Mean" is the average. If your score is above the median you were in the top half of interviewees; if it is between the line and the median you were interviewed but in the bottom half; if it is below the line you were not interviewed at all.

6. 6

   After interview, most people get an offer.

   For 2025 entry 845 of 1,061 Home interviewees got an offer (80%). So at Birmingham the score line is the hard part; the interview then decides, using the SJT band as one input.

Your score, and what it means

Put your own grades through the same arithmetic and read the result against last cycle’s line and median. If you are not sure whether Birmingham counts you as contextual, check its entry requirements page; your POLAR4 quintile is on the Office for Students postcode lookup linked below.

The application score, out of 10: the rules

Selection for interview is by ranking on the total of three parts. A standard applicant can score 8.5; a contextual applicant up to 10.

What reaches the line: GCSE profile against UCAT decile

For each GCSE profile, the scaled GCSE score and the lowest national UCAT decile that would have reached the 2025-entry interview line of 7.236 as a standard applicant, and as a contextual applicant in POLAR4 quintile 1 or 2 (+1.5) or quintile 5 (+0.6). Profiles list the five named subjects, then the two best others.

The arithmetic is unforgiving for standard applicants: with full GCSE marks (4.5) the 8th decile is the lowest that reached 7.236, and each named subject at 7 rather than 8 costs 0.375, roughly one decile. A grade 6 in any named subject costs 0.5625. A contextual applicant from a quintile 1 or 2 postcode starts 1.5 ahead, which is why the contextual interviewees in the table below had far lower UCATs.

Scores of those offered an interview, by cycle

Every cell reads minimum / median / maximum, in that order; a dash means Birmingham gave no maximum for that cycle. Read a row like this: in 2024-25, the lowest total score of any standard applicant interviewed was 7.236, the middle interviewee had 8.125 and the best had 8.5; their UCAT totals ran from 2,680 to 3,460 (old scale, out of 3,600) and their GCSE scores from 3.375 to 4.5. From 2022-23 the minimum total is a single line for standard and contextual applicants, because the contextual score is already inside the total.

2019-20, before the contextual element, scored GCSEs out of 6 and UCAT out of 4: standard threshold 8.56, median 9.25; contextual threshold 7.03, median 7.78; international UCAT threshold 2,640. In 2024-25 international interviewees had a median UCAT of 3,080 and a maximum of 3,410. Means where Birmingham gave them: 2024-25 standard total 8.128, UCAT 2958.8, GCSE 4.355; contextual total 8.561, UCAT 2804.3, GCSE 4.179.

Applications, interviews, offers and entrants, 2019-20 to 2024-25

Home applicants in all, then by category where Birmingham split them, and international. “Interviewed” is interviews as a share of applications; “offers per interview” is what share of those interviewed got an offer. Enrolled is the September count; deferrals are in the notes under the table. Note how the contextual and WP-programme groups are interviewed at far higher rates than standard applicants: that is the contextual score and the guaranteed interview at work.

• 2020-21: 340 Home places included 8 for one year only to absorb deferrals from 2020. A further 23 offer holders deferred to 2022 and 14 transferred to another medical school under one-off incentive schemes.
• 2021-22: Enrolled as at 13 September 2022. 37 further students who applied in 2020-21 deferred to 2022 entry; 7 standard and 24 contextual offer holders deferred to 2023.
• 2022-23: Enrolled as at 8 September 2023. A further 28 Home students who applied in 2021-22 deferred and took up places in 2023, making 377 Home entrants.
• 2023-24: Enrolled as at 4 September 2024. 5 deferred entrants from 2022-23 made 388 Home entrants; 8 offer holders deferred to 2025.
• 2024-25: Enrolled as at 4 September 2025. 5 deferred entrants from 2023-24 made 390 Home entrants; 7 offer holders deferred to 2026. International excludes 3 Birmingham International Academy entrants and 23 clearing applications (20 interviewed, 12 offers, 9 placed), which took the international intake to 28.

Home applications have halved since 2020-21 while places rose to 380, so the interview rate for standard applicants climbed from 20% to 69%. Once interviewed, most get an offer: 80% of Home interviewees in 2024-25. The score line is the real cut; the interview is the second one.