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Medical student practicing clinical skills at Castle Hill Hospital, Hull

Selection procedure

Find out how applicants who meet our minimum academic requirements are ranked for interview and offers to study Medicine.

Introduction

Selection procedure

Our aim is to produce not just doctors, but brilliant doctors who will deliver outstanding care to their patients.

Our selection procedure has been designed to enable us to assess not only academic ability, but also those skills and qualities that we feel are critical for doctors now and in the future.

We believe fairness and transparency is of utmost importance when selecting applicants and aim to share as much information as possible about our selection policy and provide support for applicants throughout the process.

Selection procedure for Medicine

1. Academic screening

All applications are screened to meet they meet our academic entry requirements and eligibility criteria. Please see our Medicine entry requirements and Medicine with a Gateway Year entry requirements.

If your application does not meet these criteria, it will be rejected at this stage.

2. Interview selection

Applications are considered within the context of the applicants to the same programme as you (Medicine or Medicine with a Gateway Year), in the same application cohort as you.

We do not look for a specific score to be achieved, but instead rank you in numerical order and invite the top scoring applicants to interview.

GCSE results

GCSE results (30 points)

Applications will be given an academic score based upon the best six achieved grades at GCSE for Medicine, or best five GCSEs for Medicine with a Gateway Year, or equivalent Year 11 qualifications.

UCAT score

UCAT score (40 points)

We award a number of points based upon your total UCAT decile, up to a maximum of 40 points. We do this once UCAT results are released to universities in November. As such, the number of points that each UCAT score will receive as part of our selection procedure will be determined after the UCAS deadline.

UCAT Situational Judgement Test

UCAT Situational Judgement Test (15 points)

Points are allocated depending on the SJT Band achieved, up to a maximum of 15 points. We do not accept Band 4.

Contextual data

Contextual data (up to 15 points)

We recognise that an applicants educational and socio-economic background may impact their achievements and potential. We use contextual information and data alongside your UCAS application so we can build a complete picture of you as an applicant, your characteristics and potential.

Due to the availability and comparability of data, the use of contextual information will apply to UK school leaver applicants only.

Contextual data points are only available for UK resident Home students. Contextual data points are not available for graduates or applicants who have previously started a university course, including foundation programmes.

Points are awarded as follows:

  • Care experience or care leaver* – 15 points
  • Refugee status – 15 points
  • Contextual data markers – applicants must meet two out of three markers to be awarded points (not to be used in addition to care or refugee status):
  • Applicants who have satisfactorily completed one of the our recognised widening participation programmes and who do not meet any of the above three criteria, or who only meet one of the criteria, are awarded points as follows:
    • Widening participation programme – 7 points
    • Widening participation programme and one criteria – 7 points and criteria points
  • The following recognised widening participation progammes must be completed within two years of application:
    • Hull York Medical School Pathways to Medicine
    • Realising Opportunities programme
    • University of York Black Access programme
    • University of York Next Step York programme
    • University of York Yorway programe
  • The following recognised widening participation progammes must be completed in the year of application:
    • Hull York Medical School Year 12 Summer School / Residential
    • UKWPMED programmes (Birmingham, Brighton and Sussex, Hull York Medical School, Keele, Leicester, Manchester, Plymouth) - This is not applicable to Medicine with a Gateway Year
    • York Experience Summer School
Personal statement

We do not score your personal statement; however, it is an important part of your application to Hull York Medical School as it allows you to talk about your interests, achievements and ambitions.

We do read all of these and reserve the right to take them into consideration in selection decisions. We carefully examine all the information submitted on the UCAS form when making decisions about candidates who are borderline at the selection for interview or selection for offer stage.

If you are invited for interview, your statement is likely to prove useful preparation for interview questions. It is important that your statement is honest and accurate; we may check the claims that you made on your statement, and discovery of fabricated or exaggerated material may lead to the withdrawal of a future offer of a place.

Pre-application experience

We do not score pre-application experience at this stage, however you will be asked about your experience in your interview. We advise applicants to have a range of relevant work experiences in health or social care settings or in areas that provide person facing interactions.

Your experience will help you to demonstrate in your application and interview that you understand, and are committed to, teamwork and the social context of healthcare.

It will help you to develop some of the values, attitudes and behaviours essential to being a doctor.

Please visit our work experience page for more information.

References

Applications must also include an academic reference. Any application submitted without a completed academic reference will be rejected.

If it is a while since you were studying, and you have been in a full-time job for more than one year, we will also require a reference from your latest employer who will be asked to comment upon your suitability to study Medicine.

3. Interview

We run Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), where applicants rotate around a series of short stations.

Please visit our interviews page which explains what happens during our Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), as well as helpful tips and experiences from our current Medicine students.

In-person interviews scoring (Home/EU candidates)

In-person interviews are scored as follows:

  • Group exercise - up to 20 points
  • Mini interview 1 - up to 15 points
  • Mini interview 2 - up to 15 points
  • Scenario station - up to 15 points
  • Student station - up to 15 points
Online interviews scoring (overseas fee status candidates)

Online interviews are only available for international applicants and therefore do not include contextual data points.

Online interviews are scored as follows:

  • Mini interview 1 - up to 15 points
  • Mini interview 2 - up to 15 points
  • Mini interview 3 - up to 15 points
  • Student station - up to 10 points
  • Individual scenario station - up to 10 points
  • Group scenario station - up to 15 points

4. Selection for offer

Your scores are collated as follows: 

  • Overall interview score
  • SJT Band - up to 10 points (BrightMed applicants via UKWPMED will have an upscaled overall score)
  • Contextual data - up to 10 points (scores are factored on interview performance)

We then rank applicants in order of total score and make offers. We make offers after all the interviews are completed.

Because we rank applicants according to their individual total score, the cut-off score for offer changes each year and we therefore cannot define a minimum score that will be acceptable.

Selection procedure

Criteria

During our selection process, the following criteria are considered:

  • Academic ability, judged by prior academic performance and, where appropriate, predicted academic results
  • Evidence of motivation and reasons for working in healthcare
  • Evidence of a realistic understanding of healthcare issues and practice
  • Written and oral communication skills, and suitability for an enquiry-based learning course
  • Evidence of conscientiousness, self-motivation, responsibility and appropriate maturity and confidence

We reserve the right to alter our process if considered necessary.

Our admission policy follows the Guiding Principles for the Admission of Medical Students agreed by the Council of Heads of Medical Schools (revised March 2010).