King's College London (KCL) vs Plymouth

King's College London (KCL)'s published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2050, while Plymouth sits at approximately 1990.

The 60-point spread is within year-on-year noise — for most applicants the two thresholds are effectively interchangeable, and other selection factors (GCSE weighting, interview score) will dominate.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — King's College London (KCL): Lower thresholds for POLAR/ACORN/IMD-flagged, care-experienced, or KCL WP scheme attendees.; Plymouth: not separately disclosed. Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

King's College London (KCL) requires A*AA - A* in biology or chemistry, plus A in another of biology/chemistry/physics/maths/psychology. Resit considered for first-time L3 resitters. Second resits only with mitigating circumstances.

Plymouth requires A*AA – AAA offer (AAB widening access - A in biology + second science). Including biology and a second science from chemistry/physics/maths/psychology. Resit (with predicted grades): minimum ABB on first sitting (or ABC WP).

Both demand the same A-Level grade band, so academic prediction is unlikely to differentiate your application between them — provided you meet the required subject combination at each.

King's College London (KCL) uses Panel (Two-interviewer panel, remote (no longer 6-station MMI)); Plymouth uses MMI (Five-station MMI (online), ~55 minutes). These two formats reward different skills — Panel emphasises narrative coherence and the ability to develop a thread under follow-up questioning, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, King's College London (KCL) may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, Plymouth is the better fit.

Interview windows: King's College London (KCL) interviews in January – February; Plymouth in February – April.

King's College London (KCL): Non-contextual home students without degree: 98/171 = 57% (2025). Overall 2025: 175/350 = 50%. Plymouth: Home: 132/499 = 26% (2025). Overseas: 8/28 = 29%. Home Foundation Year: 17/104 = 16%.

Post-interview odds give you the clearest signal of how competitive each school is at the final stage — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%, even if the interview thresholds look identical on paper.

King's College London (KCL): Combined scoring: ~45% UCAT + 5% SJT + 40% GCSE + 10% contextual factors (FOI-derived; subject to change). 8+ grade 8/9s at GCSE typically required. SJT band 4 appears to be automatically rejected. Also runs a 4-year and 3-year graduate-entry programme (see Graduate Entry section).

Plymouth: Interview-score-based offer making. Personal statements and work experience are NOT considered for interview selection - UCAT and academic minimums alone determine who reaches interview.