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Medical school comparison

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs Birmingham

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) and Birmingham are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Barts and The London (Queen Mary) is based in London (London) while Birmingham sits in Birmingham (England), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

Their A-Level requirements (A*AA vs AAA) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers. The interview formats diverge — Panel vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different. Barts and The London (Queen Mary) is the older institution (founded 1785); the other (founded 1900) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)

London

Quick comparison

Location
London, UK
A-Level offer
A*AA at A-level achieved in one sitting over a study period of no longer than two years
TrueScore
Barts and The London (Queen Mary) TrueScore 2010
UCAT home cut-off
A hard floor at the fourth decile: Queen Mary states your application will not be considered beyond first shortlisting if your total UCAT falls below it. Clearing the fourth decile is no guarantee of an interview.
Interview format
Panel interview with two senior academic or clinical staff, sometimes a lay selector (online)
Post-interview chance
UK Undergrad: 948/1294 = 73% (2025); International: 61/159 = 38%; A101 Graduate Medicine: 55/127 = 43%
Decision date
March onwards

Birmingham

Birmingham

Quick comparison

Location
Birmingham, UK
A-Level offer
AAA including Chemistry and a second science from Biology/Human Biology, Physics or Mathematics, with a minimum prediction of AAB. Three A-levels are required.
TrueScore
Birmingham TrueScore 2030
UCAT home cut-off
No cut-off. Birmingham states there is no minimum UCAT score - your total is converted to a national decile and fed into a combined application score.
Interview format
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance
Strong. In the 2024-25 cycle Birmingham made 845 offers from 1,061 home interviews (80%) and 79 from 117 international interviews (68%). Getting to interview is the hard part.
Decision date
March onwards

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs Birmingham - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) requires A*AA at A-level achieved in one sitting over a study period of no longer than two years.

Birmingham requires AAA including Chemistry and a second science from Biology/Human Biology, Physics or Mathematics, with a minimum prediction of AAB. Three A-levels are required.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) is the stricter A-Level offer; Birmingham is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, Birmingham carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Barts and The London (Queen Mary): At least 6 GCSEs at grades 777666 (AAABBB pre-2017) including Biology, Chemistry, English Language or English Literature, and Mathematics. Science Double Award may substitute all sciences.

GCSEs not… Birmingham: English Language at grade 6/B, Mathematics at grade 6/B, Biology and Chemistry (or Dual Award Science) at grade 6/B. Top GCSEs heavily scored: GCSE = 45% of pre-interview application score (UCAT 40%…

Interview formats

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) uses Panel (Panel interview with two senior academic or clinical staff, sometimes a lay selector (online)); Birmingham uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)). 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, Barts and The London (Queen Mary) may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, Birmingham is the better fit.

Interview windows: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) interviews in December - February; Birmingham in December - February.

Curriculum and teaching style

Both schools deliver a Integrated-style curriculum, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar across years 1-3.

Specifics: Five-year MBBS with integrated theory and clinical practice. Strong East London NHS placement network (Royal London, Whipps Cross, Newham, Mile End). Five-year MBChB with integrated science and clinical exposure from Year 1. Clinical placements across Birmingham-affiliated NHS hospitals (UHB, Russel

Intake size: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) — 311 Home places and up to 24 Overseas expected for September 2026 entry on the five-year A100 - one of the larger UK medical schools.; Birmingham — 380 home places and 28 international for 2025 entry, of which up to 6 international places are reserved for IMU-Malaysia students entering the clinical years..

A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Barts and The London (Queen Mary): UK Undergrad: 948/1294 = 73% (2025); International: 61/159 = 38%; A101 Graduate Medicine: 55/127 = 43%. Birmingham: Strong. In the 2024-25 cycle Birmingham made 845 offers from 1,061 home interviews (80%) and 79 from 117 international interviews (68%). Getting to interview is the hard part.

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.

What makes each distinctive

Barts and The London (Queen Mary): No longer 50:50 weighted on A-level predictions and UCAT - anyone who exceeds the UCAT cut-off generally gets an interview regardless of predictions. SJT band adds bonus points to interview score post-interview (Band 1 = +2, Band 2 = +1, Band 3 = 0).

Birmingham: Selection is GCSE-heavy: 45% GCSE / 40% UCAT / 15% contextual. UCAT scored by national decile, so a clear top-decile score makes a big difference. Birmingham was the first UK university to offer dentistry and medicine programmes side by side.

Which is right for you?

For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, Birmingham is the lower-risk academic option. Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Barts and The London (Queen Mary) feeds into the London foundation programme network; Birmingham into the England network.

Your firm/insurance choice should ultimately weight: where your UCAT and predicted grades sit relative to each school's threshold, which interview format you can prepare for most credibly, and where you'd actually want to live for five or six years.

Common questions

Neither school publishes a single fixed UCAT cut-off; both use UCAT as part of a composite shortlisting score alongside GCSE and personal-statement weighting. Barts and The London (Queen Mary) guidance: A hard floor at the fourth decile: Queen Mary states your application will not be considered beyond first shortlisting if your total UCAT falls below it. Clearing the fourth decile is no guarantee of an interview.. Birmingham guidance: No cut-off. Birmingham states there is no minimum UCAT score - your total is converted to a national decile and fed into a combined application score..

Where to go next

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full
BirminghamEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed .