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Medical school comparison

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs King's College London (KCL)

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) and King's College London (KCL) are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Both sit in London, so location and clinical-placement breadth are similar — the differentiation comes from selection methodology, interview style and curriculum philosophy.

The interview formats diverge — Panel vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.

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
2010
UCAT home cut-off
~2000+ /2700 (A100 Home; 2025 entry cut-off ≈ 2003 /2700)
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

King's College London (KCL)

London

Quick comparison

Location
London, UK
A-Level offer
A*AA at A-level including A in Biology and Chemistry
TrueScore
2150
UCAT home cut-off
~2130+ /2700 (non-contextual) with B1 SJT and 8× grade 8s at GCSE; mean offer holder ≈ 2250
Interview format
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance
All Students: 760/981 = 77% (2024); Overall undergraduate (2023): 645/1115 = 58%
Decision date
March onwards
Compare different schools

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs King's College London (KCL) - in detail

UCAT thresholds compared

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)'s published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2000, while King's College London (KCL) sits at approximately 2130.

The 130-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 — Barts and The London (Queen Mary): not separately disclosed; King's College London (KCL): ~1900+ /2700 with WP flags (POLAR/ACORN/IMD, care experienced, K+ participation). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

A-Level and academic profile

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology/Physics/Mathematics.

King's College London (KCL) requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology.

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.

Interview formats

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) uses Panel (Panel interview with two senior academic or clinical staff, sometimes a lay selector (online)); King's College London (KCL) 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, King's College London (KCL) is the better fit.

Interview windows: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) interviews in December - February; King's College London (KCL) in December - February.

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%. King's College London (KCL): All Students: 760/981 = 77% (2024); Overall undergraduate (2023): 645/1115 = 58%.

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).

King's College London (KCL): Strong clinical focus with emphasis on London healthcare system.

Which is right for you?

Both schools sit in the same London foundation-programme catchment, so post-graduation training paths overlap heavily. 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

Where to go next

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in fullKing's College London (KCL)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 4 August 2026.