Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs Nottingham

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)'s published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2000, while Nottingham sits at approximately 1850.

The 150-point spread matters: Nottingham offers slightly more headroom for an average-strong UCAT, while Barts and The London (Queen Mary) expects performance closer to the national 75th-90th percentile.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Barts and The London (Queen Mary): not separately disclosed; Nottingham: ~1700+ /2700 (A108 Foundation Year - lower threshold). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

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

Nottingham requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

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

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Barts and The London (Queen Mary): Min 6 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science. Nottingham: GCSE results form part of the academic profile alongside A-Level predictions. Maths and English at minimum grade 6 typically expected.

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

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

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 compulsory intercalated BMedSci built into the course (one of few UK schools to embed BMedSci as standard).

Intake size: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) — ~290 home + ~30 international places per year (one of the larger UK medical schools).; Nottingham — ~250 home + ~30 international places per year.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary): UK Undergrad: 948/1294 = 73% (2025); International: 61/159 = 38%; A101 Graduate Medicine: 55/127 = 43%. Nottingham: All Students (2024): 519/913 = 57% (or 336/911 = 37% from another source); A108 WP Foundation Year: 61/188 = 32%.

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.

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).

Nottingham: Scoring system is now distinct from Lincoln's, weighting GCSE (/32), UCAT (/40) and SJT (/10) - band 4 SJT auto-rejected. No use of predicted A-level grades.