Bristol vs Peninsula (Plymouth)

Bristol's published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2260, while Peninsula (Plymouth) sits at approximately 1900.

That's a 360-point gap — large enough to put the two schools in completely different competitiveness tiers. An applicant scoring in the 2000-2100 band would be competitive at Peninsula (Plymouth) but borderline at Bristol.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Bristol: ~1450+ /2700 (A108 Gateway / WP - lowest invited has reached as low as 1340); Peninsula (Plymouth): ~1700+ /2700 (UKWPMED or AAB; 2024 entry contextual lowest invited ≈ 1658). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

Bristol requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Peninsula (Plymouth) requires AAA 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.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Bristol: Mathematics at grade 7; English Language at grade 4. GCSE resit applicants welcome. Peninsula (Plymouth): Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Both Bristol and Peninsula (Plymouth) use MMI interviews, so the underlying prep approach is the same — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot-topic answers and (for MMI) structured station responses against a timer.

Interview windows: Bristol interviews in December - February; Peninsula (Plymouth) in Not available.

Bristol runs a Spiral curriculum; Peninsula (Plymouth) runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Bristol delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while Peninsula (Plymouth) centres learning around clinical cases.

Specifics: Five-year MB ChB spiral curriculum - concepts revisited with increasing complexity. Clinical exposure from Year 1. Five-year MBBS with PBL and case-based learning. Distinctive rural/coastal placement strand across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset.

Intake size: Bristol — ~220 home + ~30 international places per year (A100 Standard Entry Medicine).; Peninsula (Plymouth) — ~140 home + ~25 international places per year (Plymouth University Peninsula MBChB).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Bristol: Total: 650/968 = 67% (2024); A108 Gateway to Medicine: 63/88 = 72%. Peninsula (Plymouth): All Applicants: 434/761 = 57% (2025).

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.

Bristol: Russell Group university with strong medical and dental programmes. Shortlisting is wholly UCAT-based - neither personal statement nor SJT is used in selection. Bristol has the highest UCAT cut-off of the major English schools.

Peninsula (Plymouth): Plymouth publishes the qualities they assess: communication, decision making, reflection and self-insight, motivation and commitment, integrity and inclusivity, resilience and adaptability, and teamwork. Personal statement and work experience are NOT considered in interview selection.