Bristol vs Surrey (GEM)

Bristol requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Surrey (GEM) 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. Surrey (GEM): Not applicable - graduate-entry programme. Requires a 2:1 honours degree.

Both Bristol and Surrey (GEM) 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; Surrey (GEM) in December - March.

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

Specifics: Five-year MB ChB spiral curriculum - concepts revisited with increasing complexity. Clinical exposure from Year 1. Four-year accelerated graduate-entry MBChB. Surrey-based with South-East NHS placements.

Intake size: Bristol — ~220 home + ~30 international places per year (A100 Standard Entry Medicine).; Surrey (GEM) — ~30-50 places per year (small newer cohort).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

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.

Surrey (GEM): New graduate-entry medical school with focus on innovative teaching methods and the use of technology in healthcare delivery.