Buckingham vs Nottingham

Buckingham requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Nottingham 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 — Buckingham: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science. UK's only private medical school - no UCAT/BMAT required. Nottingham: GCSE results form part of the academic profile alongside A-Level predictions. Maths and English at minimum grade 6 typically expected.

Both Buckingham and Nottingham 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.

That said, the specifics differ slightly: Buckingham runs three-stage selection: academic screening, digital multiple mini assessment (mma), then an mmi/osse task circuit; Nottingham runs multiple mini interviews (mmi). Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Buckingham interviews in December - March; 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: Four-and-a-half-year accelerated MB ChB (no UCAT required). Clinical placements at Milton Keynes, Stoke Mandeville and partner NHS sites. Five-year MBChB with compulsory intercalated BMedSci built into the course (one of few UK schools to embed BMedSci as standard).

Intake size: Buckingham — ~70 home + significant international places per year (UK's only private medical school).; Nottingham — ~250 home + ~30 international places per year.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Buckingham: Refused to state. 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.

Buckingham: UCAT not used in selection - the MMA computer-based test replaces it. Private university with £40k tuition fees. Apply directly outside UCAS rather than via the standard route.

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.