What A-Level grades do Exeter and King's College London (KCL) require?

Exeter requires Applicants need to apply via UCAS by 15 October; academic profile + admissions test used to determine interview invite. Typical A-Level offer A*AA (contextual AAB) for 2026 entry.. King's College London (KCL) requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology. Most successful applicants achieve these grades on first sitting with strong predicted grades from their school.

Where are Exeter and King's College London (KCL) located, and how does that affect cost?

Exeter is in Exeter, Devon, England, UK, UK. King's College London (KCL) is in London, UK. Tuition is £9,250/year at both for UK home applicants; the main cost difference is accommodation (London accommodation typically runs 30-50% above the national average).

When does each school release decisions?

Exeter typically releases medicine decisions March onwards / mid-May. King's College London (KCL) releases medicine decisions By the end of May. If one is earlier than the other, you may need to hold a decision while waiting for the second school — be ready to compare in real time.

Medical school comparison

Exeter vs King's College London (KCL)

Exeter and King's College London (KCL) are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Exeter is based in Exeter, Devon, England, UK (England) while King's College London (KCL) sits in London (London), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

King's College London (KCL) is the older institution (founded 1829); the other (founded 2013) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Exeter and King's College London (KCL).
Comparison field	ExeterExeter, Devon, England, UK	King's College London (KCL)London
Quick comparison
Location	Exeter, Devon, England, UK, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	A*AA at A-level including A in Chemistry and A in Biology	A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.
TrueScore	Exeter TrueScore 1900	King's College London (KCL) TrueScore 2150
UCAT home cut-off	~1880+ /2700 with AAA* (5th decile) OR ~2100+ /2700 with AAA (8th decile). Points cut-off 74+/100.	No cut-off published. King's states that the minimum scores of interviewees and offer-holders "are not cut-off scores".
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	International (2026 policy): ~33% (10 places, ~30 interviews); UK Undergrad: 366/696 = 53%	Strong. In the 2024 cycle King's interviewed 982 applicants and made 762 offers (78%) - 609 offers from 796 UK interviews (77%) and 153 from 186 non-UK interviews (82%). The 2023 cycle was tighter at 645 offers from 1,116 interviews (58%).
Decision date	March onwards / mid-May	By the end of May

A-Level offer	A*AA at A-level including A in Chemistry and A in Biology	A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.
Contextual A-Level offer	AAB at A-level for contextual / WP-eligible applicants	-
Required A-Level subjects	Chemistry and Biology both required at grade A or higher	Biology and Chemistry both required
A-Level resit policy	Resits accepted - predicted grades can still be considered in shortlisting scores	Resits accepted - KCL has clarified via FOI that "a first resit is considered equally to applicants taking their first sittings" (19 resit applicants received an interview in 2024, 16 received offers)
GCSE requirements	Grade 6/B in English Language. No other GCSE requirements.	Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics
GCSE scoring methodology	-	GCSEs are one of the four factors King's names in shortlisting, alongside A-level grades, UCAT and the personal statement, and performance is read in the context of your educational background. King's…
Scottish Highers	-	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	-	-
International Baccalaureate	38 points overall, 7,6,6 at Higher Level including HL 6 in Chemistry and HL 6 in Biology. Contextual: 34 points overall, 6,6,5 at Higher Level.	38 points overall (including TOK/EE), or an aggregate of 19 from three Higher Levels, and must include grade 6 in Higher Level Biology and Higher Level Chemistry
Graduate-entry degree requirement	Graduate applicants must sit GAMSAT (rather than UCAT) - no specific minimum degree class published; competitive applicants typically hold a 2:1 or above	Graduate applicants typically hold 2:1 or above in any honours degree, plus required A-level Chemistry and Biology grades. KCL accepts graduates onto the standard 6-year MBBS A100.
Alternative qualifications	-	-

Contextual cut-off	~1820+ /2700 with AAA* (4th decile) OR ~2010+ /2700 with AAA (7th decile)	-
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	~2100+ /2700 (points cut-off 80+)	No separate cut-off published.
Graduate cut-off	-	-
SJT band	SJT is not used - band 4 is appropriate	Band 4 automatically rejected. Band 3 riskier - only 37/360 band 3 applicants received interview in 2024.
UCAT notes	Points-based system combining A-level prediction (75% weight) + UCAT decile (25% weight). Achieved A-level grades scored more generously than predictions.	King's shortlists on A-level grades, UCAT, personal statement and GCSE grades together, and says exam results and UCAT are "perhaps the most important factors". Its published UCAT statistics stop at t…

Degree awarded	BMBS	MBBS
Course length	5 years	5 years (6 with intercalation)
Teaching style	Case-based learning	Integrated
Anatomy teaching	Imaging and models	-
First patient contact	Year 1	-
Placement geography	Devon and Cornwall	London and the south east of England
Named placement sites	Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust (Truro)	Guy's Hospital, King's College Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital
Intercalation	Between years 3 and 4 — ten bachelor's options and more than ten master's options.	Optional one-year BSc between Stages 2 and 3, spanning clinical and biomedical sciences and the humanities.
Course highlight	Every student spends at least one year based in Cornwall, at the Knowledge Spa in Truro.	Twinned with medical schools around the world, offering clinical exchanges.

Interview window	December – March	November - May
Interview details	Online MMI via Zoom breakout rooms - typically 4 stations of 5 minutes each, with a few minutes between stations. Strong focus on ethics, personal qualities and motivation. Fewer follow-up questions t…	MMI format with stations covering ethical scenarios, communication and clinical problem-solving. No offer is made without an interview, and King's runs them across an unusually long window - November…

Specialities	Primary Care, Hospital Medicine, Community Medicine, Clinical Science, Rural & Regional Health	Medicine, Dentistry, Biomedical Sciences
Established	2013	1829
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	Focus on non-academic qualities including communication, empathy, role-play and realistic insight into the course and career. Points-based shortlisting combining A-level prediction + UCAT decile (75%…	Strong clinical focus with emphasis on London healthcare system.
Official course page	https://www.exeter.ac.uk/undergraduate-degrees/bmbs-medicine/	https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/medicine-mbbs

Exeter

Exeter, Devon, England, UK

Quick comparison

Location: Exeter, Devon, England, UK, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA at A-level including A in Chemistry and A in Biology
TrueScore: Exeter TrueScore 1900
UCAT home cut-off: ~1880+ /2700 with A*A*A* (5th decile) OR ~2100+ /2700 with A*A*A (8th decile). Points cut-off 74+/100.
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: International (2026 policy): ~33% (10 places, ~30 interviews); UK Undergrad: 366/696 = 53%
Decision date: March onwards / mid-May

King's College London (KCL)

London

Quick comparison

Location: London, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.
TrueScore: King's College London (KCL) TrueScore 2150
UCAT home cut-off: No cut-off published. King's states that the minimum scores of interviewees and offer-holders "are not cut-off scores".
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Strong. In the 2024 cycle King's interviewed 982 applicants and made 762 offers (78%) - 609 offers from 796 UK interviews (77%) and 153 from 186 non-UK interviews (82%). The 2023 cycle was tighter at 645 offers from 1,116 interviews (58%).
Decision date: By the end of May

Exeter vs King's College London (KCL) - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Exeter requires A*AA at A-level including A in Chemistry and A in Biology.

King's College London (KCL) requires A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.

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 — Exeter: Grade 6/B in English Language. No other GCSE requirements. King's College London (KCL): Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. GCSEs are one of the four factors King's names in shortlisting, alongside A-level grades, UCAT and the personal statement, and performance…

Interview formats

Both Exeter and King's College London (KCL) 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: Exeter interviews in December – March; King's College London (KCL) in November - May.

Post-interview offer rate

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

Exeter: Focus on non-academic qualities including communication, empathy, role-play and realistic insight into the course and career. Points-based shortlisting combining A-level prediction + UCAT decile (75% academic / 25% UCAT). SJT not used - band 4 is fine.

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

Which is right for you?

Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Exeter feeds into the England foundation programme network; King's College London (KCL) into the London network.

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

Neither school publishes a single fixed UCAT cut-off; both use UCAT as part of a composite shortlisting score alongside GCSE and personal-statement weighting. Exeter guidance: ~1880+ /2700 with A*A*A* (5th decile) OR ~2100+ /2700 with A*A*A (8th decile). Points cut-off 74+/100.. King's College London (KCL) guidance: No cut-off published. King's states that the minimum scores of interviewees and offer-holders "are not cut-off scores"..

Exeter uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). King's College London (KCL) uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). The format is the same, so the same prep approach applies — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot topics, and (for MMI) structured 5-7 minute station answers. Interview windows: December – March (Exeter); November - May (King's College London (KCL)).

Exeter — Grade 6/B in English Language. No other GCSE requirements. King's College London (KCL) — Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. GCSEs are one of the four factors King's names in shortlisting, alongside A-level grades, UCAT and the personal statement, and performance is read in the context of your educational background. King's does not publish a points tariff for GCSEs.

Exeter: International (2026 policy): ~33% (10 places, ~30 interviews); UK Undergrad: 366/696 = 53%. King's College London (KCL): Strong. In the 2024 cycle King's interviewed 982 applicants and made 762 offers (78%) - 609 offers from 796 UK interviews (77%) and 153 from 186 non-UK interviews (82%). The 2023 cycle was tighter at 645 offers from 1,116 interviews (58%).. Post-interview odds tell you how competitive each school is at the final stage. Two schools with similar UCAT thresholds can have very different post-interview rates — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%.

You can — UCAS allows 4 medicine/dentistry choices in total, so listing both is feasible if your profile fits each school's selection algorithm. Apply to both only if your UCAT, GCSE and predicted-grade profile is competitive against each school's published weighting. A common mistake is using two of your four slots on similar schools when a more spread-out portfolio (one safe + one stretch) would maximise overall offer probability.

Where to go next

ExeterEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

King'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 19 September 2026.