How do interviews differ between Newcastle and UCL?

Newcastle uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). UCL 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 - January (Newcastle); December - March (UCL).

What A-Level grades do Newcastle and UCL require?

Newcastle requires AAA (excluding Use of Mathematics, World Development, Communication and Culture). UCL requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology. Most successful applicants achieve these grades on first sitting with strong predicted grades from their school. Resit policies differ: Newcastle — Resits accepted if A-Level score increases.. UCL — A-Level resits not accepted..

Where are Newcastle and UCL located, and how does that affect cost?

Newcastle is in Newcastle, UK. UCL 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?

Newcastle typically releases medicine decisions March onwards. UCL releases medicine decisions Decisions are made after all the Interviews have been completed. 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

Newcastle vs UCL

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

On UCAT alone there is roughly a 1790-point gap between them — a substantial difference that should shape which you list as firm choice vs. insurance. Their A-Level requirements (AAA vs A*AA) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Newcastle and UCL.
Comparison field	NewcastleNewcastle	UCLLondon
Quick comparison
Location	Newcastle, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	AAA at A-level (excluding Use of Mathematics, World Development, Communication and Culture). Practical pass required for Biology, Chemistry and Physics.	AAA including AA in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.
TrueScore	Newcastle TrueScore 1950	UCL TrueScore 2190
UCAT home cut-off	No cut-off - UCAT is converted to points on a published table and added to your academic score. 2,400 and above scores the maximum 60 points, falling by one point per 10 UCAT points down to 1 point at 1,810 and below.	2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	International: 82/88 = 93% (2025); Graduate Entry: 46/86 = 53%; Home Non-Contextual: 418/577 = 72%; Home Widening Participation: 194/350 = 55%	Reasonable. Around 1,000 applicants are interviewed for 313 home and 24 overseas places, and UCL makes more offers than places because not every offer is taken up. Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.
Decision date	March onwards	Decisions are made after all the Interviews have been completed

A-Level offer	AAA at A-level (excluding Use of Mathematics, World Development, Communication and Culture). Practical pass required for Biology, Chemistry and Physics.	AAA including AA in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.
Contextual A-Level offer	ABB at A-level for contextual / Partners applicants. BBB for those entering through supported entry programmes.	AAB at A-level for Access UCL contextual applicants - Biology and Chemistry both at grade A
Required A-Level subjects	Subjects including Maths and sciences considered in scoring (no specific science requirement; AAA must come from accepted subjects)	Chemistry and Biology both required
A-Level resit policy	Resits acceptable if the score increases	Qualification resits are not accepted, including re-starting Year 12. GCSE resits are accepted.
GCSE requirements	Best 8 GCSEs scored - applicant must have achieved at this level for academic competitiveness. Not used if academic A-level criteria are met.	Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. No score or assessment of other GCSEs. GCSE resits accepted.
GCSE scoring methodology	Best 8 achieved GCSEs scored out of 40 - Newcastle names no compulsory GCSE subjects. 9/A* = 5 pts, 8 = 4 pts, 7/A = 3 pts, 6/B = 1 pt, 5/C = 0 pts. National 5: A = 5, B = 1, C = 0. Resat GCSEs are sc…	Used only as minimum threshold (Eng + Maths grade 6/B). Other GCSEs not scored or assessed.
Scottish Highers	Scottish qualifications are accepted and may be taken in more than one sitting; National 5s are scored on the same Level 2 table (A = 5 points, B = 1, C = 0). Confirm the current Higher grade profile directly with the School of Medicine, as Newcastle publishes only its A-level and IB headline offers.	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	AA at Advanced Higher Grade	A1,A,A at Advanced Higher (or A1,A at Advanced Higher plus A,A,A at Higher), to include Chemistry and Biology at Advanced Higher with either at A1. Highers alone are not sufficient.
International Baccalaureate	36 points overall. Newcastle publishes only this headline figure; because its A-level rule requires Biology or Chemistry plus a second science, IB applicants should confirm the required Higher Level subjects with the School of Medicine before choosing their subjects.	39 points overall, 19 at Higher Level - including HL 7,6,6 with HL Chemistry and HL Biology
Graduate-entry degree requirement	A 2:1 honours degree at minimum. Predicted or achieved classifications are scored as part of the academic screen: a first class scores 40 points and a 2:1 scores 36. Applicants whose degree was awarded more than five years ago must show continued engagement with education, such as postgraduate study, or they will not be considered; Masters and PhD qualifications are not themselves scored.	Graduates apply to the standard six-year MBBS BSc; there is no accelerated route. UCL expects at least ABB in A-levels taken before the first degree (or 34 IB points with 16 at Higher Level at 6,5,5). A graduate who meets the grade bar but lacks A-level Chemistry and/or Biology may sit them during or after the degree, at grade A* (or A*A if taking both).
Alternative qualifications	-	-

Contextual cut-off	Same points table, but contextual applicants are ranked as a separate stream from standard applicants.	2080+ /2700 (Access UCL, 2026 entry threshold)
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	International and A101 applicants are ranked on total UCAT score alone - their academic results are not scored.	2300+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Graduate cut-off	A101 applicants are ranked on total UCAT score alone, like international applicants.	-
SJT band	SJT band 4 is rejected; SJT band contributes to interview score (B1=5, B2=3, B3=1)	Only used where candidates are on the same UCAT score
UCAT notes	Academic screen = academic points (max 40) + UCAT points (max 60). The academic score uses your MOST RECENT achieved qualification, so achieved A-levels replace GCSEs in the calculation; degrees score…	There is no fixed cut-off - UCL ranks candidates on total UCAT score and the threshold falls where the interview slots run out, so it moves every year with the applicant pool. Access UCL applicants ar…

Degree awarded	MB BS	MBBS BSc
Course length	5 years	6 years (integrated BSc built in)
Teaching style	Case-based learning	Integrated
Anatomy teaching	-	-
First patient contact	Year 3	-
Placement geography	The north east of England	-
Named placement sites	-	-
Intercalation	A broad range of Biomedical Science BSc degrees and master's degrees.	Built in — the six-year programme is inclusive of the integrated BSc. Graduate entrants with UK degrees are exempt.
Course highlight	Year 2 students can take a Malaysia exchange at the NUMed campus.	UCL offers one of the widest ranges of integrated BSc options of any UK medical school.

Interview window	December - January	December - March
Interview details	Home A100 and A101 applicants generally sit Multiple Mini Interviews on campus, assessed by an individual selector at each station using a mix of role play and interview questions. Applicants classed…	Up to eight MMI stations of five minutes each, with one minute beforehand to read the instructions and two or three questions per station - around 50 minutes in total. Home fee-paying candidates are i…

Specialities	Medicine, Dentistry, Biomedical Sciences	Medicine, Medical Sciences, Global Health
Established	1834	1826
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	Newcastle publishes an unusually explicit scoring model: academic points out of 40 plus UCAT points out of 60, combined into one ranked academic-screen score. The UCAT table is published in full, so y…	Cut-offs differ from Imperial - UCL's home threshold is lower while its international threshold is higher, partly because UCL holds more interviews relative to offers. SJT is only used as a tie-breake…
Official course page	https://www.ncl.ac.uk/undergraduate/degrees/a100/	https://www.ucl.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/undergraduate/courses/medicine-mbbs-bsc

Newcastle

Quick comparison

Location: Newcastle, UK
A-Level offer: AAA at A-level (excluding Use of Mathematics, World Development, Communication and Culture). Practical pass required for Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
TrueScore: Newcastle TrueScore 1950
UCAT home cut-off: No cut-off - UCAT is converted to points on a published table and added to your academic score. 2,400 and above scores the maximum 60 points, falling by one point per 10 UCAT points down to 1 point at 1,810 and below.
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: International: 82/88 = 93% (2025); Graduate Entry: 46/86 = 53%; Home Non-Contextual: 418/577 = 72%; Home Widening Participation: 194/350 = 55%
Decision date: March onwards

A-Level offer: AAA at A-level (excluding Use of Mathematics, World Development, Communication and Culture). Practical pass required for Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Contextual A-Level offer: ABB at A-level for contextual / Partners applicants. BBB for those entering through supported entry programmes.
Required A-Level subjects: Subjects including Maths and sciences considered in scoring (no specific science requirement; AAA must come from accepted subjects)
A-Level resit policy: Resits acceptable if the score increases
GCSE requirements: Best 8 GCSEs scored - applicant must have achieved at this level for academic competitiveness. Not used if academic A-level criteria are met.
GCSE scoring methodology: Best 8 achieved GCSEs scored out of 40 - Newcastle names no compulsory GCSE subjects. 9/A* = 5 pts, 8 = 4 pts, 7/A = 3 pts, 6/B = 1 pt, 5/C = 0 pts. National 5: A = 5, B = 1, C = 0. Resat GCSEs are sc…
Scottish Highers: Scottish qualifications are accepted and may be taken in more than one sitting; National 5s are scored on the same Level 2 table (A = 5 points, B = 1, C = 0). Confirm the current Higher grade profile directly with the School of Medicine, as Newcastle publishes only its A-level and IB headline offers.
Scottish Advanced Highers: AA at Advanced Higher Grade
International Baccalaureate: 36 points overall. Newcastle publishes only this headline figure; because its A-level rule requires Biology or Chemistry plus a second science, IB applicants should confirm the required Higher Level subjects with the School of Medicine before choosing their subjects.
Graduate-entry degree requirement: A 2:1 honours degree at minimum. Predicted or achieved classifications are scored as part of the academic screen: a first class scores 40 points and a 2:1 scores 36. Applicants whose degree was awarded more than five years ago must show continued engagement with education, such as postgraduate study, or they will not be considered; Masters and PhD qualifications are not themselves scored.
Alternative qualifications: -

UCL

London

Quick comparison

Location: London, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA including A*A in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.
TrueScore: UCL TrueScore 2190
UCAT home cut-off: 2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Reasonable. Around 1,000 applicants are interviewed for 313 home and 24 overseas places, and UCL makes more offers than places because not every offer is taken up. Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.
Decision date: Decisions are made after all the Interviews have been completed

Newcastle vs UCL - in detail

UCAT thresholds compared

Newcastle's published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 400, while UCL sits at approximately 2190.

That's a 1790-point gap — large enough to put the two schools in completely different competitiveness tiers. An applicant scoring in the 1000-1600 band would be competitive at Newcastle but borderline at UCL.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Newcastle: Same points table, but contextual applicants are ranked as a separate stream from standard applicants.; UCL: 2080+ /2700 (Access UCL, 2026 entry threshold). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

A-Level and academic profile

Newcastle requires AAA at A-level (excluding Use of Mathematics, World Development, Communication and Culture). Practical pass required for Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

UCL requires A*AA including A*A in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.

UCL is the stricter A-Level offer; Newcastle is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, Newcastle carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Newcastle: Best 8 GCSEs scored - applicant must have achieved at this level for academic competitiveness. Not used if academic A-level criteria are met. Best 8 achieved GCSEs scored out of 40 - Newcastle names… UCL: Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. No score or assessment of other GCSEs.

GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold (Eng + Maths grade 6/B). Other GCSEs not scored…

Interview formats

Both Newcastle and UCL 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: Newcastle interviews in December - January; UCL in December - March.

Curriculum and teaching style

Newcastle runs a Case-based curriculum; UCL runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Newcastle leans on small-group case-based learning from year 1, while UCL uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: Five-year MBBS with case-based learning. Clinical placements across Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust and partner sites in the North East. Six-year MBBS BSc with compulsory intercalated BSc in Year 3. Clinical placements at UCL-affiliated NHS sites including UCLH, Royal Free, and Whitting

Intake size: Newcastle — Newcastle does not publish an A100 intake figure in its admissions policy. Note that NUMed Malaysia, the branch campus teaching the same MBBS, runs its own separate admissions route and is not part of the Newcastle intake.; UCL — 313 home and 24 overseas fee-status places per year (337 in total)..

A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.

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

Newcastle: Newcastle publishes an unusually explicit scoring model: academic points out of 40 plus UCAT points out of 60, combined into one ranked academic-screen score. The UCAT table is published in full, so you can read your own score straight off it.

Standard and contextual applicants are ranked as separate streams, and PARTNERS is Newcastle's supported-entry route with its own eligibility conditions and a compulsory summer school.

UCL: Cut-offs differ from Imperial - UCL's home threshold is lower while its international threshold is higher, partly because UCL holds more interviews relative to offers. SJT is only used as a tie-breaker between equally scored candidates.

Which is right for you?

If your UCAT lands below the UK median (~1880/2700), Newcastle is the more realistic firm-choice option. For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, Newcastle is the lower-risk academic option.

Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Newcastle feeds into the England foundation programme network; UCL into the London network. If you learn best in small-group case discussion, prefer Newcastle; if you prefer lecture-led foundations, the other suits better.

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

Newcastle's typical home cut-off is around 400, while UCL sits at approximately 2190 — a 1790-point spread. That's a meaningful gap; Newcastle is materially more accessible for an average-to-good UCAT, while UCL expects performance closer to the top 19% of test-takers. Cut-offs change year on year and vary by tier — check each school's latest published threshold before submitting your UCAS form.

Newcastle — Best 8 GCSEs scored - applicant must have achieved at this level for academic competitiveness. Not used if academic A-level criteria are met. Best 8 achieved GCSEs scored out of 40 - Newcastle names no compulsory GCSE subjects. 9/A* = 5 pts, 8 = 4 pts, 7/A = 3 pts, 6/B = 1 pt, 5/C = 0 pts. National 5: A = 5, B = 1, C = 0. Resat GCSEs are scored on the most recent grade. UCL — Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. No score or assessment of other GCSEs. GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold (Eng + Maths grade 6/B). Other GCSEs not scored or assessed.

Newcastle's selection methodology: Three stages: academic screen, interview, offers. The academic screen scores your most recent achieved qualification out of 40 and your UCAT out of 60, combines them, and ranks applicants - standard and contextual as separate streams. International and A101 applicants are ranked on UCAT alone. Those above the points threshold are invited to interview. UCL's selection methodology: Beyond the minimum academic requirements, shortlisting is wholly by total UCAT score, with SJT as a tie-break only. UCL normally interviews around 1,000 applicants, sending invitations on a rolling basis from December through to March. Home, international and Access UCL candidates are reviewed in separate pools. Understanding each school's exact algorithm is the single highest-leverage piece of pre-application research — it tells you whether your profile is competitive before you spend an application choice.

Newcastle: International: 82/88 = 93% (2025); Graduate Entry: 46/86 = 53%; Home Non-Contextual: 418/577 = 72%; Home Widening Participation: 194/350 = 55%. UCL: Reasonable. Around 1,000 applicants are interviewed for 313 home and 24 overseas places, and UCL makes more offers than places because not every offer is taken up. Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.. 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%.

Newcastle runs a Case-based curriculum. UCL runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies differ — pick the style that matches how you learn best. Newcastle specifics: Five-year MBBS with case-based learning. Clinical placements across Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust and partner sites in the North East. UCL specifics: Six-year MBBS BSc with compulsory intercalated BSc in Year 3. Clinical placements at UCL-affiliated NHS sites including UCLH, Royal Free, and Whittington.

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

NewcastleEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

UCLEntry 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.