How do interviews differ between North Wales (Bangor) and UCL?

North Wales (Bangor) 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 - March (North Wales (Bangor)); December - March (UCL).

What A-Level grades do North Wales (Bangor) and UCL require?

North Wales (Bangor) requires AAA including Biology and one further science. 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: North Wales (Bangor) — Resits considered.. UCL — A-Level resits not accepted..

Where are North Wales (Bangor) and UCL located, and how does that affect cost?

North Wales (Bangor) is in Bangor, 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?

North Wales (Bangor) 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

North Wales (Bangor) vs UCL

Q: How are GCSEs weighted at North Wales (Bangor) vs UCL?

North Wales (Bangor) — English or Welsh Language at grade B/6, and Double Science at BB/66. 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.

North Wales (Bangor) and UCL are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. North Wales (Bangor) is based in Bangor (England) while UCL sits in London (London), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination. Their A-Level requirements (AAA vs A*AA) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers.

UCL is the older institution (founded 1826); the other (founded 2020) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: North Wales (Bangor) and UCL.
Comparison field	North Wales (Bangor)Bangor	UCLLondon
Quick comparison
Location	Bangor, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	AAA at A-level including Biology and one further science.	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	North Wales (Bangor) TrueScore 1700	UCL TrueScore 2190
UCAT home cut-off	-	2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	Refused to disclose. New medical school, has been in clearing in past years.	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 including Biology and one further science.	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	AAB for Welsh-speaking applicants (who must also hold a first-language Welsh GCSE) and for others meeting Bangor's contextual criteria.	AAB at A-level for Access UCL contextual applicants - Biology and Chemistry both at grade A
Required A-Level subjects	Biology required, plus one further science	Chemistry and Biology both required
A-Level resit policy	A-level resits are NOT accepted. GCSE resits are accepted only if completed within 12 months of the original sitting and before application.	Qualification resits are not accepted, including re-starting Year 12. GCSE resits are accepted.
GCSE requirements	English or Welsh Language at grade B/6, and Double Science at BB/66.	Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. No score or assessment of other GCSEs. GCSE resits accepted.
GCSE scoring methodology	-	Used only as minimum threshold (Eng + Maths grade 6/B). Other GCSEs not scored or assessed.
Scottish Highers	-	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	-	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, 6,6,6 at Higher Level including Biology and one further science	39 points overall, 19 at Higher Level - including HL 7,6,6 with HL Chemistry and HL Biology
Graduate-entry degree requirement	2:1 (Upper-second-class Honours) or above in any honours degree (A101 graduate-entry route)	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	-	2080+ /2700 (Access UCL, 2026 entry threshold)
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	-	2300+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Graduate cut-off	-	-
SJT band	Refused to disclose how SJT is used (avoid with B4)	Only used where candidates are on the same UCAT score
UCAT notes	Bangor requires the UCAT but publishes NO minimum threshold - it states only that the score is used in selection. No cut-off should be inferred or estimated.	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	BMBS	MBBS BSc
Course length	5 years	6 years (integrated BSc built in)
Teaching style	Integrated	Integrated
Anatomy teaching	-	-
First patient contact	Year 1	-
Placement geography	North Wales	-
Named placement sites	-	-
Intercalation	-	Built in — the six-year programme is inclusive of the integrated BSc. Graduate entrants with UK degrees are exempt.
Course highlight	The programme is bilingual — most components can be studied in Welsh as well as English, and students use Welsh on placement.	UCL offers one of the widest ranges of integrated BSc options of any UK medical school.

Interview window	December - March	December - March
Interview details	MMI format spread across several stations. Each station gives 3 minutes' preparation for two questions and 3 minutes to answer each. Topics include motivation, ethics and reflection on experiences.	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, Community Medicine	Medicine, Medical Sciences, Global Health
Established	2020	1826
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	Bangor publishes no UCAT threshold and has declined FOI requests on its shortlisting weighting, so no cut-off can be quoted. A-level resits are not accepted. Welsh-speaking applicants (with a first-la…	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.bangor.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/a100-medicine-bmbs	https://www.ucl.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/undergraduate/courses/medicine-mbbs-bsc

North Wales (Bangor)

Bangor

Quick comparison

Location: Bangor, UK
A-Level offer: AAA at A-level including Biology and one further science.
TrueScore: North Wales (Bangor) TrueScore 1700
UCAT home cut-off: -
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Refused to disclose. New medical school, has been in clearing in past years.
Decision date: March onwards

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

North Wales (Bangor) vs UCL - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

North Wales (Bangor) requires AAA at A-level including Biology and one further science.

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; North Wales (Bangor) is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, North Wales (Bangor) carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — North Wales (Bangor): English or Welsh Language at grade B/6, and Double Science at BB/66. 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 North Wales (Bangor) 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: North Wales (Bangor) interviews in December - March; UCL in December - March.

Curriculum and teaching style

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

Specifics: Four-year accelerated MBBCh (Cardiff) for graduates, or 5-year route. Strong rural/community placement strand across North Wales (Betsi Cadwaladr UHB) 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: North Wales (Bangor) — ~30 places per year (small cohort, designed for local retention).; 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

North Wales (Bangor): Refused to disclose. New medical school, has been in clearing in past years. 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 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

North Wales (Bangor): Bangor publishes no UCAT threshold and has declined FOI requests on its shortlisting weighting, so no cut-off can be quoted. A-level resits are not accepted. Welsh-speaking applicants (with a first-language Welsh GCSE) and other contextual applicants may receive an AAB offer.

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?

For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, North Wales (Bangor) is the lower-risk academic option. Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — North Wales (Bangor) feeds into the England foundation programme network; UCL into the London network.

If you learn best in small-group case discussion, prefer North Wales (Bangor); 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

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. North Wales (Bangor) guidance: Bangor requires the UCAT but publishes NO minimum threshold - it states only that the score is used in selection. No cut-off should be inferred or estimated.. UCL guidance: 2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold).

North Wales (Bangor)'s selection methodology: AAA including Biology and a second science, plus UCAT with no published threshold, then MMI. Cardiff University School of Medicine is the contingency partner during GMC accreditation, so students would graduate from Cardiff if required. 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.

North Wales (Bangor): Refused to disclose. New medical school, has been in clearing in past years.. 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%.

North Wales (Bangor) runs a PBL curriculum. UCL runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies differ — pick the style that matches how you learn best. North Wales (Bangor) specifics: Four-year accelerated MBBCh (Cardiff) for graduates, or 5-year route. Strong rural/community placement strand across North Wales (Betsi Cadwaladr UHB). 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

North Wales (Bangor)Entry 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.