How do interviews differ between St Mary's Twickenham and UCL?

St Mary's Twickenham 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 (St Mary's Twickenham); December - March (UCL).

Where are St Mary's Twickenham and UCL located, and how does that affect cost?

St Mary's Twickenham is in Twickenham, London, 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?

St Mary's Twickenham 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

St Mary's Twickenham vs UCL

Q: How are GCSEs weighted at St Mary's Twickenham vs UCL?

St Mary's Twickenham — Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE Mathematics, English Language, Biology and Chemistry (or Dual Award Science). 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.

St Mary's Twickenham and UCL are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Both sit in London, so location and clinical-placement breadth are similar — the differentiation comes from selection methodology, interview style and curriculum philosophy. 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 2025) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: St Mary's Twickenham and UCL.
Comparison field	St Mary's TwickenhamTwickenham, London	UCLLondon
Quick comparison
Location	Twickenham, London, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	AAA at A-level (offer and prediction) including Chemistry or Biology and one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Mathematics	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	St Mary's Twickenham TrueScore 1700intl	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	-	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 (offer and prediction) including Chemistry or Biology and one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Mathematics	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 at A-level for Access UCL contextual applicants - Biology and Chemistry both at grade A
Required A-Level subjects	Chemistry or Biology required, plus one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Mathematics	Chemistry and Biology both required
A-Level resit policy	Resits only considered in exceptional circumstances	Qualification resits are not accepted, including re-starting Year 12. GCSE resits are accepted.
GCSE requirements	Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE Mathematics, English Language, Biology and Chemistry (or Dual Award Science)	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 Chemistry or Biology and a second science / Maths	39 points overall, 19 at Higher Level - including HL 7,6,6 with HL Chemistry and HL Biology
Graduate-entry degree requirement	-	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	New international-only medicine course for 2026 entry - first cohort. Applied to directly outside standard UCAS medicine route. UCAT contributes to combined admissions test + academic ranking. No SJT use.	-

Contextual cut-off	-	2080+ /2700 (Access UCL, 2026 entry threshold)
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	No cut-off exists yet. UCAT contributes to the shortlisting rank, but the first cohort is September 2026 so no historic threshold exists.	2300+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Graduate cut-off	-	-
SJT band	No usage mentioned in any selection policy	Only used where candidates are on the same UCAT score
UCAT notes	International (non-UK/Irish) applicants only. No SJT use stated. Any quoted 'cut-off' for this school is guesswork - it has not yet completed an admissions cycle.	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	MBBS	MBBS BSc
Course length	5 years	6 years (integrated BSc built in)
Teaching style	Case-based learning	Integrated
Anatomy teaching	-	-
First patient contact	Year 1	-
Placement geography	London, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire	-
Named placement sites	West London Trust, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Basingstoke), Practice Plus Group (Ilford), Royal Trinity Hospice, Princess Alice Hospice, Meadow House	-
Intercalation	-	Built in — the six-year programme is inclusive of the integrated BSc. Graduate entrants with UK degrees are exempt.
Course highlight	Currently accepts international students only.	UCL offers one of the widest ranges of integrated BSc options of any UK medical school.

Interview window	December - March	December - March
Interview details	Applications are scored on academic record and admissions tests to produce a shortlisting rank. Interviews are online Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs).	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, International Medicine	Medicine, Medical Sciences, Global Health
Established	2025	1826
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	International (non-UK/Irish) applicants only, applying direct rather than through UCAS, so it costs none of your four UCAS medical choices. Weigh that against the accreditation risk: the MBBS is not 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.stmarys.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/mbbs-medicine-degree	https://www.ucl.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/undergraduate/courses/medicine-mbbs-bsc

St Mary's Twickenham

Twickenham, London

Quick comparison

Location: Twickenham, London, UK
A-Level offer: AAA at A-level (offer and prediction) including Chemistry or Biology and one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Mathematics
TrueScore: St Mary's Twickenham TrueScore 1700intl
UCAT home cut-off: -
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: -
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

St Mary's Twickenham vs UCL - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

St Mary's Twickenham requires AAA at A-level (offer and prediction) including Chemistry or Biology and one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Mathematics.

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; St Mary's Twickenham is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, St Mary's Twickenham carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — St Mary's Twickenham: Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE Mathematics, English Language, Biology and Chemistry (or Dual Award Science). 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 St Mary's Twickenham 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: St Mary's Twickenham interviews in December - March; UCL in December - March.

What makes each distinctive

St Mary's Twickenham: International (non-UK/Irish) applicants only, applying direct rather than through UCAS, so it costs none of your four UCAS medical choices. Weigh that against the accreditation risk: the MBBS is not yet GMC-accredited, and St Mary's contingency is that students would transfer to the University of Lancashire if accreditation is not achieved.

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, St Mary's Twickenham is the lower-risk academic option. Both schools sit in the same London foundation-programme catchment, so post-graduation training paths overlap heavily.

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. St Mary's Twickenham guidance: International (non-UK/Irish) applicants only. No SJT use stated. Any quoted 'cut-off' for this school is guesswork - it has not yet completed an admissions cycle.. UCL guidance: 2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold).

St Mary's Twickenham requires AAA prediction and offer requirements, must include chemistry or biology as well as one of biology/chemistry/physics/maths. Resits only considered in exceptional circumstances. GCSEs: grade 6 minimum in maths, English language, biology and chemistry (or dual award 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.

St Mary's Twickenham's selection methodology: shortlisting weight not fully disclosed; check the official admissions page. 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.

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

St Mary's TwickenhamEntry 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.