Medicine: Shortlisting Process and Admissions Statistics
Outline of the shortlisting & offer-making process for the A100 Medicine undergraduate course at the University of Oxford as well as relevant statistics from the most recent admissions cycle.
Feedback
Please note that the Medical School is only able to provide basic feedback to candidates who were not shortlisted for interview. For interviewed candidates, any such requests should be directed to the Tutor for Admissions of the college to which you applied or to which you were subsequently assigned, whether as a result of making an open application or through reallocation. To find out more, read the University’s policy concerning feedback on admissions decisions.
Neither the Medical School nor the colleges are legally allowed to discuss individual applicants with third parties, including parents, without the applicant’s express written permission via the email address listed on their UCAS form. This is to protect both our staff and individual applicants.
Shortlisting process in 2024
Please note that the shortlisting process and statistics outlined on this page related to the 2023 admissions round (for 2024 entry). For more information about the shortlisting process in 2024, please see the relevant section of our FAQs.
general Statistics from the 2023 admissions round (for 2024 entry)
In 2023 we received 1,500 UCAS applications (1,713 in 2022). Of these applicants:
- 1,420 successfully registered for and sat the BMAT (1,637 in 2022).
- 69 did not meet our requirements for entry (most often because they were too young, did not submit explanation through our extenuating circumstances process as to why they were applying on the basis of a resit, did not possess suitable academic credentials or did not meet our academic entry requirements for the qualifications taken). (64 in 2022)
- 11 withdrew from the application process before shortlisting.
The data below, unless otherwise stated, refer to the subset of 1,350 applicants (90.0%) who were eligible to apply and had registered for the BMAT (with almost all of these sitting the test) and had not withdrawn their application by the time of shortlisting.
21 eligible applicants applied for deferred entry (32 in 2022). Of these, 7 were shortlisted and interviewed, and 2 received an offer of a place for 2025 (compared to 1 last year who were offered deferred places for 2024).
- 63.8% of eligible applicants were female (61.4% in 2022).
- 80.7% of eligible applicants offered A-levels.
- 23% of eligible applicants resided outside the UK; of these, 6.5% resided inside the EU and 16.5% outside the EU.
- 5 graduates submitted eligible applications.
Overall, approximately 31.8% of applicants who made complete applications were shortlisted (27.3% in 2022).
how SHORTLISTING worked in 2023 & relevant 2023 statistics
Initial shortlisting was based on a combined BMAT and GCSE score (the latter only if available and if the candidate had not sat their GCSEs between summer 2020-summer 2021).
GCSE performance data for schools in Great Britain and Northern Ireland were used, where available, to assess whether an applicant’s grades at GCSE reflected an under- or over-performance within the context of the school at which they were taken.
As the 2020 and 2021 GCSE results were teacher-assessed grades rather than examined grades, these data are not robustly comparable between schools across England and Wales; the Department for Education were also unable to provide school performance data for this cohort. GCSE performance was therefore not used systematically in the 2023 admissions round for those applicants who completed their GCSEs between summer 2020 – summer 2021. Instead, their BMAT score was double-weighted. For applicants who did not complete the majority of their GCSEs between summer 2020-summer 2021, any individual GCSEs that were taken in this period were discounted from our measure of overall GCSEs taken, number of A*/9/8 and mean proportion of A*/9/8 used in the automatic shortlisting stage.
Tutors nominating non-automatically shortlisted applications for the shortlisting committee deciding on the last 80 places did have access to candidates’ individual GCSE grades (including for those who had taken GCSEs in 2020 and 2021).
We do not ascribe equal weighting to all sections of BMAT. In 2023, weightings were: section 1=40%, section 2=40%, and section 3=20%. In calculating the section 3 score, double weight was ascribed to the ‘Quality of content’ score and single weight given to the ‘Quality of English’ score (with A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1, and X=0).
A very small number of candidates were unable to take the BMAT due to extenuating circumstances which we were informed of. A further small number failed to receive results despite completing the test. Admissions tutors reviewed all aspects of the affected applications to determine whether they merited addition to the shortlist. Where we had received such information pertaining to BMAT via the CAAT special considerations process or extenuating circumstances at the time of GCSEs, it was noted at the appropriate stage of shortlisting.
All non-shortlisted applicants were then reviewed by tutors to identify any candidates whose applications gave us cause to believe that the algorithmic process underestimated their academic potential. Those applications nominated by tutors were scrutinised further along with the 80 applicants just below the cut-off point by the Shortlisting Committee for A100 Medicine. As a result of this process, 80 additional applicants were added to the shortlist.
After shortlisting, we were made aware that Section 3 marks were inadvertently weighted less than they should have been by a factor of 0.86. All candidates’ BMAT marks were updated with the correct weighting and the numerical ranking checked. As a result of revised BMAT scores and queries received after shortlisting had been completed, 6 candidates were added to the shortlist. This brought the shortlist to a total of 431 instead of the usual 425.
- For those shortlisted the mean adjusted BMAT score was 64.3% (65.7% in 2022).
- 1 graduate was shortlisted.
- 35 international fee-status applicants were shortlisted.
how interviews and offers work & relevant 2023 statistics
Each applicant was interviewed by two colleges: the college of preference (where possible), or allocation if an open application was made, and one other randomly assigned by computer so as to equalise as far as possible the strength of the applicant field at each college (as measured by the numerical ranking produced by the shortlisting algorithm). The number of applicants called for interview is usually fixed at around 425, in other words about 2.5 applicants per place available.
Interviewers assessed each candidate against our explicit list of selection criteria. To find out more, read our selection criteria. The composition of interview panels was arranged such that every candidate was interviewed by at least one practising clinician. To get a sense of what interviews are like, watch our demonstration interview with one of our current students and two college tutors, recorded for the 2020 Virtual Open Days, on YouTube.
Following interviews, colleges ranked all the candidates they had seen, on the basis of all information available to them at that time. After disclosure of the candidate rank from the second college, BMAT score and BMAT essays, colleges reviewed their ranking and submitted a final version. On the basis of this final ranking, candidates were provisionally assigned offers at a particular college, taking into account the preferences of the college the applicant had chosen (or had been allocated to). Admissions decisions were confirmed by correspondence between colleges and the Medical Sciences Office.
Please note that colleges interviewed blind of college of choice (or allocation) and BMAT score.
Colleges made 153 quota offers, 2 deferred offers and 15 open offers (which means the applicant is guaranteed a place at Oxford to study Medicine, but will not be assigned to a college until after A-level results are known).
- The overall success rate for male applicants was 16.9% (11.7% in 2022); the overall success rate for female applicants was 10.3% (8.1% in 2022).
- For those with an offer of a place, the mean adjusted BMAT score was 66.8%.
- 1 graduate applicant received an offer of a place (graduates compete with school-leavers for places; there is no separate quota).
- 9 international fee-status applicants received an offer for 2024.
- 39.4% of offers were made by colleges other than the college of preference (or allocation). This compares with 37.7% in 2022. 17.0% of eligible applicants submitted an open application, meaning they did not specify a college of preference on their application and were allocated one.
relevant 2023 statistics for bmat
In 2023, as in 2022, male applicants did slightly better on BMAT than female applicants (mean 56.9% vs 51.9%).
The following chart shows adjusted BMAT scores for the 2023 cohort
Read the text equivalent to this chart.
The mean BMAT score was 54.7%, which rose to 64.3% for those shortlisted and 66.8% for applicants receiving offers.
[The BMAT scores shown above are the sum of Section 1, 2 and 3 scores calculated in the following way to give the weightings: Section 1=40%, Section 2=40%, and Section 3=20%:
Section 1 & 2: These are originally reported on a scale of 1-9. One mark is removed from this score (to give a scale of 0 to 8), and the resulting figure multiplied by 5 (to give a score out of 40).
Section 3: The ‘Quality of content’ score is multiplied by 2 and added to the ‘Quality of English’ score (with A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1, and X=0). This gives a score out of 15, which is converted to a score out of 20 by multiplying by 4/3.]
relevant 2023 statistics for gcse pERFORMANCE
The data on GCSEs below refer to the subset of applicants who did not complete their GCSEs between summer 2020 – summer 2021.
Read the text equivalent to these charts.
The mean number of total GCSE qualifications offered (not including short courses or other GCSE-equivalent qualifications) was 9.75.
The mean number of A* at GCSE for all applicants was 8.3; this rose to 9.9 for those shortlisted and 9.9 also for applicants receiving offers.
The mean proportion of A* at GCSE was 0.85; this rose to 0.97 for those shortlisted and was 0.98 for applicants receiving offers.
relevant 2023 statistics for A-levels and equivalent qualifications
All A-level applicants must take Chemistry. The table below summarises the distribution of other subject choices amongst applicants this year taking A-levels.
Subject |
% of applicants |
% of applicants shortlisted |
% of applicants placed |
Biology |
96 |
96 |
97 |
Physics |
15 |
16 |
8 |
Mathematics |
77 |
90 |
89 |
Further Mathematics |
10 |
15 |
17 |
With regard to 'Other subjects', the most popular subjects were Psychology (10.6%), English Literature (3.4%) and History (3.4%), followed by Geography (2.4%), French (2.4%), Spanish (2.1%) and Religious Studies (1.9%).
11.5% of applicants taking A-levels were studying Chemistry plus just one more science or maths subject. This compares with 5.2% of shortlisted applicants and 4.5% of those offered places.
7.9% of applicants taking A-levels were studying Chemistry, Biology, Physics AND Mathematics (compared to 10.4% of shortlisted applicants and 5.7% of applicants offered places).
N.B. Despite the fact that most applicants offering A-levels tend to take Biology (or Human Biology), this subject is NOT required at A2 level (or indeed at AS-level). However, do be aware that not having A-level Biology is associated with a greater risk of having difficulty at the early stages of the course (and other medical courses).
63.6% of applicants taking A-levels were doing/had done 3 A-levels, 31% were doing 4 A-levels and approx. 2.6% were doing 5 or more A-levels (though not necessarily all being completed in one academic year).
19.3% of applicants offered alternative qualifications, the most popular of which was the IB (11.3%), with US qualifications (SAT subject tests/AP tests), Canadian qualifications, the Singaporean SIPCAL, and Scottish Advanced Highers representing the next most popular options. 10.7% of applicants who were shortlisted and 8.2% of applicants with an offer studied for qualifications other than A-levels (including the IB).
relevant 2023 statistics for SCHOOL TYPE
77.3% of applicants attending school in the UK were from state schools (including sixth form and further education colleges), while 22.7% were from independent schools.
The overall success rate in 2023 was 13.7% for state school applicants and 21.2% for independent school applicants.
relevant 2023 statistics for International applicants
295 applicants identified as international for fee-paying purposes submitted complete applications for 2024 entry. Following shortlisting, which is conducted in line with the quota imposed on the Medical School by the UK Government for the available international places, 35 of these applicants were shortlisted and 9 applicants received an offer for 2024.
[Prospective candidates are reminded that the Medical School is required by the Higher Education Funding Council to limit the number of international (meaning non-UK/ROI in the most recent admissions round) medical students admitted to a maximum of 7.5% across both the standard (A100) and Graduate Entry (A101) courses - see our advice for international applicants]
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