Imperial College London Medicine Entry Requirements

Imperial College London offers one of the most popular Medicine degrees in the UK, but it's not easy to get a place. In this guide, we'll learn all of the entry requirements for applicants to get their place on the course.

Last Updated: 1st October 2024

Author: Matthew Amalfitano-Stroud

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Imperial College London Medicine Entry Requirements

Medicine is one of the most popular degrees for students currently, and Imperial is one of the most prestigious medical schools in the UK.

With this combination, it’s easy to understand the Imperial medicine degree is one of the most competitive ones available, placing it on the same level as Oxford and Cambridge. With it being a Russell Group and G5 University, applying to Imperial is already very competitive, but when you’re competing with nearly 3,500 applicants for just 340 places, you’re going to have to stand out from the crowd to have a good chance of getting in.

In this guide, we’ll explore all of the entry requirements for medicine at Imperial College London to see what you need to achieve and explore tips on how you can become more competitive in your application. Let’s get started.

Imperial College London Medicine

First, here’s a brief overview of Imperial’s medicine course, which is one of the highest-rated in the UK and the world.

Imperial’s medicine degree is taught within its London Campus at Charing Cross and lasts for six years. Along with the standard five years of study, students will take a required intercalated/integrated year in which they will study an additional undergraduate degree related to medicine.

The course is split into three phases:

Phase 1 (Years 1 - 3): Introductions to the material with an emphasis on critical thinking, professional growth and practical skills with patient interactions in Year 3.
Phase 2 (Year 4): Your intergrated year, in which you will study for an additional qualification relating to medicine.
Phase 3 (Years 5 - 6): This phase is primarily about clinical placements, giving you the chance to develop varied skills within different teams and departments.

Imperial teaches via an integrated teaching style, meaning classes are taught in a mixture of ways, including traditional lectures, placement and Problem-Based Learning sessions (PBL), among other methods.

Students are assessed in a variety of ways, including objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), written assessments and presentations. You will also need to complete the Medical Licensing Assessment to become licenced as a practitioner.

Placements at Imperial take place in locations across London, including Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Hillingdon Hospital, West Middlesex University Hospital and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Imperial medicine tuition fees cost the standard rate of £9,250 per year for UK students. International students are charged £55,800 per year. Various bursaries are available to support you with these costs.

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Imperial Medicine Entry Requirements

Here are all of the major steps you’ll need to take when applying for medicine at Imperial. There’s a lot to do, and the process could potentially take over a year, depending on how much you want to prepare (we would recommend starting early to give yourself a head start). Let’s go through these steps one by one:

GCSEs

While GCSEs aren’t particularly important for your university application, Imperial College London does state a specific requirement for applicants on most of their courses, including medicine.

Although they don’t state a specific amount, applicants are expected to have a majority of Grades 7- 9. The average number of GCSEs completed is eight, so applicants would need to achieve 7 – 9 in at least five of their qualifications.

Another part of the requirement is to have achieved at least a Grade 7 in both Maths and Science (either combined or separate) at GCSEs. These are both compulsory subjects for all applicants, so you will just need to ensure you achieved at least a Grade 7 in each.

A-Levels

Compared to GCSE’s, A-Levels are far more important and are potentially the most important part of your application in many cases. Medicine applications do feature multiple other steps that could be considered more important, but A-Levels are still a major deciding factor for not only offers but final admissions as well.

As with any medicine degree in the UK, you will need to achieve a minimum grade requirement after receiving your offer to confirm your place on the course. Offers are partly decided based on predicted grades, so applicants with lower predicted grades are far less likely to be given an offer or invited to interview.

At Imperial College London, the minimum requirement for applicants are as follows:

Imperial College London Minimum Medicine Requirements A-Levels

AAA, including Biology and Chemistry.

As you can see, all applicants must complete A-Levels in both Biology and Chemistry to be considered, which is common for UK medical schools. However, this is the lowest offer given, but most applicants will be given the following offering instead (over 80% of applicants in 2023 according to Imperial).

Imperial College London Standard Medicine Requirements A-Levels

A*AA, including Biology and Chemistry with an A* in either.

Be aware that Imperial doesn’t accept A-Levels in General Studies or Critical Thinking as your third qualification.

Alternative Qualifications

Outside of A-Levels, there are many other qualifications that can be taken, although not all are accepted by Imperial.

Scottish applicants who are taking Advanced Highers will be given a minimum offer requirement of AAA with Biology and Chemistry, similar to A-Levels. Other UK qualifications like BTECs or Welsh Baccalaureates are not accepted. They also don’t consider UCAS Tariff points when admitting students.

International applicants will have a limited number of options for their qualifications, with the primary one being the International Baccalaureate (IB). The IB is a universal qualification that can be taken in many countries across the world.

The minimum requirement for IB students is 38 points, including 6 in both Biology and Chemistry at higher level. However, like A-Levels, most offers given require 39 points. It is stated that the Mathematics syllabus is also preferred. though not essential.

As for other national qualifications, only a few are accepted at Imperial, although some that are accepted include French Baccalaureate, HKDSE, CBSE and Advanced Placements.

Personal Statement

As with any degree you apply for in the UK, you’ll need to submit a Personal Statement with your UCAS Application. The statement must be submitted digitally and has a character limit of 4,000.

The Personal Statement serves to provide context for your application. It’s your opportunity to explain why you want to study medicine, share your experiences with the subject both inside and outside of school, and highlight what you could contribute to the university if admitted.

Imperial doesn’t have any formal scoring or requirements for Personal Statements, but they do state that, within their selection criteria, they look for factors such as your motivation, community activities, work experience leadership experience and extracurricular activities.

If you’re able to clearly and concisely demonstrate each of these factors in your statement, you should have a good chance of being invited to interviews (assuming you succeed in the next requirement). Find more tips for crafting your Personal Statement in our Ultimate Guide.

UCAT

Imperial College London previously used the Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT) as its medicine admissions test. However, after its removal in 2023, all UK medical schools have adopted the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT).

2024 will be the first year that Imperial uses the UCAT, so there are currently no historical results for previous applicants. Imperial has stated that applicants will need to meet a minimum threshold to be considered for interviews, although they have not publicly announced what those thresholds are.

Since Imperial is such a popular and competitive university, we can assume these thresholds will be fairly high. It has been suggested that thresholds will be split by section, with some having theorised that cut-offs could be as high as 550 per section. However, we can look at Imperial’s BMAT cut-off from previous year’s to get a more accurate prediction.

Imperial UCAT Cut Off Score

In 2022, applicants for Imperial medicine had to achieve the following in the BMAT:

At least 2.5 in Sections 1 and 2, with a combined score of 10.9 in both.
A minimum of 2.5C in Section 3.

The minimum scores for the individual sections don’t add up with the combined requirement for Sections 1 and 2, so applicants actually had to achieve an average score of at least 5.5 in each section.

This is roughly a 50% threshold which means a score of 550 in each UCAT threshold is close to the equivalent requirement. However, this is not currently confirmed.

Multiple-Mini Interviews (MMIs)

Interviews are conducted at all UK medical schools and are mostly split into two formats; Panel Interviews and Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs). Imperial uses the latter style for its interviews.

The structure of an MMI is to have multiple interview stations which applicants have to move between during their interview. These stations each have one question or task, which can range from general interview questions to role-playing scenarios and problems to solve.

MMIs at Imperial consist of seven stations, each lasting five minutes (along with a one-minute break between each station). Imperial states that potential stations during the MMI could include:

Community activities
Ethical Scenarios
Empathy and resilience
Extracurricular interests
Leadership and teamwork
Understanding of NHS Constitution
Understanding of as a medicine career

These aren’t guaranteed stations, but they are very common topics to cover, so you should be prepared to answer them.

The MMI takes place in January and is conducted as a mixture of asynchronous and face-to-face interviews (though these take place digitally). Applicants will first have to complete some stations asynchronously, which is then followed by direct stations where you can interact with the interviewers.

Each station will be scored out of ten, with up to seven points assigned for the content of your response and three for the communication. Points aren’t usually awarded based on the correctness of an answer but more so on the reasoning, adaptability and thought put into it.

After interviews are complete, you’ll need to wait until offers are released in February to find out if you got yours.

Conclusion

That covers all of the major entry requirements to study medicine at Imperial College London. International students will also need to submit an English Language Proficiency Test result if English isn’t their first language, but there aren’t any other major requirements other than this.

There are a lot of steps to applying for this course, but remember that these steps are all standard for medicine degrees in the UK. Writing a great Personal Statement and performing well in the UCAT will ensure you get your interview invitation, which will give you your final chance to impress the university and get your place.

However, this is easier said than done, so you may be looking for some application support from medicine experts. If so, consider UniAdmission’s Medicine Premium Programme if you want support through every stage of your application. We support our students through one-to-one tuition, live courses, extensive resources and much more, giving you the best chance of getting your place. You can also join our dedicated Imperial Programme if you’re looking for specific support for your Imperial application, so book a free consultation to speak with our friendly admissions team and find the right programme for you.

Our expert tutors will guide you to Imperial Medicine success

Applying to Imperial College London is extremely competitive, so give yourself the best chance of success with expert support from UniAdmissions. We will help you craft the perfect Personal Statement, achieve a highly competitive UCAT score and take on your MMIs effectively – covering all areas of your Imperial application.

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