Introduction and what this session covers

G'day, welcome to the National Virtual Expo, coming to you today from Garigal land in Sydney. Welcome to this session on getting into medicine and understanding the UCAT -- the University Clinical Aptitude Test. These are key things if you want to get into medicine or some of the other clinical degrees. I'm joined today by Vikrant from Mission Med. These guys really know what they're talking about when it comes to getting into medicine and the UCAT. If you've got questions as we go, make sure you ask them in the chat. If you're watching this on the replay, you can jump into the Tuning In Discord to ask any question you've got, and parents can join our Facebook community as well. Every single question will get a personalised answer. Without further ado, let's jump over to Vikram to find out about getting into medicine.

Hello everyone! My name is Vikram and today I'm going to be talking to you about how to get into medicine, on behalf of Mission Med. Through this session we're going to cover how to get into medicine, what a career path in medicine looks like, and a whole bunch of other things. I'm presenting this by myself today, but if you have any questions, feel free to pop them in the chat at the end and I'll stick around to answer some of those as well. Let's hop straight into it.

Starting with who we are. Mission Med is a company built around medical and dental entrance, with a focus on helping students through their whole journey towards getting into medicine. You might be unaware of what that journey entails, which is what we'll go through today. The three people who founded Mission Med are Doctor Jason, Matthew, and Mukund. Doctor Jason is already a physician, and Matthew and Mukund are currently final-year medical students. They realised that students had a tough time navigating this pathway -- a tough time understanding what to do in terms of applications and how to prepare for all the different aspects of medical entrance. So they decided to start this company to help students understand and prepare for these things. It's been quite a while now. They've helped hundreds of students get into medicine, some of whom have even graduated before them, because Matthew and Mukund are doing a seven-year course. It's been a really great journey for them, and we're really happy to see all these students go through and become successful.

My name is Vikram. I am a second-year medical student. I'm in the JMP and in 2024 I got a UCAT percentile of 98 with a score of 3300. If you have no idea what those numbers mean, don't worry -- we'll get to that in just a second. I have a lot of experience helping students through this journey, including preparing for UCAT and interviews.

The foundations of medicine entry in Australia

So what are we going to go through today? Number one is the foundations of medicine entry -- what it really entails, what the broad overall steps are for getting into medicine in Australia, how it's different for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, how it's different for students in rural or remote areas, and what the different pathways are. The second topic is the UCAT -- what it means, how it works, and what kinds of scores are needed. Then we'll talk about balancing academics alongside the UCAT, and finally we'll move into interviews, which are often the overlooked part of medical entrance.

So, how many undergraduate medicine degrees are there? In general there are about three to four undergraduate degrees in every state, with the exception of New South Wales and Queensland. All of them have their own weightings and entry requirements, but in general most will use an ATAR, a UCAT score, and an interview combined to produce a final offer. That's why medicine doesn't offer early entry -- universities wait for UCAT scores, which you can only sit from Year 12 onwards.

Unique entry requirements at specific universities

Now let's talk about some of the unique entry requirements. UniMelb doesn't use a UCAT score, but they do have a 99.98 ATAR Chancellor's pathway. If you qualify with a 99.98, you choose your undergraduate degree and a postgraduate degree. If you want that postgraduate degree to be the Doctor of Medicine, you sit an interview in your third year of undergrad in order to progress. They also have a 99 ATAR for a full-fee pathway -- the same structure applies, but it's full fee. I'll explain full-fee places a little later.

The University of Sydney requires a 99.95 ATAR and is interview-exclusive. They do not use UCAT either. Curtin, on top of interview and UCAT, has introduced CASPer, which is a situational-judgement ethics-type test where you're given video prompts and respond via video as well. Bond offers full-fee places and doesn't use UCAT -- they use a psychometric test that is a character and emotional intelligence assessment, quite unique to prepare for. And Griffith requires a 99.98 ATAR for non-Queensland students and a 99.85 for Queensland students, and they only use UCAT as a tiebreaker -- meaning it's not used in the final rankings, but if two students have the same ranking it's used to separate them.

There are two main offers you need to get into medical school. The first is the interview offer. What gets you that offer is dependent on the university, but a lot of universities are now transitioning to 100% UCAT for the interview cutoff. Some universities, like UNSW, still use a combination of UCAT and ATAR, but many, like UWS, use 100% UCAT. Then, if you perform well enough in the interview, you receive your final medical school offer.

When it comes to how everything is weighted, it again depends heavily on the university. Monash uses a 33/33/33 split, so everything is weighted equally. UWS takes a threshold-based approach -- if you get above the academic threshold (94.38 for metro students, around 91.6 for rural students), your ATAR is no longer counted and you go straight to interview ranking, with the final offer based completely on interview performance. So it's like crossing three hurdles to get your final offer.

Undergraduate vs graduate entry, and special pathways

There are two main pathways into medicine: undergraduate and graduate. For undergraduate, I've been covering this for the last few minutes -- you get your ATAR, sit the UCAT, then attend an interview, and everything is ranked with different weightings depending on the university. For graduate entry, it's essentially the same process but you swap out the UCAT for a test called the GAMSAT, and swap your ATAR for your GPA. The GAMSAT is a long exam held over multiple days and involves humanities, sciences, and an English component, which are used to rank applicants for interviews and final offers.

Generally, undergraduate entry is a little easier because it is less competitive -- graduate entry attracts far more applicants relative to available medical spots. This is why I really stress: if you are certain that medicine is what you want, don't leave it until graduate entry. Start preparing for undergraduate entry as soon as you can, from Years 10 and 11 onwards.

Then there are bonded and priority access pathways. Some offers may be bonded offers, meaning you commit to working for three years in a rural location after you graduate -- though this doesn't have to be immediately after graduation. There are also rural pathways. Because of the shortage of doctors in rural and remote areas, and because students from those areas face disadvantages when it comes to access to education, those students apply in their own bracket, competing against other rural and remote applicants. Some universities also apply boosts or additional adjustment factors for rural students, which means rural and remote students generally don't need to score as highly in the UCAT or ATAR as metropolitan students in order to receive an interview offer or a final offer.

Finally, there are adjustment factors. In NSW, UAC can give adjustment factors to your ATAR. If you experienced hardship during Year 12 -- such as illness or a learning disability affecting your ability to perform as well as you otherwise would have -- you can apply for adjustment factors through the portal. They'll assign you, on a case-by-case basis, a boost to your ATAR. Universities then receive your selection rank, which is your ATAR plus your adjustment factors. For someone with no adjustment factors, the ATAR and selection rank are the same. For someone with qualifying adjustment factors, their selection rank will be higher, making medical entrance more accessible.

Recommended preparation timeline

This is the general timeline we like to follow when it comes to preparing for medicine. Starting UCAT preparation from December of Year 11 is very helpful -- it builds a solid foundation to work from during the intensive two or three months leading up to test day, when you do a lot of mock exams. It's also incredibly important not to neglect your ATAR throughout the whole year. Make sure you're studying for your trials and staying on top of schoolwork. Even though I've been stressing the UCAT and interviews in this session, the ATAR is still critically important.

Interviews are generally the most important factor, so start building soft skills like public speaking as early as you can, then ramp up interview preparation after the UCAT ends. From there, focus thoroughly on both your HSC and your interview preparation. This timeline isn't going to work for everyone -- some people may need less prep, some more -- but it's generally what we recommend.

What the UCAT is and how it works

I've been talking a lot about the UCAT, so let's go through everything there is to know about it. First, why is it so important? It's something you really can't neglect and make up for with a good ATAR. It's a critical part of undergraduate medicine entry. It's used to rank applicants for interviews as well as final offers, and scoring highly in the UCAT really opens up a lot of possibilities.

The UCAT is essentially an aptitude exam -- a cognitive exam where quick thinking, timing, and speed are key. It was previously made up of five sections, which is why my score was out of 3600. They've since removed abstract reasoning, so it's now made up of four sections: verbal reasoning, decision making, quantitative reasoning, and situational judgement. Your total score -- the one universities actually use -- is made up only of verbal reasoning, decision making, and quantitative reasoning, and is out of 2700, because each of those sections is out of 900. Situational judgement is also important because some universities use it as a tiebreaker, and for dentistry it's added to your total score.

I really need to stress that the UCAT is getting more and more competitive. Students are increasingly learning how to prepare, and the competition grows every year. Last year there were around 16,500 students sitting it, compared to roughly 15,000 the year before. For a 99th percentile score, there has been an 8% increase in the score required over just a few years. That might seem daunting, but it should motivate you to work harder and start preparing earlier.

Breakdown of each UCAT section

Verbal reasoning is 44 multiple-choice questions across 11 passages in 22 minutes -- so 22 minutes for 44 questions. This one is all about speed and your ability to understand and evaluate verbal information as quickly as possible. It might seem like it only suits people who read fast naturally, but that's not the case. There are so many techniques you can learn in order to do well here.

Decision making is 35 questions in the Australian version, with approximately 37 minutes -- just over a minute per question. These questions are a bit more drawn out and methodical. They include logic puzzles, syllogisms, interpreting arguments and data, evaluating complex scenarios, and assessing risks and benefits through Venn diagrams, data, and probability. It's not so much a test of speed as verbal reasoning is -- it's more a test of evaluating large amounts of varied information, including ethical scenarios. I think it's actually a really fun part of the exam, and there are many tips and tricks that can make your life a lot easier here.

Quantitative reasoning is basically maths -- your ability to analyse numerical information quickly and accurately. There are many tricks involved, such as learning how to use the on-screen calculator effectively and when to use or ignore notes on graphs. Situational judgement is an ethical-scenarios test with rapid-fire questions covering things like professionalism and patient safety. It's not as important as the other three sections for your total score, but it's still worth doing well in.

UCAT score cutoffs and what you need to aim for

You might be wondering what score you actually need. We can't give you one specific number because every university is different, but on screen are some cutoffs from the 2025 and 2026 intakes. For the 2026 JMP intake, for example, the cutoff was 2510, and 2520 was the 99th percentile -- so you can pretty much assume the cutoff is sitting around the 99th percentile, and it's only going to keep increasing. Students are scoring higher and higher every year, so it's really important to lock in and get prepared as quickly and effectively as possible.

How to prepare for the UCAT effectively

The best ways to prepare follow a clear sequence. First, build your foundations. From there, refine those foundations through a lot of practice. After that, what will give you real test-day experience is doing exams under simulated conditions -- so you know exactly what you're going to encounter on the day. Finally, review your performance carefully: understand the feedback, identify where you want to improve, and act on it. On test day itself, it's important to be mentally resilient and in a good frame of mind.

Some common mistakes to avoid: starting too late is a big one. A couple of months might be enough for some people, but it's not enough for most. Another mistake is ignoring weaker subsections -- a lot of students score well in quantitative reasoning because they already have a strong maths background, then neglect it to focus elsewhere, and by the time they return to it they've lost their edge. Work evenly across all sections and set clear goals. Finally, don't over-rely on mock score performance. Doing well in one mock doesn't mean you can ease off, and doing badly in one mock doesn't mean you'll never improve. Your overall pattern of performance is a far better indicator of how you'll go on test day than any single mock result.

Our UCAT programme starts with building foundations over 16 weeks from early December, then moves into real-world experience. In Sydney we run live mock exams from March onwards. A big reason some students perform below their average practice results on test day is a lack of familiarity and confidence with the real testing environment. Our live mocks simulate the exact conditions of test day -- the same ID checks, the same keyboard, the same setup -- seven times before you actually sit the UCAT. Getting that experience really reduces unfamiliarity and builds confidence. Every student is also paired with an admissions mentor who is a high-percentile UCAT-scoring medical student and can help with questions about the UCAT, applications, and anything else along the way.

Why interviews matter and how to prepare for them

Interviews are one of the most important parts of medical entrance. Universities hold them because they want to know whether you're going to be a professional, safe, and trustworthy doctor. They want to see how you evaluate scenarios, how you communicate in person, and a whole range of other qualities. The two universities that don't require an interview are the University of Tasmania and Flinders University.

There are two main interview formats. The first is an SSI or panel interview, where two or three interviewers ask you all the questions and evaluate your performance across the whole session. You spend a lot of time with the same interviewers, so you have the opportunity to really leave an impression. The second is an MMI, or multi-mini interview, which is station-based. You'll have about five to eight stations with a different interviewer at each one. The advantage here is that if you feel like you performed badly in one station, it's a complete clean slate at the next -- a full reset. JCU and UniSA are among the only universities that use a panel interview, while most others use the MMI format.

I hear a lot of misconceptions about medical interviews. The most common one is: "I don't need to prepare -- it's just a conversation." That's not going to cut it. On the day, interviewers are looking for how you respond to specific scenarios, your knowledge about what it takes to become a doctor and how demanding that path is, and your ability to show your personality and explain how it translates into you becoming a good doctor. They expect you to come prepared -- not robotically prepared where you sound like you've fed every answer into ChatGPT, but genuinely prepared. Another common misconception is that it all comes down to whether the interviewer personally likes you. Especially in MMI formats, each station is marked against a specific marking criteria, and understanding what that criteria looks like is really important.

What can you do to prepare right now? Work on your soft skills -- understand and build your communication habits, and familiarise yourself with ethical reasoning scenarios. Once the UCAT is behind you and you're expecting an interview invitation, that's when you really knuckle down: do simulated MMI stations, go through the types of questions that are likely to be asked, study the marking criteria, and do real mock interviews. A big pro tip is to keep a bank of personal anecdotes, because interviewers love questions like "tell me about a time when you did this" or "describe a situation where you encountered that." Having those anecdotes ready will serve you really well.

Our Interview Mastery programme is a comprehensive approach. It starts with the fundamentals -- videos, guidebooks, and worksheets to help you understand how to answer specific types of questions, how those questions are marked, and how to get the best out of your answers. Then there's a question bank for extensive practice, leading into in-person masterclasses where you develop your presence as an interviewee and understand what interviewers are really looking for. Finally, you put everything to the test in university-specific mock interviews, marked by people who have actually been accepted into the medical school you're aiming for. They'll identify and refine every aspect of your approach.

Wrapping up: the pathway is clearer than it seems

Basically, what I've been trying to say throughout this whole session is that it might seem scary to apply for medicine, and the pathway might seem overwhelming, but there are ways to prepare. Mission Med makes it a lot easier to prepare for the UCAT, interviews, and everything else. There's no more "I didn't know how to prepare for this." There's no more trial and error. There are clear patterns, and there are definitely support systems in place -- seek them out.

If you're thinking about studying medicine, want to understand what your scores look like, or simply want to know what your pathway into medicine is going to look like, feel free to book a strategy consultation with us. That brings us to the end of this presentation. I hope you found it helpful, and if you have any questions, pop them in the chat and I'll be happy to answer. Otherwise, thank you for listening, and have a great rest of your day.