Medicine

• Why study Medicine at Christ's?
• Course content
• Teaching
• What do our students think? 
• How to apply
  • Subject requirements: what do you need?
  • UCAT (registration required) 
  • Interviews
  • Offers
• Helpful Resources 
• Open Days and Online Events
• Want to know more?

Why study Medicine at Christ's?

Christ’s is one of Cambridge’s larger colleges for Medicine, with a very strong teaching record in the subject. Most of our Fellows and Bye-fellows in medical subjects are practising doctors, so can share a wide variety of expertise.

You’ll find Christ’s staff helpful and supportive and our community very welcoming. The lively Medical Society organises all kinds of events, including an annual dinner, garden party and plenty of cheese-and-wine nights where everyone mingles. The College is medium-sized, making it easy for you to get to know other students, staff and Fellows, but also find peace and quiet when you need it.

The central location of Christ's works very well for Medicine as the College is very near to the Downing Site, where lectures are, as well as having the advantages of proximity to shops etc.

"I only have a five minute walk to lectures, or ten if I have a lab or dissection."
- Juliet

Course content

You study pre-clinical medicine in first and second year, then complete a BA by studying one subject in more detail in third year.

After that, you move on to the Cambridge clinical medicine course, a three-year training programme which leads to a Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (B. Chir). The emphasis is on learning in clinical settings (at the bedside, in outpatient clinics and GP surgeries) alongside seminars, tutorials and discussion groups.

Please visit the University website for full details of the Undergraduate Medicine course content and structure, including the course film. You will also find information on the School of Clinical Medicine course page.

Teaching

The Director of Studies in Medicine at Christ's is Dr Andrew Stewart and the other academics are Prof Mike Edwardson, Dr Isabel Huang-Doran, Professor Jonathan Gillard and Dr James Jones. We also have a number of Bye-Fellows in Medicine: Dr Mary-Ellen Lynall, Dr Tomasz Matys, and Dr David Webster.

You have medical lectures and practical classes just 10 mins walk away from Christ’s. The teaching for the first couple of years is shared between specialist biomedical departments, including Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, Pathology, and Pharmacology, all of which are on the Downing site (see map). The large modern medical library holds a vast collection of sources in hard copy and online, and you have the opportunity to study a range of human skeletons and anatomical models.

College level teaching provides ‘supervisions’ (small group teaching sessions). Our Fellows in Medical Sciences have links with the major teaching departments and the Clinical School, making it easy for us to access course information, find the best supervisors for any subjects and advise you on your options. The College also offers substantial travel awards, grants and prizes in Medicine (as in all subjects) to reward academic excellence.
 

What do our students think? 

Read about the experiences of Mithylan, Iona, Juliet, Barnaby, Rory, Erin, Anissa, Neophytos, and Kieran on pre-clinical Medicine at Christ’s, as well as Anna and George on the clinical Medicine course.

If you would hear more from other Christ’s students, please watch the Christ's student Q&A film, and visit our Student Profiles page.

How to apply

Visit How to Apply for full details and a timeline of the application process. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and school types, all over the world. If you're applying from outside the UK, please read our international students section.

Subject requirements: what is needed?

For Medicine at Christ's, our minimum requirements at A-level, IB Higher, Scottish Advanced Higher (or equivalent) are:

• Chemistry
• Two further subjects out of
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Mathematics*

Notes: 

• International Baccalaureate applicants should take Higher Level Analysis and Approaches for the Mathematics option.
• A level applicants who want to take Further Mathematics are advised to study it as a fourth subject in addition to Chemistry and two subjects out of Biology, Physics and Mathematics. If you are only taking Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Chemistry, please email us for further information before you apply. 
• If you’re taking another qualification, please read about offer levels in other exam systems and international entrance requirements.

It is very important to read the whole of the 'entry requirements' tab in the Medicine course information on the University Admissions website carefully before applying as there are a number of restrictions and details that you need to be aware of.

If you will have finished school when you apply, read about post-qualification applications.

Work experience

We advise applicants to do some relevant work experience or voluntary work in a health or social care organisation if possible.

Age restriction

You need to be aged 18 or over by 1 November in the year you begin your course.

UCAT (Registration required)

All applicants for Medicine at Cambridge sit an admissions assessment called the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) as part of their application. This is the same for all Cambridge Colleges.

You need to make a UCAT account and register to sit the UCAT before you apply to Cambridge. Account registration opens in May and tests are taken between July and September in the year you apply. Please see the UCAT 2024 dates. There is an entry fee - see the Pearson VUE website for details of the costs for 2024 applicants when available, and note that there is a UCAT bursary for UK students in financial need. You will need to sit the UCAT at a Pearson VUE test centre. There are tests centres in over 180 countries - see the Pearson VUE find a test centre page to find the centre nearest to you.

To prepare for the UCAT we advise you to familiarise yourself with the format and use the preparation advice and resources on the UCAT website, alongside question banks and practice tests. See the UCAT preparation page. When using specimen or past papers, we advise you to restrict yourself to the time you would have during a real test for the best preparation. 

You will receive your UCAT results via the Pearson VUE booking portal approx three weeks after you take the test. The results will automatically be shared with us (you don't need to send them to us). There is no set score that we are looking for and we don't expect you to get every question right. The UCAT forms part of our holistic admissions process, which means that we will look at your scores in the context of your whole application.

Interviews

If we invite you for interviews, these usually take place in early December. Those invited for Cambridge interviews are normally interviewed for 35-50 minutes in total. At Christ’s, we usually split the time into two interviews with subject-relevant academics. Further detail about the format of interviews will be available here nearer the time.

During the interviews we might ask you about topics you're not familiar with. Our aim is to assess how you solve problems and apply your skills and knowledge, rather than testing you on facts. We also look for evidence that you have the necessary skills to practice clinical medicine.

Further, more general information about interviews (including two useful films) is available in the Cambridge interviews section, and it's worth also having a look at supervisions (short film here), as interviews are similar to what you do every week as a Cambridge student. Do also look at the Cambridge Medicine Interview - Experiences of eight students.

Offers

At Christ's we admit 14 students for Medicine each year, which gives us a total of 42 medical students across the three pre-clinical years.

We define the terms of each offer individually, but a typical offer for Medicine is:

• A levels: A*, A*, A in Chemistry and two further subjects out of Biology, Mathematics and Physics
• 42 points overall in the International Baccalaureate with 7,7,6 at Higher Level including Chemistry, and two further subjects out of Biology, Mathematics (Analysis and Approaches) and Physics
• A1, A1, A2 in Scottish Advanced Higher Chemistry and two further subjects out of Biology, Mathematics and Physics.

You need to be academically ambitious: the majority of Christ's students arrive with higher grades than are required.

If you're taking another qualification, we expect you to be working at or close to the top of the mark range, for example

• Baccalauréat français international (BFI): 17 (mention très bien) out of 20 overall, with a minimum of 17 in Chemistry and two further subjects out of Biology, Mathematics and Physics. 
• European Baccalaureate: at least 85% overall, with 9/10 in Chemistry and two further subjects out of Biology, Mathematics and Physics.

You can look up other qualifications in the offer levels for other exam systems and international entry requirements, and if you are applying from outside the UK please read the Christ's international students section for further information and check the country pages.

If you will have finished school when you apply, please also read about post-qualification applications.

You also need to meet the University's pre-medical requirements, including a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring (DBS) check (or equivalent). You can find full details in Medicine course information under Entry Requirements.
 

Helpful Resources

Would you like to receive these resources in an email? Please complete this brief form.

Come to an Open Day or Online Event

Online events: Our open days and events page advertises online opportunities as well as events in Cambridge, and includes College Open Days where you can talk to staff and current students about the course.

Subject-specific opportunities you might wish to consider include Subject Masterclasses organised by Cambridge Admissions Office, and Medicine-specific talks in the July Cambridge Open Days. Do also look out for the Cambridge Festival in March, which normally has lots of relevant talks. If you are a UK student from a background where there is little tradition of entry to Higher Education, you can apply to attend a Sutton Trust Summer School in Medicine or to shadow a current Medicine undergraduate via the Cambridge SU Shadowing Scheme (do be aware that there's a high proportion of applicants to places for both of these last two opportunities, so please don't be discouraged if you are not given a place).
 

Need more information?

For more detail of what the course involves, please take a look at Undergraduate Medicine admissions on the University website and also read the Faculty of Biology information for prospective students.

And if you have any other questions, send them to us at admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk. We’re here to help.
 

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