The University of Aberdeen ranked 1st in the UK for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2024 rankings.
The University of Aberdeen Medical School uses an integrated systems-based approach, using clinical cases to teach you the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, as well as the disease processes, of each of the body systems.
During your studies, you'll undertake the following clinical placements:
You can find more information about clinical attachments here.
The University of Aberdeen Medical School does offer dissection, but it states that “some students [will] have the unique opportunity to engage individually in whole body dissection and a number of clinically orientated dissection projects”. The university also boosts a “state of the art 3D anatomy learning resource” which provides 3D virtual anatomy teaching.
The University of Aberdeen Medical School is based on-site at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, meaning you have opportunities to gain experience in a large teaching hospital, paediatric and maternity hospitals, on “one of the largest clinical sites in Europe”.
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There are a number of Student Selected Components (SSCs) included in the curriculum at Aberdeen Medical School, across years 1 – 4. You can find more information about SSC ay Aberdeen here.
During your final year, you will have an eight-week elective project; this is not uncommon in medical school, however, Aberdeen is one of the few which requires you to complete a project whilst undertaking your elective, giving you the opportunity to enhance your CV with a publication or presentation based on your project.
The course at Aberdeen provides a rare opportunity to undertake remote and rural placements, which could be a useful insight when answering a question about why you choose this particular medical school, if you have an interest in gaining experience within this area. There is also a great deal of flexibility in the amount of time you spend in remote and rural attachments; at least one of your clinical blocks in your fourth year will take place in Inverness, but you can choose to be based in Inverness for the entirety of the year and undertake all clinical blocks in remote and rural, as well as some or all of your fifth year placements.
The University of Aberdeen Medical School uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for its interviews. It specifies that your MMI will last approximately one hour and you’ll be given five minutes at each station to explore one question area/domain.
On their website, Aberdeen Medical School identify that you may be asked to:
All stations will also assess your communication and interpersonal skills independently of the task given.
For 2024 entry, the interview was held in person in the week commencing 18 December 2023.
You can find more information about Aberdeen’s interview process for medical school on their website, where you’ll also find some MMI examples provided by the university, which are worth viewing, as they may provide good insight into what you can expect from their interview in particular.
Most medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.
Admissions exam for Aberdeen: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
The UCAT assesses the characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours required for medical school. The exam is made up of 5 sections: Abstract Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Situational Judgement (SJT) and Verbal Reasoning.
The entry requirements for Aberdeen state that your academic achievements/predictions are combined with your UCAT score, and only the highest scoring candidates will be invited to interview. Furthermore, your UCAT score makes up 20% of your overall application score (academic achievements/predictions is 30% and interview performance is 50%), so it’s vital that you perform well in your UCAT.
The free Medibuddy AI-powered question bank will help you to prepare effectively. With carefully selected questions based on your strengths and weaknesses within the syllabus, our artificial intelligence ensures that you’re focusing on the areas which you need to improve, rather than working through hundreds of randomised questions with no direction.
The question bank dashboard (below) will also clearly show you how you’re performing in each section of the UCAT, with your calculated skill level, total number of questions answered, number of questions answered correctly and response time for each. That way you know which areas you’ve “mastered” and which you need to spend more time on.
You’ll find more information about the UCAT in our complete guide and guidance on how to prepare on our website.
