Do Medical School Personal Statements matter? - here’s what all 41 UK med schools actually do with them
Every year students spend months on the personal statement. But for most medical schools there is little or no point
Checking the published admissions policies of all 41 UK medical schools (with a school-leaver route) with the help of a carefully trained Agentic-AI, I found that:
➡️ Three schools score them and DO use this score when shortlisting
➡️ Twelve schools use them, but in a limited way
➡️ Twenty-six schools do not use personal statements to decide who gets an interview
This doesn’t mean personal statements don’t matter at all. But it does mean it’s worth checking your chosen schools’ requirements before spending a lot of time on them.
(If you’re still wondering which schools to apply to, you can check out my free tool here.)
The four categories
Schools fall into four groups. Knowing which applies to your choices will help you plan how much time to spend on your personal statement, and what to write.
Scored (3 schools) - statements are scored and contribute to the shortlisting decision
At Keele it is worth up to 15 of a 25-point ranking score - more than the UCAT, which is worth 5. Keele publishes a person specification and guidance notes that its scorers mark against, and warns that generic statements, accounts of what you merely observed, and statements written by advisers or generative Al all score poorly. Birmingham uses it as the final scored stage of its algorithm. The University of Lancashire scores the statement, the reference and a separate transferable-skills statement.
Screened / Hurdle (7 schools) - statements must reach a certain standard
Cardiff requires both the statement and the reference to pass a quality check before they offer an interview. St Andrews treats it as pass/fail. Kent and Medway weighs it heavily for graduate and non-standard applicants specifically.
Tiebreak only (5 schools) - only used to separate applicants who are otherwise level
Bristol shortlists on UCAT alone, then uses the statement and reference to split close candidates. Leicester and Hull York do much the same for borderline cases.
Not used (26 schools) - not used for shortlisting
The largest group by far. Some are blunt about it: Sheffield and Exeter say they don’t even read it. Brighton and Sussex states it is not used at any point and Anglia Ruskin confirmed under Freedom of Information that zero weighting is applied to it. Even Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL - where you might expect it to count - do not score personal statements. Imperial hands it to interviewers to prompt discussion during interviews. UCL ranks on UCAT alone.
Two important notes before you start
The format changed for 2026 entry. UCAS replaced the single essay with three structured questions allowing a total of 4,000 characters. If you are working from an older guide, a sibling's copy, or a teacher's memory of the old form, you are using the wrong blueprint.
"Not scored" is not the same as "not read". At a great many schools the statement can be referred to during the interview. It still has to withstand questioning — you can be asked to expand on anything in it. A statement that isn’t involved in interview shortlisting can still lose you an offer if you can’t show during an interview that you understand what you wrote, or talk about the claims you made.
So what should you be doing?
Check your four schools in the table below to see what they will do with your statements.
You are likely to find that your limited time would better be spent on ensuring you achieve your required A-level grades and/or on the UCAT rather than on a fifteenth draft of your personal statement.
Even so, don’t do a rush job - your statement must still survive interview scrutiny, and some schools will reject a poor one outright.
And of course if Keele or Birmingham is on your list then you should take your time over it, because it genuinely counts.
⬇️ Here’s the full table
The universities are listed in order of how important the personal statement is.
The Evidence column shows whether the claim is made on the university's own publication (Primary), was obtained through a Freedom of Information disclosure (FOI), or was taken from compilations citing the school (Reported).
⚠️ You should always double-check important information on the University’s own website
| Medical school | Category | What they actually say | Source | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | Scored | > Forms the FINAL scored stage of the shortlisting algorithm itself, not just background reading. | birmingham.ac.uk | Primary |
| Keele | Scored | > SCORED — up to 15 of a 25-point ranking score, the single biggest component, outweighing the UCAT. Keele publishes a person specification and 2027 guidance notes that its scorers mark… | keele.ac.uk | Primary |
| University of Lancashire (formerly UCLan) | Scored | > Unusual — personal statement, reference AND a 'transferable skills statement' ARE used to shortlist for interview. | uclan.ac.uk / lancashire.ac.uk | Reported |
| Brunel Medical School | Screened | > REVIEWED, unlike most schools. Brunel's own FAQ states that personal statements and references are assessed at the initial stage against pre-determined criteria, and one guide… | brunel.ac.uk | FOI |
| Cardiff | Screened | > cardiff.ac.uk's own admissions PDF confirms it is 'screened, but not formally scored'. | cardiff.ac.uk | Reported |
| Glasgow | Screened | > Reviewed 'thoroughly' for non-academic attributes as part of holistic screening, though UCAT ranking drives who gets invited. | gla.ac.uk | Primary |
| Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS) | Screened | > NOT ranked or scored for most applicants, but weighed heavily for graduate and non-standard applicants, and for groups without reliable school-performance data such as home-educated or… | kmms.ac.uk | Reported |
| Norwich Medical School (UEA) | Screened | > Not formally assessed/scored, but must be 'satisfactory' to be considered for interview. | uea.ac.uk | Reported |
| St Andrews (BSc Medicine) | Screened | > 'Hurdle' approach — not scored or weighted, just a pass/fail eligibility check. | st-andrews.ac.uk | Reported |
| University of Lincoln Medical School | Screened | > NOT used for shortlisting, but IS assessed (with the reference) after interview, before final offers. | lincoln.ac.uk | Primary |
| Aston Medical School | Tiebreak | > NOT formally scored, but read pre-interview to check for fitness-to-practice concerns. | aston.ac.uk | Reported |
| Bristol | Tiebreak | > Not weighted when shortlisting — that is UCAT-based only — but Bristol uses it as a TIEBREAKER, alongside the reference, to separate candidates who are very close on grades, UCAT and… | bristol.ac.uk | Primary |
| Edge Hill University | Tiebreak | > NOT routinely used for interview/offer selection — only to separate tied or borderline candidates. | edgehill.ac.uk | Reported |
| Hull York Medical School (HYMS) | Tiebreak | > NOT scored, but read; can be a determining factor for borderline candidates. | hyms.ac.uk | Primary |
| Leicester | Tiebreak | > Not routinely used pre-interview; only for borderline/tiebreak cases or Access to Medicine applicants. | le.ac.uk | Primary |
| Aberdeen | Not used | > Not scored pre-interview, but reviewed and actively drawn on during a dedicated interview station. | abdn.ac.uk | Reported |
| Anglia Ruskin University | Not used | > NOT used in shortlisting at all — ARU's own FOI response confirms no weighting is applied to it. | aru.ac.uk | FOI |
| Bangor / North Wales Medical School | Not used | > NOT used in detail as part of the assessment process. | bangor.ac.uk | Reported |
| Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) | Not used | > BSMS's own admissions page states it does NOT use personal statements at any point in the process. | bsms.ac.uk | Reported |
| Cambridge | Not used | > Read in full but not formally scored; considered holistically alongside grades, UCAT and reference. | undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk | Primary |
| City St George's, University of London | Not used | > Not used for interview shortlisting at all — ranking is purely UCAT/GAMSAT-score based. | citystgeorges.ac.uk | Reported |
| Dundee | Not used | > NOT scored/used in selection, though it may be discussed during the individual interview station. | dundee.ac.uk | Primary |
| Edinburgh | Not used | > NOT used in pre-interview shortlisting scoring (which is academic + UCAT + SJT only). | ed.ac.uk | Primary |
| Exeter | Not used | > NOT read at all, even for mitigating circumstances (handled via a separate form) — exeter.ac.uk's own policy. | exeter.ac.uk | Reported |
| Imperial College London | Not used | > Not scored or assessed for shortlisting: Imperial ranks on UCAT and academic eligibility alone. The statement is given to interviewers at Station 1 to prompt discussion of motivation… | imperial.ac.uk | Primary |
| King's College London (GKT) | Not used | > Reviewed holistically alongside grades and UCAT, but doesn't directly determine interview ranking. | kcl.ac.uk | Primary |
| Lancaster Medical School | Not used | > NOT scored at any stage; submitted mainly to help interviewers frame questions. | lancaster.ac.uk | Reported |
| Leeds | Not used | > NOT scored; used only to flag mitigating circumstances or exceptional issues. | leeds.ac.uk | Reported |
| Liverpool | Not used | > NOT routinely assessed for the interview-invite decision (liverpool.ac.uk's own admissions page). | liverpool.ac.uk | Reported |
| Manchester | Not used | > NOT normally considered in selection at all — confirmed current as of mid-2026. | bmh.manchester.ac.uk | Primary |
| Newcastle | Not used | > Reviewed alongside references around the interview stage, but explicitly supplementary, not primary. | ncl.ac.uk | Primary |
| Nottingham | Not used | > NOT scored at the shortlisting stage — only checked for minimum-requirement compliance. | nottingham.ac.uk | Reported |
| Oxford | Not used | > Not formally scored, but read carefully by tutors and often used to focus interview questions. | medsci.ox.ac.uk | Primary |
| Plymouth (Peninsula Medical School) | Not used | > plymouth.ac.uk's own admissions page confirms it is NOT considered when selecting for interview. | plymouth.ac.uk | Reported |
| Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) | Not used | > Minimal role — shortlisting is dominated by the weighted UCAT+UCAS-tariff score. | qmul.ac.uk | Reported |
| Queen's University Belfast | Not used | > NOT scored or used to select candidates for interview; assessors typically haven't read it beforehand. | qub.ac.uk | Reported |
| Sheffield | Not used | > Interviewers do NOT read the personal statement at all (sheffield.ac.uk's own admissions page). | sheffield.ac.uk | Primary |
| Southampton | Not used | > Not scored pre-interview (shortlisting is pure UCAT rank), but drawn on directly during the panel conversation. | southampton.ac.uk | Reported |
| St Mary's University, Twickenham | Not used | > Used during the interview itself rather than for shortlisting, per the Medical Schools Council's course listing. | stmarys.ac.uk | Reported |
| UCL | Not used | > NOT scored for shortlisting — confirmed on UCL's own admissions pages and by multiple independent checks. UCAT is the sole shortlisting measure, with SJT used only to separate tied… | ucl.ac.uk | Reported |
| University of Sunderland | Not used | > NOT assessed at all (confirmed via FOI data) — an 'Interview Selection Tool' survey is used instead. | sunderland.ac.uk | FOI |
A note on sources and a final caution
Admissions policies change every cycle, and secondary sources contradict each other more often than you would hope. There was one widely-read guide claiming that Imperial, UCL, Cardiff and King's all score the statement — a claim contradicted by the same publisher's school-specific pages and by the universities themselves. It’s important to note that rows marked “Reported” rest on information complied from less-direct sources.
⚠️ Before you make any decision that matters, ALWAYS confirm it on the school's own admissions page ⚠️
If you are applying to medicine, achieving the required Biology grade will be a key step for every school on the list, which is more than can be said for your personal statement. Check out my weekly online masterclasses for AQA and OCR A, with separate groups for Y12 and Y13, including lots of exam question practice and with video recordings for later revision.