What a Low UCAT Costs You
UCAT results land in September, in the middle of trials and the run into the HSC, which is about the worst timing there is for bad news. It also feels final, and in one sense it is. You sit the UCAT once per cycle, so for this application round the number is fixed.
At the universities that weight the UCAT heavily, a low score will probably leave you short of the interview cutoff. UNSW looks for somewhere around the 92nd percentile before you are in interview consideration. The JMP has run cutoffs in the high 98th percentile for metropolitan applicants. WSU converts your score into a weighted total that successful applicants tend to sit near the top of. Those programs are likely gone this cycle, and there is no point pretending otherwise.
What the score does not do is settle the cycle. The UCAT is one component of an application, universities weight it completely differently, and a handful of programs do not use it at all. Students read the number in September as a verdict on everything, when it only decides part of where they can apply.
Apply Anyway
Cutoffs are not fixed. They move each year with the size and strength of the applicant pool, and nobody knows this year's numbers on results day, including the universities. A score that missed last year's cutoff by a small margin is not obviously outside this year's.
Preferences cost nothing, so put down the programs where you are borderline as well as the ones that clearly suit your score. If a borderline preference comes to nothing, you have lost a line on a form.
Push Your ATAR as Hard as You Can
Your UCAT is locked in for this cycle. Your ATAR is not, and there are still months of school left.
Students tend to lose those months to being disappointed, which is the expensive part. Every extra ATAR mark counts twice now. It lifts you at the universities that combine ATAR and UCAT into one ranking, and it counts for more still at the programs further down this page, because when a university ignores the UCAT your academic result carries nearly all of the selection weight.
Between results day and your last exam, nothing you do will change your medicine chances as much as the marks you are about to sit for.
The key factA low UCAT makes your ATAR matter more, not less. The universities that ignore the UCAT are the ones where academic results decide nearly everything, which makes the months between results day and your final exams the most valuable part of your application year.
Programs That Don't Use the UCAT
These programs select without a UCAT score at all. Treat the figures below as a guide rather than a promise. Thresholds and processes get revised between cycles, so check the university's current admissions page before you set your preferences.
| Program | Academic Requirement | How Selection Works | Key Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| JCU Medicine | No fixed ATAR threshold published. | Holistic review of your academic results alongside other criteria, then an interview. | Neither UCAT nor GAMSAT is used. Strong rural and regional focus, and the criteria beyond academics can change year to year. |
| JCU Dentistry | ATAR with English and Chemistry prerequisites. No fixed threshold published. | Written application statement, up to three letters of support, then a recorded one-way interview. | The written application counts for a lot here, so it needs proper preparation rather than a rushed draft. |
| Bond Medical Program | ATAR 96 or above, or IB 38. | Your ATAR determines whether you are invited to Bond's own psychometric test, then shortlisted applicants interview. | Fee-paying. Bond changed its psychometric test in late 2025, so results from before that are no longer valid. |
| USyd Medicine (double degree) | ATAR 99.95. | Written assessment and interview on top of the ATAR requirement. | A Bachelor of Science or Arts combined with the MD. Around 30 domestic places, so the bar is as high as it looks. |
| La Trobe Dentistry | ATAR-based selection. | Competitive academic selection for Year 12 applicants. | No UCAT for school leavers. Applicants coming in from other study may face different requirements, so check your category. |
Programs Where the UCAT Is Only a Tiebreaker
A second group sits between the two extremes. These programs rank on ATAR first and use the UCAT only to separate applicants sitting within the same ATAR band.
Griffith. Entry runs through the Bachelor of Medical Science, which carries provisional entry to the Griffith MD if you maintain the required GPA. Selection is primarily on ATAR, with the UCAT used for second-order ranking inside each band. Applicants without a UCAT result are still considered, but sit at the bottom of their band. Minimum ATARs in recent cycles have run around 99.80 to 99.90.
UniSC. The Bachelor of Medical Science at Sippy Downs works the same way, with provisional entry into the Griffith MD delivered at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital. ATAR leads, UCAT breaks ties, and applicants without a UCAT are ranked at the bottom of their band rather than excluded. The intake is capped at around 20 places, and recent thresholds have sat near 99.85, with a lower entry point under the rural access scheme.
So at both, a mediocre UCAT costs you position inside your band. It is the ATAR that decides whether you are in contention at all.
The Regional Pathways: Lower Academic Bar, but the UCAT Still Counts
The regional medicine pathways get grouped with the programs above, and they should not be. They do use the UCAT, and in one case they use it heavily.
UniSQ. The Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (Medicine Pathway) at Toowoomba leads into the UQ MD, with all four MD years spent at rural clinical school sites. It asks for a minimum adjusted ATAR of 95, and it requires the UCAT.
CQU. The Bachelor of Medical Science (Pathway to Medicine) at Rockhampton and Bundaberg also articulates into the UQ MD. Applicants are ranked on a final score made up of ATAR at 25 per cent, UCAT at 25 per cent and an MMI score, so the UCAT is a quarter of your ranking.
They are still worth knowing about, for a different reason. The academic entry point sits far below Griffith, UniSC or direct entry to UQ, and rank adjustments apply for rural background and subject incentives. If your UCAT landed middling rather than poor and you have a real regional connection, these two are among the more winnable medicine places going. They are simply not a way around the UCAT.
What the No-UCAT Programs Want Instead
Look down the academic column in that table and you can see what these universities ask for instead. Skipping the UCAT does not make a place easier to win. The weight just moves.
USyd wants a 99.95. Griffith and UniSC sit near 99.85. That is a higher academic bar than most UCAT-using programs set, and it has to be, because the UCAT is what those universities would otherwise use to separate a field where everyone already has a high ATAR.
JCU and Bond are the two where the academic bar comes down, and both swap the UCAT for something else you have to prepare for. JCU asks for a written application and an interview, and both count for a lot. Bond runs its own psychometric test, then an interview. That is more work, not less. The difference is that you can still get better at those, and your UCAT score is finished.
A disappointing UCAT costs you the programs that weight it heavily, and what remains asks for either a very high ATAR or a different kind of preparation. That is narrower than the list you had in July, and it is still a list of places worth applying to.
Check the Weighting Before You Write Off a UCAT School
Before you give up on the UCAT-using universities, work out what your score is worth at each one. They do not treat it the same way.
WSU is the clearest example. It weights Verbal Reasoning at 60 per cent of your weighted score, with Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning at 20 per cent each, so a strong VR can carry a total that looks unremarkable on paper. Other universities use a raw total, a percentile cutoff, or a non-compensatory model where each component is assessed separately.
Run your subtest scores through the UCAT Score Calculator and the WSU Weighted Score Calculator before you decide. Our WSU Medicine guide and UNSW Medicine guide break down how each of those selection models works.
If You Have Already Finished School
Everything above assumes your ATAR is still ahead of you. If you have already finished school, that lever is gone, and the choice becomes a gap year with a UCAT resit, or starting a degree and coming at medicine through non-standard or graduate entry.
We work through both of those, and the rules that quietly remove your eligibility at some universities, in your options if you don't get into medicine.
If you are resitting, work out what specifically went wrong the first time rather than repeating the same preparation. Our guides on reviewing your mock scores and Verbal Reasoning accuracy are the place to start.
The Short Version
Apply anyway, because cutoffs move and preferences are free. Then put everything into your ATAR, which is the only part of the application you can still change and now counts for more. JCU and Bond deserve a proper look, since the academic bar is lower and what they ask for instead is something you can prepare for. USyd, Griffith and UniSC will take you without a UCAT, but they want an ATAR close to perfect in exchange. And run your subtest scores through the calculators before you write off any of the universities that do use it.
If you want someone to look at your specific subtest scores and tell you which programs are realistically still in play, book a free 15 minute consultation with Soham.