Medicine entry is complicated — our experts can walk you through it one step at a time

Other study Medical degree A second application Each block is roughly a year.

Roughly half of all Australian medical places sit in graduate-entry programs, and most of those are filled through the GAMSAT — a great many doctors begin their medical degree after a first bachelor’s rather than straight out of school. We'll help you plan around your UCAT goal, but we also recognise that long-term planning is equally as important, and we map out all paths to the medicine degree.

Showing all 20 pathways

The Australian direct-entry and provisional school-leaver pathways into medicine, summarised for comparison — not a substitute for each university’s own published guide for the cycle you are applying in. Criteria, place numbers and dates change every year, and several changed for 2027 entry. Current as at August 2026.

1. “You need a 99-plus ATAR or there’s no point trying.”

   It is more often UCAT-based admission. Published minimums at most medical schools sit somewhere between 90 and 96, James Cook doesn’t publish one at all, and Charles Darwin’s own program asks for 85. A handful of programs genuinely do clear at 99.9 — Griffith, UniSC and Sydney — but treating the hardest number in the country as the universal bar is why capable students give up in Year 11.

2. “Everyone has to sit the UCAT.”

   This is the other end of the spectrum. James Cook, Bond, Sydney’s double degree and Charles Darwin’s own program use neither the UCAT nor the GAMSAT. Griffith and UniSC rank mainly on ATAR and treat the UCAT as optional, using it only to separate applicants inside an ATAR band. The Newcastle–UNE Indigenous pathway requires no UCAT score at all. There are several legitimate ways into Australian medicine without a competitive UCAT result — though they ask for something else instead, usually a very high ATAR. Despite this, of course, most applications require strong UCAT performance.

3. “If it goes badly, she can just sit it again.”

   One attempt per cycle, and the score is valid for that cycle only. Standard bookings close in mid-May; late bookings run into early June at a penalty of $85, then $185, and after that the consortium states outright that no booking will be accepted under any circumstances. The test window runs from 1 July to early August. There is no resit and no appeal — only next year. Sitting twice in one cycle is treated as misconduct, and every result is cancelled.

4. “He needs Biology and Chemistry to keep medicine open.”

   Biology is almost never a prerequisite anywhere. Chemistry is the one that actually decides things: required at James Cook, Curtin, UTAS and Monash. UTAS will accept a foundation chemistry unit taken before admission, and James Cook has its own preparatory course. At Curtin and Monash there's no way to make up for not taking chemistry in high school. A key subject to watch is also Mathematical Methods, which UQ’s new direct-entry program requires even though its provisional pathway asks only for English.

5. “Medicine prep starts to count in Year 12.”

   This isn't commonly believed, but it's a big mistake. Medicine prep starts in Grades 9 and 10, when subjects have to be chosen that meet prerequisites for a range of universities and provide a very high ATAR. In Year 11, students should ideally begin studying for the UCAT, and in Year 12, they need to be both maximising their ATAR and ensuring their UCAT performance is high.

6. “We can sort university preferences once the ATARs are out.”

   Most medical applications close at the end of September — months before ATARs exist — and at several schools preference changes close then too. A few programs stay open later, but treating those as the normal timeline is how families miss the rest of the country.