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After sitting the BMAT, the next thing on every student’s mind is their BMAT score conversion. The desire to know how BMAT marks will convert is so sought after there have actually been a large number of Freedom of Information Act requests directed at various universities, including Oxford and Cambridge.
Unfortunately most of these requests are met with the same response, that the university does not hold information regarding BMAT score conversion. We have already covered scoring for the respective BMAT Section 1 and Section 2.
For those without the time to read the articles, Sections 1 and 2 give one raw mark per question. These marks are then converted onto the BMAT scale which runs from 1 (low) to 9 (high). The official Cambridge Admissions Testing website for the BMAT exam states that:
5.0 – is roughly half marks.
6.0 – only the best students will achieve this
7.0 – in exceptional cases some may score higher than this
Section 3 is different as it is a writing task; you are scored separately on your quality of content and for the quality of your written English. Section 3 is scored by two examiners and if your marks differ by only one point then you are given the average of the two scores. If the examiners have given marks that are very different the writing tasks will be marked for a third time and checked by a senior assessment manager.
How did the 2018 BMAT candidates do?
The following are the official statistics released for the 2018 cohort of the BMAT exam.
As you can see from these charts you want your converted BMAT score to be above 4.0 for Sections 1 and 2 to ensure you are above average. It seems that for Section 3 anything less that an excellent level of English will place you in the 25% for that paper.
BMAT Score Conversion Tables
Section 1 – remember this is an approximate table. The score conversion will not always be exactly the same but there will be only small amounts of deviation from the numbers below. To compare well to your peers you will need to aim for at least 12 raw marks.
| Raw Marks | BMAT Score |
| <3 | 1 |
| 6 | 2 |
| 8 | 3 |
| 12 | 4 |
| 17 | 5 |
| 21 | 6 |
| 25 | 7 |
| 29 | 8 |
| >30 | 9 |
Section 2 – again remember this is an approximate table. You want to aim for a raw mark of at least 8 or more.
| Raw Marks | BMAT Score |
| <2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 8 | 4 |
| 11 | 5 |
| 14 | 6 |
| 18 | 7 |
| 21 | 8 |
| >23 | 9 |
Section 3 – There is no score conversion applied to the marks given to you in Section 3. As discussed, your quality of English will be marked on a scale of A-E and the quality of your arguement rated on a scale of 0-5. For example 5A is what you want to aim for and 0E is the lowest.
Reusing your BMAT Score
Remember that although this is a competitive exam to take, the BMAT results are only valid in the year that the test is taken. This blocks successful candidates from holding onto their scores and using them to reapply again with high marks. Do not attempt to take the test more than once in each admission cycle. Universities may see this as an attempt at cheating, and they may be given your BMAT results from both September and October.
Will my A level subjects affect my score?
Despite Section 2 concentrating on GCSE knowledge only some may feel at a disadvantage when not studying a certain science. Luckily information has been released by Cambridge which can shed some light on the situation, breaking down the scores of each candidate based on their A Level subjects:
| A level subject | A level taken? | No. of applicants | Avg. BMAT score 1 | Avg. BMAT score 2 | Avg. BMAT score 3 |
| Maths | Yes | 885 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 3.3 |
| No | 71 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 3.1 | |
| Further Maths | Yes | 845 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 3.3 |
| No | 111 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 3.2 | |
| Biology | Yes | 923 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 3.2 |
| No | 33 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 3.3 | |
| Chemistry | Yes | 953 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 3.3 |
| No | 3 | 4.6 | 4.0 | 3.0 | |
| Physics | Yes | 300 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 3.2 |
| No | 656 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 3.3 |
Do remember that these are the average scores for 2018 only, and for applicants to Cambridge in that year. As a result of the lack of nationwide information the above cannot be used for any reasonable analysis. I.e. the overall average scores may be very different. What we can tell from these results however is that the Section 1 and 3 scores are largely unaffected by your A level choices.
In terms of Section 2 however, not studying Maths, Chemistry and to a lesser extent Physics could harm your chances of attaining a top score. If you do not cover these subjects mkae sure to put in extra revision time in these areas to bring yourself up to speed and compete with your peers.