The University of Auckland has changed how it ranks applicants for medicine, and it’s a big change. For 2028 entry the UCAT disappears from the ranking entirely, a situational judgement test called Casper arrives at 50 percent, and GPA stops being a ranking lever at all.
Both weightings are published on the same page, the MBChB programme page. Read side by side they look like two different admissions systems, because they nearly are.
The two rankings, side by side
| component | 2027 entry | 2028 entry |
|---|---|---|
| GPA for four core first-year courses | 60% | eligibility only |
| UCAT ANZ Final Score | 15% | not used |
| Multiple Mini Interview | 25% | 50% (fair score, minimum threshold applies) |
| Situational judgement test (Casper) | not used | 50% |
UoA also carries a general warning on that page: "Entry criteria will change for 2028 entry, please review the relevant entry requirements carefully." Take it literally. Everything below is our reading of what they have published, and the page itself is the authority.
Change one: the UCAT is gone
UCAT ANZ is 15 percent of the 2027 ranking. It does not appear in the 2028 ranking, and UoA states that for 2028 entry you will be required to sit the University of Auckland situational judgement test (Casper) in the year of application. One replaces the other.
This doesn’t mean the UCAT is dead in New Zealand: this is one university changing one programme’s selection. If you are applying anywhere that still uses it, it still matters, and what UCAT score each New Zealand school asks for is a separate question with its own answer. And it does not affect 2027 entry, where UCAT ANZ is still 15 percent.
Change two: Casper arrives at half the weight
Casper is an open-response situational judgement test run by Acuity Insights. It is not a knowledge test and there is no syllabus. You are shown everyday scenarios and asked what you would do and why, some answered on video and most answered by typing under time pressure.
It is also, in New Zealand, almost entirely unwritten about. UoA has not published which format variant it will use, when in the year it is sat, or what it costs. We keep a page on exactly that, including the parts that are not known yet, and there is a list you can join for when they are.
Change three, and the one people miss: GPA stops ranking you
Under the 2027 rules, GPA across four core first-year courses is 60 percent of your rank. It is the single biggest thing about you. Under the 2028 rules it appears only as an eligibility requirement:
- a minimum GPA of 6.0 across the four core courses, and
- no grade lower than a B in any of your eight first-year courses.
Clear both and you are eligible. Clear both by a mile and you are still just eligible. The two published ranking components add to 100 percent and neither of them is GPA.
The second bullet is the one that deserves more attention than it gets. A grade floor across all eight first-year courses is a different kind of pressure from an average: one C in a paper you did not care about is not something a strong average can absorb any more.
The four core courses, and the new chemistry code
For 2028 entry, UoA’s MBChB programme page names them: BIOSCI 107, CHEM 190, POPLHLTH 111 and MEDSCI 142. For 2027 entry the chemistry course was CHEM 110.
CHEM 190, Chemistry for Medical and Life Sciences, is a new course from Summer Semester 2027. When we first published this guide UoA had not said which chemistry course would count for 2028 entry. Its programme page now settles it: CHEM 190 replaces CHEM 110, Chemistry of the Living World, in the core four.
A course list is the one thing on a page like this that somebody would enrol against, so check the programme page again before you enrol.
What changes about how you would prepare
A ranking of 60 percent grades, 15 percent an aptitude test and 25 percent an interview rewards a fairly specific animal. A ranking of 50 percent interview and 50 percent situational judgement rewards a different one.
- Grades become a hurdle, not a score. The work shifts from maximising an average to not dropping a single course below a B.
- Everything that ranks you is now a judgement test. The MMI and Casper both ask what you think, why, and how you say it. Neither has content to revise.
- Both are performed under a clock, in one take. Three minutes spoken for the MMI, and for Casper roughly one minute per video answer or three and a half minutes to type two answers.
- Both are marked by many different people. Seven separate reviewers for the MMI, one per answer; a different rater for each Casper scenario, with no rater seeing you twice.
Here is how the two differ in practice, which matters because preparing for one is not preparing for the other.
Which cohort is affected
The first application cycle under these rules is 2027, for 2028 entry. So if you are in your first year now, or you are choosing courses for next year, this is your ranking. If you applied this year, for 2027 entry, the old rules applied: GPA 60, UCAT 15 and MMI 25, with the MMI sat on 8 September 2026.
In the meantime, the half of the 2028 ranking that already exists, is fully documented and can be practised today is the MMI. Start there.