How it works · Ahead
What feels easy, what opens doors
Direction is a conversation that runs for years, not a quiz. Pip notices which lessons make time pass quickly, which homework never gets done, and where grades and enjoyment do or do not line up. Then, at each decision point, it says plainly which choices keep which doors open.
What do I need to study for medicine?
Nearly every medical school wants Chemistry and Biology after 16, with Maths or Physics often helping too. That's the pattern across UK med schools (Medical Schools Council: entry requirements).
As a concrete example, Cardiff's Medicine course asks for Chemistry or Biology plus one more science or Maths, at grades set out on their own page, with GCSE-level passes in Maths, sciences and English or Welsh. Just one sample school, others vary.
Worth knowing: some universities count the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales in place of a third subject and some do not, so it is a question to ask each one.
Is medicine something you're seriously considering, or one option among a few you're weighing up?
A reply from Pip in mentor mode to a Year 11 student in Wales, written for this page rather than captured from a real conversation. Entry requirements are illustrative and every course page is linked in the app.
Year 11, thinking about medicine
A student who likes biology asks what medicine would need. Pip answers with the pattern across UK medical schools, links the Medical Schools Council page it came from, gives one real course as a worked example with its published offer, and then asks a question instead of delivering a verdict.
The same conversation in Year 9 starts differently: which lesson does time fly in, which homework do you least want to do, have you ever thought about what you would like to do later. Only then do subjects come up.
Ease, not just grades
From practice, weak spots and what the student says, Pip keeps an ease signal per subject. When "feels easy" and "scores well" disagree, that is the conversation.
Doors, with sources
Which subjects medicine, engineering, economics or law usually need after 16, from the Russell Group's Informed Choices and the Medical Schools Council. Linked every time, including whether a course counts the Skills Baccalaureate.
The Year 10 constraint, early
Most sixth forms want a B or better before you take a subject on at 16. Pip says so in Year 10, against the student's own grades, not in Year 11 when it is too late.
Real courses, honestly labelled
Published entry requirements from universities' own pages, shown as examples with the link, never as a complete list. A shortlist the student keeps.
What parents see
You see the subjects, grades and the shortlist a student chooses to share in the weekly report. The conversations about who they want to be stay theirs.
More of what Fincho does
- Daily planEvery Sunday Pip drafts the week from the timetable, homework and weak spots. Every morning: three things for the time you have. Done means a twig on the nest.
- Schoolwork reviewTell Pip the score, show it the paper. It reads the wrong answers, spots that three mistakes are one habit, explains the costly one, and remembers the rest for practice.
- PracticeQuestions in your awarding body's style, never copied from a past paper, marked point by point against a mark scheme. Hint first, answer last. Wrong ones come back with new numbers.
- GradesUpload the report as photos or a PDF. Pip reads the grade codes, learns your school's format, shows a table to check, and talks the report through with the student.
- Exam pathMocks, subject choices at 14, applications at 16, exam weeks, results days, university deadlines: a timeline from this year to leaving school, built from national dates and the school's own calendar.