UCAT: Everything you need to know

What is the UCAT?

The UCAT is the entry exam needed for the majority of universities to apply to study Medicine or Dentistry. It is an online test which tests a range of skills including Maths, Reading comprehension and Logic. There is another entrance exam - the GAMSAT (for some graduates). There used tobe the BMAT but this has been removed for 2025 entry. We predict that this will make the UCAT harder as all students, including those applying for Oxford and Cambridge will be sitting the UCAT and so the deciles will be higher.

The UCAT Sections:

Verbal Reasoning (VR): This section involves being given a chunk of text often from a newspaper or textbook and then being asked questions about the information provided. It’s a very difficult section and you will have to brush up on your skim reading skills.

Quantitative Reasoning (QR): This section is made of different basic maths questions. The questions will be at a GCSE maths level or below - they remind me of the maths in Biology questions (with no statistics). The types of calculations will be Percentage changes, ratios, tax and interest, fractions, and geometry.

Decision Making (DM): This section is basically problem-solving. It involves dealing with a variety of logic problems, Venn diagrams, Syllogisms, Probability, and Shape logic problems and interpreting graphs.

Abstract Reasoning (AR): This section is about pattern recognition. You have to look at two sets of data and determine the pattern for set A and set B. You then hadveto decide if your test shape fits into Set A, Set B, or Neither. There are other types of questions but this is the most common!

Situational Judgement (SJT): This section is all about reading a scenario and determining how appropriate each suggested action is. The other question type also requires reading a scenario, and determining how important each consideration is to take into account. This is often thought of as the easiest section, however it should not be underestimated.

UCAT Scoring:

You get a score out of 900 for each of VR, QR, DM, and AR. This totals a score out of 3600. One mark in the exam is not directly equal to one point in the score. Scores above 2900-3000 and above will often be in the top 10% range (although this will vary every year). If you are in the top 10% score you can apply to any medical school - in particular, tailor your application to schools that highly value the UCAT such as King’s College London. A score of 2500 tends to be average and if you fall around this value I would recommend applying to universities which don't look at UCAT, such as Cardiff. Situational Judgement is then marked out of Band 1 (the best), Band 2, Band 3, and Band 4. Bands 1 and 2 are ideal for applying to medical/dental school and you may struggle with a Situational Judgement score of Band 3 or less. Remember, a below-average score in the UCAT does not mean you cannot apply to medicine that year; you simply need to consider carefully which universities will most likely accept your application.

Scoring

• Verbal Reasoning: 300-900

• Quantitative Reasoning: 300-900

• Decision Making 300-900

• Abstract Reasoning: 300-900

• Situational Judgement: Band 1-4

Timing:

Timing is a big issue for the UCAT. Most of the questions are not too difficult without the time limit, however with the addition of the time limit all the questions become significantly more difficult. This is why we do not recommend using books to revise. Although these contain lots of practice questions, without the time limit it is hard to replicate the real UCAT experience.

Here are the timings per section:

• Verbal Reasoning (VR): 2 min/question set (or 30 secs a question)

• Quantitative Reasoning (QR): 36 secs/question

• Decision Making (DM): 1 min/question

• Abstract Reasoning (AR): 18 secs/question

• Situational Judgement (SJT): 35 secs/question

In particular Abstract Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning are the tightest for time and Decision Making and Situational Judgement tend to be less time pressured.

How do I revise for the UCAT?

For specific information check out this article as there is too much to cover here.

Best resources:

Most importantly: We recommend Medify or Medentry - they are both equally excellent but do not pay for both - one of them will be fine!

Free/Cheap resources we also recommend:

• Passmedicine - has lots of free questions and Mini-mocks

• UCAT Ninja - is a pay-what-you-want service and has lots of questions on here which are great to practice with

• The Official UCAT Mocks - There are several official UCAT mocks which are great to practice with. We would recommend only doing these mocks when you have been revising for around 6 weeks. This is so you really understand the question types and you can analyse how these questions are similar/different to the ones you have been practising with.

NOTE - We do not think you can revise well enough for the UCAT from free resources alone. You need to pay for Medify or Medentry to properly prepare. We suggest these free resources because it is great to get a range of questions from different question banks as each will have slightly different styles of questions.

When should I book the UCAT?

UCAT booking opens 18th June 2024 6am this year. It does not normally book out immediately but it is better if you have decided the date you wish to book for and set an alarm for the day to book that date. This is so you can get the most popular dates as these slots will be booked up early.

We recommend looking ahead to your Year 12 Summer and working out which commitments you already have in place. (This advice will not necessarily apply if you are abroad or if you are reapplying in your gap year.) Ideally, you will leave the final two weeks before your UCAT without any firm plans/holidays, so use this to guide you when you book the UCAT. You can book the test for any time between 8th July - 26th September. Assuming you have nothing on we would recommend you book early-mid August. This is for several reasons:

1. It allows you to revise over the summer so you do not have to balance revision with your Year 12 mocks

2. It allows you time to move the UCAT back if you don't feel prepared when it comes around

3. It allows you a couple of weeks after finishing the UCAT to rest and relax before restarting Year 13 which can be very intense

This is our example schedule of when you would book the UCAT for 2024 and how you would schedule your revision:

• Revision zones are explained here

The day of the UCAT:

The UCAT is sat in the same place as driving theory exams. Everyone has their own computer in a small nook which has a keyboard attached. Students will also be given a whiteboard pen and a laminated sheet of paper to write on. Students are not allowed to bring in water or food to the exam. Students are allowed to take bathroom breaks but these will come out of your time for the other sections (unless you have Access Arrangements) so we would highly recommend not taking a bathroom break.

Students will be given their score immediately after sitting the exam, although won't know exactly which decile their score falls into (although will have a general idea of how well they have done).