The UCAT Breakdown

The UCAT. The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) is a computer-based admissions test used by a consortium of UK Universities for their medical and dental degree programmes.

These universities include:

1“The UCAT helps universities to select applicants with the most appropriate mental abilities, attitudes and professional behaviours required for new doctors and dentists to be successful in their clinical careers”.

Otherwise known as a two-hour admission test that many medical applicants, including myself, dreaded. Truth be told, I’m glad that the exam is now a distant memory of the past.

My next couple of posts will be dedicated to tips that could help with your UCAT preparation ✨

The registration for the UCAT admission test is now open, which means application season is soon approaching. This post is a quick breakdown of the different sections of the test, with rough timings included.

Each section is scored from 300-900 and the Situational judgement is scored from bands 1-4

In the exam you have 1 minute to read the instructions before each section.

Verbal reasoning

this is similar to a comprehension test; the only catch is you have about 30 seconds to read around a 300-word passage and answer questions on it. There are around 11 passages and 4 questions per passage. Which means this is perhaps one of the most time-pressured section of the UCAT. Remember it is not a knowledge test and all the answers lie directly but mostly indirectly (you may have to read in between the lines) in the passage. My advice for this section would be to not read the whole passage, as you practically don’t have time for this. Learn to pick out the keywords, relating to each question asked. (Approx. 21 minutes 44 questions)

Decision making

This section lasts for 31 minutes and has 29 questions, so roughly about a minute per question. Questions range from texts, puzzles, charts, tables, graphs, or diagrams. Like every other section, practice is key. What helped me in this section was using a whiteboard to illustrate and break down the information, to easily visualise the problem at hand.

Quantitative reasoning

A section for mental maths. The maths is at a level you’re probably comfortable with. But it’s that several calculations may need to be made in a limited time. My advice would be to look out for units. If you find yourself spending too long on a question, flag and move on. Also, practice using the onscreen ucat calculator. (Approx. 36 questions and 24 minutes)

Abstract reasoning

This section is all about recognising patterns. The more you practice the more you start to remember rules that a group of shapes or lines are adherent to. This section is also quite time pressured. If you can’t get a rule, select what answer you think is the most likely, flag and just move on, you don’t have time to be wasting. (Approx. 55 questions and 13 minutes)

Situational judgment –

Probably the most interesting section. Essentially, it’s a bunch of story-time questions that assess your ability to respond in situations you may find yourself in as a medical/dentistry student or doctor. This section will also follow you throughout medical school. I was even surprised to find situational judgment questions in my end of year exams. Having the GMC guidance of ‘good medical practice’ handy is useful in this section and getting to learn the ethics and duties of a doctor can help. (Approx. 69 questions and 26 minutes)

Don’t forget to apply for a bursary or extra time for the UCAT exam if you are eligible if you’re not sure check the criteria anyway!

1 This quote is taken from the official UCAT website - https://www.ucat.ac.uk/