UCAT?

Admissions exams for medical school will be like no other exam you have ever sat. They do not test how well you can learn things, but instead, they test your skills to think on your feet, use your initiative, pick out key details and your logical thinking.

Although you cannot revise for them, you can prepare through practice. There are many free online resources that you can find online, as well as a few paid for resources- the only one I would recommend is “Medify”, this really is the closest you can get to the real thing!

The UCAT

1. A 2-hour computerised exam, composed of 5 sections. All questions are multiple choice. Verbal reasoning- tests how well you can pick out key information from texts. You are given a passage to read and then you must answer questions on them.

2. Decision making - this is problem solving, and involves puzzles and things that you must work out.

3. Quantitative reasoning- these are the maths questions, they are no harder than GCSE level. You are given a basic on-screen calculator to help you.

4. Situational judgement- this section gives you ethical scenarios in which you must decide the best course of action.

The first 3 sections are given scores from 900-300, with 900 being the best and anything above 700 being considered really good. You can have a look at past statistics and averages to help you to determine if your score is competitive or not: https://www.ucat.ac.uk/media/1415/ucat-test-statistics-2016_2019.pdf

SJT is given a band from 1-4, with 1 being the best. You receive your score immediately which means that you can strategically apply using your UCAT score, i.e. if it’s high, apply to University’s that put a large emphasis on it, whilst if it’s below average, apply to one that puts less emphasis on this, and maybe more on your GCSE’s.

A great guide for the UCAT: https://www.themedicportal.com/application-guide/ucat/