The UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test), previously called the UKCAT, is an admission test required for a large majority of UK medical schools. It is taken online in a test centre in the summer.
The UCAT tests various abilities that the medical schools feel are important to develop as a healthcare professional. This includes verbal reasoning, decision making, quantitative reasoning, abstract reasoning, and situational judgement. Each section is scored at a value between 300-900, apart from the situational judgement section that is given a ‘band’.
One of our own content creators has made a 30 minute video outlining the UCAT and telling you everything you need to know! A great place to start. [see below]
Also, very recently the website WeAreMedics released an amazing UCAT e-book (accessible through their instagram page) that everyone should download, and Life Of A Medic has made a Master List of UCAT Resources that you should check out.
Which universities use the UCAT?
Find a list of universities that use the UCAT here, and the minimum scores required for each university here.
Verbal reasoning: Assesses the ability to critically evaluate information presented in a written form
Decision making: Assesses the ability to make sound decisions and judgements using complex information
Quantitative reasoning: Assesses the ability to critically evaluate information presented in a numerical form
Abstract reasoning: Assesses the use of convergent and divergent thinking to infer relationships from information
Situational judgement: Measures the capacity to understand real world situations and to identify critical factors and appropriate behaviour in dealing with them
Within each question there are between 29-69 questions, and you have around 1:20 minutes to answer them.
The table below has links to free example questions, but below you can find more extensive and informative paid resources.
The official information for dates and fees can be found here.
You can take the UCAT between July and November, however we suggest you take it during your summer holidays, near the end, as you do not want to be juggling UCAT and school academics at the same time. From experience, this is very stressful!
A quick google search will find you lots of courses that claim to get you top marks in the UCAT. Often they are accompanied by high price tags and are a day long. They can be quite useful for getting to know your way around the UCAT and providing you with a structure to practice on, but they are by no means essential and a lot of the advice they give can be found for free online. There are some bursaries available, so apply for them if you can for the sake of not missing out on a free opportunity.
For example, there are many free UCAT guides floating around on the internet, so it is a good idea to read these first before deciding on doing a course, such as this How To Smash The UCAT, and this Ultimate UCAT guide by We Are Medics.
We found online question banks to be essential in doing well at the UCAT, far superior to books as it is easier to navigate and you will do the real test online so it is the most effective means of practice. In addition to the free available resources, the below companies provide worked examples and extra questions for once you complete those already available, alongside other cool additions. Again, it’s difficult to choose one, so have a look at them and decide what aspects are important for you. The most popular amongst our team were Medify and the UCAT ninja. Once again, apply for the bursary schemes if you can!
If you do choose a course, the best ones are of an accessible price and include subscriptions to their question banks. There are a few out there, and below are those we have heard of. Before choosing a course you should compare them yourselves and read the reviews online to decide. Some comparisons have been done, such as this one, but it does not include the 6med run crash-course or the msag one.
The Medic Collective 