The UCAT Exam Format and How to Start

What is the UCAT exam?

The vast majority of medical schools in the UK require you to take an admissions exam called the UCAT. The remaining medical schools require you to sit an exam called the BMAT and a few don’t require any external admissions exam. In this article we will focus on the UCAT.

Here is a list of medical schools that require the UCAT exam as part of the admission process at the time of writing. You may also need the UCAT if you are applying for foundation year medicine or graduate entry medicine.

• University of Aberdeen

• Anglia Ruskin University

• Aston University

• University of Birmingham

• University of Bristol

• Cardiff University

• University of Dundee

• University of East Anglia

• Edge Hill University

• University of Edinburgh

• University of Exeter

• University of Glasgow

• Hull York Medical School

• Keele University

• Kent and Medway Medical School

• King's College London

• University of Leicester

• University of Liverpool

• University of Manchester

• Newcastle University

• University of Nottingham

• University of Plymouth

• Queen Mary University of London

• Queen's University Belfast

• University of Sheffield

• University of Southampton

• University of St Andrews

• St George's, University of London

• University of Sunderland

• University of Warwick

The UCAT, or University Clinical Aptitude Test, is a computer-based aptitude test delivered by a company called Pearson VUE. Pearson Vue in the UK is the same company that also does the Driving Theory Test and you can sit the UCAT exam in the same test centres. Until recently it was called the UKCAT exam, so if you know students that have applied to medical schools in the past, they may still refer to the exam as the UKCAT – short for UK Clinical Aptitude Test. The name was changed to UCAT once the same exam started being used in Australia and New Zealand where it is also called UCAT ANZ.

The exam sitting runs usually from July to October – the COVID pandemic did result in some variations to the timetable in recent years. You are only allowed take the test once in a test cycle and your test result is only valid for that cycle. That means you cannot resit in the same cycle and if you apply again to medical school the following year you will have to sit the exam again.

There are two steps to booking a date – you need to first register on the UCAT UK official website. At the time of writing, candidates can register (create a web account) between 2 June – 22 September 2021. The actual UCAT exam can be sat (subject to availability) between 26 July - 29 September 2021. These dates and deadlines are strictly enforced.

We recommend booking your exam date early as possible, because spaces do fill up fast. Booking early also allows you to get a place at your preferred test centre. Getting a place in a nearby centre reduces the risk of you being late, potentially missing your test and having to catch long trains or drive long distances. Last year there was also the option of taking the test a home using a process called online proctoring – this in itself has risks and requires a decent broadband connection and a computer with the required specification.

You are usually able change the date of your test if you think you haven’t fully prepared – but be careful because if you’ve booked your test near the end of the testing period it’s highly likely that all spaces would have been filled.

The best time we think to take the test is at the end of August before you start the next year in school in September. Once you start school, you will start A-level studies again and perhaps prepare for mock exams. With the recent move to teacher predicted grades for A-level exams, every mock exam mark is critical. You will also have to complete your UCAS personal statement in time for the UCAS application deadline which for medicine and dentistry is 15th of October 2021 at 18:00.

We advise at least one hour a day for at least a month to revise for this exam. This however varies with your level of ability and many students may need more than this, but this should be a very basic guideline. Each student has their way of revising for the exam, but in general we would advise you familiarise yourself with the question types used in all sections of the exam and then practice, practice, practice! You will not only need to answer accurately but also quickly. The examiner will try and trip you up in this exam and you need to be aware of pitfalls.

The UCAT assesses some of the abilities that doctors will require in order to practice medicine. These currently include verbal reasoning, decision making, quantitative reasoning, abstract reasoning, and situational judgement.

Timing in the UCAT exam

Each section has their own allocated time duration separated by one-minute introductions.

It is important to note that the time permitted in each section is limited for that section of the UCAT exam only. You can come back to questions that you have not answered whilst doing a certain section, but you will not be able to carry over any of the time saved in a previous section. For example, if you are able finish verbal reasoning early you will not be allowed to carry over this extra time into the next section decision making.

If you do find yourself having completed all the questions in a particular section early, go back and double check your answers. You can ‘flag’ questions that you can go back to. One strategy tip is to go for the easier questions first then come back to the hard ones. Harder questions do not mean more marks in this exam.

Once you’ve come to the end of a section, you cannot go back to it – the exam moves on. The five sections follow on from each other one after the other until after 120 minutes you’ll have finished the whole exam. Speed is a critical factor in the exam with many students not being able to answer every question.

You will realise that timing is one of the most important factors in the UCAT. We’ll discuss this later. The most important factors for now are your technique and familiarity – so before you concern yourself with timing, let’s get you up to speed with what’s in the test first.

How are the questions structured in the UCAT exam?

The questions in the UCAT exam are structured into question stems. These stems comprise of different things depending on which section of the exam you are sitting – for example, verbal reasoning has text, abstract reasoning will have shapes.

Accompanying each stem will be a number of questions. You’ll be tasked with using the information given to you in the stem in order to answer the question.

The number of questions per stem does vary, but it is usual for verbal reasoning to have 11 stems (or passages) with 4 questions each and abstract reasoning to have five per stem, but in other sections the number of questions per stem varies from 1 to 6. These variations do not matter too much, and they will become clearer when you start doing practice questions.

Learn how to answer questions on each section of the UCAT exam accurately and quickly without running into pitfalls. Come to our UCAT course which is taught by doctors and sixth form teachers and comes complete with follow up video tutorials and a question bank.