UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT)

What is the UKCAT?

The UKCAT is a test for medical school entry in the UK and is used as part of the selection procedure for 26 of the UK’s medical schools (see list in table below).

The UKCAT is not a test of knowledge but is designed to be a test of aptitude, testing attributes considered to be valuable for healthcare professionals and aims to ensure that applicants selected to medical school have the most appropriate mental abilities, attitudes and professional behaviours required for new doctors to be successful in their careers.

If you are applying to a medical school that requires the UKCAT, you should take this test before applying through UCAS.If you have any doubt about whether you are required to take the UKCAT, you should refer to the university websites, prospectuses and the UCAS handbook for the specific entry requirements of each university and course you plan applying to.

If you pass the UKCAT but are unsuccessful in your application to medical school and decide to re-apply the following year, you will be required to re-sit the UKCAT.

Get into Medical School: 600 UKCAT practice questions is published by ISC Medical and includes a full mock exam for the UKCAT exam as well as a wide range of questions for all four major sections of the UKCAT: quantitative reasoning, abstract reasoning, verbal reasoning and decision analysis. This book is designed to give you all the tools you need to optimise your score on the day. Purchase the 600 UKCAT practice questions book now. Only £12.99.

What are the various components of the UKCAT?

The UKCAT consists of five subtests in multiple-choice format, which last 2 hours in total but are separately timed.

1. Verbal reasoning (22 minutes)

This assesses candidates’ ability to think logically about written information and arrive at a reasoned conclusion. You will be given passages of text ranging from 150 to 300 words; and for each passage there will be four statements relating to the text. Your task is to read each passage and then decide whether the statements follow logically from the information in the passage. For each statement, there are three answer options you can choose from:

True – on the basis of the information in the passage, the statement is true or logically follows for the passage.
False – on the basis of the information in the passage, the statement is false.
Can’t tell – you cannot tell from the information in the passage whether the statement is true or false.

The key difficulties with the verbal reasoning test are as follows:

You can only decide whether a statement is true or false on the basis of the information present in the text and not on any knowledge you may have.
You only have 30 seconds to answer each question but if you count the time it takes to read the text (which can be up to a minute) then it reduces the time available substantially. You therefore need to learn techniques that enable you to access the information quickly without necessarily reading the text in its entirety.

Test items – 44 statements with 11 reading passages.

2. Quantitative reasoning (22 minutes)

This assesses candidates’ ability to solve numerical problems by extracting relevant information from ten tables, charts, and/or graphs. For each, you will be presented with four test items that relate to that table, chart or graph. For each item, there are five answer options to choose from and your tasks is the choose the best option. The exercises range from simplistic calculations to more complex manipulation of data. A calculator is available for use in this section.

The key difficulties with the quantitative reasoning test are as follows:

Some tables contain many colums and rows which make the information difficult to spot quickly.
Some exercises have cascading calculations. If you make an error early in your reasoning, you may not get to the right answer.
Time is of the essence and in some cases, you may be better off taking an educated guess based on orders of magnitude than actually going through a length calculation process.

Test items – 36 items associated with 10 tables, charts, and/or graphs.

3. Abstract reasoning (16 minutes)

This subtest assesses candidates’ ability to infer relationships from information by convergent and divergent thinking by identifying patterns amongst abstract shapes which include irrelevant and distracting material. You will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled ‘set A’ and ‘set B’. All the shapes in set A are similar in some way, as are the shapes in set B. Set A and set B are not related to each other. For each pair of set A and set B, you will be presented with five ‘test shapes’. Your task is to decide whether each test shape belongs to set A or set B or neither.

The key difficulties with the abstract reasoning test are as follows:

If you fail to spot a possible relationship early on, you may be barking up the wrong tree and waste an enormous amount of time.
There are 5 shapes associated with each relationship. So if you fail to spot the correct relationship, you will fail 5 exercises at once.
There are techniques that you can use to find the relationships. However taking a systematic approach to finding them can be time consuming. It is therefore important to practise a lot so that the ideas come quickly on the day.

Test items – 65 items associated with thirteen pairs of set A and set B shapes.

4. Decision analysis (30 minutes)

This subtest assesses candidates’ ability to deal with various forms of information, to infer relationships, to make informed judgements and to decide on an appropriate response, in situations that become progressively more complex or ambiguous. You will be presented with a table containing a number of code words represented by numbers or symbols. You will then be given 26 coded phrases using the codewords contained in the table. For each coded phrase, you will be presented with four or five possible interpretations, your task being to determine which of the possible interpretations is the closest translation of the coded phrase.

The key difficulties with the decision analysis test are as follows:

The table containing the code words can be large as can some of the coded phrases. This can be time-consuming.
Some interpretations can be very similar in wording. In some cases, only one word may differ and it is therefore essential to remain focussed.
Some interpretations are not obvious and can take time to get to grips with. For example, does the combination "Night Light Disc" represent the "Moon", the "Full Moon" or "Headlights"?

Test items – 28 items associated with one scenario.

5. Non-cognitive analysis (30 minutes)

This identifies aspects of each candidate's personality and character in order to determine their suitability for a career in medicine. You will be given a brief summary of your results for this part of the test in the form of a short descriptive passage, such as:

“You appear to balance being self-sufficient, discreet and happy to make your own decisions with being socially and emotionally engaged and outgoing.”

This part of the assessment is designed to discover your personal style as compiled by your answers to the specific questions presented to you.

Registration and test dates

Candidates will be able to register to take the UKCAT in May 2010. The tests are run in partnership with Pearson VUE and are computer-based and will be delivered at one of over 150 test centres located nationwide. There will be no fixed date for sitting the exam, but it is recommended that candidates should schedule to sit the UKCAT as soon as possible to ensure that places are available at their chosen test centre. The exam can typically be taken from early July to early October each year. Candidates can only take the test once per year and therefore must ensure that they optimise their score when they sit it.

How is the UKCAT marked?

Each section of the UKCAT is marked between 300 and 900. The marking of the UKCAT is very complex and does not follow a linear approach (i.e. it is not as simple as allocating a number of points per questions and then adding them up). In reality, the results are calibrated against a sample audience (3000 students who took the test in 2006), meaning that it is possible to achieve a high score. All you need to do to achieve a high score therefore is to achieve as much as the best students in the sample audience did (but those results are kept secret!). The good news is that in order to achieve a high score you do not necessarily need to answer all the questions or even to answer them all correctly.

How are the UKCAT results used by universities?

University of Aberdeen	UKCAT scores are ranked in quartiles and used to make decisions on borderline cases.
Barts and The London	Candidates scoring above a certain threshold are invited to interview. The threshold may vary from year to year, though is believed to be around 675.
Brighton and Sussex	UKCAT scores are used for indication only.
Cardiff University	UKCAT scores are used to made decisions on borderline cases only.
Dundee University	The UKCAT score is added to a mark for grades and the personal statement. This gives a total mark used to decide whether candidates should be invited to interview. As such a high UKCAT scored is obviously preferred, but a low or average score can be compensated by higher academic or pesonal statement scores.
Durham University	Candidates scoring above a certain threshold are invited to interview. The threshold may vary from year to year, but in 2009 (entry 2010), it was over 650.
University of East Anglia	The UKCAT score is added to a mark for grades and the personal statement. This gives a total mark used to decide whether candidates should be invited to interview. As such a high UKCAT scored is obviously preferred, but a low or average score can be compensated by higher academic or pesonal statement scores.
Edinburgh University	Each candidate is awarded a mark depending on the quartile in which their results lie. This is then taken into account for an overall shortlisting mark.
Glasgow University	UKCAT is used as part of a package to determine whether candidates are eligible to be interviewed. Cut off mark is typically around 2400 (i.e. average 600). However that threshold may be higher depending on the number of applications. In 2009, it was 2570 (i.e. average 640).
Hull York Medical School	UKCAT results are translated into a score out of 10, which is added to the UCAS score. The top 600 candidates are then invited to interview.
Keele University	UKCAT results are mostly used to deal with borderline cases.
Kings College London	Although the university is insisting that there is no universal cut-off mark, in reality few candidates with averages below 670 are interviewed at Kings.
Imperial College London	UKCAT score is translated into a mark added to UCAS score and used to determine shortlisting for interview.
Leeds University	Score mostly used to decide on borderline cases.
Leicester University	UKCAT scores are considered individually and not as an average across all four subtests. Scores are allocated to bands and awarded points e.g. >700 marks = 10 points, 9 points if score is between 650 and 700, 8 points if score is between 600 and 650, etc. The scores are then added to academic and personal statement marks to make an overall score.
Manchester University	UCAS ranking comes first, then those who were successful are further shortlisted using UKCAT results.
Newcastle University	Cut off mark for UKCAT is thought to be 600 based on feedback letters received by previous candidates.
Nottingham University	No information available other than UKCAT results are used as part of overall information to determine shortlisting for interview.
Oxford University	No information available other than UKCAT results are used as part of overall information to determine shortlisting for interview.
Peninsula Medical School	No information available other than UKCAT results are used as part of overall information to determine shortlisting for interview.
Queen's University Belfast	1 point is added to the UCAS score for each UKCAT subtest where the candidate's mark is above average (so overall a maximum of 4 extra points).
Sheffield University	A minimum score is required to be interviewed. Usually around 670-675.
Southampton University	UKCAT is less important than UKCAT. There is a cut-off mark for UKCAT, but this changes every year depending on the level of candidates.
St Andrew's University	The UKCAT score is translated into a banding and counts for 10% of the overall admission mark.
St George's University	No particular information available other than the fact that the UKCAT score is taken into account.
Warwick University	The UKCAT results are used to determine whether candidates are invited to interview. In 2009, the cut-off mark was 640.

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