If you're interested in medicine or dentistry, you'll eventually have to start thinking about the UCAT to get onto a university program.
So what exactly is it, how can you prepare for it, and what else do you need to know about it?
UCAT stands for the University Clinical Aptitude Test and is used in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. It forms an important part of medical and dental program admissions.
What Does UCAT Test For?
Essentially, the UCAT tests a range of different cognitive abilities that universities believe to be imperative for any student considering medical or dental programs.
Unfortunately for medical and dental school applicants, the UCAT isn't the only test they have to do and it's often used alongside their other academic results and their application to decide whether or not they're given a place on their course of choice.
There are also similar tests like the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) in the US and the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT) in several different countries, including Australia.
The UCAT tests a variety of skills including verbal, quantitative, and abstract reasoning, decision-making, and situational judgement. The goal is to test how candidates can solve problems and make ethical decisions in both clinical and non-clinical settings.
Abstract Reasoning
Medical and dental students need to recognise patterns and relationships and make connections between different kinds of abstract data, especially when it comes to diagnosing medical and dental problems.
Critical Thinking
The UCAT aims to test candidates on their critical thinking as these kinds of skills are essential when it comes to diagnosing medical and dental conditions, understanding research, and making the right decisions for patients.
Decision Making
In medicine and dentistry, decisions have to be made and not only are these decisions often made under pressure and against the clock, but there is little room for error in some cases.
The UCAT tests the ability of candidates to make decisions quickly under pressure.
Ethical Decision-Making
Critical thinking and problem-solving often have to take into account the ethics of the situation and it's very common for medical and dental professionals to be faced with ethically-complex situations where there are a lot of grey areas and decisions that have to consider both the medical and ethical implications.
Problem-Solving
Problem-solving is a huge part of working in medicine or dentistry, especially when these professionals are often working against the clock to choose and enact the right treatments for their patients.
Verbal Reasoning
The verbal reasoning aspects of the UCAT test a candidate's ability to understand information in written form.
Research, patient records, and conversations with other medical professionals all require verbal reasoning skills and it's a hugely important part of medicine and dentistry, which is why the UCAT tests for it.
Quantitative Reasoning
In addition to understanding language, medical and dental program applicants need to show that they understand numbers and can interpret what they mean.
UCAT Preparation
As with any kind of testing, it can help to prepare for the UCAT. Before you take the UCAT, remember that not only is it an important part of your application, but that preparing for it also takes time.
Start by learning more about the format of the test, the subtests, and questions and activities that candidates are expected to complete.
Carefully plan your schedule to give you ample time to prepare, work out how well you need to do to be accepted into your university of choice and calculate how much time all of this will take while also giving yourself room to change your schedule if you need more time.
Practice makes perfect so don't cram all your UCAT studying into the end of your study plan but instead start early so that you have lots of time to practise using the many official UCAT practice materials and other resources.
Speaking of resources, the official resources are obviously the best ones as they're made by the people who know exactly what's on the UCAT, but there are also lots of other unofficial resources that you can also use as part of your study plan.
Work efficiently by focusing on the areas that will yield the biggest results with the least amount of work. While it might be more fun studying the areas that you find easy, you'll ultimately only be slightly improving your potential results. Work on the areas that you get wrong because simple mistakes can very quickly be corrected.
Make sure to always correct any exercises that you do and work out why you got certain questions wrong. Going back through exercises once you complete them is as important as doing them in the first place.
How Hard is the UCAT?
We're sorry to break it to you, but the UCAT is difficult. Though every candidate is different and some may find it easier than others, it's not supposed to be a simple test. There are a lot of different types of abilities being tested and it all needs to be done within a limited time, which is reflective of the kinds of time pressures that medical and dental professionals are often under.
Naturally, you can make it easier by adequately preparing for it and being familiar with the different question formats and the format of the test. The first part of answering any question on a test is working out exactly what it's asking you to do but if you've already seen these kinds of questions a thousand times before, it'll be much easier.
Is the UCAT Easier than the MCAT?
It doesn't really matter which is easier because it's unlikely that any student will have the option to choose one over the other.
What you should know is that the UCAT tests the skills we mentioned earlier while the MCAT is more about scientific understanding and a knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology as well as critical analysis and reasoning skills.
Preparation for one would be different for the other and ultimately, all of these tests are used to order candidates so that medical and dental schools can choose who's worthy of a place in their programs.
What UCAT Score is Needed for Medicine?
As different universities have different admission requirements and even differing admission requirements for different programs, there's no exact answer to this question.
However, it's very common for universities to accept the 80th or 90th percentile of students so not only do you need excellent UCAT results, but you'll also need a high ATAR score and a very good application overall.
Basically, you need to look at the average UCAT results for medical schools, the score that your universities of choice are looking for, and consider applying to a few different medical schools so that in the event your results are below what you expected, you may still have a place on a program.
Remember that medical schools consider several things from your application and not just your UCAT so while disappointing results in the UCAT mightn't be ideal, you may still be accepted if your ATAR, other academic results, and your application are very good.
Benefits of UCAT Tutoring
One of the best ways to get good UCAT results is by studying and adequately preparing. Since this is easier said than done, you might want to consider enlisting some help in the form of a private UCAT tutor.
There are quite a few benefits to private tutoring when it comes to preparing for tests like the UCAT or GAMSAT as they can help you get to grips with the format, effectively study, test you on your progress, and even put together a study plan for you to work on when they're not there.
Private UCAT tutoring comes with many advantages. For one, every session will be tailored to you and unlike a class with multiple other students, you can take as much or as little time as you need with everything. They can also make studying more fun by choosing activities and approaches that you'll enjoy.
There are private tutors out there for all budgets and you can find local private tutors, online private tutors, or even group tutors. While face-to-face tutors are often the most cost-effective, online and group tutors tend to charge less because they don't have to travel or can share the cost of their time between several students.
A lot of private tutors on Superprof, for example, offer the first session for free so you can try out a few different tutors before choosing the one that's right for you, how you like to work, and what you can afford to spend on private tutoring.
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