The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
Almost every UK medical school now uses the UCAT. You sit it in the summer before you apply, and you get one attempt per admissions cycle — so when you prepare matters as much as how.
What the test covers
The UCAT is sat on a computer at a test centre over two hours. It is not a science test: there is no biology, chemistry or maths syllabus to revise. It tests how you handle information under time pressure, which is why practice against a clock is worth more than reading about it.
There are three cognitive subtests — Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning — each scored between 300 and 900, giving a total out of 2700. Abstract Reasoning was withdrawn from the test in 2025. A fourth section, the Situational Judgement Test, is reported separately in bands 1 to 4 and asks how you would behave in situations a medical student might meet.
Universities weigh the result very differently. Some rank applicants almost entirely on the score, some set a threshold and then look at everything else, and some weigh the Situational Judgement band heavily. Check what each of your five choices actually does with it before you decide where to apply — it is one of the few places in this process where an hour of research changes your odds.
When to sit it
You take the UCAT in the summer between Year 12 and Year 13, before the mid-October UCAS deadline for medicine. Booking opens earlier in the year and test slots near Portsmouth go quickly, so book early and leave yourself several clear weeks beforehand.
Everything the official consortium provides — the full practice tests, the tutorials, the question banks — is free, and it is better than most of what is sold. Come to one of our workshops and you will sit practice sections and talk them through with doctors who have been through it.
