There are a lot of different score ranges you can achieve on the UCAT, and each score has a different likelihood of securing a medical place. In this blog, we’ll take a look at some of the different UCAT scores and what they mean for your chances of getting into medical school.
UCAT score 550 – 590
Anything under 550 puts you in the lowest decile.
This means the vast majority of students have performed better than you and therefore it would be difficult to gain entry to any university that places emphasis on the UCAT.
You are better off applying to universities without entrance exams, or those that don’t place emphasis on the UCAT.
Keele is a good example of such universities.
Your SJT score is unlikely to help your application even if you scored in band 1.
You should also consider BMAT universities.
UCAT Score between 590 and 620
With a score between 590 and 620, you are still below average and therefore your application must be strong overall.
You must apply strategically to universities that don’t place an emphasis on the UCAT.
Your will also need to score atleast a band 2 on the SJT subtest.
This certainly puts you in a better decile than students scoreing 590, however it can still be tricky to get interviews.
score between 620 and 640
You are now entering the range where your score can be considered to be not too low, however your application overall still must be solid.
You have performed better than roughly half of the people take the exam which is quite an achievement!
However there is the other half who performed better than yourself – this can be as high as 20,000 people!
So you must still apply strategically.
score between 640 – 680
Once you begin to achieve 650, 660, 670, you are showing that your performance is better than the vast majority of test takers.
This means that while there may be still up to 10,000 students scoring higher than you, you have beat out the vast majority of competition which can be as high as 20,000 test takers.
And remember, a lot of these test takers aren’t applying to your university so the aim is to be in this region!
Strategic applications still apply however it is very possible to get multiple medical school interviews with a score of 670, SJT band 2 in the UK – granted all other academic and extracurricular entry requirements are met.
Well done to you if you are scoring in this range, your journey to medicine got slightly easier.
score between 680 – 720
There are many benefits of having a high UCAT score – and a score above 680 is certainly considered high.
Many UCAT universities not only place a minimum cutoff, but choose to rank candidates.
A score above 680 will place you near the middle of the rank, and take you away from the bottom of the table in many cases.
This is a very good score to have if you are considering attending a UCAT university, and you should expect at least one interview.
score between 720 to 760
Anything above 720 will get you an interview in many UCAT universities as you are placely firmly in the final decile – however beware – students scoring highly in the UCAT tend to only focus on historically tricky universities with high cutoffs.
You must still apply strategically and avoid universities that place an emphasis on very high scores.
You must also now focus on the remaining aspects of your application as the work is done with regards to the UCAT!
IF your score is above the cutoff but you still don’t meet the educational requirements, there is not much point applying.
score between 760 to 800
Well done, you are likely to recieve an interview for most if not all UCAT universities in the UK, granted all other entry requirements are met.
score of 800+
Anything above 800 is an astronomical score which places you in the top percentiles!
Only a few students – if any would have scored higher than this which means your name will be at the top of the list for interviews.
Summary
Applying strategically to university is the best way to maximise your chances of entry to medical school.
You should always keep applying and never give up regardless of your score as you may be the next physician to make a massive impact in this world.
Don’t let the minutiae of UCAT scores keep you from realising your dreams, they are only numbers at the end of the day.
Do you want some extra UCAT tips?
Get a list of 20 secret UCAT tips used by the best students to improve their scores on test day!
