The UCAT exam is a test that is required for admission into medical school in the United Kingdom.
It is a multiple-choice exam that covers a variety of topics, including verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, abstract reasoning, situational judgement, and decision-making.
The UCAT exam is notoriously difficult, and many students spend months preparing for it. In this blog, we will discuss how hard the UCAT exam is and offer some tips for students who are preparing for it.
What is the UCAT Exam?
The UCAT Exam is used to help identify which applicants are best suited for a career in medicine.
The exam has subtests where students can score between 300 and 900.
600 is around average, whereas anything above 700 is considered a solid score.
The situational judgement section which is the last subtest is scored from band 1 (being best) to band 4 (being worst).
Anything from band 2 up to band 1 is considered good.
How Hard is the UCAT Exam?
Depending on the different subtests you do, the difficulty changes.
The verbal reasoning subtest is said to be the hardest subtest, with students consistently scoring below 600 as average.
This is because significant amounts of content must be read to answer VR questions in a very limited timeframe.
The second hardest subtest is the decision-making section.
This is because this subtest has the most amount of variety in its question types.
The more challenging logic questions can also take a long time to complete.
The remaining subtests such as abstract reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and situational judgement are of similar difficulty, and only require practice with many questions to get good at answering them.
Tips For Difficult UCAT Questions
1. Start studying early. The sooner you start, the better.
2. Make use of UCAT resources. There are plenty of UCAT practice questions and materials available online, so make use of them.
3. Get plenty of rest and exercise. It is important to be well-rested and physically fit for the UCAT exam.
4. Stay calm and focused. The UCAT exam can be daunting, but it is important to stay calm and stress-free.
5. Answer questions smartly – skip lengthy questions and do shorter easier questions first.
Don’t do questions in order.
Conclusion
The UCAT is a difficult exam, not because the individual questions are hard, but because of the limited time.
The good news is the more you answer questions, the better you will get with your timing.
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!
