The Student Room Group

UCAT (formerly UKCAT) 2022 entry discussions megathread

If you are looking for the BMAT 2022 thread it's here.

Here is the 2022 entry results thread

Here are the UCAT 2021 threads (Part 1) (Part 2) (tests taken in 2020)
Here is the UCAT 2020 thread (discussion of tests taken in 2019)
Here is the UCAT 2019 thread (discussion of tests taken in 2018)

Here is a link to a spreadsheet where people are currently recording their scores in Medify mini-mocks.
Here is a thread from 2020 recording people's mock scores and final scores.



Important: read this first https://www.ucat.ac.uk/

Dates and fees: https://www.ucat.ac.uk/ucat/ucat-2021/

Registration opens 2 June 2021

Booking opens 28 June 2021

Testing begins 26 July 2021

Registration closes 22 September 2021

Last booking date 28 September 2021

Last testing date 29 September 2021

UCAS application deadline 15 October 2021

General TSR rules:
(1) Please don't ask for or post group chat links.
(2) Please don't ask for or post interview questions.
(3) Please don't offer to buy and sell items.

Good luck!


Post originally created by ecolier.
(edited 2 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

What is the UCAT?

The UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) is a computer based admission test used by medical and dentistry schools in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The UCAT replaces the UKCAT and the UMAT respectively.


Which universities require the UCAT?

United Kingdom

Aberdeen, Anglia Ruskin, Aston, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dundee, East Anglia, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Hull York Medical School, Keele, King’s College London, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Queen Mary University of London, Queen’s University Belfast, Sheffield, Southampton, Sunderland, St. Andrew’s, St. George’s London and Warwick (Graduate Entry).


Australia & New Zealand

The University of Adelaide, Curtin University. Monash University, The University of Newcastle / University of New England, The University of New South Wales, The University of Queensland, University of Tasmania, The University of Western Australia, Western Sydney University, The University of Auckland, University of Otago


UCAT Sections

Verbal Reasoning: Assesses the ability to critically evaluate information presented in a written form. (44 Questions 21 Minutes)

Decision Making: Assesses the ability to make sound decisions and judgements using complex information. (29 Questions 31 Minutes)

Quantitative Reasoning: Assesses the ability to critically evaluate information presented in a numerical form. (36 Questions 24 Minutes)

Abstract Reasoning: Assesses the use of convergent and divergent thinking to infer relationships from information. (55 Questions 13 Minutes)

Situational Judgement: Measures the capacity to understand real world situations and to identify critical factors and appropriate behaviour in dealing with them. (69 Questions 26 Minutes)


Free UCAT Resources

Official UCAT Tutorials
Official UCAT Practice Tests
Free UCAT Practice Questions 1
Free UCAT Practice Questions 2
Free UCAT Tutorials/Score Conversion


Paid UCAT Resources

UCAT Question Bank
UCAT Question Book
Reply 2
Original post by melon_bomb
Thanks! Last 2 medify mocks I scored 3290, so very similar. On other mocks, generally not below 3000. In the offical UCAT mocks on the website I tended to score around 3030/3040. So I improved from those, but I've heard of other people who scored pretty similarly in the real thing to those mocks. The highest ever score I got on medify was 3310.

how did you practice? did you start off quite low and imrpove and how did you get high on each section? did it come naturally or practice?
Reply 3
Original post by s.6532
how did you practice? did you start off quite low and imrpove and how did you get high on each section? did it come naturally or practice?


Please do not post in the 2021 applicants' thread if you are taking the UCAT this year and will be applying to start in 2022.

Your post has been moved here to the 2022 thread.


Post originally created by ecolier.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by s.6532
how did you practice? did you start off quite low and imrpove and how did you get high on each section? did it come naturally or practice?

wow you're here early for the UCAT practise, that's good though cause you'll be super prepared by the time it comes round. Since you're pretty early, don't do tons of the official UCAT mocks all at once, you wanna save them until about a month/ few weeks before your exam. Also (in my opinion) don't buy medify just yet! I think you can buy access for a month / 3 months before the exam or something, that is less money and will suffice in my opinion. If you wanna practise now, maybe buy a question book on amazon? Tbh I think I started preparation about 2-3 months before the exam, and then I was doing hardcore preparation for about 6 weeks before the exam.

And yeah you DEFINITELY score much lower at the start, please don't be demotivated by it though cause I think most people find that. And I think the only way of improving is practise, you're not gonna just wake up in 2 months time and suddenly know how to do it without doing questions. Good luck!
Reply 5
Original post by tipexmaster25
wow you're here early for the UCAT practise, that's good though cause you'll be super prepared by the time it comes round....


On the other hand, I would argue that UCAT is one of those rare tests that you can actually over-prepare.

There's only a finite amount of resources, and it's not a knowledge test. It's a race against time. It's common that people will plateau or even deteriorate with more practice beyond a certain amount of time (UCAT fatigue?).

However interview prep cannot start too early! If anything, you'll just get more confident and that's good for anything.

I would recommend starting UCAT practice around 3 months in advance of you taking the test.


Post originally created by ecolier.
UCAT fatigue is one of the great evils that plague our society 🙏

I'd also like to suggest writing your personal statement early (or at least doing some online experience for it like BSMS or a MOOC), not because it's particularly terrible to do but you've got so much to do between Y12 summer & the Y13 October 15th application deadline. Like it gets one thing out the way yk? Then again I did not do this :colone:
Reply 7
Original post by tipexmaster25
UCAT fatigue is one of the great evils that plague our society 🙏

I'd also like to suggest writing your personal statement early (or at least doing some online experience for it like BSMS or a MOOC), not because it's particularly terrible to do but you've got so much to do between Y12 summer & the Y13 October 15th application deadline. Like it gets one thing out the way yk? Then again I did not do this :colone:


Agreed. In fact the only thing that's actually "bad" if you start too early - is preparing for UCAT :lol:

Everything else would actually be beneficial the earlier you start - work experience, drafting your PS, preparing your interviews etc.


Post originally created by ecolier.
Reply 8
Original post by tipexmaster25
wow you're here early for the UCAT practise, that's good though cause you'll be super prepared by the time it comes round. Since you're pretty early, don't do tons of the official UCAT mocks all at once, you wanna save them until about a month/ few weeks before your exam. Also (in my opinion) don't buy medify just yet! I think you can buy access for a month / 3 months before the exam or something, that is less money and will suffice in my opinion. If you wanna practise now, maybe buy a question book on amazon? Tbh I think I started preparation about 2-3 months before the exam, and then I was doing hardcore preparation for about 6 weeks before the exam.

And yeah you DEFINITELY score much lower at the start, please don't be demotivated by it though cause I think most people find that. And I think the only way of improving is practise, you're not gonna just wake up in 2 months time and suddenly know how to do it without doing questions. Good luck!


thank you literally you dont understand how much this meansss
Original post by s.6532
thank you literally you dont understand how much this meansss

Heheh no problem 😇 If you have any questions or anything feel free to ask/ PM me, I did it this year so luckily the experience is still pretty fresh in my head! :biggrin:
Original post by tipexmaster25
And yeah you DEFINITELY score much lower at the start, please don't be demotivated by it though cause I think most people find that. And I think the only way of improving is practise, you're not gonna just wake up in 2 months time and suddenly know how to do it without doing questions. Good luck!

thank you sooo much for those tips
Did you stick to a revision schedule during those 2/3 months? Or only for the 6 weeks?
Also, did you see a steady increase in your results or were they fluctuating alot?
thank you!
Original post by tipexmaster25
wow you're here early for the UCAT practise, that's good though cause you'll be super prepared by the time it comes round. Since you're pretty early, don't do tons of the official UCAT mocks all at once, you wanna save them until about a month/ few weeks before your exam. Also (in my opinion) don't buy medify just yet! I think you can buy access for a month / 3 months before the exam or something, that is less money and will suffice in my opinion. If you wanna practise now, maybe buy a question book on amazon? Tbh I think I started preparation about 2-3 months before the exam, and then I was doing hardcore preparation for about 6 weeks before the exam.

And yeah you DEFINITELY score much lower at the start, please don't be demotivated by it though cause I think most people find that. And I think the only way of improving is practise, you're not gonna just wake up in 2 months time and suddenly know how to do it without doing questions. Good luck!

Hi, did you also do the BMAT?
Original post by DSKE
Hi, did you also do the BMAT?

Yep! I can try and answer any questions that you've got about the experience for this too, although I must warn ya that I was wayyy better prepared for the UCAT than the BMAT :colone:

Original post by candidate415
thank you sooo much for those tips
Did you stick to a revision schedule during those 2/3 months? Or only for the 6 weeks?
Also, did you see a steady increase in your results or were they fluctuating alot?
thank you!

I'll be honest mate, I only stuck to my revision schedule for the final 2-3 weeks - and even then I took the odd 'unplanned' day off (like 3 days before my exam when I decided that I'd much rather go shopping in Birmingham 😂) so it IS okay to have a social life in these months! And yeah I saw a lot of fluctuation, especially when using different resources. The official UCAT website supplies a limited amount of tests on their website for free too- which you should DEFINITELY not use until your exam is really close- but I found that the difficulty in these was much harder than the medify practice tests. So of course, your score will go up and down over time but ideally you want to narrow down that range as much as possible as your exam gets closer. You'll have bad days too, so my scores were by no means a constant improvement! I've probably got a spreadsheet with some of the scores from my mock tests if you're really curious :tongue:
Reply 13
Original post by tipexmaster25
Yep! I can try and answer any questions that you've got about the experience for this too, although I must warn ya that I was wayyy better prepared for the UCAT than the BMAT :colone:


I'll be honest mate, I only stuck to my revision schedule for the final 2-3 weeks - and even then I took the odd 'unplanned' day off (like 3 days before my exam when I decided that I'd much rather go shopping in Birmingham 😂) so it IS okay to have a social life in these months! And yeah I saw a lot of fluctuation, especially when using different resources. The official UCAT website supplies a limited amount of tests on their website for free too- which you should DEFINITELY not use until your exam is really close- but I found that the difficulty in these was much harder than the medify practice tests. So of course, your score will go up and down over time but ideally you want to narrow down that range as much as possible as your exam gets closer. You'll have bad days too, so my scores were by no means a constant improvement! I've probably got a spreadsheet with some of the scores from my mock tests if you're really curious :tongue:

Were the ones on medify or actual ucat website more like the one you sat?
Reply 14
Original post by s.6532
Were the ones on medify or actual ucat website more like the one you sat?

Don't trust medify for SJT or Verbal, UCAT official is much harder and more realistic (I did it last year and am down to answer any Q's as well (: )
Reply 15
Original post by kingkxr
Don't trust medify for SJT or Verbal, UCAT official is much harder and more realistic (I did it last year and am down to answer any Q's as well (: )

Was the ucat tests harder in certain areas?
Reply 16
Original post by s.6532
Was the ucat tests harder in certain areas?

Compared to medify, definitely in the SJT and Verbal reasoning sections.
Original post by tipexmaster25
Yep! I can try and answer any questions that you've got about the experience for this too, although I must warn ya that I was wayyy better prepared for the UCAT than the BMAT :colone:


I'll be honest mate, I only stuck to my revision schedule for the final 2-3 weeks - and even then I took the odd 'unplanned' day off (like 3 days before my exam when I decided that I'd much rather go shopping in Birmingham 😂) so it IS okay to have a social life in these months! And yeah I saw a lot of fluctuation, especially when using different resources. The official UCAT website supplies a limited amount of tests on their website for free too- which you should DEFINITELY not use until your exam is really close- but I found that the difficulty in these was much harder than the medify practice tests. So of course, your score will go up and down over time but ideally you want to narrow down that range as much as possible as your exam gets closer. You'll have bad days too, so my scores were by no means a constant improvement! I've probably got a spreadsheet with some of the scores from my mock tests if you're really curious :tongue:

What score did you get in your ucat/bmat? How did you prepare for the bmat? And which section in the bmat did you find the hardest?
Could you use UKCAT books/resources to prepare for the UCAT or would they be too old?

(Not planning on starting ucat prep anytime soon)
Original post by andrei00
Could you use UKCAT books/resources to prepare for the UCAT or would they be too old?

(Not planning on starting ucat prep anytime soon)


Yes, you can.

Remember that this is mainly a race-against-time and there is not much knowledge being tested.

In terms of SJT, morality questions are always going to be similar.


Post originally created by ecolier.

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