UCAT

Although the UCAT is a valuable standardised assessment, it should not be the sole determinant in medical admissions. The test does not capture attributes such as communication, resilience, or vocational commitment, which are critical for success in medicine. A holistic process combining academic achievement, personal statement, references, and interviews provides a fairer and more reliable selection of candidates.-why are the prestigious universities like UCL still relying on this mediocre selection tool?

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Although the UCAT is a valuable standardised assessment, it should not be the sole determinant in medical admissions. Thetestdoes not capture attributes such as communication, resilience, or vocational commitment, which are critical for successinmedicine. A holistic process combining academic achievement, personal statement, references, and interviews provides afairerand more reliable selection of candidates.-why are the prestigious universities still relying on this mediocre selection tool to eliminate several capable students from achieving their dream!

Reply 2

ringi

UCAT is a good predictor of who is least likely to fail at medical schools. It is far too costly to interview everyone. "academic achievement, personal statement, references" often tell you more about a student's school than about how the student will proform at medical school.

Reply 3

ringi

There are many more capable students who deam of medical school then places, hence it is not important to universities who they eliminate provided they only take capable students.

Reply 4

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

I don’t think there’s any UK med school that use it as the sole determinant for offer making.

Reply 5

Flower2007!

Original post

by Anonymous

it also has nothing to do with medical/dental skills and i’m sick of people pretending it does and using that as an excuse to make ucat the most important factor. yeah i may need to read long patient histories and pick out important info - no it does not mean i have to be amazing at ucat vr where you have 28s per question and the passages are about random rubbish. yeah i may need to calculate dosages - no that does not mean i need to be amazing at ucat qr where id calculate the volume of a swimming pool and how many calories of bagels would fit in it. sjt? no i’ll learn about medical ethics via gmc or work experience or clinical placements or at actual uni lectures where you’re supposed to learn these things.

yes, unis need a way to cut down the number of people to interview, and fair enough if they want to use ucat to do that. i just don’t accept the people here who say ‘if you can’t handle ucat you can’t handle medicine’ like gtfo and stop pretending it’s anything other than a way to cut down numbers.