How to revise for the UCAT

The UCAT seems like a daunting task to tackle – but I am here to assure you that it is not. With loads

of practice and time, you will master it. Today I’ll be talking about how to revise for it, breaking it

down section by section. Before beginning your revision, make sure you know which universities you

are applying to require you to sit it.

Here is a list of UK universities requiring it (subject to change from 2024 after BMAT stops):

Universities | UCAT Consortium

General information

Throughout this blog, I will be making several references to different resources that I used whilst

revising for my UCAT. Some of these are free, and some are not – however, you will not be at a

disadvantage if you choose to use exclusively free resources – you can still get an amazing score!

There are many bursaries and cheap resources available for revision, which I will also talk about.

If you do not know much about the UCAT, I suggest you read this article before coming back to read

mine:

Your Guide To The UCAT Test For 2023 - The Medic Portal

Pre-UCAT

I decided to book my UCAT date for the 30 th of August – around the end of the summer. This left me

with ample time to revise (recommended 6-8 weeks), however I only revised for around 3 weeks. I

would not recommend this, and cramming the UCAT is not very beneficial – small amounts of

revision over a longer time period works better. Book your UCAT for whenever you feel like doing it,

but just make sure to leave enough time to revise for it (and spaces run out quickly so book early).

Verbal Reasoning

For all sections of the UCAT, I used the book ‘Mastering the UKCAT’ (paid) to gain basic

understanding of each of them. It was very helpful, and I would definitely recommend buying it. You

can find copies online for as cheap as £2.50. (I am also giving my copy away if that would help

anyone).

For this section, I revised the question types (e.g. True, False, Can’t Tell/Comprehension) using the

book and the Medify (paid) videos. It is imperative to understand how to approach the questions in

this section. Once you notice the pattern, it’s easier to apply it to any question you may do later on. I

would start off by doing timed practice straight off the bat, to see if you can apply what you learned

under time pressure. After completing the questions, always review them by reading the answer and

seeing how they got to the answer. Untimed practice for VR really helps when you know specifically

what you’re trying to improve. For example, I was very bad at the questions which involved

interpreting the author’s opinion, so I did untimed practice on those to understand where exactly I

was going wrong and what to do next time.

In terms of timing, I would answer the questions about the short and medium passages, then flag

and skip the longer ones, go back at the end and make an educated guess. Timing is very important

in this section so make sure to split your time out well. Fully reading and understanding the passages

is important and it saves you from having to go back and reread the text every single time. I only

fully read the short and medium passages, and this way you can maximise your marks by being

confident in your answers. In terms of specific advice about keyword spotting, reading the book or

watching the videos really helped with this.

VR Summary:

- Review by reading answer and remembering method applied

- Use untimed practice to do targeted revision

- Triage questions into short, medium and long. Read and answer short + medium then skim

and answer longer ones at the end.

Decision Making

Decision Making was personally my best section, and I would say practice makes perfect. Go straight

into timed practice. This section is one of the longest, and I believe you have a lot of time to answer

the questions. Anytime you get questions wrong or partially correct, always go back and review

them using the method I talked about in the first paragraph. To aid with my revision, I watched Emil

Eddy and MedicMind on YouTube (free), and it helped me understand how someone else would

tackle the question. I would then try and use their methods when revising. YouTube is incredibly

useful and there are thousands of FREE videos available to help you revise. Take advantage of this!

For timing, I would personally recommend spending more time on the syllogisms, and they are

worth the most marks and taking your time to answer them maximises your marks. The book was

also helpful when it came to revision as it tells you specific tips and tricks to use when answering

questions.

DM Summary:

- Practice makes perfect – aim to complete every question on the platform you are using

- Review wrong and partially correct answers

- Emil Eddy and MedicMind on YouTube to understand syllogisms and logic puzzles

Quantitative Reasoning

Before I begin, there is a more in-depth blog about this subtest on our website if you want a more

detailed analysis of it:

How to tackle the Quantitative Reasoning — Journey To Healthcare

Quantitative Reasoning was my worst section whilst I was practicing, however my score improved a

lot in the real thing. Don’t be worried if you don’t take A-Level Maths, QR is very easy to get the hang

of once you know the basics. Revisit your GCSE topics like percentage change, and ratios and

proportions. Start off by doing untimed practice so you can practice your maths skills and watch the

videos on Medify for each topic if you don’t understand something. Compared to the real thing, the

questions on Medify were definitely much harder. I would say don’t get too worked up about doing

average on this section as it may be easier for you when you sit the real thing. Nevertheless, these

questions prepared me for the worst, which was good. If you want more accurate questions, use

MedEntry (paid) and the questions on the official UCAT website (free). Only spend time on

questions you are 100% confident on because some questions are not worth wasting time on. It’s

best to guess, flag and skip anything you are unsure about. Key tip for this section: whilst revising, I

noticed there were many answers which LOOKED similar. For example, £252.76 and £525.67. They

do this to trick you, and you can definitely use common sense to choose between the two – one of

them is usually correct. Brush up on your mental maths as the calculator is very tedious to use –

round numbers and do things in your head. If you must use the calculator, use the shortcut Alt + C,

and M+ to store things in the memory.

QR Summary:

- Untimed practice to practice maths skills

- Only spend time on confident questions

- Guessing, flagging and skipping is your best friend

- Mental maths is important

Abstract Reasoning

This section is incredibly time pressured and I would suggest doing loads of timed sets. Reviewing in

the section is also incredibly important as you need to understand specific patterns. What I did

whilst revising was go over the questions I got wrong and write down the pattern that I missed. For

example, number of sides on a shape or the orientation of it. This would ensure that I looked out for

it next time. Always look at the simplest box for the Set A, Set B and Neither questions – it allows

you to grasp the pattern quicker. Some people use mnemonics like SCANS (Shape, Colour,

Arrangement, Number, Symmetry) to remember common patterns to look for. Practise this section

loads and loads and you will improve with time.

AR Summary:

- Lots of review

- Lots of timed sets

- Mnemonics

- Simplest box

Situational Judgement

Situational Judgement is the section that is often underestimated, and many people don’t revise it

thoroughly enough. There are specific principles that you need to apply to each question, and

common sense simply won’t cut it. It is recommended to read the GMC guidelines to gain an

understanding of the ethical principles needed to be a doctor/medical student, but it is quite a long

document. Luckily for me, I had participated in many summer schools/taster days/read a lot about

this beforehand so I did not have to go over them again. Read the book or watch a video if you don’t

want to read all 80 pages. I did nearly all the SJT questions on Medify then used the official UCAT

question bank (which, in my opinion, is much more accurate than Medify). Start off doing the

Medify questions to gain a basic understanding of the principles. Always review your wrong and

partially correct answers as the half marks really add up at the end.

SJT Summary:

- Timed practice on Medify to understand principles

- Use official UCAT question bank

- Always review partially correct answers

General Advice

After revising each section thoroughly, it is recommended to do mocks to simulate the real thing as

much as possible. Mocks are very helpful as they help you understand your weaknesses and give you

an idea of what your score would be like. I would personally say the scores on Medify are not

accurate and very pessimistic, and my score increased by around 300+ per section. Nevertheless, still

do full mocks without distractions so you have a feel of what the real thing is like. It’s important to

be fully focused whilst revising otherwise it won’t be beneficial. Don’t revise if you’re unbothered or

tired as it will most likely be a waste of time. Don’t revise the day of your exam as this will only stress

you out even more. I personally didn’t revise the day before either and this helped me feel much

more relaxed. I ended up scoring around the 8 th decile (preliminary statistics) so with my tips,

hopefully you can do even better than I did

Resources

Mastering the UKCAT - Mastering the UKCAT : Second Edition used book by Christopher Nordstrom:

9781138588479 (betterworldbooks.com)

Medify - UCAT Online Practice Course | Mocks & Question Bank | Medify UK

 I understand that Medify can be quite costly, but I would say it is a good investment. If you

sign up to In2MedSchool’s mentorship scheme, they give you a Medify bursary which gives

you free access for a month. You can ask your school if there is any support available for

purchasing Medify, and some schools have a school discount which can be applied to your

account. I was eligible for the 16-19 Bursary which allowed me to get reimbursed for my

purchase of it. To save money, I only bought the 1-month subscription but there are also

weekly plans.

YouTube - (36) Emil Eddy UCAT - YouTube (36) Medic Mind - YouTube

MedEntry - MedEntry | UCAT Preparation

MedEntry has loads of free resources on their website if you don’t want to buy their paid

subscription.

GMC Guidelines - Good medical practice - professional standards - GMC (gmc-uk.org)