Abstract Reasoning

The abstract reasoning section of the UCAT assesses your ability to identify patterns among abstract shapes. 

  • As a doctor or dentist, you will need to be able to work out patterns in diseases to come to a diagnosis.  

  • Most questions are shown in sets of five, each connected to the same set of shapes. 

  • There are some standalone questions and each question is a multiple choice.

Useful Mnemonics 

CPR

  • Colour - look at the colours present, is one shape always the same colour in each box? Is there only one colour in each box?

  • Position - how are the shapes arranged? Are some shapes always next to each other? Are some shapes always in the corner or the middle?

  • Rotation - does each shape rotate clockwise/anticlockwise as you go across each box?

SCANS

  • Shape - what shapes are present?  

  • Colour - look at the colours present, is one shape always the same colour in each box, is there only one colour present in each box

  • Angles/arrangement - are the shapes in one box always reflex angles/obtuse angles/acute angles? Does one shape in each box always have 45/90/180-degree angles?

  • Number - how many shapes are present? How many intersections are there? Does one box have shapes that add up to a certain number of sides? Are they only shapes with an odd/even number of sides in each box

  • Symmetry - how many lines of symmetry are present?

Question Types

Set A/B/Neither 

There are 2 question types for this subsection:

  • which set does this image belong in?

  • does this image belong in set A/B or neither?

Complete the Sequence

For this question type try to look for similarities and differences between each box and how each part of the boxes might be related to each other

Complete the Series

For this question type you need to look for changes as you go across each box and work out the pattern from there.

Abstract Reasoning Tips

  • Make note of any difficult or repetitive patterns you run into 

  • Look at the simplest box first and try to work out the pattern from there 

  • Learn the number of sides of common shapes

  • You might run into some complex patterns in this section where there is more than one rule. If you come across patterns like this during your practice guess, flag and skip and during your review make sure to make a note of the pattern. 

  • Know your prime numbers and angles:

    • Prime numbers = 2,3,5,7,11,13…..

    • Angles less than 90 = acute 

    • Angles between 90 and 180 = obtuse 

    • Angles greater than 180 and less than 360 = reflex 

Know your shapes!

Click here to return to the main UCAT page.