Ukcat Details
Ukcat Details
Ukcat Details
with the onscreen format. You can practise selecting answers and flagging questions for review.
The UKCAT consists of 5 subtests:
o
Verbal Reasoning
Quantitative Reasoning
Abstract Reasoning
Decision Analysis
Situational Judgement
Quantitative Reasoning assesses your ability to use numerical skills to solve problems. It assumes familiarity with
numbers to the standard of a good pass at GCSE. However items are less to do with numerical facility and more to do
with problem solving.
The table shows the total tax paid ($) on annual taxable income.
For example, a person with an annual taxable income of $60,000 will pay $4990 plus 25% of ($60,000 - $36,250)
Cory has an annual taxable income equivalent to $2,500 per month.She wants to save enough money each month to pay
her tax for the year. The minimum amount, to the nearest $, that Cory has to save each month is:
A: $250
B: $263
C: $338
D: $341
E: $375
Abstract Reasoning assesses your ability to identify patterns amongst abstract shapes where irrelevant and distracting
material may lead to incorrect conclusions. The test therefore measures your ability to change track, critically evaluate
and generate hypotheses and requires you to query judgements as you go along.
A: Set A
B: Set B
C: Neither
Decision Analysis assesses the ability to make decisions in situations of uncertainty. It requires candidates to make
informed judgements with information that is incomplete, complex and ambiguous. Using a deciphering scenario, the test
requires a move from logical reasoning to decisions requiring increasing degrees of judgement. The associated
confidence rating for each item asks you to rate how confident you feel about the response you have provided. It
measures your awareness of your own decision making.
How confident are you that the answer you gave was right?
right?
Low
1
4
High
5
Situational Judgement measures your capacity to understand real world situations and to identify critical factors and
appropriate behaviour in dealing with them. It consists of a series of scenarios with possible actions and considerations.
The questions do not require medical or procedural knowledge.
Greg, a dental student, is taking part in a clinical placement with two other students, Marek and Amy. They are all
friends. One morning, Amy makes, what Greg interprets to be, an inappropriate joke in front of Marek. Marek does not
say anything but he appears to be upset.
How appropriate are each of the following responses by Greg in this situation?
Wait until Amy is not there and then ask Marek how he felt about the joke
A: A very appropriate thing to do
B: Appropriate, but not ideal
C: Inappropriate, but not awful
D: A very inappropriate thing to do
Abstract Reasoning
The information below may be subject to change. Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.
Abstract Reasoning assesses your ability to identify patterns amongst abstract shapes where irrelevant and distracting material
may lead to incorrect conclusions. The test therefore measures your ability to change track, critically evaluate and generate
hypotheses and requires you to query judgements as you go along.
Time
Items
For type 1, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled Set A and Set B. You will be given a test shape and
asked to decide whether the test shape belongs to Set A, Set B, or Neither.
For type 2, you will be presented with a series of shapes. You will be asked to select the next shape in the series.
For type 3, you will be presented with a statement, involving a group of shapes. You will be asked to determine which
shape completes the statement.
For type 4, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled Set A and Set B. You will be asked to select which of
the four response options belongs to Set A or Set B.
Quantitative Reasoning
The information below may be subject to change. Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.
The Quantitative Reasoning subtest assesses your ability to use numerical skills to solve problems. It assumes familiarity with
numbers to the standard of a good pass at GCSE. However items are less to do with numerical facility and more to do with
problem solving.
Time
Items
25 minutes (one minute for instruction and twentyfour minutes for items)
A simple on-screen calculator is available for use in this section. The calculator is integrated into the practice tests and we strongly
recommend that candidates familiarise themselves with using it. The calculator will look similar to this:
Abstract Reasoning
The information below may be subject to change. Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.
Abstract Reasoning assesses your ability to identify patterns amongst abstract shapes where irrelevant and distracting material
may lead to incorrect conclusions. The test therefore measures your ability to change track, critically evaluate and generate
hypotheses and requires you to query judgements as you go along.
Time
Items
There are 4 different item types in the UKCAT test. You may see one or two of these item types:
For type 1, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled Set A and Set B. You will be given a test shape and
asked to decide whether the test shape belongs to Set A, Set B, or Neither.
For type 2, you will be presented with a series of shapes. You will be asked to select the next shape in the series.
For type 3, you will be presented with a statement, involving a group of shapes. You will be asked to determine which
shape completes the statement.
For type 4, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled Set A and Set B. You will be asked to select which of
the four response options belongs to Set A or Set B.
Decision Analysis
The information below may be subject to change. Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.
The Decision Analysis Test assesses the ability to make decisions in situations of uncertainty. It requires candidates to make
informed judgements with information that is incomplete, complex and ambiguous. Using a deciphering scenario, the test requires
a move from logical reasoning to decisions requiring increasing degrees of judgement.
The associated confidence rating for each item asks you to rate how confident you feel about the response you have provided. It
measures your awareness of your own decision making.
Time
Items
Unlike the other subtests, in Decision Analysis each item must be answered in order. A warning message will appear if you have
not selected both an answer and a confidence rating and you will be prevented from proceeding to the next question.
Following each Decision Analysis item you will be asked to rate how confident you are that the answer you gave was right on a 5point scale (low confidence to high confidence). A response of 1 would mean that you are not very confident that you answered
the corresponding item correctly and a response of 5 would indicate that you are very confident that you answered the
corresponding item correctly.
Use your best and honest judgement to indicate your confidence level. The confidence rating is about how your self-reported
confidence correlates to the Decision Analysis response. Reporting high confidence on all items does not necessarily translate to
good self-monitoring ability.
Situational Judgement
The information below may be subject to change. Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.
The test measures your capacity to understand real world situations and to identify critical factors and appropriate behaviour in
dealing with them.
Time
Items
a very appropriate thing to do if it will address at least one aspect (not necessarily all aspects) of the situation
appropriate, but not ideal if it could be done, but is not necessarily a very good thing to do
inappropriate, but not awful if it should not really be done, but would not be terrible
a very inappropriate thing to do if it should definitely not be done and would make the situation worse
A response should not be judged as if it is the only thing that is done. For example, if the wrong medication is provided to a
patient, there are a number of steps that should be taken, including checking the patient is ok and assessing the patient medically.
The response ask the patient if they are ok should still be judged as appropriate. It should not be judged as if this is
the only action that will be taken.
For the second set you will be asked to rate the importance of a series of options in response to the scenario. When considering
how to respond to the scenario, an option is:
important if this is something that is important but not vital to take into account
of minor importance if this is something that could be taken into account, but it does not matter if it is considered or not
not important at all if this is something that should definitely not be taken into account
5.
The mocks will highlight areas for you to improve upon, so do some more questions, practice different techniques, and try
another mock (you might have a few, so space them out so that you aren't taking loads at once).
6.
By this point, you should be feeling pretty confident, and ready for your test. Good luck, but first, read on for advice on
how to tackle each section.
The Sections:
Useful Links:
These are the sites that I used to prepare for the UKCAT, plus some others that you might find useful:
The Official Website You should already know about this site, but it's full of useful information on each of the sections, plus
includes two full length official mock exams, plus a shorter one.
The 600Q Book While it doesn't include the new style AR questions, or any SJT, it's still good for VR, QR and DA, and has a good
mock exam and some solid advice for all the sections. If you use just one UKCAT resource, make it this one.
Get into Medicine This site has hundreds of UKCAT questions, plus tips and tutorials and more advice on applications than you
can shake a stick at. It's an excellent website, so get on it.
ukcathelp.org I don't think that this website existed last year so I didn't use it, but it's been getting very good reviews on TSR, and
is definitely worth a look. A word of caution though: since originally writing this post, it has come to my attention that this
website might not be 100% genuine. It still has the content, but DO NOT use a username/password combo that you use
elsewhere, just to be on the safe side.
Medify This has some free UKCAT questions and tips, plus a paid for question bank that you can use if you're able to.
Kaplan Again, this is a paid for resource, but with some free areas. I used their mock test last year, so take a look. They also offer
an intensive 10 day course, but I don't think anyone needs to spend 1,250 getting into medical school.
Ace Medicine Quite similar to Kaplan (above), but with no free questions to be had :(
The Student Room This link takes you to their wiki page on the UKCAT, which is full of advice and links to even more practice
questions. While you're there have a look at the rest of the medicine wiki, and the medicine forum for yet more advice and info,
plus this year's UKCAT thread, where if you're a member you can ask as many questions as you like.
Right- that's everything I have on the UKCAT- good luck preparing for and taking the test, and if you have any more questions, I'm
"Ingenting" on both The Student Room and New Media Medicine forums, so feel free to PM me on either :)
One last thing for those who are wondering- I got 710 on the UKCAT last year, and 687.5 the year before.