What is a Good UCAT Score?

Taken by thousands of students around the globe each year, the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) is one of the most popular university admissions papers that students will sit. If you’re applying to a UK UCAT university, then you are absolutely required to sit this exam, as it will form part of your application process.

While only a two-hour exam, the UCAT is incredibly challenging, putting a range of different skills to the test in this short period of time. Currently, there are thirty universities in the UK that require the UCAT exam, with a strong score allowing you to gain admission into a range of Medicine, Health Sciences, Biomedicine, Dentistry, and other specialised degrees.

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Typically, what throws people off within a UCAT paper is the fact that the questions are completely different to those that you’ll have come across in your GCSE and A-Level studies. As there is not much time, many students don’t actually finish all of the questions on the paper, meaning that anyone scoring even near to full marks is a very rare occasion.

However, even though difficult, considering the large quantity of top grades that students achieve in their A-Level studies, performing well and achieving a high UCAT score could be the difference between you getting a place at a university or being passed over for another applicant.

How is the UCAT Scored?

There are four main segments on the UCAT paper, with questions on each of these scaling to ensure that you can obtain between 300-900 on each section. These sections are Decision making, Abstract Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Verbal Reasoning. Additionally, you’ll sit a Situational Judgment section, within which you’ll get a score band of between 1-4.

Adding up the total possible of 900 for each section, you can score a total of 3,600 in the UCAT exam. While there is no minimum score that you need in order to pass, the higher your score is, the more likely you are to get into the medical school of your choice.

Typically, a good score in the UCAT would be 650 on every single section, but this also depends on which region of the world you’re in. For example, 2,570 is a good score in the UK, but if you’re applying in Australia, you should aim for the slightly higher 2,600 to establish yourself with a good chance of getting into your desired university.

For the vast majority of top UK medical schools, you are ranked within the application pool on the total UCAT you achieved. That means if you performed fairly well, you’d be in with a good chance of being in the top 10% or 20% of applicants. If you score below 610 across your sections, you’re likely going to be on the bottom half of the application pool, meaning you should apply for universities that take A-levels and other qualifications into account to a higher degree.

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How Do I Prepare for the UCAT?

As a complicated exam that you’ll be fairly unfamiliar with, the preparing for the UCAT can come as a real challenge - especially when you don’t have the right support and methods in place.

To help you feel more confident during the study process, we’ve collected four of the most important tactics you can use when preparing for the UCAT exam. These are:

• Understand the Web Portal - You’d be surprised how much time students waste having to work out how to navigate between exam pages. Familiarise yourself with the system as early as possible, so you don’t waste exam time.
• Break Down Each Section - While you don’t need to learn any new knowledge for the UCAT exam, you do need to understand how to effectively answer each question. Brush up on what could come up in each section to get yourself ready.
• Practise Questions - Practise, practise, practise - there is no better way. If you’re looking to improve your UCAT score come exam day, practice as many past papers as you can. These will be an invaluable tool which will help you understand which answers to pick, tracing the logic of each question while building up your fluency in these skills.

If you nail all three of these areas during the revision process, you’ll be in a much better position when it comes to exam day.

Working with an online UCAT Tutor to boost my UCAT Score

One aspect that makes the UCAT a difficult exam is that it's completely foreign to anything you’ve studied previously. Equally, if you’re aiming to get into medical school, then there is probably a large amount of pressure that you’re putting on yourself to perform in this exam.

Due to this, one of the best ways to create a support system for yourself and quickly learn the correct techniques to respond to questions in the UCAT exam is to work with an online UCAT Tutor. A UCAT tutor will be able to walk you through all of the sections of the UCAT exam, preparing you with their own previous questions and those farmed from past papers.

As this person will be an expert in UCAT preparations, they’ll be able to walk you through absolutely everything you need to know within the paper. From the best strategies to helping with this new style of exam technique, an online UCAT tutor can help you thrive.

Final Thoughts

At TutorChase, our online UCAT tutors are the very best at what they do. Having taken the UCAT themselves, and having achieved high scores, often then going on to study medicine at a top UK university, they’ll be prepared to help you in any way needed. With advanced subject knowledge and a history of being high-achievers, our online UCAT tutors will help you through the whole process.

If you’re looking to pass your UCAT exams with flying colours, then get in contact with us today to see exactly what we can do for you.