UCAT 2020

The UCAT 2020 will be held in the month of July 2020. The UCAT can only be sat once by each student during this period. Scores for the 2020 UCAT will be provided to the candidate on the day of the examination.

The following key dates for the UCAT 2020 should be noted:

Concesssions/access arrangements are available for candidates with special educational needs, disabilities or temporary injuries. Such students may be entitled to extra time or accommodations when sitting the test.

Candidates need to register and create an online account via UCAT official in order to arrange a testing date. Candidates are encouraged to book early to avoid missing out on a place at their nearest testing centre.

UCAT testing centre information is available on the UCAT official website.

UCAT Scores

Candidates sitting the UCAT are scored using a specific system.

For the first four sections of the exam (termed cognitive sections), each candidate receives a UCAT score of between 300 (minimum) and 900 (maximum). On average, students sitting the UCAT will achieve UCAT scores ranging from 500-700 on each of the cognitive sections of the UCAT exam.

The situational judgement section of the examination is scored via banding. In this section of the exam, answers are weighted rather than being absolutely correct/incorrect. Though there is a best answer choice, candidates receive points for all answer choices. The aggregate score places students in the relevant band. There are four bands with Band 1 representing the highest performing candidates in the cohort.

For reference, average UKCAT scores from the previous two years (2017 and 2018 are provided below):

UCAT Universities

The UCAT ANZ is used by Australian and New Zealand universities as one of multiple criterion for selection into their undergraduate medical, dental, and clinical sciences programs.

The following universities (UCAT universities) use UCAT for entry into their programs:

• The University of Adelaide
• Curtin University
• Monash University
• The University of Newcastle / University of New England
• The University of New South Wales
• The University of Queensland
• University of Tasmania
• The University of Western Australia
• Western Sydney University
• The University of Auckland
• University of Otago

UCAT Tips

Students often ask for tips in preparing for their examinations. The following is a list of general UCAT tips prepared by members of the our Academic Faculty:

• Commence preparing for UCAT as early as possible - There is no such thing as being too prepared. The work you will need to do to become familiar and competitive in the UCAT is not insignificant, and should be commenced as soon as possible. This allows students to spread the workload over a more manageable period of time therefore minimising impingement on secondary school study.
• Understand the rationale for the examination - Before commencing studying for UCAT, it is vital that candidates recognise the rationale for the exam. By possessing insight into the domains and styles of assessment, candidates are able to align their thinking with that of the assessment and are therefore more likely to answer correctly.
• Spend at least 100 hours preparing - Most successful students will spend a significant amount of time preparing for the UCAT. Though the UCAT consortium suggests studying for 30-40 hours in the weeks prior to the exam, students seeking higher level performance should intensify their efforts to out-develop their competition. Ideally preparation should be completed over many months rather than concentrated over a few weeks.
• Practice regularly, and complete all of the official UCAT practice materials - The UCAT ANZ is unique in that the consortium provides students with a significant number of practice questions and materials prior to the official exam. It is essential that students complete these materials as well as critically appraising their performance and addressing areas of weakness. This is the most efficient method of study.
• Focus on your weaknesses - In an exam where candidates are ranked against their cohort, it is of high-yield for candidates to focus on improving their shortcomings. These can be identified via completion of formal practice examinations, and assessing performance in each of the sections both relative to each other, and against average UCAT scores.
• Engage formal assistance in your preparation - Preparing for UCAT in liaison with professionals with experience in the field enables students to focus on areas of importance and avoid common pitfalls. Formal preparation courses and programs should ideally teach students how to approach the questions seen in each section of the UCAT. This is the focus of METC Institute UCAT Preparation courses and programs.

Practical UCAT tips and common pitfalls to avoid include:

• Leaving their preparation too late - There is a maximum rate at which candidates can develop, and attempting to condense study in a short timeframe is likely to exceed this rate. Leaving study late also impacts on the candidate's capacity for perform on the day.
• Managing time effectively - During the exam, candidates need to be careful to allocate and spend their time effectively. It is very common for students to lose a lot of time attempting to solve difficult questions. This is obviously not advisable as the opportunity cost leaves no time for the questions toward the end of the exam. To be competitive, students must legitimately attempt all questions and not leave large amounts of exam sections unanswered.
• Answer all questions - Candidates must answer all questions to be successful. This requires effective management of time, and exam strategy. Each of these is discussed in detail in the METC Institute UCAT course workshops.
• Read questions carefully - Candidates need to critically and actively read each question. Though it is simple advise, many candidates will passively move through the exam making elementary mistakes which - given the competitive nature of the UCAT - can cost them entry into their program of choice
• Relying on previous experience/biases - The aim of the assessment is to determine the candidate's ability to objectively reason. The answers to the questions are therefore provided in the passages, and candidates should not defer to prior knowledge in order to answer questions. Furthermore, candidates need to suspend their biases when selecting answers. This is a sophisticated skill and can only be performed by students who have actively considered and attenuated such biases prior to the examination.
• Complicating questions - Candidates often complicate questions by attempting to consider them in inappropriate depth. To avoid this, it is important to consider what is the most obvious and therefore most likely answer. Candidates should remember that they are being assessed for entry into undergraduate programs.

UCAT Frequently Asked Questions

What is the UCAT?

See the What is UCAT tab

What is the format of the UCAT test?

See the UCAT Sections tab

What is tested in UCAT?

The UCAT does not assess a specific curriculum. The capacities assessed in the exam lie in the general domains of verbal reasoning, decision making, quantitative reasoning, abstract reasoning, and situational judgement. The stimuli used for assessment in each section are non-specific, and are selected in order to mitigate any potential biases.

How is UCAT scored?

See the UCAT Scoring.

How will a METC Institute UCAT course assist me in my UCAT preparation?

METC Institute UCAT courses and programs focus on building in candidates specific competencies required for performance in the exam. Fundamentally, this involves developing in students an understanding of the approach to answering questions in each section of the exam. Students are demonstrated these approaches during interactive workshops, and then utilise these techniques in completing the formal UCAT practice materials.

Throughout their studies with the METC Institute, all students receive unlimited support from expert UCAT tutors. The METC Institute Academic Faculty is staffed by many expert doctors and medical students with experience in the UKCAT and having scored >95th % for many other medical admissions exams.

Do I need to take the UCAT?

This will depend on the undergraduate degrees you wish to pursue. As a general rule, Australian and New Zealand undergraduate medical, dental, and some clinical science programs will require students to sit the UCAT. The best way to determine your necessity to sit UCAT is to review the undergraduate program/s you wish to pursue on the relevant university website/s. Each program will list the requirements for entry including any UCAT cut-off score where relevant.

When should I take the UCAT?

The UCAT exam can be sat in July of the same year students apply for undergraduate program entry. That is, students sit UCAT in the year prior to entry into their desired program (the same year they apply for the program). Usually students will sit the exam in their final year of secondary school.

Where do I take the UCAT?

The UCAT is computer-based and is sat at Pearson-Vue testing centres. A list of UCAT testing centres can be found on the official UCAT website.

Is there a fee for sitting the UCAT?

There is a fee associated with completing the UCAT ANZ exam. Fees are listed on the official UCAT website.

Can I resit the exam?

The exam can only be sat once per calendar year. Candidates wishing to re-sit the exam must wait for the following year to sit the exam, or consider the Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT) for entry into post-graduate medicine.