Is Abstract Reasoning still on the UCAT?

No. It was removed from the 2025 cycle, leaving four subtests. If a book or a course still teaches it, that tells you how current the rest of it is.

What score do I need?

It depends entirely on the universities, and they use it in genuinely different ways — some as a threshold, some ranked against other applicants, some in combination with other elements. Find out how each of yours uses it before setting a target.

How long should I prepare?

Three to four months alongside school is the usual shape. Much longer tends to plateau, because this is a test of method under time and method stops improving once it is automatic.

Does Situational Judgement matter?

At some universities a great deal, at others hardly at all, and it is reported separately rather than folded into the cognitive total. Check your shortlist; it is the part of the UCAT most often ignored and occasionally decisive.

Once per cycle. That makes the single sitting higher-stakes than most admissions tests and is the main argument for rehearsing full sittings rather than only practising questions.

Is UCAT preparation group or one-to-one?

One-to-one. The fix is almost always specific — a calculator habit, a reading approach, a subtest that collapses at the twenty-minute mark — and finding it is the first thing a diagnostic does.

UCAT preparation for medicine and dentistry, live online

The UCAT is the most time-pressured admissions test most candidates will ever sit, and that changes what preparation means: it is a repeatable method under a clock rather than knowing more. Abstract Reasoning was removed from the 2025 cycle, so a book or a course written before that is teaching a section you will not sit. Situational Judgement is reported in bands rather than folded into the total, and some universities read it on its own.

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Exam format

What the UCAT actually looks like

The structure, the timing and the scoring, stated plainly — before anything about a course.

Length: Two hours
Questions: Four subtests since 2025, after Abstract Reasoning was removed
Scored: Cognitive subtests scored 900–2700 in total; Situational Judgement reported in bands

Verbal Reasoning

44 questions in 22 minutes. Roughly thirty seconds each, which makes it a reading-speed test as much as a comprehension one. The passages are not difficult; finishing them is.

Decision Making

35 questions in 37 minutes. Syllogisms, probability, interpreting information and evaluating arguments — the most varied subtest, and the one where a question type you have not met before costs the most.

Quantitative Reasoning

36 questions in 26 minutes. The arithmetic is school-level; the constraint is doing it accurately at speed with an on-screen calculator that is slower than your hands for most of it.

Situational Judgement

69 questions in 26 minutes. Reported in bands rather than added to the cognitive total, and read separately by some universities — occasionally as a threshold rather than a contribution.

Abstract Reasoning was removed from the 2025 cycle. A book or a course that still teaches it is describing a subtest you will not sit, and is by definition out of date on everything else too.
Universities use the score in very different ways — some as a threshold, some ranked, some in combination with the personal statement. The same score can be decisive at one and irrelevant at another.

Before you start

Is UCAT preparation right for you?

Who it suits. Applicants whose intended medical or dental courses require the UCAT and who need timed skills practice.

When to check another option. General science tuition or preparation for another medical admissions test. Verify that UCAT is the test your chosen courses use.

Why it matters

What a UCAT score is for

The UCAT is the gatekeeper for most UK medical and dental schools, and it is used earlier and more mechanically than applicants expect: many universities filter on it before a human reads anything else you wrote. That makes it unusually high-leverage — a few hundred points can decide whether an application is considered at all — and unusually unfair to under-prepare for, because it is a test of method under extreme time pressure rather than of anything you learned at school.

Coverage

What the preparation covers

The ground a course goes over. How much of it you need, and in what order, is what the first session decides.

Verbal Reasoning, at a reading speed the section can actually be finished at
Decision Making: syllogisms, probability, and the interpretation questions
Quantitative Reasoning, worked with the on-screen calculator rather than around it
Situational Judgement, and what the band descriptors reward
Flagging, per-subtest timing, and how your universities use the score

Where marks go

Where candidates lose marks on the UCAT

Not a list of study tips. These are the specific ways this particular test takes marks off people who know the material.

Preparing for Abstract Reasoning

It was removed for the 2025 cycle. Time spent on it is time not spent on the four subtests that exist, and material that still includes it is unlikely to be current on the ones that do.

Reading Verbal Reasoning passages properly

Thirty seconds a question does not allow it. The technique is locating and evaluating rather than reading and understanding, and it feels wrong until it is practised enough to feel normal.

Using the on-screen calculator for everything

In Quantitative Reasoning it is slower than mental arithmetic on most questions and essential on a few. Knowing which is which — and using the keyboard rather than the mouse when you do — is worth several marks.

Not flagging and not moving on

Every subtest is designed so that some questions cannot be finished in the average time available. Sitting on one is how candidates lose four easy questions at the end of a subtest to one hard one in the middle.

Answering Situational Judgement as yourself

It is marked against a defined professional framework, not against personal decency. Candidates who answer honestly and unprepared often band lower than candidates who have read what the framework rewards.

Ignoring how your universities use the score

Some rank it, some threshold it, some weight Situational Judgement separately. Preparing without knowing which applies to your list means not knowing what 'enough' is.

Lesson format

How the lessons run

One-to-one

One-to-one, because the fix is almost always specific: the on-screen calculator and keyboard shortcuts in Quantitative, or a reading approach in Verbal that survives the timer.

How it runs

How the teaching works

A diagnostic before anything is planned

The first session is spent finding out where the marks are actually going. That is not a formality: on most of these tests the gap a student describes and the gap the diagnostic shows are different, and hours spent on the described one are hours wasted.

Teaching in the order your deadline allows

Everything here is one-to-one, so the order is yours. We start with whatever is costing you most and work outwards rather than marching through a syllabus you have already half covered.

Timed work from early, not saved for the end

Untimed accuracy is a poor predictor of a timed score, and finding that out three weeks before the test is too late. Timed sections start in the first fortnight, short at first.

Review and progress checks

Review looks beyond the mark: which errors recur, whether the reasoning is clearer and how accuracy holds under time pressure. Bring earlier attempts to the discussion so the next practice has a specific purpose.

All of it runs in the browser, live, with a teacher on the other end. There are no recordings sold as a course and no premises to travel to.

Timeline

How long UCAT preparation takes

A rough shape rather than a promise. People arrive at different starting points and the plan is built around yours, but this is what a full run usually looks like.

1
Three to four months out — diagnostic and subtest audit
A full timed sitting to establish the baseline and, more importantly, to find which subtest collapses under time. On this test that is almost always the useful diagnosis.
2
Months 1–2 — technique per subtest
Each subtest taught as a method rather than as content: how to locate in Verbal, how to set up Decision Making questions, when the calculator earns its keystrokes.
3
Month 3 — timed sets, then full sittings
Timed sets of increasing length until full subtests are comfortable, then complete sittings. Stamina is a real factor at two hours of this intensity.
4
Final two weeks — pacing and Situational Judgement
Timing rehearsed to the minute, and Situational Judgement worked against the framework it is actually marked on. No new technique.

FAQ

UCAT questions we get asked

Is Abstract Reasoning still on the UCAT?: No. It was removed from the 2025 cycle, leaving four subtests. If a book or a course still teaches it, that tells you how current the rest of it is.
What score do I need?: It depends entirely on the universities, and they use it in genuinely different ways — some as a threshold, some ranked against other applicants, some in combination with other elements. Find out how each of yours uses it before setting a target.
How long should I prepare?: Three to four months alongside school is the usual shape. Much longer tends to plateau, because this is a test of method under time and method stops improving once it is automatic.
Does Situational Judgement matter?: At some universities a great deal, at others hardly at all, and it is reported separately rather than folded into the cognitive total. Check your shortlist; it is the part of the UCAT most often ignored and occasionally decisive.
Can I retake it?: Once per cycle. That makes the single sitting higher-stakes than most admissions tests and is the main argument for rehearsing full sittings rather than only practising questions.
Is UCAT preparation group or one-to-one?: One-to-one. The fix is almost always specific — a calculator habit, a reading approach, a subtest that collapses at the twenty-minute mark — and finding it is the first thing a diagnostic does.

Pricing

What UCAT preparation costs

Shown in US dollars. Charged in US dollars — there is no conversion at checkout to be surprised by.

One-to-one lessons