The Medistudents AI-powered UCAT question bank is the only one on the market that uses AI algorithms to deeply analyse your ability levels and create a personalised learning journey specifically tailored to boost your UCAT score.
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The Medistudents AI-powered UCAT question bank provides this and more.
“The new Medistudents adaptive UCAT question bank is a game changer in UCAT revision”
Sign up nowDid you know that if you spend an average of 2 minutes answering and absorbing the explanation of each question in a question bank, it will take you 333 hours to get through 10k questions!?
No wonder the vast majority of people don’t answer anywhere near 10k questions before their exam!
We surveyed 100s of medical students and asked them what their biggest issue was when preparing for the UCAT.
Over 90% said that because the UCAT wasn’t a knowledge-based exam, they could answer thousands of questions but never feel like they were getting anywhere.
The trouble with standard question banks is that everyone is given the same questions to prepare with, with no consideration of what skills or topics each person is actually struggling with.
However, everyone has a different baseline ability. You might struggle with quantitative reasoning, whereas your friend might be a maths wizard. With a standard question bank, you’ll both answer the same QR questions, in the same order, meaning you’ll be left struggling while your friend doesn’t feel stretched.
No wonder so many people can find preparing for the UCAT frustrating!
The Medistudents adaptive UCAT question bank is here to change all that.
We recognise that the vast majority of students don’t complete all 10,000 questions in a question bank.
It’s therefore vitally important that the questions you do answer are relevant to your skill and ability level.
We’ll ensure that in the areas you’re struggling, you’ll master the basics first. Whereas in your stronger areas, you’ll be immediately pushed.
This will mean that every minute of your revision is turbo charged to maximise your UCAT score.
As you progress through the question bank, you’ll be able to see a sophisticated estimate of your current skill level for each subsection of the UCAT. When other question banks give you a performance review, they are simply telling you how many questions you’ve got right or wrong.
We do things differently.
Our algorithm will tell you exactly what your ability level is for each area of the UCAT. We calculate this based on the actual difficulty of the questions you are answering and it’s done in real time, so you can be sure that the work you’re putting in is actually translating into real gains in your UCAT score.
The Medistudents UCAT question bank is the only one available which shows you if you’re actually getting better at answering harder questions.
If you’re planning to apply to a UK medical school in 2021 (to begin studying in 2022) then it’s likely that you’ll need to complete an entry / admissions test, such as the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT). Our UCAT 2021 complete guide will provide you with all the information you need for registering, preparing and completing the UCAT exam.
The majority of UK medical schools include an admissions test as part of the application process, with the UCAT being the most widely used, particularly for Standard Entry Medicine, Medicine with a Gateway Year and Medicine with a Preliminary Year. The UCAT is also used to support the selection process for a growing number of international universities.
The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT), formerly known as the UKCAT, is a 2 hour computer-based test, which is used by medical schools to assess an applicant’s mental ability, characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours as part of their selection process.
The test format is multiple choice questions and is separated into the following five timed subtests:
You can find more information about each subtest under the UCAT Subtests heading below.
The UCAT website provides a full list of ‘UK Consortium Universities’ and ‘non-UK Associate Member Universities’ which include the UCAT as a compulsory entry requirement when applying to study medicine.
The UCAT is delivered in Pearson VUE test centres throughout the UK and internationally; you can find your closest test centre via the UCAT website.
Extended versions of the test are available if you’re usually entitled to extra exam time due to a documented medical condition or disability; if applicable you will need to apply on the UCAT website via the Access Arrangements Application. More information about access arrangements for UCAT can be found here.
It’s important that you’re aware of the deadlines for registering, booking and completing the UCAT exam, which are all before the UCAS application deadline date of 15 October 2021.
Tests are available from 26 July 2021 – 29 September 2021.
You need to register and book your UCAT using the Pearson VUE online registration system, which can be accessed through the UCAT website. There are also the options to apply for a bursary to cover the exam fee and to apply for access arrangements on the UCAT website.
The dates for registration, online booking, bursary applications and access arrangements applications are below, as well as a reminder of test dates:
UCAT results will be sent to your chosen universities in early November, following the UCAS deadline date, but you will find out your results on the day of the test.
A bursary to cover the exam fee is available if you meet the eligibility criteria, otherwise the UCAT test fees for 2021 are as follows:
If you intend to apply for the bursary scheme, remember to check the application deadline above.
It’s important when booking your UCAT that you allow yourself adequate time to prepare for the exam; the UCAT website advises six plus weeks, aiming to complete approximately one hour per day during this time, rather than longer sessions over a shorter period.
It’s vital that you prepare well for the exam, as you’re only able to sit the UCAT once per year and therefore you’ll be unable to resit the test for your application for 2022. Remember, you will be aware of your UCAT results prior to submitting your UCAS application, so you can ensure that your UCAT result meets the entry requirement for your chosen medical schools; however, a better score will give you more options of medical schools and being well prepared will help you to achieve this. For more information on preparing for the UCAT see our UCAT Preparation blog.
Your UCAT score is not the only deciding factor of whether you get a place in medical school, so be sure to read Whatuni's blog outlining the full entry requirements to study medicine.
Everyone prepares for exams in different ways: you may already be confident in your revision techniques or you may still be exploring what works best for you, either way the following tips will support you to prepare for the UCAT:
UCAT sample questions or question banks will help you to familiarise yourself with the types of questions you will find in each subtest. They are a great way to develop your responses to questions and explore how you can improve your answers, while allowing you to develop confidence without the time pressure. UCAT sample questions are particularly useful at the early part of your UCAT preparations.
UCAT practice tests are also an essential element of your exam preparations, as you are able to mimic the exam experience with full mock tests which are timed. This will support you to develop your ability to complete the questions within the time limit and provide a more realistic expectation of your UCAT result under test conditions. For more information on practising for the UCAT see our UCAT Practice blog.
Our UCAT question bank provides you with the opportunity to explore both UCAT sample questions and practice mock tests. Not only that, but powered by artificial intelligence, it provides a personalised learning experience, by adapting to your strengths and weaknesses, and ensuring that your learning is focused on the areas which you need to improve. This means that you’ll be answering questions that are at the appropriate level and tailored to your learning needs, to improve your learning outcomes and have a positive impact on your UCAT result.
As mentioned previously, the UCAT is separated into five subtests, to assess different skills required for entry into the medical profession. More information about each subtest, including what is assessed and how, is below:
Number of Questions: 44
TIme Limit: 21 Minutes Test Time (plus a 1 Minute Instruction Section)
The UCAT Verbal Reasoning subtest assesses your ability to interpret passages of text and draw specific conclusions from the information presented. This is designed to assess skills needed when interpreting medical reports, critically evaluating written materials and communicating complex information in an understandable way to patients.
The subtest contains eleven passages of text, each with 4 questions, resulting in 44 questions to answer within 21 minutes. There are two types of questions within this section of the test:
Number of Questions: 29
TIme Limit: 31 Minutes Test Time (plus a 1 Minute Instruction Section)
The UCAT Decision Making subtest assesses your ability to analyse complex information to make sound, logical decisions. This is designed to assess your problem-solving skills and your ability to make decisions within complex situations.
This subtest contains 29 individual questions: the questions may refer to data presented in text, charts, tables, graphs or diagrams, as well as additional information within the question itself. Again, there are two types of questions within this section of the test:
Number of Questions: 36
TIme Limit: 24 Minutes Test Time (plus a 1 Minute Instruction Section)
The UCAT Quantitative Reasoning subtest assesses your ability to apply mathematical skills in order to solve problems. This is designed to assess skills required for interpreting data and statistics, as well as practical drug calculations during practice.
The subtest contains 36 questions, all of which require you to solve problems linked to information presented in tables, charts and/or graphs. For each question you will need to select your answer from five options.
Number of Questions: 55
TIme Limit: 13 Minutes Test Time (plus a 1 Minute Instruction Section)
The UCAT Abstract Reasoning subtest assesses your ability to identify patterns and relationships between shapes. This is designed to assess your ability to identify which information is reliable and relevant and make judgements based on this, as you would be required to do when making judgements or diagnoses when presented with symptoms and/or results from a patient.
The subtest contains 55 questions based on sets of shapes. There are four question types within the subtest:
Number of Questions: 69
TIme Limit: 26 Minutes Test Time (plus a 1 Minute Instruction Section)
The UCAT Situational Judgement subtest assesses your capacity to understand real world situations and respond appropriately. It is designed to assess qualities and behaviours required in the medical profession, such as integrity, professionalism, teamwork and adaptability.
The subtest contains 22 scenarios, each with between 2 and 5 questions associated with them, equalling a total of 69 questions within this section. For each scenario you will need to consider the appropriateness of actions or the importance of considerations. There are two question types within the subtest:
For scoring purposes, Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning and Abstract Reasoning are grouped together as cognitive subtests. Each section is weighted equally within the cognitive subtests and therefore raw marks, of which the amount available per section varies, are converted into scale scores, so each subtest has a common range from 300 – 900.
The following table shows how the cognitive subtests are scored, according to the UCAT website:
The UCAT Situational Judgement subtest is scored separately to the cognitive subtests; rather than a scale score range, the raw scores for the Situational Judgement test are expressed as a band, graded band 1–4, with band 1 being the highest.
The UCAT website provides the following interpretation of performance for each band:
Your band for the Situational Judgement subtest will be considered separately to your cognitive subtests scaled scores on your medical school application. In both cases you should check the entry requirements for your chosen university and ensure your scores meet these before submitting your application.
Below is the mean scale scores for each of the cognitive subtests in 2020 (up to 25 October 2020), according to UCAT’s statistics:
Remember: each subtest has a scale score range of 300 – 900 and therefore the total scale score range is 1,200 – 3,600.
The UCAT reported statistics also identified that in 2020 a total of 34,153 candidates completed the UCAT, up until 25 October 2020.
What is considered a ‘good’ UCAT score will always vary depending on the calibre of students who undertake the exam each year. However, a general rule is scoring 20 – 30 marks per cognitive subtest above the average score. For example, a score considered ‘good’ for verbal reasoning within the 2020 UCAT results, where the average scale score for this subtest was 570, would be 590 – 600.
The UCAT entry criteria varies between different medical schools, as does the importance individual institutes place on the UCAT results when it comes to application selection. Your UCAT result will be provided to you after you complete the exam, therefore you can compare this to the entry criteria for different medical schools, to support you when choosing where to apply.
Our state of the art algorithms will take your UCAT preparation to the next level and help you progress faster than ever.
Prepare for the UCAT
Thousands of questions and comprehensive answers written specifically for UCAT preparation, with more getting added.
The Medistudents platform has been designed to replicate the actual exam, so you won’t get any surprises on the day.
Each question and explanation you receive will be chosen by our AI algorithm, specifically for you.
The only question bank available that tells you if you’re actually getting better and not just how many questions you’ve answered correctly.
We don’t just pick the questions for our mock exams at random, we follow a similar process to the actual exam board by calibrating every question for difficulty, based on the abilities of 100s of medical students. This means your score will be a much more accurate reflection of the real thing.
You can access our platform anywhere and it works on desktops, tablets and phones. This means you can revise at home or on the go.
When the Medistudents team were preparing for the UCAT, working out where to start was quite overwhelming. The online resources offered thousands of practice questions and lots of generic advice. However, the only way of getting help that was specifically targeted at you was by paying for expensive tutoring.
This didn’t seem right to us. The personalised learning you get with a tutor has been shown to improve exam results across all fields of education. So why when it came to the UCAT, an exam that is vital for medical school, should it only be available to those who could afford a tutor?
The good news is artificial intelligence has changed everything! Super smart algorithms can now identify exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie, ensuring that every minute of your revision is focused on areas that will have the biggest impact on your exam score.
Here at Medistudents we’ve used the latest educational technology and combined it with our deep understanding of the UCAT, to produce the first ever AI-powered, adaptive UCAT question bank.
Our sophisticated question bank platform will adapt seamlessly with every question you answer. As you improve, the type and difficulty of the questions you receive will change with you, ensuring that at all times, you only receive the most relevant questions.
We know that once you’ve tried our adaptive UCAT question bank, you’ll want to tell your friends about it.
To make this easier, we’re giving every student who signs up a unique referral code to give to their friends.
Your friends will benefit with an exclusive discount and you’ll earn money every time someone signs up using your code.
The Medistudents team has been creating educational resources for medical students and doctors for years. We’ve helped thousands of students pass their exams and we’ve put all of that experience into our UCAT question bank.
We stay up to date on all the latest educational science, so you can be sure that the techniques we use are state of the art.
We’ve kept things simple with our subscription plans. All of our prices are kept affordable to ensure that everyone has access to all the resources they need to get into medical school.
If for any reason you’re not satisfied, all of our subscriptions come with a 100% money back guarantee.
As you progress through the question bank, our algorithm will be performing complicated statistical analyses of the way you answer questions. All of our questions have been tested on hundreds of 1st year medical students so the algorithm knows exactly how difficult each question is.
The algorithm looks at how you answer questions across a range of different difficulties to work out what your current ability level is.
Every question in our database has been tagged based on the skills required to answer it and its difficulty level. Once the algorithm has worked out what your ability level is and the areas you need to target, it ensures that the questions you receive focus on these areas. As you get better, the algorithm adapts with you, moving you onto new areas based on your needs.
Every single question in our question bank is written specifically for UCAT preparation and is reviewed by our editorial team to ensure it is as close a match as possible to the UCAT standard. We don’t borrow questions that have been written to prepare for other exams. In addition to this, all of our questions are calibrated by 100s of first year medical students who have recently taken the UCAT, which allows us to remove any outliers and ensure consistency.
If your exam gets delayed by COVID, we’ll extend your subscription for free until the new date of your exam.
