UCAT PREPARATION

UCAT Practice Questions

WRITTEN BY
Medistudents Team
Jan 29, 2024

Maximise your UCAT score using the power of artificial intelligence.

The Medibuddy 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.

"The question bank really mirrored the real UCAT exam style. It was very comprehensive and helpful. I have used many other ones where they used almost the same questions but your question bank was completely unique"

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Our UCAT QUESTION BANK IS POWERED BY

Does any of this sound like you?

  • I keep answering UCAT questions but don’t seem to be improving.
  • I need to score well in the UCAT but don’t have time to answer thousands of questions.
  • I don’t know which areas of the UCAT to focus on.

What if you could...

  • Have questions hand-picked for you based on your individual strengths and weaknesses.
  • Save countless hours by not wasting time on topics that won’t improve your exam score.
  • See a sophisticated analysis of your skill level for each area of the UCAT.

The Medibuddy AI-powered UCAT question bank provides this and more.

Introducing

The free state-of-the-art, Medibuddy AI-Powered adaptive UCAT question bank

Desktop and mobile screenshot of the adaptive UCAT question bank

“The new [Medibuddy] adaptive UCAT question bank made my revision much more efficient and it helped me get better and quicker at answering questions”

“I used the Abstract Reasoning section as I found the website the night before my test and I was pretty bad at AR. In my official exam my AR was my 2nd best section at 860! Overall, I thought the website was a very useful resource from what I saw and I liked the algorithm that showed skill in particular question types.”

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Why use the Medibuddy adaptive UCAT question bank?

Did 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 Medibuddy 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.

More than a just question bank that tells you the correct answers

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 Medibuddy UCAT question bank is the only one available which shows you if you’re actually getting better at answering harder questions.

Many UK medical schools include the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) as part of their entry criteria. Therefore, to be successful in the selection process for these universities, it’s essential that you prepare well for the UCAT and achieve a score that meets or exceeds their entry score. UCAT practice questions should be a key element of your exam preparation.

A full list of the medical schools which include the UCAT in their admissions process can be found in our Medicine Entry Requirements blog.

What is the UCAT?

As you may already be aware, the UCAT is a 2-hour computer-based exam delivered in Pearson VUE test centres throughout the UK and internationally. It is designed to test your mental ability, characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours, rather than academic ability or prior knowledge.

You can only sit the exam once per year, so the score you achieve will be used for your UCAS application, which may make you feel a lot of pressure to perform on the day of the exam. While this is naturally daunting, it’s important to remember that whatever your score there will be options available to you. You’ll also be aware of your score before submitting your UCAS application, so you can adapt your application or change your chosen universities, if required. However, preparing well for the UCAT will make you feel more confident going into the exam, improve your UCAT score and ultimately widen your options when applying to medical school. Preparation is key for the UCAT – for more information read our UCAT Preparation blog or our quick tips for preparing.

Below is some useful information on practising for UCAT; we also have a UCAT 2024 – Complete Guide with more details on the UCAT, how to register and key dates for doing so, and what’s included in each subtest.

Before you start practising for the UCAT, we recommend you watch this excellent video on mentally preparing for the exam.

How long to prepare for UCAT

Practicing for the UCAT

There's a lot of different advice around how long you should revise for UCAT and how much practice is needed within this time. From your experience of revising for your A Levels, you probably have a good idea of what works best. Consider how long you’re most productive and how frequently you will study, and use this to guide you to adapt the recommended practice time to be most effective for you.

The UCAT website advises six weeks to fully prepare for the exam. It’s recommended that you do ‘little and often’ each day – approximately one hour of study time – and build up as you get closer to your exam date. Alternatively, there is advice from former students stating that four weeks is sufficient, but bear in mind that you’ll need to commit to studying for more extended periods each day.

Whether you decide to allow yourself longer to prepare for the exam, or to condense your studying into a shorter period of time, create a study plan to ensure you dedicate enough time to practising for the UCAT. And whatever timescale you have, you can use the free Medibuddy UCAT question bank, to help take your UCAT preparation to the next level.

How many practice questions before UCAT

There isn’t a set number of practice questions you should complete before undertaking the UCAT. The important thing is to allow yourself adequate time to practice for each subtest and become confident in all areas. The level of practice will vary depending on your strengths and weakness, with some subtests requiring more practice than others, and some individuals requiring more study time than others.

The UCAT website states that the highest scoring candidates spend 25 – 30 hours preparing for the UCAT. This information, along with the time scales given above, should support you to plan an effective study timetable, allowing enough time to prepare well for the test.

How to prepare for UCAT

Whilst it’s important to focus on practice questions, there are other things which will help you to build a solid foundation when studying for the UCAT.

1. Make sure you are familiar with the test functions

The last thing you want during a timed exam, or even when practising under timed conditions, is to waste time figuring out how to navigate the system. Becoming familiar with the functions used in the UCAT exam, including how to answer and review questions on the system, will save you valuable time during the test. The UCAT website has a ‘Tour Tutorial’ which allows you to explore these functions

2. Familiarise yourself with the different subtests

Understanding what is required in each of the five subtests within the UCAT will allow you to prepare for the questions and develop strategies to support you. Our UCAT Practice Test has a breakdown of each subtest, including the types of questions you will be given and the timings for each.

The UCAT does not require you to demonstrate your academic ability or to learn new theory, rather the questions are designed to showcase aptitude, and so your UCAT preparations should concentrate on developing techniques to support you to answer these questions.

Understanding the best strategies for each subtest, before throwing yourself into practice tests, will help you to answer the questions more effectively and prevent you from forming inefficient methods. There are plenty of books available which provide advice on different strategies to use; these can be great for providing practical ways to tackle each subtest, just make sure that you use your time well and avoid aimlessly flicking through a book rather than drawing out methods to support your study.

3. Brush up on your maths skills

While the UCAT does not aim to test your academic ability, strong maths skills will support you in several areas within the exam, including the decision making and quantitative reasoning subtests. Quick mental arithmetic will also save you valuable time during the test, so it’s well worth making time to practise your maths skills if you need to.

4. Make a comprehensive study plan

When it comes to creating a study plan for preparing for the UCAT, it’s worth investing more time to develop a plan which outlines the focus and/or the content of each study period, rather than simply timetabling sessions when you will practice for the test. This will help you ensure you have full coverage and spend adequate time on each subtest.

To achieve the best scores, it’s advised that you study regularly during your UCAT preparations, and only focus on one subtest during each study session, to enable you to cover it fully.

It’s unlikely that you’ll need equal study time for each subtest, as naturally you will have areas of strength and weakness, so ensure that you take this into consideration and plan additional time to develop your weaker areas. You may not automatically know which subtests you’ll find more challenging, but once you start completing practice questions this should become clear, so don’t be afraid to adapt your plan as you go. Making a note of particular questions or subtests that you’re finding more difficult will help you identify areas you need to focus on more.

The free, adaptive, Medibuddy UCAT question bank does the hard work for you, automatically showing how you’re performing in each area of the UCAT, with your calculated skill level. This allows you to see at a glance the areas which you need to spend more time on.

UCAT Question Bank

UCAT Practice Questions

UCAT practice questions will give you the opportunity to become familiar with the different types of questions within the five subtests. Practice questions are particularly useful during the early part of your UCAT preparations, as they allow you to build your confidence and practice applying different techniques or strategies to determine the most effective method for you. Completing practice questions, without the pressure of a full timed practice test, allows you to develop your responses to different types of questions and explore how you can improve your answers.

Alternatively, if you want to measure how you’re doing against the time restrictions without completing a full practice test, try setting a timer while completing a set of practice questions and noting how many you answered in the given time. You can then compare this against the number of questions set for that subtest and continue answering questions after the timer has gone; this allows you to still focus on individual subtests while measuring the time taken to complete questions. This is a good method to support you to gradually move towards trying full practice tests for the UCAT and feeling confident that you can complete them in the set time.

Below is a reminder of the number of questions and the time allocated to each subtest:

Subtest Number of Questions Test Time (plus a 1 Minute Instruction Section)
UCAT Verbal Reasoning 44 21
UCAT Decision Making 29 31
UCAT Quantitative Reasoning 36 25
UCAT Abstract Reasoning 50 12
UCAT Situational Judgement 69 26

UCAT practice questions are also useful for identifying areas or subtests that you are struggling with and any mistakes you’re making, which will help you continue to improve. Often with a full practice test you’ll only be given your overall score, not which questions you answered correctly or incorrectly, therefore you’re unable to identify errors and ways to learn from them.

The free, adaptive, Medibuddy UCAT question bank allows you to explore practice questions at your own pace, while our AI-powered algorithm ensures that you’re given questions at a suitably challenging level and focusing on areas which are likely to have the biggest impact on your UCAT score.

UCAT Free Practice

For free practice questions, check out the free Medibuddy UCAT question bank, where you can answer questions across each of the UCAT subtests.

Contents

Thousands of questions and comprehensive answers written specifically for UCAT preparation, with more getting added.

The Medibuddy 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.

COMING SOON

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 Medibuddy 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 Medibuddy 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.

A resource you can trust

The Medibuddy 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.

How is our UCAT Question Bank free?

We know how expensive applying to medicine can be, so we do our bit by keeping our UCAT question bank FREE.

We’re able to do this by charging a little more on our educational courses and question banks for qualified doctors. We strongly believe that no one should be priced out of medicine. Our doctors agree and are happy to subsidise our educational resources for students.

AI-POWERED, ADAPTIvE

UCAT Question Bank

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More Information

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the algorithm work out what my ability level is?

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.

How does the algorithm know what questions to give me?

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.

How similar to the UCAT are the Medibuddy questions and explanations?

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.