UCAT Abstract Reasoning

What Is The Abstract Reasoning Section?

The abstract reasoning section tests your abilities to evaluate and generate hypotheses and assesses critical thinking skills. This is important because Doctors deal with both reliable and unreliable information, and they need to make judgements based on possible diagnoses from test results.

You’ll be presented with shape-based patterns and sequences to assess your spatial awareness and reasoning.

There are 55 multiple choice questions, divided into 13-question sets. With 13 minutes to answer everything, this gives you just one minute per set.

Types Of Abstract Reasoning Questions

There are four question types in this section:

• Type one: two ‘sets’ of shapes (Set A and Set B), followed by five ‘test shapes’. You must decide if the ‘test shapes’ fit Set A, Set B or neither set.

• Type two: a series of shapes that alternate from one box to the next. You need to state which of the four shapes would follow in the sequence.

• Type three: a ‘statement’ of two sets of shapes, where one has been changed to create a new set. You need to apply the same change to a set of test shapes and then choose which of the four options follows.

• Type four: like type one, but you’ll be presented with four ‘test shapes’ simultaneously and will need to decide which one of the four belongs to Set A or B.

Average Abstract Reasoning Scores

The average abstract reasoning score over the last six years is 638. Last year (in 2020), the average score was much better than in previous years, at 653.

For more on UCAT scoring, check out our UCAT Scores page.

Abstract Reasoning Strategies

The first strategy you need to unlock is the process for tackling every question. The key steps are:

1. Ignore the test shape
2. Look at the simplest box
3. Identify the pattern
4. Try to match to a test shape

We teach you how to identify the pattern in our UCAT courses. We tell you how you can work out what the shapes and patterns could be, and give you a mnemonic to help you remember the process.

You also need to learn when you should flag the question and move on so that you can review it at the end and not waste time.

However, you may not be aware that there are likely patterns and variances for the abstract reasoning subtest. This means you can learn what’s most likely to come up in the test. Once you’ve developed this abstract reasoning skill, you’ll be able to tackle any AR question!

Example Abstract Reasoning Question

Watch the video below for the answer, plus an explanation of how to tackle this example abstract reasoning question.

More Abstract Reasoning Tips

In our recent UCAT webinar, we walked through some tips for the abstract reasoning subtest – and we explained what the answer was to the above example question.