UCAT Decision Making

You need to have a good strategy for the decision making section of the UCAT, as these questions can trip you up

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In the decision making part of the UCAT test, you’ll have to apply logic to make a decision, evaluate arguments or analyse statistical information.

This section can trip you up if you’re not familiar with it, so practising questions is one of the best ways to prepare.

What Is The Decision Making Section?

The decision making section requires you to use logic and reasoning to solve textual and visual data-related questions.

It requires you to solve questions that have corresponding text or visual data. There are 29 questions that need to be answered in 31 minutes.

You’ll have access to a basic on-screen calculator for this section.

It replaced decision analysis in 2017.

UCAT Decision Making Questions

In this section there are two types of question:

Multiple Choice: Four answer options, where only one option will be correct.
Yes/No Statements: state ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for each answer.

Decision making questions are designed to test your application of reasoning and logic to a problem, and assess your ability to evaluate different arguments and gain information using statistics. It’s important because, as a Doctor, you’ll be faced with complex situations and have to make difficult decisions.

Average Decision Making Scores

The average decision making over the last four years is 629. Last year’s average score was very close to this, at 625.

Average Decision Making Scores	2017	2018	2019	2020
	647	624	618	625

Find out more about how the UCAT is scored.

UCAT Decision Making Tips

These tips will help you see how to improve your UCAT decision making score:

Familiarise Yourself With Graphs. You may encounter questions that involve statistics, so you should familiarise yourself with interpreting graphs and tables.
Review A-Level or GCSE papers. Look at old Biology or Maths papers to revise how to interpret information presented in graphs.
Read, Read, Read. It’s crucial to be able to read texts and interpret the information given. Pay attention to the language. Are statements presented as a certainty or likelihood? Does the associated argument logically address the statement? There are often clues in the language used. Reading statements and questions closely is vital.
Don’t Jump To Conclusions. Although some conclusions may follow logically, unless something is explicitly stated in the passage given, don’t draw conclusions based on your prior knowledge.

Watch these tips for decision making from one of our Tutors:

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