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 and you’ll have access to a basic on-screen calculator for this section.
There are 29 decision making UCAT questions that need to be answered in 31 minutes.
In this section there are two types of question:
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.
The decision making subtest is marked differently from the rest of the UCAT:
Your marks will then be converted to a scale score and this will be your actual UCAT score.
For 2021 the average decision making score in the UK was 610 and 622 in Australia and New Zealand
Last year a good decision making UCAT score would have been anything above 620. A high decision making score would put you in the eight decile or higher and according to 2021 test statistics, that would be a score of 700+.
Average Decision Making Scores | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
647 | 624 | 618 | 625 | 622 |
Average Decision Making Scores | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
---|---|---|---|
618 | 635 | 622 |
There are a series of tips and techniques for each type of question. You need to learn:
These are all covered extensively in our live UCAT Course and Online UCAT Course.
It’s important to know that most people struggle with the decision making subtest because they haven’t had enough practice. It’s really essential that you work through as many DR questions as you can, in order to get comfortable with this style.
To improve productivity, should the NHS make uniforms for all Doctors?
Select the strongest argument from the statements below:
Watch the video below for the answer – and to find out how to approach this question.
We covered this example question in our UCAT webinar – and gave you some tips for how to tackle the decision making subtest. Watch the DM clip below:
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