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The interim 2024 UCAT scores contain data from the start of the 2024 testing period up to 15th September. By this point, 20,066 candidates had taken the test. It is anticipated that a further 18,000 candidates will take the test before the end of the testing period.
The UCAT website emphasises that: ‘Candidates should use these figures as a rough guide to judge their own performance as these numbers will change as the testing cycle progresses.’ Final data will be released after testing ends.
In the interim results for 2024, the total mean UCAT score is 2,516.
The interim mean scores for each section are:
When you compare this to last year’s interim UCAT scores, the interim scores for Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning are higher this year (612 this year for VR vs 600 last year; 666 this year vs 664 last year for QM). Abstract reasoning scores are also up slightly from 665 to 668 this year.
However, decision Making is slightly down (635 this year vs 636 last year).
The interim results for Situational Judgement are:
Compared to last year’s interim results, a lot fewer test-takers have achieved Band 1 in Situational Judgement this year – 14% this year vs. 27% last year, and slightly more students scored in Band 4, 12% vs 8% last year.
These are the interim deciles for the 2024 UCAT test:
As you would expect from the only slightly higher overall mean score, the deciles haven’t moved much from last year. The biggest leap in scores are at the 9th decile, where the threshold has risen to 2990 from 2940 last year.
There are a few significant things that we have found from the interim 2024 results.
By 15 September 20,066 candidates had taken the UCAT, with another 18,000 expected to do so before the end of the cycle. This amounts to a total expected number of 38,066.
This is around 2,000 more than the 36,334 who sat the UCAT test last year. However, there were actually slightly fewer candidates who sat the UCAT by September 15th this year compared to last.
The increase comes from the 18,000 student still estimated to sit the UCAT by the end of the cycle: at the same time last year, UCAT estimated only 16,000 additional test takers.
UCAT have a good track record predicting the total number of test takers so it is worth taking seriously, and an extra 2,000 students sitting the UCAT is a noticeable jump.
Last year saw a 30 point jump in VR scores, so this year’s 12 point increase is less noticeable. But it is the area where scores have jumped more.
This is important because universities such as Nottingham double-weight the Verbal Reasoning section of the UCAT when choosing candidates for interview.
So if you are making an application to Nottingham, you will need to make sure that your Verbal Reasoning score is strong enough to make a competitive application based on this year’s scores, rather than basing your performance on previous years.
Last year saw a big increase in SJT scores, which has been partially reversed this year with fewer students in band 1 and more in band 4.
There are many medical schools, such as Hull or Kent and Medway, that state they will rule out candidates who score a Band 4 in the SJT.
More candidates will therefore be ruled out of the competition due to lower SJT scores; consequently, if you do have a higher SJT score, it might be prudent to consider an application to universities that take more account of SJT scores.
Last year we saw that the actual mean UCAT score was lower than the preliminary mean score, and we expect this will probably happen again this year.
For 2023, the preliminary mean score was 2,568 but the actual mean score ended up as 2,516. If this year’s preliminary mean score is 2,582 then we’d expect to see the actual mean score somewhere in the range of 2,510 to 2,540 once testing has finished.
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