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The biggest change is the removal of one of the five subtests, Abstract Reasoning, plus a few minor changes to the remaining sections in terms of allocated timings and question numbers.
The UCAT used to last 2 hours, but as the section removed was only 12 minutes long, this difference in time has been mostly made up by adjustments in timings to other sections.
From 2025, the standard UCAT will last just under 2 hours.
To recap, here is a brief description of what the different UCAT subtests assess:
The scoring for each section will remain the same, with a score between 300 and 900 for the first three sections and a standalone band score from 1-4 for the SJT.
Overall scores will now be between 900 to 2700 with an SJT band, compared to the previous range of 900 to 3600 with an SJT band.
The decision to remove the Abstract Reasoning (AR) section of the UCAT was based upon two factors: predictive validity and coachability.
Predictive validity is the extent to which a test score accurately predicts a predetermined criteria, which in this case is candidate performance at university.
Research (such as Bela et al., 2022 and Paton et al., 2022) suggests that, compared to the other subsections of the UCAT, Abstract Reasoning is poorer at predicting students’ future university performance and therefore is not as useful as other screening measures for applicants.
Coachability is the degree to which an individual can be taught or trained to perform better in a certain skill. In this case, data suggests that in comparison to other subsections, students’ performance has increased in AR over time and that the more training individuals have, the higher they score.
The UCAT is an aptitude test, meaning it aims to assess candidates’ underlying ability in certain skills as opposed to their knowledge or experience. As AR demonstrates higher coachability, performance may depend more on factors such as education and tuition, which may be influenced by socioeconomic status, and thus is deemed as a less fair measure of aptitude.
Prior to 2025, the standard test gave candidates 1 minute of instruction time prior to each subtest. As most people have practiced the UCAT in advance of taking the test, they are familiar with the section’s format and so will not need this time to read the instructions.
However, this time is valuable as a small breather between the sections, which are typically cognitively intense. From 2025, instruction times will be 1 minute 30 seconds – with the exception of quantitative reasoning, which is 2 minutes.
This small change will give candidates a slightly longer break between the different subtests of the UCAT.
Minor adjustments to the timings and number of questions have been made to the remaining subsections of the UCAT.
This ranges, from no changes to the Situational Judgement Test, to an increase of 6 questions and a corresponding increase of 6 minutes in the Decision Making section.
These changes have implications for how much time is allocated per question in each test. A summary of changes to each section can be found below:
Prior to 2025:
From 2025:
Prior to 2025:
From 2025:
Prior to 2025:
From 2025:
No change:
You can find further information about each of the remaining UCAT sections, Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning and Situational Judgement, on our website.
Additionally, The Medic Portal provides extensive support for applicants wishing to take the UCAT, including online courses, 1-to-1 tuition and a comprehensive question bank for practice.
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