This section of the tutorial will present example questions from each subtest so you can familiarise yourself with the onscreen format. You can practise selecting answers and flagging questions for review.

The UKCAT consists of 5 subtests:

o Verbal Reasoningo Quantitative Reasoningo Abstract Reasoningo Decision Analysiso Situational Judgement

Quantitative Reasoning assesses your ability to use numerical skills to solve problems. It assumes familiarity with numbers to the standard of a good pass at GCSE. However items are less to do with numerical facility and more to do with problem solving.

The table shows the total tax paid ($) on annual taxable income.

For example, a person with an annual taxable income of $60,000 will pay $4990 plus 25% of ($60,000 - $36,250)

Cory has an annual taxable income equivalent to $2,500 per month.She wants to save enough money each month to pay her tax for the year.  The minimum amount, to the nearest $, that Cory has to save each month is:

 A: $250

 B: $263

 C: $338

 D: $341

 E: $375

Abstract Reasoning assesses your ability to identify patterns amongst abstract shapes where irrelevant and distracting material may lead to incorrect conclusions. The test therefore measures your ability to change track, critically evaluate and generate hypotheses and requires you to query judgements as you go along.

 A: Set A

 B: Set B

 C: Neither

Decision Analysis assesses the  ability to make decisions in situations of uncertainty. It requires  candidates to make informed judgements with information that is incomplete, complex and ambiguous. Using a deciphering scenario, the test

requires a move from logical reasoning to decisions requiring increasing degrees of judgement. The associated confidence rating for each item asks you to rate how confident you feel about the response you have provided.   It

measures your awareness of your own decision making.

Ancient Tomb Codes

An ancient tomb contains strange hieroglyphics which a team is working to decipher. You can join the team once you have demonstrated that you understand the codes. The codes that the team have managed to decode so far are presented in the table below. You can demonstrate your understanding by examining particular codes or sentences and then choosing one from five possible interpretations.

Sometimes the information you have will be incomplete or unusual but there is always some sense to the message. You will therefore need to make your best judgement based on the codes rather than what you might expect or what you think is reasonable.

There is always a “best” answer, which makes the most sense based on all the information presented but bear in mind that this test is about making judgements rather than simply applying rules and logic.

Now read the three additional tabbed pages which provide further information about the coding system and examples. Once you have read these pages, answer the questions that follow. When you have answered each question, click on the Next button to proceed.

Example 1

Here is an example that will give you an idea of how the codes work.

Look at this coded message: 11, 5, 3

Literally the code combines these words “today, water, air”. Now look at these sentences:

A) It is wet today

B) I feel light but wet

C) Water is as light as air

D) It is cloudy today

E) Today it is raining

All the answers can be linked to the codes to some degree. You need to decide on the most reasonable interpretation. Taking “today, water, air” we could infer that “today there is water in the air”. Answer A makes use of water and today but makes no use of the code 3 (air). Options B, C and D all bring in unnecessary extra interpretations and so the best answer is E because it gives the simplest message whilst, nevertheless, using all the coded information. This example demonstrates how codes combine to create a new but related concept - air and water becomes rain. In this test you will need to appreciate that ideas from this different culture can appear unusual and so there are times when you will need to suspend your own knowledge in order to decipher these codes.

Example 2

Look at this coded message: 1, 13, B(12C)

Literally the code combines these words “personal, bag, increase(light, opposite)”. The brackets are used to group particular words and so here the code “increase” is applied to the “opposite of light”. Now look at these sentences:

A) I carry my own personal bag

B) My bag is very light

C) My bag is heavy

D) My bag makes me very heavy

E) My bag is very heavy

A) Is incorrect because it ignores code 12 (light) and introduces “carry”.

B) Is incorrect because it combines personal and bag as “my bag” but does not use the code B (increase).

C) Is incorrect because it combines personal and bag as “my bag”, uses code C (opposite) to change “light” to “heavy” but does not use the code B (increase).

D) Is incorrect because it uses code C (opposite) to change “light” to “heavy” which could be applied to either “me” or “bag”. If in doubt, a code applies to other codes that are closer together.

E) Is correct because it uses all codes and gives the simplest reasonable message.

At times in this test you will be asked to make more subtle judgements than in these examples. The order of the codes can sometimes give a clue as to the best interpretation but you will find that the order is sometimes jumbled up. There will also be times when information appears to be missing and you will need to make a judgement to fill the gap.

What is the best interpretation of the following coded message:

11, 12, 7

 A: Today it is bright and sunny

 B: The light from the sun is brighter than usual

 C: Today the sun came up

 D: Today the sun’s rays have a strange hue

 E: The sun is floating in the sky

How confident are you that the answer you gave was right?

right?

Low1 

 2 

 3 

 4 

High5 

Situational Judgement measures your capacity to understand real world situations and to identify critical factors and appropriate behaviour in dealing with them. It consists of a series of scenarios with possible actions and considerations.  

The questions do not require medical or procedural knowledge.

Greg, a dental student, is taking part in a clinical placement with two other students, Marek and Amy. They are all friends. One morning, Amy makes, what Greg interprets to be, an inappropriate joke in front of Marek. Marek does not say anything but he appears to be upset.

How appropriate  are each of the following responses by  Greg  in this situation?

Wait until Amy is not there and then ask Marek how he felt about the joke

 A: A very appropriate thing to do

 B: Appropriate, but not ideal

 C: Inappropriate, but not awful

 D: A very inappropriate thing to do

Abstract ReasoningThe information below may be subject to change.  Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.Abstract Reasoning assesses your ability to identify patterns amongst abstract shapes where irrelevant and distracting material may lead to incorrect conclusions. The test therefore measures your ability to change track, critically evaluate and generate hypotheses and requires you to query judgements as you go along. 

Time Items

14 minutes (one minute for instruction, thirteen minutes for items)

55 items associated with sets of shapes

 Why Abstract Reasoning?When considering possible diagnoses, medical practitioners may be presented with a set of symptoms and/or results. Some information may be more reliable, more relevant and clearer than other information. Doctors and Dentists need to make judgements about such information, identifying the information which will help them reach conclusions. Carrying out research involving data often involves identifying patterns in results in order to generate further hypotheses.  Abstract Reasoning ItemsThere are 4 different item types in the UKCAT test. You may see one or two of these item types:

For type 1, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled “Set A” and “Set B”. You will be given a test shape and asked to decide whether the test shape belongs to Set A, Set B, or Neither.

For type 2, you will be presented with a series of shapes. You will be asked to select the next shape in the series.

For type 3, you will be presented with a statement, involving a group of shapes. You will be asked to determine which shape completes the statement.

For type 4, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled “Set A” and “Set B”. You will be asked to select which of the four response options belongs to Set A or Set B.  

 

 

 

Quantitative ReasoningThe information below may be subject to change.  Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.The Quantitative Reasoning subtest assesses your ability to use numerical skills to solve problems. It assumes familiarity with numbers to the standard of a good pass at GCSE. However items are less to do with numerical facility and more to do with problem solving. 

Time Items

25 minutes (one minute for instruction and twenty-four minutes for items)

36 items associated with tables, charts, and/or graphs

 

Why Quantitative Reasoning?Doctors and dentists are constantly required to review data and apply it to their own practice. On a practical level drug calculations based on patient weight, age and other factors have to be correct. At a more advanced level, clinical research requires an ability to interpret, critique and apply results presented in the form of complex statistics. Universities considering applicants need to know they have the aptitude to cope in these situations. Quantitative Reasoning ItemsYou are required to solve problems by extracting relevant information from tables and other numerical presentations. For each item, you may be presented with four items that relate to that table, chart or graph. For each item, there are five answer options to choose from. Your task is to choose the best option. 

 A simple on-screen calculator is available for use in this section. The calculator is integrated into the practice tests and we strongly recommend that candidates familiarise themselves with using it.  The calculator will look similar to this:

Abstract ReasoningThe information below may be subject to change.  Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.Abstract Reasoning assesses your ability to identify patterns amongst abstract shapes where irrelevant and distracting material may lead to incorrect conclusions. The test therefore measures your ability to change track, critically evaluate and generate hypotheses and requires you to query judgements as you go along. 

Time Items

14 minutes (one minute for instruction, thirteen minutes for items)

55 items associated with sets of shapes

 Why Abstract Reasoning?When considering possible diagnoses, medical practitioners may be presented with a set of symptoms and/or results. Some information may be more reliable, more relevant and clearer than other information. Doctors and Dentists need to make judgements about such information, identifying the information which will help them reach conclusions. Carrying out research involving data often involves identifying patterns in results in order to generate further hypotheses.  Abstract Reasoning ItemsThere are 4 different item types in the UKCAT test. You may see one or two of these item types:

For type 1, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled “Set A” and “Set B”. You will be given a test shape and asked to decide whether the test shape belongs to Set A, Set B, or Neither.

For type 2, you will be presented with a series of shapes. You will be asked to select the next shape in the series.

For type 3, you will be presented with a statement, involving a group of shapes. You will be asked to determine which shape completes the statement.

For type 4, you will be presented with two sets of shapes labelled “Set A” and “Set B”. You will be asked to select which of the four response options belongs to Set A or Set B.  

 

 

 

Decision AnalysisThe information below may be subject to change.  Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.The Decision Analysis Test assesses the ability to make decisions in situations of uncertainty. It requires candidates to make informed judgements with information that is incomplete, complex and ambiguous. Using a deciphering scenario, the test requires a move from logical reasoning to decisions requiring increasing degrees of judgement.The associated confidence rating for each item asks you to rate how confident you feel about the response you have provided.  It measures your awareness of your own decision making. 

Time Items

32 minutes (one minute for instruction and thirty-one minutes for items)

28 items associated with one scenario, each with a related Confidence Rating

 Unlike the other subtests, in Decision Analysis each item must be answered in order.  A warning message will appear if you have not selected both an answer and a confidence rating and you will be prevented from proceeding to the next question.  Why Decision Analysis?The purpose of this test is to see how well you can make judgements when information is presented in non-standard and perhaps confusing formats. Medical Practitioners have to make sense of medical histories which contain information in different formats and are often incomplete. Information in journals may be presented in unfamiliar formats and you will need to draw conclusions from this. Why Confidence Ratings?In 2014, UKCAT is trialling the use of Confidence Ratings in this subtest.  Results will not contribute to your score and will not be communicated to the Universities to which you apply.  The ability to self-monitor yourself in the process of learning and decision-making is considered as important as how you reason and make decisions.  Proper medical practice often relies on a keen awareness of the information, resources and your own ability.  Confidence Ratings have been added to the Decision Analysis test in an attempt to measure the awareness of candidates' capacity and self-monitoring skills.   Decision Analysis ItemsYou will be presented with one scenario, containing text, tables and other information with 28 items related to that information. Each item may have four or five response options. For some items, more than one option may be correct. In this case, you will be asked to identify all the correct options. Confidence Rating Items

Following each Decision Analysis item you will be asked to rate how confident you are that the answer you gave was right on a 5-point scale (low confidence to high confidence).  A response of 1 would mean that you are not very confident that you answered the corresponding item correctly and a response of 5 would indicate that you are very confident that you answered the corresponding item correctly.Use your best and honest judgement to indicate your confidence level.  The confidence rating is about how your self-reported confidence correlates to the Decision Analysis response.  Reporting high confidence on all items does not necessarily translate to good self-monitoring ability. 

Situational JudgementThe information below may be subject to change.  Details of the 2015 test programme will be updated in due course.The test measures your capacity to understand real world situations and to identify critical factors and appropriate behaviour in dealing with them.

Time Items

27 minutes (one minute for instruction and  twenty-six minutes for items)

67 items associated with 20 scenarios (consisting of between 3 and 6 items)

 Why Situational Judgement?The test assesses integrity, perspective taking and team involvement.  SJTs are used widely in medical selection, including selection of Foundation Doctors, GPs and other medical specialties. 

Situational Judgement Item TypesThe test consists of a series of scenarios with possible actions and considerations.  The questions do not require medical or procedural knowledge. This assessment consists of two sets of questions. For the first set you will be asked to rate the appropriateness of a series of options in response to the scenario. When considering how to respond to the scenario, an option is: 

a very appropriate thing to do if it will address at least one aspect (not necessarily all aspects) of the situation  appropriate, but not ideal if it could be done, but is not necessarily a very good thing to do inappropriate, but not awful if it should not really be done, but would not be terrible  a very inappropriate thing to do if it should definitely not be done and would make the situation worse 

A response should not be judged as if it is the only thing that is done. For example, if the wrong medication is provided to a patient, there are a number of steps that should be taken, including checking the patient is ok and assessing the patient medically. The response ‘ask the patient if they are ok’ should still be judged as appropriate. It should not be judged as if this is the only action that will be taken. 

For the second set you will be asked to rate the importance of a series of options in response to the scenario. When considering how to respond to the scenario, an option is:

very important if this is something that is vital to take into account important if this is something that is important but not vital to take into account of minor importance if this is something that could be taken into account, but it does not matter if it is considered or not not important at all if this is something that should definitely not be taken into account

 

UKCAT: Preparing For and Taking The TestAfter last week's post offering very little in the way of actual insight, I thought I'd offer up some proper advice this week. Enjoy.

Preparing to Take The Test:Firstly, there is no right way to prepare for the UKCAT. Some people can do very little, or even no preparation, but still score quite highly, while others need months of work to even come close. Before you start preparing, you'll need some resources. At the end of this post there's a list of useful links to loads of question banks and the such, so check it out. Personally, I used the 600Q book, which is full of tips and practice questions (obviously), plus getintomedicine's massive question bank, and Medify's free questions. For mock exams I used the official ones, the one in the book and Kaplan's free mock, links to all of which are below. I personally think that this is enough for most people, but if you're able to, and/or want more questions, you can pay to access Medify, Ace Medicine or Kaplan's online question banks. Ace Medicine and Kaplan, plus some others also run UKCAT prep courses, but these are mega expensive, and I think that with some determination (and by reading my advice below ;)) you can do just as good a job. Below is the technique that I used to prepare for the test. As already said, different things work for different people, this is just my advice based on what worked for me. 1. Start preparing about four weeks before your test date by trying some questions from each section without a time limit. This'll let you get a feel for answering the questions, and will let you start to develop techniques for each section.

2. Once you feel confident in answering questions untimed, you can add a time limit. Start at the normal time limit plus 50% or even 100%, and then gradually lower the time limit, until you can do questions well within the given time.

3. About two weeks before your test, evaluate where you are, by asking yourself how far you think you've come in the last two weeks, and how far you think you can go in the next two. If you think you'll need more time, then move your test back. There's no harm in doing it once (I did), just don't get to the point where you're moving your test back constantly, just because you can.

4. Also at the two week point, try a mock test. As most mocks don't score like the UKCAT will, you need to use the following equation to work out how well you did: (It's worth noting that this is not how the real exam is scored, so will only give an estimate).

(Number of correct answers/total number of questions) x 600 + 300

 

5. The mocks will highlight areas for you to improve upon, so do some more questions, practice different techniques, and try another mock (you might have a few, so space them out so that you aren't taking loads at once).

6. By this point, you should be feeling pretty confident, and ready for your test. Good luck, but first, read on for advice on how to tackle each section.

The Sections:Verbal Reasoning (VR) This is the section where you have to draw conclusions (True, False, Can't Tell) from a passage of text. It sounds quite straight forward, but the Devil's in the detail, so just make sure that you're definitely sure of your answer before you click next, and make full use of the "Flag for Review" button. Some more tips: Read the text first. Even if it's just a skim read, it'll give you valuable reference points when you get onto the questions, which should save you time

Don't use your own knowledge to try and answer questions- you shouln't be familiar with the content (it's not A level stuff or anything), but if you are, then for the purposes of the exam, consider the text as fact. Doing this catches a lot of people out- don't be one of them.

Quantitative Reasoning (QR)This is the maths section, and to give you an idea, the questions are about GCSE maths standard in terms of difficulty. There is an onscreen calculator for you to use (it's similar to the standard windows one) but if you sharpen your mental maths skills up first it'll save you valuable time in the exam. Also, if you use the 600Q book to prepare- don't worry- the questions are far, far easier than the book makes out.

Abstract Reasoning (AR)This section has changed this year. There are now four different question types; when I sat the test there was only one. From what I've seen though, it seems that the same skills are being tested, so any old test material should still be usable to practice spotting patterns, just don't rely on it and then get caught out by the new style questions on the day. A useful anagram for spotting patterns is:

C olourA nglesT ypeS hapeP ositionE dgesN umberI ntersectionsS ymmetries

A large part of this section is spotting the pattern- once you've done that you can take just a few seconds per question, to judge where it belongs. Finally, if you're running out of time, just guess! You aren't negatively marked for a wrong answer, so you might be able to pick up a few extra marks- this goes for all sections.

Decision Analysis (DA)This section gives you a table of codes, and you have to interpret "sentences" written in the code into English. This section has changed this year. But not massively. The only difference is the addition of trial confidence ratings. They won't affect your score for 2014 entry, but bear in mind that they are likely to be "live" from next year, so you may need to take them into account. Make sure that you use the whiteboard to its full extent in this section- I wrote out what the code literally meant, and then tried to infer the answer from there. Take your time- I always had loads left over- as there can sometimes only be the tiniest of differences between answers.

Situational Judgement (SJT)This section is new for 2013, but was trialled last year, so I sat it. From what I remember though, it was quite straightforward- you are given a scenario, and have to rate how appropriate a given action would be. Timing seemed quite generous, and it'll be considered separately to the other sections, so just relax, and think logically about what you'd do in that situation.

Useful Links:These are the sites that I used to prepare for the UKCAT, plus some others that you might find useful:

The Official Website You should already know about this site, but it's full of useful information on each of the sections, plus includes two full length official mock exams, plus a shorter one.

The 600Q Book While it doesn't include the new style AR questions, or any SJT, it's still good for VR, QR and DA, and has a good

mock exam and some solid advice for all the sections. If you use just one UKCAT resource, make it this one.

Get into Medicine This site has hundreds of UKCAT questions, plus tips and tutorials and more advice on applications than you can shake a stick at. It's an excellent website, so get on it.

ukcathelp.org I don't think that this website existed last year so I didn't use it, but it's been getting very good reviews on TSR, and is definitely worth a look. A word of caution though: since originally writing this post, it has come to my attention that this website might not be 100% genuine. It still has the content, but DO NOT use a username/password combo that you use elsewhere, just to be on the safe side.

Medify This has some free UKCAT questions and tips, plus a paid for question bank that you can use if you're able to.

Kaplan Again, this is a paid for resource, but with some free areas. I used their mock test last year, so take a look. They also offer an intensive 10 day course, but I don't think anyone needs to spend £1,250 getting into medical school.

Ace Medicine Quite similar to Kaplan (above), but with no free questions to be had :(

The Student Room This link takes you to their wiki page on the UKCAT, which is full of advice and links to even more practice questions. While you're there have a look at the rest of the medicine wiki, and the medicine forum for yet more advice and info, plus this year's UKCAT thread, where if you're a member you can ask as many questions as you like.

Right- that's everything I have on the UKCAT- good luck preparing for and taking the test, and if you have any more questions, I'm "Ingenting" on both The Student Room and New Media Medicine forums, so feel free to PM me on either :)

One last thing for those who are wondering- I got 710 on the UKCAT last year, and 687.5 the year before.