Registration for UKCAT 2010 (entry into medical & dental school in 2011) will open again in May with the exam taking place between early July and early October. Many people contact us every year to enquire about how the UKCAT is being marked and how it is taken into account by medical / dental schools. The answer is not as simple as the answer because the marking of the UKCAT does not follow a simple linear approach and because medical & dental schools use the results in various ways.
Marking of the UKCAT
The UKCAT is marked by first allocating a score based on the number of questions attempted and the accuracy of the answer. However, each candidate’s score is then compared to a sample/test population, which is essentially the first 3000 candidates who first took the test in 2006. This then leads to a score of between 300 and 900 for each category. That means that, it is possible to get a high score even if you cannot complete a full section or, if you did, even if you don’t get everything right. For example, let’s assume that the best candidate at the time only managed to answer 80% of the QR questions and got them all right then you could get a very high score even if you only answered 70% of the questions.
How medical schools use the UKCAT results
Each medical school uses the results in its own way.
- Some medical schools have a cut-off mark below which they will not interview candidates. That cut off mark can be fixed (i.e. say 675 marks every year) or set in accordance to a percentage(e.g. they will look at candidates who are in the top 20% for UKCAT results, in which case the actual number of marks required may vary from year to year).
- Some medical schools translate the UKCAT results in a number of points (e.g. 5 points if score is above 700, 4 if above 600, etc) which are then added to the UCAS score, and used in the overall assessment of candidates.
- Some medical schools ignore UKCAT generally and use it only to decide on borderline cases.
For full details on how each school uses the results, please refer the UKCAT description page on the ISC Medical website
Prepare for UKCAT with ISC Medical’s 600 UKCAT Questions practice book
This book contains 600 practice questions, including a full mock exam, which will give you all the tools you need to optimise your score on the day.
Over 416 pages, the book sets out a wide range of questions for all four major sections of the UKCAT: Quantitative Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Decision Analysis.
The questions mirror the level of difficulty that you can expect at the exam, from relatively easy to stretching. Each chapter contains comprehensive techniques to help you handle each of the four sections of the UKCAT. The breadth and depth of the explanations, tips and techniques provided will ensure that you are fully prepared to answer all questions confidently, correctly and within the short period of time allocated.
You can purchase this book:
- Directly from the ISC Medical website
- From Amazon.co.uk - Check out all the wonderful reviews that this book has received!
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