welcome to this overview of the University clinical aptitude test or ukat this presentation provides an overview of the test including information regarding content and scoring you'll be provided with information about booking your test and importantly how you are best preparing to take the test finally we will provide some information about what to expect on your test day ukat is an admissions test used in selection processes by a Consortium of medical and dental schools there's no curriculum content in the ukat instead it assesses the skills our universities feel are essential for students to be successful on their courses the test helps our universities make more informed choices from amongst many highly quality ified applicants universities use test results alongside other selection criteria such as academic grades interview scores and contextual factors to decide which applicants to make offers to the ukat is a 2-hour multiple choice computer-based test you sit the test in the same year you apply through ukas you need to sit the test this summer if you were plan to apply to ucast in October 2024 for entry to University in 2025 you may only sit the test once each year the test is sat in person at pearon view test centers 44 UK universities required the ukat as part of their entry requirements you can find the full list and the courses they require the test four on the ukat website now let's look at what's in the test these are the five subtests that make up the ukat there are four cognitive subtests and a fifth subtest of situational judgment the standard ukat is 2 hours in length with five separately timed subtests each subtest has 1 minute of instruction time which you can use to clear your head before you move on to the next the number of questions in each subtest is also given here it's often the time constraints of the tests that candidates find quite challenging this is something you need to practice and manage carefully during your preparation for the test let's now look at the individual subtest in turn the first subtest is verbal reasoning you have 21 minutes to answer 44 questions these will be associated with 11 passages of text each passage has four questions linked to it the topics of the passages are varied you're not expected to use prior knowledge to answer the questions only use the information provided within the passage to answer questions you will need to use critical reasoning skills and draw conclusions quickly the timing is designed to be challenging so focus on pacing yourself and try to work your way through every question in the time given speed reading skills are quite important in the subtest activities like reading newspaper articles and trying to pull out key facts quickly are really useful as part of your preparation here's an example of a verbal reasoning question on the left there's a passage of text about sea water quality around the UK having read this information you're required to identify the most influential Factor impacting on water quality choosing from four responses the correct answer is B continual UV treatment is portrayed as positive throughout the text particularly in the third paragraph moving on the second subtest is decision making you have 31 minutes to answer 29 questions these may be associated with text passages or with diagrams charts or graphs there's a variety of different question types in decision- Mak you will see for example logical puzzles syllogisms ven diagrams and incomplete statement questions they're assessing your ability to apply logic to reach a decision or conclusion you may find it useful to make notes during the subtest you'll be given a noteboard and a mark pen at the test center our decision-making example is a syllogism question syllogisms are statements involving different propositions allowing you to use your reasoning to draw conclusions in this question you're required to make sense of the sentence at the top and use your reasoning skills to deduce whether the five statements follow the correct solution is provided on this slide as an example we can conclude that some of the writers at the literature Festival were authors on the basis that we know that some poets were writers and all poets were authors these questions might feel complicated at first but there are lots of examples for you to practice on our website the third subtest is quantitative reasoning you have 25 minutes to answer 36 questions these will all be associated with numerical data presented in formats such as tables graphs or charts the subtest is assessing your ability to solve problems using your numerical skills if you're not studying math at the moment that's absolutely fine but we would recommend you brush up on aspects such as ratios fractions and percentages you're provided with a basic calculator for use in this subtest make sure you practice using this online calculator during your preparation so that you're familiar with using this in the live test using this in conjunction with your mental MTH skills on some questions should save you time once again you'll have a noteboard and Mark pen which may be useful in jotting down calculations in this example you'll provide you with a table of data relating to advertising prices and asked to cost out the difference in two potential orders placed by a company the correct answer is B the data in the table allows you to calculate each element of these orders and then work out the difference between them the fourth and final cognitive subtest is abstract reasoning and is the shortest subtest in terms of time you have just 12 minutes to answer 50 questions throughout the subtest you'll be presented with series of shapes there are different question types but generally you're required to identify patterns among abstract information in many questions there may be irrelevant or distracting material don't be concerned if you find this quite challenging at the start of your preparation we provide large numbers of questions for you to practice on the more questions you complete the quicker you will find that you start to spot patterns or rules that you can apply to work out the correct answer in this example on on the left you have two sets of shapes set a and set B the six shapes in set a are in some way similar as are the shapes in set B having worked out what unites these sets of shapes you're required to identify whether the test shape on the right belongs to either of these sets in set a all the shapes have curved edges in set B all the shapes have straight edges the test shape includ includes both curved and straight edges and therefore does not belong to either set the correct answer is therefore C neither the final subtest in the ukat is the situational judgment test or sjt you have 26 minutes to answer 69 questions and time management is less critical in this subtest you're presented with various scenarios and questions associated with each scenario these questions are designed to determine how you would deal with real world situations in terms of assessing critical factors and deciding on appropriate behavior traits being assessed include Integrity empathy communication team involvement resilience and adaptability all really essential if you wish to be a successful medical or dental student we recommend that you read the General Medical Council guidelines on good Medical Practice if you're struggling with this subtest these describe the professional values and behaviors the GMC expect from any doctor registered with them and should give you a useful perspective on approaching these questions in this example you're presented with a scenario on the left regarding the experience of a medical student Arnold whilst training Arnold has not noted that the patient may be allergic to medication they've been prescribed the student needs to respond to this situation and you are asked to judge how appropriate different responses might be the response you ask to consider is for Arnold to speak to another doctor on the ward the correct answer here is that this will be a very appropriate thing to do as the other doctor would be able to alter the prescription finally some information on scoring all subtests are marked on the number of correct answers there is no negative marking in the test your ukat score comprises two separate parts you'll receive a score of between 300 and 900 for each of the four cognitive subtests giving a total score of between 1,200 and 3,600 you'll also rece reive a banding for the situational judgment test with band one being the highest and band four the lowest now we know about what's in the test let's explain how you go about booking your ukat or our key dates and deadlines can be found on the website booking your test is a simple two-step process step one register and create a web account from the 14th of May this gives you a unique candidate ID step two is to book your test booking opens on the 18th of June you can log into your web account and use our test center locator to find your most convenient test center testing runs from the 8th of July to the 26th of September and you can sit your test on a date and time that's convenient for you the fee for taking the test in the UK is £70 and £15 if you sit the test outside the UK we offer full fee bseries to UK candidates from lwi income backgrounds if you meet the eligibility criteria on our website you can apply for a ukat buery you will receive a b voucher which can be used to pay for your test full details are available on the burer scheme page of the website and we encourage you to apply for burer early so that you have your voucher ready for when you book your test if you're currently entitled to extra time rest breaks or any other accommodations in your school or college exams we should be able to offer a version of the test that meets your needs you need to apply for Access arrangements with supporting evidence from your school or college this has to be approved by the ukat office before you can book your test full details are available on the access Arrangements page of our website and again we we recommend you apply for Access Arrangements well in advance of when you plan to book your test now let's discuss how you're best preparing for the ukat although there's no curriculum content you still need to thoroughly prepare for the test high scoring candidates report spending 25 to 30 hours preparing for the test based on this we recommend you start your preparation at least 6 weeks before your test date the best way to prepare is using the free resources available on the ukat website just a brief comment regarding commercial providers there are a number of commercial training companies offering coaching in the ukat we're not affiliated with any commercial companies we cannot comment on the quality of their materials or the accuracy of their scores be skeptical of any they make regarding their services as we have already said the best way to prepare is using the free official resources available on the ukat website here is an overview of what's available for free on the ukap website we have a preparation plan and video providing a guide to using these resources effectively there's a tutorial to take you through the technical functions of the test and question question tutorials for each subtest which includes strategies for approaching different question types we provide question banks for each subtest on four timed practice tests all our questions include answer rationals we also have practice tips and advice from previous highs scoring candidates and now some final tips and advice to help you become familiar with subtest time timings and try to make sure that you answer all of the questions in each subtest there are no points deducted for wrong answers so if you leave an answer blank you're throwing away a Mark if you're stuck use your best guess and move on there's a really useful flag and review function built into the test practice using this in our question Banks and practice tests if you're uncertain of an answer you can flag it and move on once once you've reached the end of the subtest if you have any time remaining you can go back and review any flagged questions and finally as previously mentioned there are four timed practice tests available on the ukat website we recommend that you save these to use towards the end of your preparation Journey finally let's talk a little about your test day all this information is available on the ukat website and it's really just about being organized please ensure you know where your test center is make sure you have the correct ID or you'll be turned away arrive in plenty of time and read the candidate examination rules carefully these cover important information such as what to do if you experience an issue during your test remember the test test room is not like a School exam there will be other people taking different tests in the same test room you can ask for ear plugs to minimize disturbance read the test day information page on our website to understand what the test environment will be like and here's the important bit your test result results are available on the day of your test you'll be given a copy of your ukat score as you leave the test center this will also be available through your web account within 24 hours you'll know your result before you submit your ucast application you can then look at how your preferred universities use our test which varies between universities for example some may apply a threshold score either for the cognitive subtest or the sjt it's very important to research this to avoid wasting an application we publish interim and final test statistics on our website to give you a good indication of how well you've performed we then pass your scores directly to your chosen universities in early November this is the end of the ukat 2024 overview all of the information covered in this presentation is available on the ukat website uk. ac.uk you can also follow us on social media here for important updates reminders of deadlines and extra practice questions we hope you found this presentation useful and wish you the best of luck with sitting the ukat this year