UCAT 2025 guide: What’s new and how to prepare

If you’re applying to medical or dental school in 2025, the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) will form a central part of your application. The UCAT is not a static exam; it evolves every year in very subtle, but very important ways, reflecting the ongoing changes in clinical practice, ethics, evolving standards, and new assessment techniques.  

Not to worry! This comprehensive guide will walk you through what’s changed for UCAT 2025, how it might impact your exam preparation, and what strategies we’d recommend you adopt in order to approach the test with both confidence and clarity.  

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So, what’s new in UCAT 2025? 

The 2025 cycle introduces a few notable developments, and one pretty big one! While the core format and 5-section structure of the test remain unchanged, you’ll notice a few refinements when it comes to the content emphasis, timing, and question design. 

The biggest change to the 2025 format is the removal of the Abstract Reasoning subtest. This means that UCAT will now consist of only four subtests instead of five: Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, and Situational Judgement.  

Abstract Reasoning (AR) was removed due to research which showed that it had lower predictive validity and higher coachability compared to other subtests. In simple terms, it means that the AR section was found to be less effective at predicting a candidate's performance at university, and was also more susceptible to coaching and practice, making it less useful for identifying innate abilities. 

After this, one of the most significant updates is in the Situational Judgement section, which now includes scenarios involving artificial intelligence (AI) and digital healthcare tools. These changes reflect the real-world dilemmas that modern healthcare professionals have been starting to face in recent years, including whether to trust an AI-generated diagnosis, or how to manage digital patient data ethically. 

The Verbal Reasoning part of the exam has also seen a shift toward questions that require deeper inference and comprehension. Instead of simply scanning for keywords, you’ll be asked to understand subtle reasoning, tone, and argument flow. This change pushes candidates to develop critical reading skills more suited to actual clinical problem-solving. 

There’s also been a change in Quantitative Reasoning, with an extended time limit being put in place, ever so slightly relieving pressure on candidates. But, the questions remain data-heavy and mentally demanding, with an increasing focus on quick decision-making and interpreting unfamiliar graphs and tables. 

Finally, while the Decision Making section has lost a minute of testing time, the types of questions remain broadly the same. The change increases time pressure slightly and reinforces the importance of strategic time management and triaging complex problems. 

These updates are not dramatic, but they are meaningful, so adapting your revision methods, and how you sit the exam on the day, is crucial. 

Below is a quick summary of the changes candidates can expect in 2025: 

Let’s deep dive into each section of the UCAT exam in a little more detail… 

Verbal Reasoning 

There’s little doubt that Verbal Reasoning is the most time-pressured section of the UCAT exam. In 2025, we see the trend away from surface-level keyword matching continue, and move towards more inferential and analytical reasoning. Types of questions you may come across include being asked to interpret the author’s intention, identify assumptions, or evaluate conflicting information that appears across multiple paragraphs.  

This change in the exam requires a change in preparation from candidates. Rote keyword searching won’t be enough; you’ll need to engage in active reading - summarising each paragraph in your head, identifying tone and argument structure, and learning to extract key conclusions under time pressure. To help, try practicing passages from unfamiliar topics to help improve flexibility, and read journal summaries, editorials, and economic blogs - perfect for this kind of revision. 

Working through past-style questions in timed conditions is critical, but it’s also equally important that you review your answers to try and understand why you misinterpreted a passage or failed to notice a subtle cue. This kind of informed reflection will help you spot more issues faster in the future.  

Decision Making 

Candidates will be pleased to know that for 2025, the types of questions in this section remain largely unchanged. However, the Decision Making section is now one minute shorter, leaving you with 28 minutes to complete 29 questions. While that may not sound significant - after all, it’s just under 60 seconds per question - when you’re dealing with probability estimates, complex logic puzzles, and syllogistic reasoning, every second counts.  

If you want to succeed in this section, you’ll typically need to rely on two things: clear approaches for each question type, and the discipline to move on when stuck. Not every logic puzzle needs to be solved perfectly, as some questions will have partial deduction or reward estimates.  

It’s also essential that you practice using tools like flow charts and Venn diagrams for visualising relationships and arguments. Efficient visual reasoning is a skill that improves only with deliberate practice. 

Quantitative Reasoning 

If you pride yourself on strong maths skills, then this section is your time to shine - although you’ll still need to be fast. You’ll have to answer 36 questions in 25 minutes, a very slight time increase from previous years, but hopefully it will give you just enough breathing room to work more methodically through data sets, especially ones that involve multiple-step calculations.  

Many of the questions in Quantitative Reasoning have been designed to test your ability to quickly extract and interpret data. You’re not just doing arithmetic - you’re sifting through unfamiliar charts, recognising patterns, and making fast approximations - as exact answers would take too long to calculate.  

The best preparation for this section involves practicing your mental maths muscles and estimation techniques, along with making regular use of a UCAT-style on-screen calculator. If you’re not fully confident with percentages, ratios, or currency conversions under pressure, now’s the time to sharpen up.  

Situational Judgement 

This is perhaps the most philosophical of the five sections of UCAT. Situational Judgement now features scenarios that will ask you to analyse and evaluate ethical and professional conduct in cases involving modern-day issues, such as digital healthcare, AI triage tools, and remote consultations.  

The changes are small and subtle, but nevertheless important. You’ll need to consider new dilemmas, such as how a practitioner should respond when a machine-learning model provides a different diagnosis than expected, or how to manage patient expectations during a chatbot-led triage.  

The core principles of the Situational Judgement section still follow the GMC’s Good Medical Practice, but you’ll now need to apply them in an unfamiliar, tech-oriented setting. The key here is to always make sure your answers are patient-centred, and align with the core values of autonomy, honesty, and safety - even when working in a digital context.  

To help yourself here, be sure to brush up on professional guidelines and stay up-to-date with NHS AI policies, as these can offer a deeper perspective and help you develop your own judgments.  

How to adapt your prep for 2025 

Passing the UCAT in 2025 depends not just on how much information you’re able to memorise and regurgitate, but also on how well your instincts are trained. You’ll need to practice your mental agility, be able to stay calm under pressure, and be adaptable across all five sections.  

The most important thing is that you prioritise focused and deliberate preparation, especially when it comes to reasoning styles or topics you’re unfamiliar with. Become comfortable with managing pressure, practice pivoting strategies when needed, and work on establishing consistent habits.  

Try not to think of the UCAT as a test of academic knowledge, and more of a test of your clinical potential. This is your first step towards learning to think like a doctor: quickly, under pressure, and ethically.