UCAT

What Is a Good UCAT UK Score?

5 days ago by Chris

A common question from students is “What will be a good UCAT score this year?”. Understanding UCAT scores can be confusing. This blog aims to answer common questions about UCAT UK scores and provide guidance on interpreting your results.

What will my UCAT score report look like?

Your UCAT UK score report will be structured as follows:

Your scores in each of the three cognitive subtests (UCAT Verbal Reasoning, UCAT Decision Making, UCAT Quantitative Reasoning) are added together to form an overall UCAT cognitive subtest score, which ranges from 900 to 2700. You will also receive a separate score for UCAT Situational Judgement, ranging from 300-900. UCAT scores can also be discussed using the mean of cognitive subtest scores. For example, a student who achieves an overall cognitive UCAT subtest score of 2100 may state that their score was '700', because 2100 / 3 (number of cognitive subtests) = 700.

UCAT UK students also receive a separate score for UCAT Situational Judgement, expressed in one of four bands, with band 1 being the highest:

Band 1 Those in Band 1 demonstrated an excellent level of performance, showing similar judgement in most cases to the panel of experts.
Band 2 Those in Band 2 demonstrated a good, solid level of performance, showing appropriate judgement frequently, with many responses matching model answers.
Band 3 Those in Band 3 demonstrated a modest level of performance, with appropriate judgement shown for some questions and substantial differences from ideal responses for others.

Band 4 The performance of those in Band 4 was low, with judgement tending to differ substantially from ideal responses in many cases.

How are UCAT UK scores calculated?

UCAT UK scores are calculated by converting the number of questions you got right into a "scaled score." These scaled scores range from 300-900 for each subtest. How UCAT is scored and scaled is complex and considers several factors:

The difficulty of questions you faced
The performance of the entire test cohort that year
The presence of unscored questions in each section
Varying point values (for example, some UCAT Decision Making questions are worth 2 marks and are partially scored)

This means two students with the same number of correct answers might receive different scaled scores depending on their test versions. Pearson VUE uses Item Response Theory (IRT) for this scaling but does not publish the specific conversion methods. Your final performance is expressed as a total scaled score and can be calculated into a percentile ranking compared to other candidates.

When will I find out my UCAT percentile?

UCAT UK results are released in three stages. Initially, you will receive your score report after completing your test with your individual scores per subtest and total cognitive scaled score (out of 2700), and your Situational Judgement score expressed as a band.

Preliminary test statistics become available near the end of the testing period (typically mid-September). This provides the cut-off scaled score at each decile rank based on all exams completed up until that point, giving you an initial idea of where you stand compared to other candidates.

Final summary statistics and percentiles are released after the testing period, usually in early October.

What will be a good UCAT UK score in 2026?

Test statistics from previous years can provide us a strong indication of what will be a good UCAT score in 2026. These statistics show that the score required to reach each decile threshold has trended upward year on year, meaning you may need to score higher in 2026 to achieve the same decile as previous years. However, this trend is not guaranteed, as the cohort of students sitting UCAT each year varies and can shift what is considered a good score.

UCAT UK 2025 statistics shows how each decile converted to overall cognitive scaled scores in UCAT:

For example, if you achieved an overall UCAT scaled cognitive score of 2010, you will have been in the 7^th decile, or the 70^th percentile. This means you performed better than about 70% of candidates, and 30% of candidates performed better than you.

Decile	Percentile	2025 score threshold
1st	10th	1580
2nd	20th	1680
3rd	30th	1760
4th	40th	1820
5th	50th	1880
6th	60th	1950
7th	70th	2010
8th	80th	2100
9th	90th	2220

For UCAT Situational Judgement, the following table shows that 21% of candidates sitting UCAT UK achieved band 1 in 2025, which is the highest band achievable:

Final UCAT UK test statistics for previous years are available now, which can be used as a general guide to how you have performed.

SJT Band	UCAT UK 2025	UCAT UK 2024
Band 1	21%	13%
Band 2	39%	36%
Band 3	29%	38%
Band 4	10%	13%

What score do I need for medicine in 2026?

Each university differs in terms of what criteria is used for entry into medicine, and how they are weighted.

In general, a UCAT percentile of around 80-90 would be sufficient for entry into medicine at most universities. This would equate to total UCAT cognitive test scores of 2100-2220+ (or average UCAT subtest scores of 700-740+). It is important to remember each university uses UCAT differently, so you should apply to medical schools which place more emphasis on UCAT if you score very highly and less emphasis on UCAT if you achieve lower scores.

Situational Judgement test scores are used by universities in various ways: some do not consider it at all, some eliminate students scoring in band 4, and some allocate ‘points’ depending on the band scored, which are then used as part of the selection for interview and/or the interview process.

More information

Check out our blog series on applying to Medical Schools Strategically using your UCAT score:

You may also wish to check out our blog on what to do if you didn't get a good enough UCAT score

Last updated: June 2026

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