UCAT

What Is a Good UCAT UK Score in 2025?

1 month ago by Chris

With the removal of UCAT Abstract Reasoning (AR), a common question from students is “What will be a ‘good’ UCAT score this year?”. Understanding UCAT scores can be confusing, and this is particularly so with the removal of the UCAT Abstract Reasoning subtest in 2025. This blog answers some common questions about UCAT UK scores and provides guidance on interpreting your results in light of the new test format.

What Will My UCAT Score Report Look Like?

Your scores in each of the three cognitive subtests (Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning) are combined to form an overall UCAT cognitive subtest score, which ranges from 900 to 2700. 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.

Note: This image has been altered from a previous format score report, to demonstrate the current format. For 2025, the Abstract Reasoning section has been removed, so your score report will only show the three remaining cognitive subtests plus Situational Judgement

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 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 scores and deciles 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 end of the testing period, usually in early October.

What is a Good UCAT UK score?

Ultimately, UCAT scores are a comparison of your own performance against others sitting UCAT UK 2025. This means that achieving a ‘good score’ means performing well in UCAT compared to others.

In general, a good score for each UCAT UK cognitive subtest is above 687 (i.e. a total cognitive UCAT subtest score of above 2060) which was in the 8^th decile in 2024. A high score is usually considered to be above 724 (a total UCAT cognitive subtest score above 2170), which is a 9^th decile score.

A low UCAT score is usually considered to be a UCAT cognitive subtest score below 600. (i.e. a total cognitive UCAT subtest score of 1800). This equates to approximately the 40^th percentile. If you receive a low UCAT score you could apply to universities that place less emphasis on UCAT or you can choose to re-sit UCAT next year.

What can test statistics from 2024 tell us about what is a good UCAT score?

UCAT test statistics from 2024 can give us some information on what makes a good UCAT score. However, it is important to note that the cohort of students sitting UCAT each year varies, and therefore what might be considered a good UCAT score varies from year to year.

The 2024 UCAT UK 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 1980, 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 Rank	2024 Final Scores	2024 Actual percentile
1^st	1580	10^th
2^nd	1670	20^th
3^rd	1740	30^th
4^th	1810	40^th
5^th	1860	50^th
6^th	1920	60^th
7^th	1980	70^th
8^th	2060	80^th
9^th	2170	90^th

For UCAT Situational Judgement, the table below shows that 13% of candidates sitting UCAT UK achieved band 1 in 2024, which is the highest band achievable:

Final UCAT UK test statistics for previous years (converted to the three cognitive subtests format) are available now, which can be used as a guide to how you have done.

SJT Band	UCAT UK 2024	UCAT UK 2023
Band 1	13%	25%
Band 2	36%	26%
Band 3	38%	26%
Band 4	13%	9%

What Score do I Need to Get Into Medicine?

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 2070-2175+ (or average UCAT subtest scores of 690-725). 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 July 2025

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