What is a Good UCAT UK Score?

1 year ago by Stan

For the most up-to-date information and insights on what constitutes a good UCAT score in 2025, check out our latest blog post here.

Students who sit UCAT in the UK will receive their UCAT score report on the same day, before leaving the test centre. This report will also be accessible through your online UCAT account. The format of UCAT scores can be confusing, and it can be difficult to know what counts as a ‘good’ UCAT UK score. This blog answers some common questions about UCAT UK scores.

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’. Scaled scores range from 300-900 for each UCAT cognitive subtest. Pearson VUE do not publicly release details of how they calculate scaled scores, but they use statistical tools involving IRT (Item Response Theory). For more information, check out our blogs on UCAT scoring.

What is a good UCAT score?

Ultimately, UCAT scores are a comparison of your own performance against others sitting UCAT UK 2024. 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 690 (i.e. a total cognitive UCAT subtest score of above 2070) which was in the 8^th decile in 2024. A high score is usually considered to be a UCAT subtest score above 725 (i.e. a total cognitive UCAT subtest score of 2170), which is a 9^th decile score.

A low UCAT score is usually considered to be a UCAT cognitive subtest score below ~615. (i.e. a total cognitive UCAT subtest score of 1850). These would be scores that fall in or under the 4^th decile. 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:

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 example, if you achieved an overall UCAT scaled cognitive score of 2020, 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.

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:

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

Final UCAT UK test statistics for 2024 are available now, which can be used as a guide to how you have done.

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 2070-2170+ (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

Updated by Laura Snell

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