What Is A Good UCAT Score?

It depends on your competition

The UCAT is scored on a total of 3,600. For each of the 4 sections, students are scored on a scaled score of 300-900.

A good UCAT score will change every year. In 2020, the average UCAT score was 2511. A score of 2730 would have put you in the top 20% of all test takers, whereas 2850 was the 9th decile or top 10%. A few Prep Zone students scored above 3,000 (an excellent score!) in the last testing cycle: that put them in the 96th percentile and allowed them to interview with their top choices.

For UK applicants, a score of between 2560 to 2700 is good and anything above that would be considered an excellent score.

There are multiple factors involved in a successful application

If you’re reading this in the hope of gauging whether your test score will get you an interview, the selection process can be subjective, and it varies among schools. Moreover, a score that is considered good for local UK applicants might not be considered nearly as competitive for international applicants. For schools that are more popular with international students or that have fewer seats, competition is only more fierce.

That said, here are three factors to keep in mind as you try to figure out what a good UCAT score for you is!

Schools requiring high UCAT scores

• Newcastle places a very high emphasis on UCAT scores. In fact,. it ranks applicants by their UCAT scores so long as said applicants meet the minimum academic requirements. The 2020 threshold for the interview was 2730.
• King’s College London also places heavy emphasis on the UCAT, though it does factor in GCSEs and predicted grades.
• Likewise, Sheffield ranks students by their UCAT scores once they meet the cut off and minimum academic requirements.

Schools requiring good UCAT scores

• St George’s requires at least 500 in each section and sets a cut-off for the overall score every year. For the 2021 intake, it was 2620 for UK students and 2710 for overseas students.
• Liverpool uses the GCSEs and UCAT to shortlist students for the interview. The weightage of GCSE to UCAT is 3:1 which makes it an excellent choice for students with strong GCSE results.

Schools which accept low UCAT scores

• Cardiff does not consider the UCAT at all but uses the score as a tie-breaker.
• Belfast and St Andrews are some of the other schools with a lower emphasis on the UCAT.

UCAT scores are used in tandem with your GCSE grades and even predicted high school results (or final high school results if you have them already). As you start exploring which schools to apply to, it is important to factor in all of these to evaluate your chances!