Format
The UKCAT is designed to be a test of aptitude and attitude, not academic achievement. The latter is already demonstrated by A-Levels, Scottish Highers or undergraduate degrees. It attempts to assess a certain range of mental abilities and behavioural attributes identified as useful. These mental abilities include critical thinking as well as logical reasoning and inference.
For candidates sitting the examination in summer 2011, the UKCAT consists of four subtests:
- Verbal reasoning - assesses candidates' ability to think logically about written information and arrive at a reasoned conclusion.
- Quantitative reasoning - assesses candidates' ability to solve numerical problems.
- Abstract reasoning - assesses candidates' ability to infer relationships from information by convergent and divergent thinking.
- Decision Analysis - assesses candidates' ability to deal with various forms of information to infer relationships, to make informed judgements, and to decide on an appropriate response.
Prior to 2011, the UKCAT tested an additional domain:
- Non-cognitive Analysis - identified aspects of each candidate's personality and character in order to determine their suitability for a career in medicine or dentistry.
The entire test is delivered by computer. Candidates are not allowed to bring external materials in to the exam. A basic calculator used to be provided in the past years of 2011, along with a white board and a marker pen or paper with a pencil, for taking notes, however in 2012 there will only be a simple digital calculator on the screen. The equipment and conditions vary slightly between different test centers.
Including warm-up time (time allocated to reading the instructions), the test lasts a maximum of two hours. Each of the UKCAT subtests is in a multiple choice format and is separately timed.
Read more about this topic: UK Clinical Aptitude Test