If you are sitting the UCAT in 2026, you may have already noticed something slightly confusing.
Search "UCAT" online and you will find websites talking about Abstract Reasoning, scores out of 3,600, five sections and completely different timings. Then you look at the official UCAT website and... none of that seems to match.
So, what is actually going on?
The short answer is that the UCAT changed significantly in 2025, and that new format continues into the 2026 cycle. There has not been another major restructuring for 2026, but the changes introduced for 2025 are now the format you need to prepare for if you are applying for 2027 entry.
And honestly, the new UCAT is quite different from the one many older applicants remember.
Here is exactly what has changed, why it changed, and, most importantly, what it means for the way you should prepare.
The 2026 UCAT consists of four sections:
The three cognitive sections, VR, DM and QR, are each scored from 300-900, giving a total cognitive score of 900-2700. SJT is reported separately as Band 1-4, with Band 1 being the highest.
The standard test takes just under two hours.
| Section | Questions | Time | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verbal Reasoning | 44 | 22 min | 300-900 |
| Decision Making | 35 | 37 min | 300-900 |
| Quantitative Reasoning | 36 | 26 min | 300-900 |
| Situational Judgement | 69 | 26 min | Band 1-4 |
There are also separate timed instruction screens before each section, meaning the total testing time is 117 minutes 30 seconds including those instructions.
But the really interesting part is how we got here.
If you have heard older students talking about the UCAT, you may remember the infamous fifth section: Abstract Reasoning. Shapes. Patterns. Weird boxes. Even weirder shapes. You either loved it or wanted to launch your laptop across the room.
In December 2024, the UCAT Consortium announced that Abstract Reasoning would be removed from the UCAT from the 2025 cycle onwards. The change was then implemented in 2025 and remains in place for 2026.
Why? According to the UCAT Consortium, research found that Abstract Reasoning had lower predictive validity than the other cognitive sections. In other words, performance in AR was less useful for predicting how candidates would perform at university.
The Consortium also found that AR had become particularly "coachable". Candidates were getting faster and better at it over time, meaning preparation could have a disproportionately large effect on performance compared with the other sections.
So AR was removed. But the UCAT didn't simply delete 55 questions and make the exam shorter. Instead, some of that time was redistributed to the remaining sections.
If you sat the UCAT before 2025, the difference is pretty substantial. In the 2024 UCAT, there were five sections: VR, DM, QR, AR, SJT. The cognitive score was also out of 3,600, because there were four cognitive sections, each scored from 300-900. The 2024 exam contained 44 VR questions, 29 DM questions, 36 QR questions and 50 AR questions, alongside 69 SJT questions.
The 2026 structure is VR, DM, QR, SJT. AR has disappeared completely. But there are also changes to the remaining sections.
Verbal Reasoning increased from 21 minutes to 22 minutes. The number of questions remains at 44. That might sound like a tiny change, but that extra minute matters. It gives you slightly more breathing room across 44 questions, although VR is still very much a race against the clock.
Decision Making is where one of the biggest changes happened. DM increased from 29 questions to 35 questions, while the time increased from 31 minutes to 37 minutes. So you have more questions, but you also have more time. This is important because DM is not simply "maths". You may be dealing with syllogisms, probability, Venn diagrams, interpreting information, arguments and multi-statement questions.
Quantitative Reasoning increased from 25 minutes to 26 minutes, while remaining at 36 questions. Again, only one extra minute, but in a section where a single difficult calculation can eat up precious seconds, every bit helps.
Situational Judgement remains 69 questions in 26 minutes. So if you were hoping that removing AR would give SJT some extra time, unfortunately, no such luck.
Overall, the 2026 UCAT is therefore not simply "the old UCAT minus Abstract Reasoning". The remaining cognitive sections have been adjusted to create the new three-subtest structure.
This is probably the biggest source of confusion online. If you see someone say "I got 2,900 in the UCAT!" that may be a completely legitimate pre-2025 score, but it cannot be directly compared with a 2026 score.
Why? Because before 2025, the cognitive total was out of 3,600. From 2025 onwards, it is out of 2,700. The UCAT Consortium explicitly states that scores from 2024 and earlier are not directly comparable with scores from 2025 onwards because of the change in test structure.
So please don't look at someone's old TikTok saying "you need 2,900+ for medicine" and panic. That number belongs to a different UCAT.
And this is also why I would strongly recommend using percentiles and the most recent UCAT statistics rather than trying to compare raw totals across completely different test formats. The 2026 UCAT Consortium will publish preliminary mean scores and deciles in mid-September, followed by final statistics after testing ends.
Yes, but probably not in the way you think.
The removal of Abstract Reasoning does NOT mean the UCAT has suddenly become easy. If anything, it makes your performance in the remaining cognitive sections even more important.
You now have only three cognitive sections contributing to your total score: VR + DM + QR = 900-2700. There is no AR section sitting there to boost your total. That means you need to become genuinely strong across the three sections rather than relying on one section being your "easy marks".
It also means that preparation resources designed around the old five-section UCAT are becoming increasingly irrelevant. If a website tells you to spend weeks learning AR patterns for the 2026 UK UCAT, close the tab. You don't need it.
My biggest piece of advice is simple: don't start by doing hundreds of random questions.
I see students make this mistake all the time. They open a question bank, smash through 100 questions, get half of them wrong and then conclude: "I'm just bad at UCAT." You're not. You just haven't learned the test yet.
The UCAT is not an exam where knowing more Biology or Chemistry automatically makes you better. It is a skills-based test. You need to learn how the questions work, how to manage the clock and how to recognise when a question is not worth your time. The UCAT Consortium itself recommends beginning with the Tour Tutorial and Question Tutorials, then progressing to question banks and finally timed practice tests.
I would structure preparation in roughly three stages.
Start untimed. Learn every question type in VR, DM, QR and SJT. Work out:
At this stage, speed is not the goal. Accuracy and understanding are.
Once you understand the question types, introduce timing. Start timing individual questions and small sets before jumping straight into full mocks. The goal is to gradually turn your strategies into automatic habits.
For example, in QR you should not still be wondering whether to use the calculator every time you see a percentage question. In DM, you should recognise familiar question types almost immediately. In VR, you should have a consistent approach to passages rather than reinventing your strategy every question. And in SJT, you should become comfortable identifying the professional principles behind each scenario.
This is where full mocks come in. Do them properly. Sit at a desk. Use a computer. Use the same calculator. Use the same keyboard and mouse setup if possible. Don't pause halfway through because you're tired. Don't check your phone. And don't take a two-hour "mock" while sitting in bed with Netflix playing in the background.
The UCAT is partly a test of endurance. You need to practise being switched on for the entire exam. The official UCAT advice similarly recommends using practice tests closer to the exam and becoming familiar with the actual test environment and tools.
1. Don't chase difficult questions. The UCAT isn't impressed because you spent three minutes fighting one horrible QR question. If a question is eating your time, flag it and move on. There is no prize for suffering.
2. Learn when to guess. There is no negative marking in the UCAT. That means leaving a question blank is almost never sensible. If you genuinely have no idea, make an educated guess and move on.
3. Review your mistakes properly. Don't just look at your score and say "I got 32/44." The useful question is: why did I lose those 12 marks? Were you too slow? Did you misunderstand the question? Did you use the wrong method? Did you make a silly calculation error? Did you panic? Did you spend too long on one question? Your mistakes are basically a personalised UCAT revision timetable. Use them.
4. Don't obsess over other people's scores. A 2,700 in one year is not necessarily equivalent to 2,700 in another year. Even within the same year, university requirements vary considerably. And remember: the UCAT is only one part of a medical application. Your strategy should ultimately be about achieving the strongest score you can and then choosing medical schools intelligently based on how they actually use the UCAT.
5. Use official resources. This one is particularly important in 2026. The UCAT Consortium provides free official question banks, tutorials and practice tests, and specifically warns that older or unofficial preparation material may not accurately reflect the current exam. Paid resources can still be useful for additional practice and explanation, but don't let them replace the official material. You want to know what the real UCAT feels like.
6. Don't prepare forever. More preparation does not automatically equal a higher score. The official UCAT guidance suggests planning preparation over around 4-8 weeks. For most students, I would rather see four focused weeks of high-quality practice than three months of doing random questions whenever they feel like it. Quality beats quantity.
More preparation does not automatically equal a higher score. Quality beats quantity, every time.
For 2026, registration opened on 20 May, booking opened on 23 June, testing runs from 13 July to 24 September, and the UCAS deadline for medicine and dentistry is 15 October 2026.
The UCAT Consortium recommends booking early, particularly because September appointments can be in high demand. They also recommend considering a July or August date rather than leaving yourself with very little flexibility at the end of the testing window.
There is no universally "best" UCAT date. Some students perform better while they're still in exam mode. Others want the summer to prepare. Pick the date that gives you the best chance of being ready.
The 2026 UCAT is not a completely new exam. It is, however, a very different UCAT from the one many older applicants prepared for. The major change was announced in December 2024 and introduced in 2025: Abstract Reasoning was removed, Decision Making expanded, and the timings of VR and QR were adjusted. The same three-cognitive-section structure continues into the 2026 cycle.
So forget everything you hear about needing to prepare for AR or aiming for a score out of 3,600. Your 2026 target is straightforward: master VR, master DM, master QR, don't neglect SJT, practise under realistic conditions, review your mistakes, and learn to manage the clock.
The UCAT is difficult, but it is absolutely trainable. And once you stop treating it like a mysterious IQ test and start treating it like a skill you can practise, improve and refine, the whole thing becomes much less intimidating.
That's the real secret. You don't need to become a genius overnight. You just need to become really, really good at the UCAT.
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