UCAT CHANGES 2025
The Abstract Reasoning subtest will be removed from the UCAT in 2025. This will impact the timings and question totals of most other subtests. At UniAdmissions, we aim to provide the most recent information to all of our visitors as soon as possible.Â
The 2025 interim scores have been published by UCAT, how do yours compare?
For those that sat the UCAT in late July, it must have felt like an eternity to finally find out how you did compared to other candidates.
Why else might you be interested in seeing the newly released interim scores? Many UCAT universities have UCAT cut-off scores, while some use the UCAT decile ranking for selection. For example, the University of Sunderland selects candidates in the top 8 deciles of the cohort, and Liverpool looks at candidates who scored in the top 5.
What are the preliminary UCAT test statistics?
Although the UCAT testing period has not yet finished, preliminary results are published in mid-September each year to give a preview of how the final results may look. These preliminary results are typically calculated using half of the overall testing cohort, and have generally provided an accurate prediction of the final performance in previous years.
These reports include the overall mean score for the cohort, mean scores for each subtest (excluding Situation Judgement), Decile rankings for the cohort and results for the SJT (presented as percentages). These are all metrics that are reported in the final UCAT results too.Â
There are still a few days left until the final testing date (26th September) and the data published by UCAT is valid up to the 14th of September. Their data includes 21,882 students’ scores and they anticipate that a further 21,000 students will take the test. Therefore, all data must be taken with a pinch of salt and with ‘significant caution’ as UCAT suggests.
These results will look a bit different to reports from previous years, as the Abstract Reasoning subtest was removed in 2025. Therefore, the mean score will be roughly 1/4 lower than in 2024 to account for the missing section.Â
When will the final mean scores and deciles be published?
All final scores will be published after testing closes (26th September) and ultimately, it is down to UCAT’s capacity. Now let’s move on to what you really want to know, the interim results.
UCAT Preliminary Mean Scores 2025
Let’s start by reviewing the mean scores for the subtests, remembering that one section is now missing.
The overall 2025 preliminary mean total scaled score is 1939. In 2024, this score was 2582, but this is reduced to 1913 when Abstract Reasoning is removed. This is a modest increase, but not too drastic. The breakdown of individual subtests is as follows:
| UCAT Subtest | |
|---|---|
| Verbal Reasoning | |
| Decision Making | |
| Quantitative Reasoning |
Remember that the subtest scores are scored between 300 – 900. Here are the comparisons to the preliminary scores in 2024:
| UCAT Subtest | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verbal Reasoning | ||
| Decision Making | ||
| Quantitative Reasoning | ||
| Total Mean Scaled Score |
We can see that there has been a slight increase in the average scores for every subtest this year, with Quantitative Reasoning seeing the biggest boost (up 18 points). If the 2025 preliminary scores are similar to the final published scores, then there has been a large increase since 2025.
To re-emphasise the point we made earlier, this data is preliminary and not final. Last year we saw that the preliminary scores were not spot-on as the interim mean score was 2578 but the final mean score ended being 2511 (67 less). It is highly likely we will see the same again this year where the preliminary scores drop so bear this in mind when making comparisons with your own UCAT scores.
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UCAT Preliminary Decline Ranks 2025
As we mentioned earlier, some universities use the decile ranking when deciding which applicants to give offers to. Each decile represents 10% of candidates based on their overall UCAT performance. The 1st decile represents a score at the 10th percentile (so if you score in the 1st decile, it means you have scored in the bottom 10% of UCAT takers); the 2nd decile represents a score at the 20th percentile, and so on.
This is how the 2025 interim deciles look:
As we don’t have comparative data for the 2024 Decile rankings (due to the removal of Abstract Reasoning).Â
However, with roughly 5,000 more students expected to be taking the UCAT and with students scoring higher this year, it will mean that more students are in each decile rank than in previous years. This could therefore result in higher UCAT cut-offs for Medical Schools. Having a higher UCAT score will be a strong advantage for those applying to Medical Schools that weigh the UCAT heavily in their application process.
UCAT Preliminary Situational Judgement Scores 2025
Below are the current results for the Situational Judgement subtest, which features a different scoring system from the rest of the UCAT:
This year saw a fairly sharp increase in the number of applicants scoring in Band 1 when compared to the final results of 2024 (17%). However, this gap may even out when the final results are released. Here are the preliminary results from 2024:Â
As we can see, the preliminary scores from last year were much closer to the results we see this year, although they are still slightly lower in Bands 1 and 2.Â
With the increased UCAT competitiveness this year, scoring in Band 1 could become a valuable asset to your application to help differentiate yourself from other candidates. This is especially true for Medical Schools that openly use the SJT score such as Edinburgh, which allocate a score to an applicant’s SJT Band. These allocated points contribute towards shortlisting for their Assessment Days. They also do not accept anyone who achieved Band 4.
Conclusion
More people are taking the UCAT than in previous years which indicates that more people are applying for Medicine. This factor, combined with an increase in UCAT scores means that the application to UCAT Medical Schools will be more competitive. Therefore, candidates will likely need a higher UCAT score this year to receive their offers.
It is important to remember that the data released is only preliminary, so the final mean scores will probably be lower, as seen in the past few years. For this reason, be careful when comparing yourself to the data above and making any considerations about your application.
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