UKCAT score distibutions info

[Martigan]

I guess a lot of you, like me, worry about if how your UKCAT score really ranks, but it’s hard to find solid comparisons. Comparing your self against others here is not really a fair comparison, because as a “population” it seems likely we are the more committed/driven candidates and therefore more likely to be the higher achievers.

Probably the best guide I have seen in the UKCAT annual report. It’s a few years old so not completely reliable, but I would guess things haven’t changed too much.

http://www.ukcat.ac.uk/pdf/UKCAT%20A...ort%202007.pdf

The most interesting data is in Section III on page 13, which gives the following table :-

Overall scores for all candidates
Section ..........................Mean.......... SD
Verbal reasoning............... 585............. 90
Quantitative reasoning....... 633............. 75
Abstract reasoning.............592............. 83
Decision analysis...............591............ 103
Total scaled score ............2401........... 263

Presuming that the scores are spread over a “normal” distribution (and I have correctly remembered my statistics from almost 20 years ago) the following table helps to place you in the overall scheme of things.

..%..........SD above the Mean
50.0% ....0.0
30.9% ....0.5
15.9% ....1.0
6.7% ......1.5
2.3% ......2.0
0.6% ......2.5
0.1% ......3.0


So if your score is one Standard Deviation (SD) above the mean you are in the top 15.9% of the population and in the top 2.3% for two SD.

So my score of 680 for AR is 88 points higher than the mean of 592. This is 1.1 Standard deviations (88/83) over the mean, which suggests this being in the top 15%.

I hope this helps you get a better feel of how you did.

If there are any current stats students out there, please check my figures/methodology as it may be wrong.

[alza92]

Thats really interesting to know as i am getting worried about my UKCAT in a couple of weeks time! Especially as everyone on here seems to get very high score! Including you, congrats! I dont suppose u have any tips for QR do u? (you have a really high score!!!) I'm really strugglin on the timing, i can do most of the questions thrown at me but takes me forever.... AR is a bit iffy as well but i have good days and bad! haha
Thanx for the info anyway!

[Martigan]

Going off the practice test and the 600 question book, I was panicking about QR because I just couldn't do the volume of info processing and calcs in the allotted time. As QR would be my "thing" as I do it for a living this worried me a lot. However I found the real thing a lot easier, as my result shows. The longest length of computation in the exam seemed to equate to the shortest in the pratice paper, for me. Time was still tight but I paced my self and ranout of time just as I was trying to click on the last answer.

Basically I used the instruction reading time to note the times markers eg after 10 mins I should be a question x, etc.

However I found AR a lot harder in the exam. On the practice papers I could see most of the patterns. But in the real thing I justhad to guess.

I also found the DA slightly harder.

[alza92]

I am getting there with the QR and the practice UKCAT exam from the net seems easier than the book i have, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. with AR it depends how hard they get but i'm fine in the other 2 so hopefully if i do dip down a little bit on scores the others will make my average decent enough! thanx for the advice! gd luck with the future!

[Martigan]

Still getting a lot of posts on "what does this core mean" so I thought I would bump it ;-)

[DZ1]

"Still getting a lot of posts on "what does this core mean" so I thought I would bump it ;-)"

Hi I just took my UKCAT today and got 680 average what percentile do I rank and do I stand a chance for Kings and Queen Marys?

Thanks

[manesh25]

Hi Guys Help me if you can ?

I am a Mature Student Had my 'A' levels with "AAA" .

I am Doing my Access to Medicine from Manchester College.

I had done my UKCAT with

Verbal 410
Quantative 570
Abstract 440
Dicission Analysis 600

Total 2020

Could any one help me saying what is my Possibility of applying and where can i apply for Medicine, Please Help guys ?

[fortysixandtwo]

Hi Guys Help me if you can ?

I am a Mature Student Had my 'A' levels with "AAA" .

I am Doing my Access to Medicine from Manchester College.

I had done my UKCAT with

Verbal 410
Quantative 570
Abstract 440
Dicission Analysis 600

Total 2020

Could any one help me saying what is my Possibility of applying and where can i apply for Medicine, Please Help guys ?

You should probably apply to uni's that don't weight their entry criteria very heavily (or at all) on the UKCAT.

Liverpool is one and I'm sure there are others.

[Martigan]

Overall scores for all candidates
Section ..........................Mean.......... SD
Verbal reasoning............... 585............. 89
Quantitative reasoning....... 630............. 97
Abstract reasoning.............596............. 84
Decision analysis...............619............ 103
Total scaled score ............2430........... 275

Presuming that the scores are spread over a “normal” distribution the following table helps to place you in the overall scheme of things.

..%..........SD above the Mean
50.0% ....0.0
30.9% ....0.5
15.9% ....1.0
6.7% ......1.5
2.3% ......2.0
0.6% ......2.5
0.1% ......3.0


So if your score is one Standard Deviation (SD) above the mean you are in the top 15.9% of the population and in the top 2.3% for two SD.

[ZagiEscobar]

Sub Mean SD
VR 594 81
QR 679 84
AR 611 79
DA 692 41

Either the candidates are getting stronger or the test is becoming more.
A few things I've done to revise: for the abstract reasoning, so far I've just made a list of aspects to investigate on the images; quantitative reasoning, I've downloaded the practice test and started improving my use of the calculator, would recommend reading statistics books and GCSE maths books; verbal reasoning, I'm going to get a book on critical thinking to improve my response time; decision analysis, this is hard to 'revise' or improve, start looking at wider aspects of situations without bias, learn how to deduce ideas from different topics.