Medicine admissions
to the MBChB degree programme
Entry requirements
UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
General Overview
Applicants wishing to apply for medicine and dentistry must complete the UK Clinical Aptitude Test prior to application.
The UK Clinical Aptitude Test is taken into consideration along with all other aspects of your application. The test is designed to be a test of aptitude rather than academic achievement. The test assesses a wide range of mental abilities and behavioural attributes which have been identified as important by university medical and dental schools.
Please visit https://www.ucat.ac.uk/ for further information and registration/test deadlines.
How we use UCAT at the University of Glasgow (entry in Sept 2022)
The Medical School follows a similar selection process for entry in 2011 as in previous years and will interview approximately 900 applicants.
All applicants that meet/are predicted to achieve minimum entry requirements but are below the national average UCAT total score are unlikely to be considered further. Previous results have shown that the national average UCAT total score will be in the range of 2400-2500, however this varies year on year.
An interview or entry is not guaranteed. Applicants should note that they will be considered within their year of application and by the standard presented during that admissions cycle alone. Depending on the number of applications the Medical School receives by 15 October and the range of UCAT scores received in November, the Medical School may not be in a position to consider further all applicants who meet/are predicted to achieve minimum academic entry requirements and who also possess the UCAT national average total score.
Interviewees who meet/are predicted to achieve the minimum academic entry requirements will be ranked by UCAT total score. Allocations for interviews will then be processed from the top UCAT total score.
Test Validity and Reliability
See the UCAT site for up-to-date information.
The UCAT has been developed to assist in creating a 'level playing field' for applicants from diverse educational and cultural backgrounds. All test questions are written by assessment experts and must pass detailed trials and analysis to ensure that they are valid and reliable.
All questions, test duration, sequencing and style will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and matched against candidate performance to ensure that the test is culturally fair and bias is minimised.
There is a constant programme of new item development in order to "refresh" the tests on a regular basis; this strategy includes the testing of new questions as non-scoring components of the test.
Further information can be found on the UCAT web pages.
Test preparation
We encourage you to sit the UCAT in June, July or August as test dates in September and October attract a higher test fee. When registering on the UCAT website please ensure you enter your full name as it appears on your birth certificate and/or passport. You should also do this when completing your UCAS application. We ask you to do this as it helps UCAT subsequently to match your test results to your UCAS application.
NOTE: The University medical and dental schools participating in UCAT do not endorse any commercially available preparatory course or material for the UCAT. The test is designed to be a test of aptitude rather than academic achievement and does not draw on any particular body of knowledge or curriculum that you can learn in advance. We encourage you to practise answering the types of questions that will be presented in the UCAT and to familiarise yourself with the test format so that you know how to move the mouse, answer questions and move through the test. We encourage you to sit the practice questions on the website at least three times before sitting the actual test.
Candidates who reapply must undertake the UCAT in the summer of each individual year of application.
Please visit UCAT for further information and registration/test deadlines.
Entry requirements
English language requirements
UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
Work experience