About the UCAT (UKCAT)

Any student planning to pursue medicine or dentistry in the UK at the undergraduate level requires to take either the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) or the BMAT (Bio Medical Admissions Test) – two standardized tests that all medical schools require as an admissions test. Although more schools use the UCAT for admissions than the BMAT, many candidates take both the tests in order to maximize their choice from a larger university pool (no one test can substitute the other). To sum up, all UK universities and colleges:

• Require the UCAT or BMAT to be taken by students applying into medicine or dentistry courses.
• Have a specific preference – some colleges use the UCAT for applications, others use the BMAT
• Do not substitute the BMAT for the UCAT or vice versa.
• Allow you to take both the exams only once in an admissions cycle, with the results from each exam being valid for only the admissions cycle in which the exam was taken, or for one or more than one year (for students applying as deferred entries).