UCAT Decision Making Marking

Advice & Insight From UCAT Specialists

The Decision Making section is the second of the five UCAT subtests and assesses your ability to make sound decisions and judgements using complex information. It also tests your ability to apply logic to reach a decision or conclusion, evaluate arguments and analyse statistical information.

Format of Decision Making subtest

Time allowed	Number of questions	Time for each question
31 minutes	29	64 seconds

There is considerable variation in the questions you may have to answer. For example, questions may require you to refer to text, tables, charts, diagrams or graphs. Each question is independent and does not share data with other questions, so in this sense, questions are standalone.

Number of marks available

Questions are worth either 1 mark or 2 marks depending on the question format. For 2 mark questions, you may also be able to score partial marks. As with the other sections of the UCAT, there is no negative marking; in other words, you will not lose marks for answering questions incorrectly.

Two different question formats

There are two question formats which you have to answer differently and which are therefore marked differently.

“Multiple-choice” questions

These make up the majority of questions (usually about 20 in total) and they require you to select one answer from four possible options where there is a definite answer. For these types of question, you will be awarded 1 mark if you select the correct option; there are no partial marks awarded because the answer is either right or wrong.

“Drag-and-drop” questions

The second type of question requires you to respond to five statements by placing a “yes” or “no” answer next to each statement (usually by dragging and dropping the relevant answer in the correct place). If you judge all five statements correctly, then you will be awarded 2 marks for that question. If, however, you manage to judge four out of five statements correct, then you will receive 1 mark. Unfortunately, only getting three out of the five statements correct does not give you any marks for that question. It is therefore crucial that for these questions, you ensure you place an answer next to all five statements to optimise your chances of scoring 1, or, hopefully 2 marks.