UCAT
UCAT Situational Judgement Test
Traditionally, the Situational Judgement Test is often a neglected section of the UCAT exam by candidates during their revision.
We will explain everything you need to know about the SJT, and what tips and tricks you can follow to help prevent attaining a band 3 or 4 in the SJT which may limit your university options.
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What Is UCAT Situational Judgement Test?
The Situational Judgement Test UKCAT measures your capacity to understand real-world situations and to identify critical factors and appropriate behaviour in dealing with them.
This is an exam that will recur throughout your studies as both a medical student and as a doctor through your speciality exams and when applying to the foundation programme.
These UCAT SJT Questions are very different to any in the exam, which requires their strategy and technique.
For a deeper, worked walkthrough of every question type, marking and timing, see our complete UCAT SJT section guide. You can also practise full SJT scenarios under timed conditions on the free UCAT trainer.
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Why Include Situational Judgement UCAT?
There are many different aspects of one’s thinking that the UCAT situational judgement test assesses. It assessed integrity, teamwork, resilience, and adaptability.
These are all key personality traits that the GMC believes all doctors should demonstrate to some extent. Situational Judgement Tests are widely used in medical and dental selection, as well as for foundation doctors, dentists, and GPs.
Remember - contact our UCAT tutors to help boost your scores!
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How Long Do I Have In UCAT SJT Questions?
You have 26 minutes (plus 1 minute 30 seconds of instructions, which is not counted within this time) to answer 69 questions in the UCAT Situational Judgement Test. That works out at roughly 22 seconds per question, so pace is essential. The SJT is the final subtest you sit and, since Abstract Reasoning was removed in 2025, the UCAT now has four subtests in total.
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Maximum Score in the UCAT SJT
- Band 1 in the Situational Judgement Test is the highest score you can achieve.
- Band 4 is the lowest score in the Situational Judgement Test.
Not sure what each band actually means for your application? Our guide on what Band 1, 2, 3 and 4 mean to universities breaks down how each medical and dental school treats your SJT band.
The SJT is scored differently from the cognitive subtests. Your responses are converted into one of four bands (Band 1 highest, Band 4 lowest); the SJT is NOT added to the 900 to 2700 cognitive total and is reported separately. Marking is positively scored: full marks are awarded when your answer matches the panel of experts, and partial marks are awarded when your answer is close (for example, choosing Appropriate when the ideal answer was Very appropriate). This is why you can rarely score zero on a question, and why understanding the marking helps you avoid leaving easy partial marks on the table.
👉🏻 Read more: UCAT Scores - The Ultimate Guide
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👉🏻 Read more: UCAT Score Converter - For When You Are Practicing UCAT Questions
What Is The Average Situational Judgement test UCAT score?
Most candidates achieve Band 1 or Band 2, and the typical (modal) result over recent years has been Band 2. Bands 1 and 2 are generally considered strong; a Band 3 or Band 4 can restrict your options because a minority of medical and dental schools either screen out Band 4 or use the SJT band as a tie-breaker. Always check each university's stated SJT policy, as it varies year to year.
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What Are The Types of UCAT Situational Judgement Questions?
There are several question formats in the UCAT SJT. The most common ask you to rate either the appropriateness or the importance of a response to a scenario, and some ask you to choose the most and least appropriate actions from a list. Every scenario is judged against GMC Good Medical Practice and professional principles, not your personal opinion.
Importance
There are four responses that you must select from when considering importance:
- Very important - if this is vital to take into account
- Important - if this is important, but not vital to take into account
- Of minor importance - if this is something that could be taken into account, but it does not matter if it is considered or not
- Not important at all - if this is something that should not be taken into account
Appropriateness
There are four responses that you must select from when considering appropriateness:
- A very appropriate thing to do: if it will address at least one aspect (not necessary all aspects) of the situation
- Appropriate, but not ideal: if it could be done, but is not necessarily a very good thing to do
- Inappropriate, but not awful: if it should not be done, but would not be terrible
- A very inappropriate thing to do: if it should not be done and would make the situation worse
Most and least appropriate action
Other questions require you to choose the most and least appropriate action to take in response to the scenario, from the three actions provided.
These can be the trickiest format to master. Our dedicated guide to most and least appropriate questions shows you how to eliminate distractors and avoid the common ranking traps.
It is important to evaluate the SJT book that you are using, as the quality of the questions will determine the quality of your ukcat situational judgement practice.
For the best free SJT questions, work through the official practice materials and mock tests on the UCAT website, and remember there are no SJT past papers available for the UCAT. Treat the official questions as your benchmark, because they are written to the same marking standard as the real exam.
It is important to stick to principles from each question that you do, to ensure you do not make the same mistake again.
👉🏻 Read more:UCAT Verbal Reasoning
👉🏻 Read more:UCAT Abstract Reasoning
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👉🏻 Read more:UCAT Decision Making
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Example Situational Judgement Test UKCAT Questions
SJT Question 1
A group of 1st-year medical students finish up a day of home patient visits to enable them to find out more about chronic conditions like diabetes. They have been able to go to patients' houses and ask them questions about their condition, its duration and its effect on their lives. They decide to meet for coffee after the visits to discuss the symptoms they saw during the day.
How appropriate is the following response by the medical student in this situation?
Mark, one of the medical students, talks to the rest of the group of the patient he saw with diabetic foot ulceration, identifying him by his initials, Mr T.S.
SJT Question 1 - Answer
The overriding theme of this scenario is protecting the identity and anonymity of patients. There are two factors to consider here; the location in which the conversation has taken place, as well as the students’ actual conversation regarding the patient. The fact that Mark has anonymised the patient to only his initials is a good way of protecting the patient.
However, an even better way of protecting his identity would be to remove his initials entirely, perhaps referring to him as Mr X. In this way, no one could link the patient to the discussion that Mark and the other students were having. Whilst Mr T.S is an Appropriate means of anonymity, it is not ideal and could have been improved.
Furthermore, the students have met for coffee, meaning that this will likely be a public location. Again, this compromises the patient’s anonymity and could have been improved by holding the discussion in a private location at the hospital, for example.
These factors, therefore, make Mark’s actions Appropriate, but not ideal.
SJT Question 2:
You are a medical student on a clinical rotation in the emergency department. A patient comes in with severe abdominal pain, and the attending physician asks you to assist with the physical examination. As you are about to begin, the patient tells you that they are feeling uncomfortable with your gender and request that a different medical student with a different gender assist with the exam.
How appropriate is the following response by the medical student in this situation?
The medical students respects the patient's wishes and ask a different medical student to assist with the exam.
SJT Question 2 Answer
Very appropriate
Explanation: As a professional within medicine, it is important to prioritise the comfort and dignity of your patients. In this situation, the best thing to do is to respect the patient's wishes and ask a different medical student to help with the physical exam. While it is important for medical students to gain experience, it is not appropriate to prioritise this over the well-being and desire of the patient.
SJT Question 3
You are a medical student who is sitting in on an obstetric and gynaecology clinic during your fifth year rotations. Whilst the consultant is outside taking a call, a pregnant patient asks you for advice on whether to have a natural childbirth or a c-section.
How appropriate is the following response by the medical student in this situation?
Suggests that the patient speak with their obstetrician for more information.
SJT Question 3 - Answer
Appropriate
As a medical student, you are not qualified (yet) to give medical advice to patients. In this situation, it is appropriate to refer the patient to their obstetrician, who is qualified to provide them with the necessary information and guidance on their delivery options, especially when this is a complex question.
Question 3: How appropriate is the following response by the medical student in this situation?
A patient's family is constantly questioning the treatment plan and demanding additional tests and procedures. The medical student responds by:
A) Explain to the family that the treatment plan has been carefully developed by the medical team and that additional tests and procedures are not necessary.
B) Accommodate the family's requests in order to make them happy.
C) Ask the attending physician to speak with the family and address their concerns.
D) Avoid interacting with the family as much as possible.
Answer: C (Appropriate but not ideal) Explanation: It is natural for patients' families to have concerns and questions about their loved one's treatment plan. In this situation, it is appropriate to involve the attending physician in addressing the family's concerns. The attending physician is responsible for the patient's care and is the most qualified to address the family's questions and concerns. However, it is not ideal for the medical student to simply avoid interacting with the family altogether. It is important to show compassion and empathy towards the family, even if you are unable to fully address their concerns.
How appropriate is the following response by the medical student in this situation?
A) Respect the patient's wishes and ask a different medical student to assist with the exam.
B) Tell the patient that their request is unreasonable and proceed with the examination.
C) Ask the attending physician for guidance on how to proceed.
D) Explain to the patient that you are a medical student and that it is important for you to gain experience in conducting physical examinations.
Answer: A Explanation: As a medical professional, it is important to prioritize the comfort and dignity of your patients. In this situation, the best course of action is to respect the patient's wishes and ask a different medical student to assist with the exam. While it is important for medical students to gain experience, it is not appropriate to prioritize this over the well-being of the patient.
Question 2: You are on a rotation in the maternity ward, and a pregnant patient asks you for advice on whether to have a natural childbirth or a c-section. How do you respond?
A) Tell the patient that it is their personal choice and that you cannot offer any guidance.
B) Explain the benefits and drawbacks of both options and help the patient make an informed decision.
C) Suggest that the patient speak with their obstetrician for more information.
D) Encourage the patient to have a natural childbirth because it is safer for the baby.
Answer: C Explanation: As a medical student, you are not qualified to give medical advice to patients. In this situation, it is important to refer the patient to their obstetrician, who is qualified to provide them with the necessary information and guidance on their delivery options.
Question 3: You are on a rotation in the intensive care unit, and a patient's family is constantly questioning the treatment plan and demanding additional tests and procedures. How do you handle the situation?
A) Explain to the family that the treatment plan has been carefully developed by the medical team and that additional tests and procedures are not necessary.
B) Accommodate the family's requests in order to make them happy.
C) Ask the attending physician to speak with the family and address their concerns.
D) Avoid interacting with the family as much as possible.
Answer: C Explanation: It is natural for patients' families to have concerns and questions about their loved one's treatment plan. In this situation, it is important to involve the attending physician in addressing the family's concerns. The attending physician is responsible for the patient's care and is the most qualified to address the family's questions and concerns. It is not appropriate to accommodate the family's requests if they are not medically necessary, nor is it appropriate to avoid interacting with the family altogether.
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UCAT Situational Judgement Tips & Strategies
Top 10 UCAT Situational Judgement Test Tips as taught by our qualified doctors on the UCAT Courses and in 1-1 UCAT Tutoring:
- Timing is the most important in this section - make sure that you pace yourself. Use different milestones throughout the test to ensure that you always know roughly how you are doing.
- Read each scenario and option thoroughly before answering the questions, begin to start using this during your SJT preparation.
- Remember there are different styles of questions in this subset, read the instructions carefully to make sure that you understand what you have to do.
- Remember that all scenarios are based on the GMC Medicine Guidelines - not what you believe. To score well you must understand these well, and the principles behind them.
- Within each scenario, each rating can be used more than once or not at all, e.g. everything could be a very appropriate thing to do.
- How to pass situational judgement tests? Make sure you follow this advice and read the required reading to better understand the ethics and laws that underpin the guidelines.
- The responses should be related to what an individual should do, not what they might well do.
- Make sure that you treat responses independently, you should make a judgement per response, not comparing them to each other - this leads to mistakes!
- Remember that you are going to need to do more SJTs in the future during medical school, as currently there is an SJT in medicine to help determine where you begin to work as a doctor.
- What you may think is the most or least appropriate, may not necessarily be in one of the responses
- Try to consider responses irrelevant to the timeframe. Some responses will be appropriate for the short term, others long term, try to negate time when thinking about your response!
- Read the GMC Good Medical Practice guidance to understand the professional duties (patient safety, confidentiality, honesty, working in teams) that underpin almost every SJT scenario. The updated Good Medical Practice took effect in 2024, so make sure you are revising the current version.
- You may use the laminated board and permanent marker pen to help where and if necessary.
- Use the flag option if you need to, if you find a ukcat situational judgement practice question hard, guess it and move on.
- Remember to contact our UCAT Tutors to find out more about how we can boost this score.
It is worth practising your mental arithmetic beforehand, as the quicker you are, the better you will be in the exam as detailed in our application guide.
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Frequently asked questions
How long is the SJT in the UCAT?
The UCAT Situational Judgement Test lasts 26 minutes, with an additional 1 minute 30 seconds of instructions that is not counted within your test time. In that window you answer 69 questions, which is about 22 seconds per question. Timing is the single biggest challenge in the SJT, so pace yourself against milestones throughout the section.
How many questions are in the UCAT SJT?
The UCAT SJT contains 69 questions, presented across a series of scenarios. Each scenario typically has up to six associated questions. The SJT is the final subtest you sit, after Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning, since Abstract Reasoning was removed from the UCAT in 2025.
Does the Situational Judgement Test count in the UCAT?
Yes, but it is scored separately. The SJT is reported as one of four bands (Band 1 highest, Band 4 lowest) and is NOT added to your 900 to 2700 cognitive total. Universities use it differently: some screen out Band 4, some use it as a tie-breaker, and others consider it holistically. Always check each medical or dental school's stated SJT policy.
What is the maximum score in the UCAT SJT?
There is no numerical maximum. The best possible result is Band 1, which means your judgement closely matched the panel of experts in most questions. Band 2 is good and solid, Band 3 is modest, and Band 4 is the lowest. The SJT uses bands rather than a scaled score because it measures professional judgement rather than cognitive ability.
What is the average UCAT SJT score?
The most common result in recent years has been Band 2, with a large share of candidates achieving Band 1 or Band 2. Bands 1 and 2 are generally regarded as strong. A Band 3 is still acceptable to many schools, while Band 4 can limit your options, so aim for Band 1 or 2 by mastering GMC principles.
What does Band 1 in the SJT mean?
Band 1 is the highest SJT result. It indicates you demonstrated an excellent level of performance, showing judgement similar to the expert panel in most questions. It is achievable with focused preparation because the SJT rewards understanding of professional duties rather than raw academic ability. Practising against GMC Good Medical Practice is the most reliable route to Band 1.
How is the UCAT SJT marked?
The SJT is positively scored. You earn full marks when your answer matches the panel of experts, and partial marks when your answer is close to the ideal (for example, choosing Appropriate when the model answer was Very appropriate). Your total is then converted into one of four bands. Because of partial marking, you can rarely score zero on a question, so always commit to an answer.
Do you get partial marks in the Situational Judgement Test?
Yes. The SJT awards partial marks when your response is adjacent to the ideal answer rather than exactly right, for example selecting Important when the model answer is Very important. This positive marking means careful, principled answers still earn credit even when you are not certain, so it is rarely worth leaving a question blank.
What types of questions are in the UCAT SJT?
The main formats ask you to rate the appropriateness of a response (from Very appropriate to A very inappropriate thing to do), rate the importance of a consideration (from Very important to Not important at all), or choose the most and least appropriate actions from a list. Each question is judged against GMC Good Medical Practice, not your personal opinion.
How do I prepare for the UCAT SJT?
Start by reading GMC Good Medical Practice so you understand the professional duties behind every scenario, then practise the official UCAT SJT questions under timed conditions. Reflect on each mistake to extract the underlying principle, judge each response independently rather than comparing options, and ignore short-term versus long-term framing. Consistent reflective practice is more effective than simply doing high volumes of questions.
Are there free UCAT SJT practice questions?
Yes. The official UCAT website provides free SJT practice questions and full mock tests written to the same marking standard as the real exam, making them the best benchmark for your preparation. There are no SJT past papers for the UCAT, so treat the official materials and reputable question banks as your core resource.
Are there SJT past papers for the UCAT?
No, the UCAT does not release SJT past papers. The closest equivalents are the official practice questions and mock tests on the UCAT website, which mirror the real exam's style and marking. Supplement these with reputable question banks and always review answer explanations to learn the GMC principle behind each response.
How important is the Situational Judgement Test in the UCAT?
Its importance depends on the university. Because the SJT is banded separately from the cognitive total, some schools place little weight on it, some use it to break ties between similar applicants, and a minority screen out Band 4. It is rarely the main selection factor, but a strong band protects your application, so do not neglect it.
Is the UCAT SJT the same as the veterinary situational judgement test?
The format is essentially the same. Veterinary medicine applicants who sit the UCAT complete the identical SJT subtest with the same 69 questions, 26-minute timing, banding and question types. The scenarios still test professional judgement against the same principles, so the strategy on this page applies whether you are applying for medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine.
Can I retake the UCAT to improve my SJT band?
You can only sit the UCAT once per admissions cycle, so you cannot resit purely to improve your SJT band within the same year. If you are reapplying in a future cycle you will sit the whole test again. Focus on getting your SJT band right first time by mastering GMC Good Medical Practice and practising under timed conditions.
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