Top 10 Situational Judgement Tips to Smash UCAT 2025
- Vaibhav Sehgal
- Jun 21
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 4
The Situational Judgement Test (SJT) is the last part of the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT). It checks how well you handle real-life ethical problems faced by doctors, medical student and other health workers. Many students think it is “just common sense,” but the results show a different story. A Band 1 score keeps every medical school open to you, while a Band 4 can lead to quick rejection, shattering your dream to study medicine.
This guide gives you ten easy-to-follow tips. Use them, and you will walk into the exam ready to earn the score you need.
Tip #1 - Read Good Medical Practice by GMC
Good Medical Practice (GMP) is a short booklet from the General Medical Council. It sets out what UK doctors must do when put in different situations. Reading and following the advice it contains will echo the exact values the examiners mark you against, turning that band 4 right to band 1 . It is built on its four main duties:
Knowledge, skills and performance – stay competent.
Safety and quality – put patient safety first.
Communication, partnership and teamwork – work well with patients and staff.
Maintaining trust – be honest and act with integrity.
Spend an hour reading GMP and refer back to it regularly. Highlight words like consent, confidentiality, and raising concerns. Keep the PDF open while you revise; when a practice question feels tricky, ask, “Which GMP duty is tested here?” The option that matches the duty will nearly always be the best answer. You will also build habits that help you as a student doctor.
Tip #2 - Learn the Test format inside out
SJT Questions come in three styles:
Importance questions – You rate how vital a factor is: Very important, Important, Of minor importance, or Not important at all.
Appropriateness questions – You rate an action: Very appropriate, Appropriate but not ideal, Inappropriate but not awful, or Very inappropriate.
Drag and Drop questions judging the most and least appropriate action from the scenario (stand-alone questions)
Below are the EXACT full definitions of these terms from UCAT themselves:
Importance questions
Very important – if this is something that is vital to take into account
Important – if this is something that 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 definitely not be taken into account
Appropriateness questions
A very appropriate thing to do/say – if it will address at least one aspect (not necessarily 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 really be done, but would not be terrible
A very inappropriate thing to do/say – if it should definitely not be done and would make the situation worse
Each scenario is usually followed by 3–4 linked questions, though this is not always the case. Because every linked question depends on the same inital story, the best use of time is to read the stem first, make sure you understand who is involved, then answer the questions in one smooth run. If you jump straight to the question without focusing on the scenario, you may miss key details that appear later, waste time back-tracking, and lose marks.
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Tip #3 - Manage your timing—steady beats rushed
You have 26 minutes for 69 questions, or about 23 seconds per questions. That sounds tight, yet the big chunk is reading the stem once. A simple timing plan:
Spend up to 45 seconds reading the stem..
Spend 10–15 seconds in following linked questions
Guess, flag and skip any harder questions or ones you would like to revisit after
Remember that partial marks count. A quick, educated guess is safer than leaving blanks.
Tip #4 - Identify the underlying problem FIRST
Scenes in the SJT feel different—lost notes, rude staff, social media posts—but most hide one main ethical issue:
Patient safety
Honesty and integrity
Confidentiality
Consent
Teamwork
Professional boundaries
Train yourself to label the issue in one short phrase as soon as you finish the scenario. For example, if a patient's family asks you to share a patient’s lab results on the ward corridor, you can tag it “confidentiality.” Once you tag the core problem, wrong answers are easier to see—they break that principle. This mental shortcut saves time and lifts accuracy. FutureGen Tutors can teach this to you first hand, so book your lesson now!
Tip #5 - Put the patient first every time
The safest option is often the one that directly helps or protects the patient. If two actions look similar, ask, “Which one benefits the patient more?” Choose that.
Common examples:
Ignoring a possible drug error to avoid upsetting a senior? Very inappropriate.
Speaking up politely about equipment that looks unsafe? Very appropriate.
This patient-first habit is simple and powerful. It also mirrors real hospital culture, so you will use it long after the exam.
Tip #6 - Understand your role and its limits
Act within your competence, ask when unsure. You can be but in a variety of different situations in a question for eg a medical student or junior doctor. Each role has clear limits: students do not prescribe, juniors do not perform surgery / complex tasks alone, and everyone must ask for help when they lack skill or authority. If the action goes beyond your training, the correct move is to seek senior advice or escalate concerns. Making this choice shows self-awareness and protects patients, so it scores well. Remember: asking for help is a sign of professionalism, not weakness.
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Tip #7 - Use partial marking to your advantage
The SJT awards marks in proportions. In ranking tasks, placing an option one position off still earns credit. Leaving it blank earns zero. Develop a rule:
Decide quickly, accept slight doubt, move on.
If you cannot decide whether a response is “Important” or “Of minor importance,” pick one, record it, and advance. Small wobbles harm you far less than unfinished questions. Most students who drop a band do so because they did not reach the last ten items.
Tip #8 - Watch out for tiredness
The SJT appears last in the UCAT when you are already tired. Recreate that fatigue in practice. Do lots of full mock exam in one sitting: Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning and then the SJT. Notice how your focus wavers near the end. Train to keep a clear head for the final half-hour. Small habits help: deep breaths in the waiting time before section starts and blink often to avoid screen strain.
Tip #9 - Always Treat confidentiality as sacred
Many scenarios involve patient information—lost notes, overheard discussions, or sharing data with family. The golden rule: no identifiable information leaves the care team without patient consent, unless the law requires it (e.g., risk of serious harm). Even casual breaches, such as chatting about a case in a lift, are inappropriate. UCAT writers love to tempt you with “quick fixes” that break this rule. Resist them. Instead, safeguard data, apologise if you slip, and report serious breaches.
Tip #10 -Remember the high stakes—Band 4 is a deal-breaker
Some applicants hope a great cognitive score will cancel a bad SJT. It will not. Many medical schools filter out Band 4 or even Band 3 before interview offers are sent. A solid SJT can rescue an average cognitive score; a poor SJT can sink an excellent one. Therefore:
Allocate at least 20 per cent of your UCAT study time to SJT practice.
Review every mock—ask why each answer earns its rating.
Aim for Band 1 in practice before you book the real test.
By respecting the weight of this sub-test, you give yourself the widest choice of universities.
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