What’s a Good UCAT Score?
A good UCAT score is best read as a percentile against the cohort that sat the test that year, not as a raw number. In the 2025 cycle the average total cognitive score was around 1,941 (out of 2,700) and the average Situational Judgement score was 586 (out of 900); scoring above those puts you above the typical candidate, and the most competitive applicants sit in the top deciles. What counts as “good enough,” though, depends on the universities you’re targeting and your own circumstances.
Read your score as a percentile, not a raw number
Because each subtest is scaled (300–900), a raw “questions correct” count tells you very little. What admissions actually responds to is where you sit relative to everyone else who took the test — your percentile.
Each year ACER publishes the cohort’s means, quartiles and deciles, which is what lets you convert a scaled score into a percentile. Beating the mean puts you above the median candidate; reaching an upper quartile puts you in the top 25%; a top decile puts you in the top 10%.
Where the 2025 cohort sat
The most recent cycle for which full statistics are published is 2025 — the first cycle after Abstract Reasoning was removed, so it’s the right benchmark for the current four-subtest test.
Two things to take from this. First, your percentile is what to track, not your raw score — and the same scaled score means different things across subtests. A 700 is about the 83rd percentile in Verbal Reasoning but only around the 57th in Quantitative Reasoning, because QR scores spread higher (its 90th percentile reaches 880, against 730 for Verbal Reasoning). Second, the median candidate sits at a Total Cognitive of 1,930 — so clearing the mean of 1,941 already puts you above the typical applicant, and the climb from there to a top-decile 2,310 is where competitive applications are won.
These figures shift a little each year as the cohort changes, so we re-check them every cycle and always label the year they come from.
The three questions hiding inside “is my score good?”
Cohort data tells you how you did relative to everyone. It doesn’t yet tell you whether your score is good enough — because that has three different answers:
- Good enough for any school you want — the strongest version: a score high enough that the UCAT is never the thing holding your application back, anywhere you’d apply.
- Good enough for a single school — you have one or two target universities in mind, and “good” means clearing their bar specifically.
- Good enough for you — given your ATAR or GPA, whether you’re a rural or metropolitan applicant, your state, and which pathways you’re eligible for, “good” means a realistic target that gets you an offer.
Answering the second and third versions properly means looking at three things together, kept separate so they don’t blur:
- Preference — where you actually want to study: state, metropolitan vs regional vs rural, undergraduate vs graduate entry.
- Circumstance — your ATAR/GPA, rural background, Indigenous status, portfolio or interview requirements, whether you’re applying interstate.
- Requirement — how each university weights the UCAT against your academic record and interview, plus its pathways and quotas.
“Good enough for any school”
If your goal is maximum optionality, aim for the top of the cohort. In 2025 the top decile (90th percentile) sat at roughly a 2,310 Total Cognitive and 672 in Situational Judgement — at that level the UCAT is rarely the thing holding an application back at any UCAT-using university, leaving your academic record and interview to do the deciding.
As a soft benchmark, around the 94th percentile is the band the most competitive, UCAT-heavy schools — UNSW and Monash among them — effectively select around. A score in that band at a UCAT-heavy school should be enough to earn you an interview just about anywhere. Treat it as an indicative target, not a hard line: universities rarely publish exact cutoffs, the bar shifts year to year with the applicant pool, and the interview still decides the offer.
You don’t need a perfect score for this — and chasing one rarely pays. Past a strong percentile, the marginal mark matters less than your ATAR and interview. The aim is “no longer a limiting factor,” not “maxed out.”
“Good enough for a single school”
If you have a specific university in mind, the question narrows to their threshold — and this is where you have to be careful with numbers you find online.
Universities use the UCAT as one component alongside academic results and an interview, and how heavily each one weights it — and any score threshold — varies, with most universities not publishing exact figures. We never present an unpublished cutoff as official. Where we show a concrete number, it’s drawn from what applicants tell us and always labelled as student-reported — useful as a rough guide, never a guarantee.
“Good enough for you”
This is the most personal version, and the one generic “you need X” advice gets most wrong. The same scaled score can be a comfortable pass for one applicant and a stretch for another, because rural-entry schemes, your home state, whether you’ll move interstate, your ATAR, and your portfolio all change which schools are realistically in reach.
Rather than hand you one number, we’ll match your actual circumstances against every UCAT university. Tell us your predicted ATAR and UCAT, whether you’re a rural or metropolitan applicant, your state, whether you’d move interstate, and your extracurricular profile — and we’ll rate the strength of your candidacy and point you to the schools that fit you best.
Where can I apply? Find your best-fit medical schoolsThe matcher rates your profile and surfaces your strongest-fit schools.→How MedPath turns this into a target you can train toward
Knowing the cohort numbers is one thing; knowing where your score is heading is another. MedPath estimates your predicted UCAT band from your practice — placing your projected cognitive and SJ scores on the same 300–900 / 900–2700 scale the cohort data uses — so “is my score good?” becomes a live, moving target you can actually train against, not a guess.
And because it tracks you by trap, the practice it gives you is aimed at the weak spots that will move your percentile most.
See your predicted UCAT band.
Place your projected cognitive and SJ scores on the same scale as the cohort data, and train against a moving target — try a free question to start.
Good UCAT score FAQ
What is the average UCAT score?+
In the 2025 cohort the average total cognitive score (Verbal Reasoning + Decision Making + Quantitative Reasoning) was around 1,941 out of 2,700 — by subtest, roughly 620 (VR), 642 (DM) and 679 (QR), each out of 900. The average Situational Judgement score was 586 out of 900. Averages shift slightly each year.
What’s a competitive UCAT score?+
As a rule of thumb, the upper quartile (top 25%) makes you competitive at most universities, and a top-decile score (top 10%) keeps the UCAT from limiting you almost anywhere — but the exact bar depends on the university and your circumstances.
Do I need a perfect UCAT score to get into medicine?+
No. The UCAT is one component alongside your academic record and interview. Past a strong percentile, your ATAR/GPA and interview usually matter more than squeezing out the last few marks.
Does Situational Judgement count toward a “good” score?+
Yes — universities see your SJ score (a separate 300–900 figure) alongside your cognitive total, and many weigh it in selection. It’s reported on its own scale, not added into the 900–2700 cognitive total.
Is the average score the same every year?+
Close, but not identical — the cohort changes year to year, so ACER republishes the means, quartiles and deciles each cycle. Always check the year a figure is labelled with.
MedPath is an independent UCAT preparation resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by ACER or UCAT ANZ. Figures are re-expressed from official sources and attributed; always confirm dates, fees and requirements at the source before relying on them.