This is a commonly neglected section and it is very important to develop strategies to tackle this section. Here you are asked to select the appropriate response to real world situations. The UCAT Situational Judgement aims to assess teamwork, integrity, resilience, and adaptability. It requires a different type of thinking than for the other sections. Students often ask what is the point of Situational Judgement? The answer is it is important as doctors have to make decisions and prioritise information in order to provide the best possible patient care.
Situational Judgement questions
This subset consists of 69 questions to be answered in 26 minutes. It consists of two parts
Here you are asked to rate the importance of a series of statements from a given scenario. The four responses that you must select from are: -
Very important – vital
Important - not vital but still important
Of minor importance – does not matter if considered or not
Not important at all – not relevant at all
Here you are asked to select the appropriateness of a series of statements in relation to a scenario. There are four responses that you must consider: -
A very appropriate thing to do where it will consider at least one aspect of the scenario
Appropriate, but not ideal. In other words, if it could be done but not necessarily a very good action
Inappropriate – should not be carried out but still not awful
A very inappropriate thing to do – definitely a no and will be detrimental
Situational Judgement score
There are four Bands in which your results will fall into. Band 1 is the highest score and Band 4 the lowest. The average Band score for 2019 and 2020 was Band 2
Situational Judgement techniques
Read each question carefully and pay particular attention to the instructions so that you know what the question is looking for. This technique comes with practice
Timing is crucial here; you have approx. 26s per question. Try to estimate where you are at halfway (13 minutes).
Practice timing here and you will find that you will adapt quickly.
Treat each response independently, making a judgement per individual response.
Often the responses do not have time period constrain
Look at articles on GMC on good medical practice, it will be helpful in preparing for this sub section
