UCAT Verbal Reasoning - Practice and Free Samples

 

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What is the UCAT Verbal Reasoning Test?

The Verbal Reasoning Test is the first section of the UCAT exam. This section measures your verbal reasoning skills- how well you can analyse and understand written information. The UCAT Verbal Reasoning section is comprised of 11 text passages, each followed by four questions, making a total of 44 questions. You have 21 minutes to complete this section (less than 30 seconds per question!)

On our PrepPack you'll find everything you need to ace this challenging UCAT section: a thorough VR guide, multiple practices to help you build your skills, and 4 full Verbal Reasoning practice simulations, with a time limit just like the real thing. 

UCAT Verbal Reasoning Subtest Format

Some of the questions in the Verbal Reasoning section of the UCAT evaluate critical reasoning skills. For such items, it is necessary to arrive at a conclusion based on the provided information.

In the test, there are two multiple choice question types:

Verbal Reasoning Question Type 1

You will be provided with passages which you will need to read carefully. After each passage, you will be presented with an item related to the passage, such as an incomplete statement or a question, each with four possible answers. You are to choose the best response (only one answer may be selected).

Each item may address a specific subject that was introduced in the passage. Alternatively, it may pose a question in a variety of phrasings:

  • The author most likely agrees with all of the following except:
  • Which of following claims is best supported by the passage?
  • Which conclusion can be drawn from the passage?
  • Which of the following assertions would strengthen/weaken 'some argument' that appeared in the passage?
  • Which of the following statements is least likely to be true?

Your answer must be based on the provided information rather than on your previous assumptions and general knowledge.

Verbal Reasoning Question Type 2

The second question type may require you to determine if a provided statement is true based on the passage. The response options are as follows:

  • True – Based on the provided information, the statement in the question is true.
  • False – Based on the provided information, the statement in the question is false.
  • Can’t Tell – Based on the provided information, you cannot determine if the statement in the question is true or false.

The UCAT Verbal Reasoning section is comprised of 11 text passages, each followed by four questions, making a total of 44 questions. You have 21 minutes to complete this section (plus one minute for instructions).

UCAT Questions - Verbal Reasoning

Here are some sample questions from our Preparation Pack's question bank. Try answering each question in 30 seconds- that's how much time you will have during the test.

Sample Question #1

A study, published in the journal of Psychological Science, examined data from a national survey that followed more than 5,000 UK households and 10,000 adults between 1991 and 2008 as they moved house around the country. They asked participants to report on their own psychological health during that time to estimate the ‘green space effect’.

Results of the study suggest that mental distress and life satisfaction are correlated with living in greener areas. This was true even after the researchers accounted for changes over time in participants' income, employment, marital status, physical health and housing type.

Dr. White, one of the study's researchers, compared the scale of the effects of living in a greener area to ‘big-hitting’ life events such as marriage: ”We've found that living in an urban area with relatively high levels of green space can have a significantly positive impact on wellbeing, roughly equal to a third of the impact of being married'. The effect was also found to be equivalent to a tenth of the impact of being employed, as opposed to unemployed. Even when stacked up against other factors that contribute to life satisfaction, living in a greener area had a significant effect.”

This research could be important for psychologists, public health officials and urban planners who are interested in learning about the effects that urbanisation and city planning can have on population health and wellbeing."

Beth Murphy, information manager at the mental health charity Mind, said: ”For people living busy lifestyles in densely populated areas, being able to get outdoors and access green space is a great way to escape the stresses of day-to-day life'. We believe this is food for thought for any policymaker involved in urban planning, or local authority developing its public health strategy.”

What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?
A. People in densely populated areas have poor health.
B. Marriage does not have a significant impact on well-being.
C. The positive impact of green spaces is moderated by physical health.
D. Not all people have access to green areas.
Correct Answer
Incorrect Answer
The correct answer is D.
The question requires us to make inferences from the information given in the passage. In addition, it does not refer us to a specific section of the text. Therefore it is recommended to work with the statements themselves and locate them in the text (trying to confirm or refute them) instead of vice versa.
Statement A: ‘Beth Murphy…said: "For people living busy lifestyles in densely populated areas, being able to get outdoors and access green space is a great way to escape the stresses of day-to-day life"'. Murphy does not indicate that people who live in densely populated areas have poor health.
Statement B:‘Dr. White…compared the scale of the effects of living in a greener area to "big-hitting" life events such as marriage.’ Namely, marriage is considered to have a significant impact on people.
Statement C:‘This was true even after the researchers accounted for changes over time in participants' income, employment, marital status, physical health and housing type.’ In other words, the positive impact of green spaces is not moderated by physical health.
Statement D:‘…these kinds of comparisons are important for policymakers when trying to decide how to invest scarce public resources.’ The study itself, together with the words of Dr. White, gives us reason to infer that green spaces are not accessible to all people. That is the reason it is so important to prove their positive effects and to influence policymakers to invest more money in them.

Therefore, the statement that logically follows from the passage is statement D.

 Did you get it right in 30 seconds? The preparation pack is full of detailed solutions to allow you to increase your speed and accuracy on UCAT test day. It's full of UCAT questions that are realistic to the test's level, which will allow you to score highly and become a medical student.

 Sample Question #2

More cellphones meet their demise from exposure to moisture than from any other cause - so we've all got a vested interest in waterproof phones. In the past, a user who wanted to protect his phone had to buy a watertight case, and thus double the size of the device. Last year, the company P2i introduced a less clunky approach: coating devices in invisible, water-repelling nano-polymers. But that solution only guarded against splashes, not submersion. Two companies, HzO in Utah and Liquipel in California, have now refined the technique to make devices resistant to both spills and dunks.

Both companies use similar application processes to bond the nano-polymers to phones. They place the devices, or their internal components, inside a sealed chamber, vacuum the air out, and inject a carbon-based gas. The vapour settles on the object and solidifies in a transparent layer that’s one thousandth the thickness of a human hair. When water hits a protected surface, it beads up and rolls off. The main difference between the companies is what they protect; HzO treats only internal parts, such as processors and sensors, whereas Liquipel coats both the interior and the exterior. In HzO’s tests, a treated Smartphone survived underwater for more than four hours.

TESTING

For $59, Liquipel will retro-waterproof any of a dozen cellphone models. Because the nanoparticles are so small, they can penetrate seams to reach and coat the internal parts of an already-assembled device.

The test: We sent the people at Liquipel a working Smartphone to treat. When the device was returned a few days later, looking indistinguishable from before, we powered it up and held it under a running faucet for about five minutes.

The results: The phone operated normally while under the faucet. Afterward, it took a couple of seconds to react to touch—probably because of droplets that hadn’t yet beaded up and rolled away—but then worked as if nothing had happened.

(Adapted from POPSCI)

Statement: 

HzO specifically uses nano-polymers coat, which is not as thin as a human hair.
True
False
Cannot Say
Correct Answer
Incorrect Answer

The statement is True.

In order for this statement to be true we must find information, which compares between the thickness of the nano-polymers coat and that of human hair. In addition, we must be certain that the information addresses HzO's coatings.

Let's start from the second detail. We find at the second paragraph that: "...in a transparent layer that’s one thousandth the thickness of a human hair." One thousandth the thickness is much thinner than the human hair. This information exactly correlates our statement.
Note, that "not as thin as" is intuitively interpreted as "thicker". This is a trap since it all the same can be interpreted as "thinner". Both cases present a non equal measure of thickness.

Now – is the statement relates to HzO's coatings? Yes indeed. The first sentence of the paragraph is "Both companies use similar application processes". We can infer that the description that follows relates to both Liquipel and HzO, two of the companies, which were introduced before; hence the statement is True. The word "specifically" which appear in the statement is just a distracter. The fact that HzO's coating specifically answers the term, doesn't tell anything about other introduced coatings, neither an inclusion nor exclusion.

The Cognitive UCAT also incldues abstract reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and decision making, which are all covered by the full UCAT Preparation Pack.

Why is the UCAT Verbal Reasoning test so hard?

Because of the tight time limit, and the complexity of the passages and questions, many consider this subtest to be the hardest UCAT section- getting a good score is a read challenge.

Many students try to skim-read to reduce their solving time, but then find out that they need to read the passage multiple times to answer the questions. Other students try to read carefully to make sure they answer each question correctly, but find that they run out of time before they reach the halfway point of the subtest.

To answer these questions correctly (and fast) – you need to practice a lot, master the Verbal Reasoning questions format, and have a solid technique for the whole section. In our dedicated PrepPack™ you’ll find 10 VR Practice tests, VR study guide and a video tutorial to help you master the first UCAT section and start this test with the right foot.

 

If you feel you need to build up your skills and improve your Verbal Reasoning score - our dedicated VR PrepPack will be the way to go.

 

UCAT Verbal Reasoning Preparation [2022]

 

See What You'll Get
  • UCAT score guide
  • UCAT Verbal Reasoning Full Guide
  • 8 Verbal reasoning Practice Tests
  • Thorough Explanations for every question
  • Study Guide
  • Verbal Reasoning Video Tutorial

 

 

For more free sample questions, check out our free UCAT practice test

 

 

 

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