Verbal Reasoning
At The Future Medic, we provide many services in order to help you become the best possible medical student you can be, offering to tutor and mentoring and more with our expert staff ready to guide you.
Verbal reasoning is a critically important skill to have refined as a medical professional and is an assessed criteria when taking your UCAT test.
Studying medicine can open the door to a wide list of careers, all of which contain the need to use the skill of verbal reasoning, so it is understandable why it is so imperative to have this skill in order.
Explaining the UCAT
The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) is one of the many forms of admissions tests that is used by a selection of Universities within the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
The test must be completed in addition to passing A-Levels for those who wish to study medicine. Over twenty seven thousand people took this test as of 2018.
The A-levels needed for medicine studies are just one part of a very complex application process to secure a spot for studying. With less than 16% of applications to study medicine in 2022 resulting in an offered place, the application process is very highly competitive.
The UCAT is designed to support a strong academic record by testing various situational and skill-based areas that a student would need to possess to make it in the world of medicine naturally. The scoring is split across five categories which all make up individual parts of the test. These are:
- Verbal Reasoning
- Decision Making
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Abstract Reasoning
- Situational Judgement
You can access UCAT question banks on the UCAT website, which we have highlighted below:
- Verbal Reasoning Question Bank
- Decision Making Question Bank
- Quantitative Reasoning Question Bank
- Abstract Reasoning Question Bank
- Situational Judgement Question Bank
Click here to access the UCAT practice tests on the UCAT website. Want to know how to calculate your UCAT score from your practice test? Click here
Choose from anywhere between 1 hour of UCAT tutoring to 20 hours, to help you unlock your full potential.
It doesn’t matter how far along you are in your Medicine journey– whether you are applying during your A-Levels, or if you have previously been rejected for Medicine and you need a higher UCAT score– our UCAT online course is sure to help!
What is verbal reasoning and why is it important?
Verbal reasoning is the ability to solve a problem or spot an incongruinty using the written information provided within the situation in question, this is a core skill we use within our lives.
As an example of verbal reasoning, you may be perplexed, unsure and motivated when understanding this subject.
If you read the previous sentence knowing that the word ‘motivated’ doesn’t make sense in the sentence, you have just displayed your verbal reasoning. You concluded from the piece of text that the sentence wasn’t structured correctly as the wrong synonym was used.
So how will this skill come in handy in the medical field?
Verbal reasoning is a vital skill within the medical field as you will be reading a lot. Whether this is notes from other doctors, patients, previous medical notes on a paitent, you have to be able to come to conclusions with the information provided as this can make or break your patient’s treatment.
In regards to verbal reasoning during your UCAT test, there are two key question types in the verbal reasoning section:
True/False/Can’t Tell: Based on the passage of text, you need to reason whether the statements are true, false or it cannot be told whether it is true or false.
Free Text: You may see questions or incomplete statements, and you need to select the free text answers that best apply.
So, do you want to be completely prepared for you UCAT test? Do you want a full understanding of what to expect, and how to answer them in the best possible ways? Then book your UCAT preparation course today
How will the future medic help your verbal reasoning?
So how exactly will The Future Medic help you?
As part of our UCAT preparation we offer online courses designed for you to take at a time that suits you, alongside this we offer personalised 1 to 1 sessions with our highly qualified tutors with years of experience in the medical field as well as tutoring for UCAT tests and much more.
We are proud to share the fact that we have an average mean score for UCAT tests at 743, whilst the average UCAT results (of those not taking our courses) is 607. This only highlights how we can help you achieve more than the average through our courses.
Regardless if you have failed your UCAT once before, we are happy to help you excel and retake your test with more knowledge and confidence than before.
We ensure that we cover the required subjects within your UCAT, in regard to verbal reasoning, we will share with you the does and dont’s, process of verbal reasoning along with practical examples that show you how to implement this skill effectively.
So book today to help develop your skills, understanding and essential skills needed to be a thriving medical professional.
Need guidance elsewhere?
Medical school interviews
Is it not your UCAT test that you’re worried about? Maybe you struggle in interview situations, we can also help you thrive in interviews, we cover every aspect you need to be aware of during a medical school interview, including:
Communication Skills:
- Body language
- Rate & Tone
- Mirroring Posture
- Clarity of Articulation
- Minimising Jargon/Waffle
- How to use words you don’t understand
- Breaking bad news
- Communicating your thought process
- Active Listening
Lateral thinking / Problem solving:
This section deals with questions that seem unrelated, may cause you to fluster and lose your focus or train of thought. These are a common reason why students fail their interviews.
NHS & Hot Topics:
It is crucial for a medical applicant to have an understanding of the NHS and its structure. You may not know what you want to specialise in, but you should be aware of how GPs link to specialties, and understand the links between the public and private sector.
Medical Ethics:
In this section we tackle the hardest part of the interview – Medical Ethics. We help you integrate terminology such as the medical pillars and GMC Guidelines into your answers as well as showing you how to approach common ethical scenarios such as confidentiality, organ donation and abortion.
To see our full list of interview subjects we cover, click here.
Personal statement help
Our team of doctors have read thousands of medicine personal statements as part of the medical school admissions process, and know exactly what is required to make your personal statement special and unique. We’ve got some amazing support options for you to help you craft the perfect Personal Statement. These are:
With this service, you can start with having written nothing, and by the end, have created the perfect medicine personal statement for you.
What you get:
- Unlimited Hours of Coaching
- Unlimited Reviews
- The best service available
- One-To-One sessions
- Intensive Personal Statement Tutoring
We help you write your medicine personal statement from scratch if needed. We help you structure it in the best possible way, focusing on each section in detail with unlimited redrafts and unlimited reviews until it is perfect.
We will also tutor you on aspects of the statement you will be asked about in interview.
Book a one-to-one session with our expert tutors. Get specific coaching on the five domains of your PS as well as guidance on:
- Structure
- Language
- Syntax
- Authenticity
We can also go through with you what questions you are likely to be asked at interview about your PS.
This is a review of your medicine personal statement by one of our admissions’ panel doctors. The constructive criticism and advice you will receive will focus on the 5 domains:
- Language
- Expression
- Professionalism
- Thematic Tone
- First Impressions
- Any Red Flags
Book your personal statement guidance today!
Begin your medical journey today
Our team at The Future Medic understand the responsibility to provide our country with the next generation of bright minds who will innovate, revolutionise and excel in the study of medicine.
That is why we have made it our mission to supply you with all the knowledge, skills and resources you could possibly need to enter this competitive yet rewarding field of expertise. We hope to have highlighted the need to have excellent and refined Verbal reasoning which can be supplemented by our courses.
So what are you waiting for? To access the very best in medical school interview tutoring, head to our website now. Alternatively you can contact us directly, got a few more questions? Our blogpage may be able to help.