UCAT to IQ converter

The UCAT has no published link to IQ, only to how applicants perform at medical school. The estimate here is built on assumptions and the range is wide, so use it for a rough sense of scale and not to judge ability.

Every UCAT score, from the same model as the calculator. The likely range covers about four in five people at that score. The last column is the IQ you would get if the UCAT measured IQ perfectly, which is the number most other charts show.

Going the other way, this is the UCAT score people at each IQ typically get. Scores at the same IQ vary a lot, so the range matters more than the middle figure.

The UCAT is used by UK universities to help choose between the many applicants for medicine and dentistry. From 2025 it has three timed cognitive subtests, Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning, and a separate Situational Judgement test reported in bands from 1 to 4. Abstract Reasoning, which used to be the fourth cognitive subtest, was dropped.

It is designed to limit how much subject knowledge you need, but it is heavily time-pressured, and so practice matters a great deal. There is a large commercial market in UCAT preparation. A high score reflects ability plus weeks of practice at working fast on unfamiliar question types.

Published research on the UCAT is about prediction: how well scores predict performance in medical school. Studies find the relationship modest but real. Nobody has published a comparison of UCAT scores with an IQ test, so the link used here is an assumption.

UCAT test-takers are sixth-formers and graduates who are applying to medicine or dentistry, and many have very high predicted or achieved grades. That group is well above average in academic ability, so the model assumes a mean IQ of about 112 for test-takers, and a narrower spread than the general population.

This is the assumption that matters most. It means the average UCAT score corresponds to an estimated IQ well above 100, and it also means that a low UCAT score for a medical applicant is still a decent result relative to the general population.

Because Abstract Reasoning was removed, a 2025 total of 2400 and a 2024 total of 2400 are different results, and older percentile tables and forum guides do not apply. This converter uses the 2025 final data: 41,354 tests, a mean total of 1891, and decile scores running from 1580 at the 10th percentile to 2220 at the 90th.

The 2026 figures are preliminary and run higher: UCAT itself warns that preliminary means overstate the final result, and the 2025 preliminary mean (1939) was above the 2025 final (1891). If you sat in 2026, expect your percentile to be a little lower than a comparison with the preliminary table suggests.

Medical schools use the UCAT as one part of selection and publish their own thresholds or weightings. An IQ estimate has no role in that, and it should not change what you do. It is a way of placing your score against something familiar, with a range that says how uncertain the placement is.

If your UCAT was lower than you hoped, remember that it is a timed test of unfamiliar question styles, and that scores move with practice. That is a reason to give the estimate little weight, and it is also why a strong result on it is a compliment to your preparation as well as your ability.

Deciles are from the 2025 final data. The estimated IQ column shows the most likely value, with the likely range in brackets.

There is no official UCAT to IQ conversion. The UCAT Consortium does not publish one. What we can do honestly is treat the UCAT as a good but imperfect signal of general ability. We place your score among UCAT test-takers, assume how able that group is on average, and use the correlation between the two to predict the most likely IQ. Because the correlation is below 1, high and low scores are pulled towards the middle. That is why the estimate comes with a range.

Evidence grade: weak. The decile table is official and current. The only published validity evidence for the UCAT concerns medical school outcomes, so the link to IQ is assumed.

Published facts we used

• 2025 final statistics: 41,354 tests, mean total 1891, subtest means 602, 628 and 661 (UCAT Consortium).
• Decile scores for the total from 1580 (10th percentile) to 2220 (90th).
• Published validity research concerns prediction of medical school outcomes, where the relationship is modest but significant.

Assumptions we made

• The SD of about 250 is our calculation from the decile table.
• Mean IQ of UCAT test-takers: 112. Medicine and dentistry applicants.
• IQ spread among test-takers: SD 12.
• Correlation between UCAT and IQ among test-takers: .55. No published value exists.
• Scores above the 90th percentile use a normal-curve tail because the consortium publishes deciles only.