Getting started in VR
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Verbal Reasoning is the first UCAT section. You must compare statements to a passage and find support or opposition.
The main task in Verbal Reasoning is text comparison, which means that you can learn to work quickly and accurately at seeing whether the same idea is expressed in different words, or if the new statement contradicts the passage or relies on outside information.
Note that text comparison is fundamentally different from reading comprehension, which would require you to read a long passage carefully, with close attention to detail in order to answer the questions.
In Verbal Reasoning, you will just compare statements to each passage – nothing more, nothing less.
The Verbal Reasoning section includes 11 passages, each with 4 items.
44 items in total
1.5 minutes to read the instructions
22 minutes to answer the items
30 seconds to answer each item
Try to answer each item in 30 seconds or less.
This pacing is brutal, but it’s necessary to ensure that you mark an answer for every question before time is up. Don’t be daunted – with practice, your pacing will improve.
There are two Verbal formats:
Statements always have the same answer choices:
A. True
B. False
C. Can’t Tell
Since these answers are always the same, you do not have to read them each time they appear. Instead, learn the logic of True, False and Can’t Tell, so it becomes second nature by Test Day.
Questions have 4 answer choices, from A to D. Each answer choice is effectively a statement.
These answers are particular to each question, so you must compare the answers to the passage. However, with practice, you will find that you can dismiss many wrong answers with a quick glance whenever an answer’s wording or meaning is too different from the passage.
Timed practice
VR passage and Verbal statement (TFCT)
Let’s see what a passage and Verbal statement look like.
A Verbal section of 44 items typically comprises:
2-4 passages with statements
7-9 passages with questions
The majority of your Verbal marks will therefore come from questions.
The sets will appear in no particular order, so you may see a set with questions followed by a set with statements.
This means you may not find out until you reach the end of the section whether there have been 2, 3 or 4 sets with statements.
There are now only 2 or 3 TFCT sets in VR in each official UCAT practice test. However, there has never been an official test specification indicating the number of VR sets with statements.
As a result, it’s unclear whether there’ll now be only 2 or 3 VR sets with statements on Test Day, or if some test forms may have 4 VR sets with statements.
We at Medify encourage you to practise based on only 2 or 3 VR sets with statements.
If there is an additional set, you’ll likely find that it improves your pacing since statements are faster marks than questions.
Passages can be on almost any topic – from historical biography to environmental issues, from technological innovation to human interest stories.
The topic of the passage doesn’t matter and shouldn’t distract you – your focus should be firmly on the questions or statements you’re answering.
If a passage is on an interesting subject or is written in an engaging way, don’t fall into the trap of spending too long reading it.
Remember: The marks come from the statements and questions, not from the passages.
Walkthrough activity
Reading a VR passage in full
See how long it realistically takes to read a VR passage in full and absorb its meaning
Common problems that you may encounter in Verbal Reasoning:
- You can’t read the passages in detail – there just isn’t enough time.
- The pacing is brutal – you must keep moving or you will not finish.
- Items are difficult to answer without reading the passage.
- You can’t spend too long on statements or simpler questions – doing so will leave less time for longer, harder items.
Use the fixed format answer choices for Verbal statements to your advantage:
A. True
B. False
C. Can’t Tell
Learn them by heart and you won’t have to read them on Test Day. Your initial glance at the right-hand side of the screen will reveal whether you are answering statements rather than questions for a particular passage.
If you’re answering statements, you can directly apply the logic which you have learned and practised in advance to click A, B or C.
If the passage supports the statement, the statement is True.
- Most True statements use synonyms or paraphrases.
- Some True statements make a valid inference from the passage.
- All True statements must match the information in the passage, but it is very rare for a statement to match the passage verbatim.
Note that if a statement matches the passage almost but not quite verbatim, check closely as it may be False or Can’t Tell. True statements are unlikely to repeat the passage word-for-word, so look for subtle changes in meaning before clicking an answer.
If the statement contradicts the passage, the statement is False.
- Some False statements claim the opposite of something in the passage.
- Other False statements include extreme language that contradicts the passage.
Note that False does not mean ‘not true’, as it might in another test or quiz where True/False are the only options. Do not fall for this common ‘not true’ trap!
In UCAT VR, a statement that is not true could be False, or it could be Can’t Tell.
If the statement goes beyond the information in the passage, the answer is Can’t Tell.
- If the statement relies on external knowledge, the answer is Can’t Tell.
- If you need additional information to determine whether the statement matches or contradicts the passage, the answer is Can’t Tell.
- If the passage neither supports nor contradicts the statement, the answer is Can’t Tell.
You can eliminate to great effect by asking yourself: Does it match? Is it the opposite? If the answer to both these questions is no, then Can’t Tell is correct!
Use the mnemonic MOO to remember the basic meanings of each answer choice:
- The correct answer is True when the statement matches the information in the passage.
- The correct answer is False when it’s the opposite of what’s stated in the passage.
- The correct answer is Can’t Tell when it falls outside the passage and is therefore neither supported nor contradicted by the information that’s given.
Is a statement True, False or Can’t Tell?
Always think .
There are no degrees of truth in Verbal Reasoning.
Answers are either supported (True) or contradicted (False) by the passage, or they go beyond it (Can’t Tell).
- If a statement is not supported, it cannot be True.
- However, it could still be either False or Can’t Tell.
- It’s False if it’s not true in the sense that it contradicts the passage.
- It’s Can’t Tell if it’s not verifiably a match with the passage, but also not verifiably the opposite of the passage.
Walkthrough question
VR passage and Verbal statement (TFCT)
Let’s look more closely at a Verbal statement and its three fixed answer choices.
Verbal questions have four answer choices. These answer choices vary from question to question, so you must read them.
In these items, the answers can be supported or contradicted by the passage, or go beyond the passage.
In the vast majority of cases, the correct answer is supported by information in the passage. In those cases, any answers that contradict or go beyond the passage are incorrect.
If there’s a key word in the question stem, you should check the passage first to find the relevant part before you look at the answer choices.
Then, read the answer choices and compare them to the relevant part of the passage. This makes quicker work of ‘zeroing in’ on the correct answer, since in most cases the correct answer is supported by the passage, like a True statement.
Wrong answers are normally like False or Can’t Tell statements – so you can briskly eliminate anything that contradicts or goes beyond the passage.
In the Verbal section, you must not use outside information to answer statements and questions but instead base your answers solely on the information in the passage.
That said, there is of course a degree of inherent knowledge it is safe to use in VR because it is embedded in the passage text, just like in all forms of communication.
The following are not considered outside information:
- Common definitions of everyday words – you’re expected to understand basic vocabulary and the meanings of commonly used words (e.g. understanding that ‘begin’ means ‘start’, or that ‘ancient’ means ‘extremely old’ without needing it explicitly stated). Recognising synonyms is in fact vital to the answer logic used in this section.
- General knowledge of time, dates and measurements – Recognising that a century is 100 years, 50% means half, ‘the 1800s’ and ‘the 19th century’ mean the same thing, or that a day has 24 hours are basic concepts necessary for reading comprehension.
- Basic maths using numbers provided in the passage – you may use the calculator to add, subtract, multiply or divide.
There’s no mystery surrounding where embedded knowledge ends and outside knowledge begins in the Verbal Section.
Just ensure that a statement or answer choice matches or contradicts the passage based on:
- Information that appears in the passage, OR
- Information that can be reasonable and straightforwardly inferred from information that appears in the passage.
Similarly, confirm that a statement or answer choice falls outside the passage because it depends on:
- Information that does not appear in the passage.
- Information that cannot be inferred from the passage.
- Information that does not align with the passage – it neither matches nor contradicts the passage.
Don’t overthink this aspect of VR. The instructions are clear, the line is clearly drawn: your general knowledge isn’t being tested.
Timed practice
VR passage and Verbal question
Let’s try some timed practice with a Verbal question.
Words like ‘some’, ‘most’ or ‘few’ have very specific definitions in Decision Making. In DM, these definitions are important in drawing conclusions using logic.
These definitions don’t apply in VR – instead, we can assume that words have their normal meaning as used in everyday language:
- ‘Some’ might just refer to an indeterminate number.
- ‘Most’ might refer to the whole of a group depending on the context.
- ‘Few’ might just refer to a small number.
Your task in VR is to compare texts, not to evaluate logical claims.
Valid inferences in VR will still match the passage, even if they aren’t explicitly stated. You won’t need to do mental gymnastics or use formal logic to work out if they are supported or not.
Rather than honing in on keywords that make a big difference in DM, focus on the meaning of the statement or answer choice as a whole and whether it matches the passage, is opposite to the passage or is outside the passage.