News: Your first step to studying medicine at LKCMedicine: Taking the UCAT

By Nurulafiqah Anasha Binte Afandi, Junior Writer, Communications and Outreach

As an internationally recognised medical school, Lee Kong Chiang School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) must continue to be closely attuned to the changes of the healthcare landscape and nurture its students to be “future-ready”. Of course, this means having a fit-for-purpose curriculum, dedicated faculty, and top-notch facilities to prepare students. It also means that this preparation begins at the application stage: great care and attention goes into selecting applicants who have the potential and ability to become the doctors of tomorrow.

LKCMedicine achieves this through its rigorous entry process, a process which includes an admission test. Such a test provides a standardised and objective assessment of an individual’s knowledge and aptitude and is used in conjunction with prior academic attainment to ensure a fair and transparent way of comparing between individual applicants.

As part of the School’s commitment to global best practices in medical school admissions, the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) will replace the BioMedical Admissions Test from this year, for students applying for a place in the 2024 academic year intake. Aspiring doctors hoping to be part of NTU Singapore’s Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree programme from AY24/25 onwards will need to sit the UCAT as part of LKCMedicine’s admissions process. 

To learn more about the UCAT, The LKCMedicine Newsletter spoke to LKCMedicine Vice-Dean (Education) Professor Jennifer Cleland, who is responsible for the development, delivery and evaluation of the School’s MBBS programme. She shared that the UCAT was developed in partnership with a consortium of medical schools, and its on-going development and the guidance for using the UCAT are both informed by a strong programme of independent research.

Apart from being widely used by other medical schools, particularly in the UK and Australia, the UCAT is aligned with the School’s mission of cultivating capable clinicians with strong problem-solving skills.  “[The test] contains a component which directly assesses an applicant’s capacity to understand real-world situations and to identify critical factors as well as appropriate behaviour in dealing with them,” said Prof Cleland. 

She added, “Our shift to UCAT aligns with the increasing awareness that medical schools must select applicants who will not only excel academically but also possess the non-academic, or personal qualities, required for a career in medicine, such as compassion, team working skills and integrity.” Taking the UCAT gives applicants an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities beyond examination result.

A notable advantage of the UCAT is its emphasis on fairness.  So, no student is disadvantaged by unfamiliarity with the test format, UCAT provides an array of free learning resources, ranging from tutorials, question banks and practice tests. These are readily available on the official UCAT website.

Those hoping to read medicine at LKCMedicine in August 2024 must sit the UCAT between mid-July to the end of September of the preceding year (i.e., 2023). To begin, applicants simply need to create an account to register for UCAT. Once this is done, an applicant can book a test date and sit the test at one of several centres around Singapore on their chosen date. The test results will be sent directly to LKCMedicine – making the entire process low in hassle for applicants!

As UCAT is newly added into LKCMedicine’s application process, the School has organised a roadshow for prospective students between May and July, to address queries and shed light on the admission process. The first session was virtual, held on 26 May, and there are two physical events on 26 and 29 July at LKCMedicine’s Novena campus. The upcoming sessions will be packed with enlightening and interactive activities such as Q&A sessions and pitstops for aspiring medical students to learn more about the teaching methods and tools at LKCMedicine. 

For more information on taking the UCAT, please visit the official UCAT website.