Verbal Reasoning

Question Tutorial
Welcome to the UCAT Question Tutorial for
Verbal Reasoning (VR)
Introduction
This tutorial helps you to think about how to approach the Verbal Reasoning
section of the UCAT, and covers:

An overview of the Strategies for approaching

Verbal Reasoning the different questions,
subtest and its timings along with useful hints and
tips

Q An outline of the
different question types
with examples of each
for you to view and try
Verbal Reasoning Overview
• Verbal Reasoning assesses your ability to read 21 minutes

and think carefully about information presented

in passages and to determine whether specific
conclusions can be drawn from information 44 questions
presented
• You do not need to use any prior knowledge to 11 passages
answer these questions (each associated
with 4 questions)
Verbal Reasoning Overview
• Doctors and dentists need excellent verbal 21 minutes

reasoning skills in order to understand complex

information and communicate this clearly and
simply to patients 44 questions

• They must be able to interpret findings from

published materials and apply this to their own 11 passages
practice – critiquing such materials and drawing (each associated
with 4 questions)
conclusions as to the validity of any findings
Verbal Reasoning Overview
• For some questions you will be presented with a 21 minutes

question or incomplete statement with 4

answer options - these require you to make
inferences and draw conclusions 44 questions

• For others you decide whether the statement

provided follows logically from the information 11 passages
in the passage, with 3 answer options (each associated
with 4 questions)
• For each question there is only 1 correct answer
Verbal Reasoning Strategies
• Each passage is linked to 4 questions
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit,

Q1
sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua. Ut enim ad
minim veniam, quis nostrud

• Passages vary in length, and may contain a

exercitation ullamco laboris
nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat.

lot of information Q2
• You can work on your speed reading skills
during your preparation by regularly Q3
skimming news articles for key facts
Q4
Verbal Reasoning Strategies
• Consider different strategies to approach this section:
• You may want to skim read the passage first before
attempting the questions 
• Or you may wish to read the questions first, identifying
keywords and then search the passage for each answer
• Different strategies may work better for different questions
• You need to identify answers quickly, without missing any
relevant information
Verbal Reasoning Strategies
• Find a strategy works that best for you and practise this
• Work systematically through the answer options in each question
• Eliminate incorrect answers if you can  
• Be on the lookout for implications within each passage which
allow you to draw conclusions
• But don’t make assumptions in the absence of explicit
information
Verbal Reasoning Question Types
Questions in this subtest fall into five broad categories:

1 True / False / Can’t Tell

2 Incomplete statements

3 According to the passage

4 Except questions

5 Most likely
1. True / False / Can’t Tell Questions
• Some passages are followed by questions True
which give you a statement and ask you
whether the statement is:
True, False or you Can’t Tell
?
• From these 3 answer options, ensure you base
your choice on the information provided
Be careful not to make unjustified assumptions
False
•

• Here is an example question

The regime needed to find a way to treat supporters’ health conditions or The patients treated by the train all belong
injuries from the civil war. People who lived miles from the country’s to the ruling party which runs the
hospitals needed healthcare. But the hospitals were always full to capacity government of the country.
with waiting lists of over two years for almost everything. The doctors had
True False Can’t Tell
long complained about operations people needed. But they never had the
time, funding or facilities to provide them.
It would be an easy assumption to make
The result was a train which was, effectively, a travelling health centre. It was that, especially in a civil war situation, only
equipped and funded by aid from overseas countries and world-wide supporters of the ruling party would be
charities. The train has two fully equipped operating theatres, pharmacy, treated by the train. But there is no explicit
laboratory for testing samples, diagnosis and scanning equipment and statement to lead us to that conclusion or
treatment rooms. Over a 42-week period in the year the train calls at 17 to challenge it. In paragraphs 1 & 3, we’re
different towns on a winding route 1,900 miles long. It stays for a minimum told the rulers needed to find a way to treat
of two weeks in every town, longer in most. their followers who had been injured in the
civil war but there is nothing to say that
The train has its own medical staff as well as other specialists and these are the only people who receive
consultants who join for periods of 4 to 6 weeks. Patients do not have to treatment on the train. Paragraph 3 tells
travel such long distances as previously to receive treatment. Overall, many us how many people have been treated but
more are treated. In the past year, 27,800 have been treated free of charge not whether they are or have to be
including operations for serious conditions such as cancer and heart disease. members of a particular party to access
Nearly 10,000 operations have been carried out to relieve less serious treatment. So the answer must be can’t
conditions. tell.
2. Incomplete statement Questions

• ‘Incomplete statements’ are not written as questions

• You are given a statement and the 4 ‘answer options’ to
conclude the statement
• You must find the most appropriate answer that would
best finish the statement based on the information you
have been given in the passage
• Here is an example question
Restorative justice was promoted as a response to the 2011 riots in the Ministry of Justice research supports the use of
UK, bringing victims and offenders face to face. By helping each to restorative justice:
understand the other, it breaks down rigid stereotypes – youngsters
seeing the elderly as hostile and unsympathetic, the elderly seeing all A. for minor crimes only
youngsters as violent and threatening – and seems to be successful in B. because victims like it
helping to reduce crime and reoffending. C. for first time offenders only
D. because it is cost effective
When a 15-year old boy convicted of violent disorder heard from the
owners of local businesses how they had been affected, he not only A cannot be correct because there is reference to
apologised but added that he had been foolish. Roy, manager of a serious offences.
fast-food outlet in Brixton, said: ‘I was willing to tell him how the attack B could be correct but we have evidence from
made me and my staff feel. Judging by his reaction a lot of good has only one victim, so this is not strong enough to
come from this, for both of us. I could tell he was being genuine and was make a judgement concerning victims in general.
facing up to his actions. We both got a lot out of our meeting; we can
C cannot be correct because there is no reference
move on from all that now.’
at all to first time offenders in the passage.
Ministry of Justice research into restorative justice for serious offences D is the correct answer and is justified by the two
such as violent crime and burglary showed the approach reduced sentences in the final paragraph.
reoffending by 27%. For every £1 spent on providing restorative justice
£9 are saved for the criminal justice system in reduced crime compared
to community punishments or prison services alone.
3. According to the passage Questions

• You will be given a statement and asked to choose which of

4 answers is best supported by the passage
• The answer options can be quite lengthy
• Read the question carefully and answer based solely on the
information in the passage
• Don’t be influenced by any prior knowledge or opinions
• Here is an example question
There was no official census in Britain until 1801. The census listed all family According to the passage, the 1662 Hearth Tax
members, their ages, occupations and addresses as well as baptisms, marriages was seen as being preferable to a Poll tax levied
and deaths. However, earlier records such as those of the 1662 Hearth Tax, also on every individual in the country because:
provide useful information about the population and where they lived. A. houses had a fixed location while
In 1662 when King Charles II needed money, instead of introducing a Poll Tax individuals could move around to evade
which people could evade by moving from one area to another, Sir William Petty paying tax
proposed a tax on hearths and fireplaces in the property people occupied. In spite B. Poll taxes were seen as similar to income
of the strong resentment caused by having outsiders inspect every house, this tax, the idea of which had been hotly
became the Hearth Tax to be paid by occupiers (or owners if unoccupied). Hearths resisted
were taxed because there could obviously be more hearths than chimneys. C. people already had to pay a tithe to the
church so a Poll tax too would be an
Poor people were exempted if they were too poor to pay church rates, had assets
excessive burden
of less than £10 and inhabited property worth less that £1 rent per annum. To
D. Assessing the tax to be paid on hearths or
inspect Hearth Tax records concerning the population we need to examine
fireplaces was easier than assessing
separate records from each parish and, especially in the early years, the lists of
individuals
people in arrears, owing the tax. Such information is invaluable for genealogical
research.
The answer is A as para. 2 tells us that ‘in 1662
At first the tax was collected by sheriffs, then by ‘receivers’, then by ‘farmers’ and when King Charles II needed money, instead of
eventually by commissioners who in 1689, raised a record £216,000. Although introducing a Poll tax which people could evade
Hearth Tax records are now preserved in the National Archives, they were originally by moving from one area to another, Sir William
kept in chests and 500 sacks of records were moved several times, with many Petty proposed a tax on hearths and fireplaces
records being lost or damaged. At least partial records for 23 counties have been in the property occupied’. There is no evidence
published so far with the rest still to come. to support any of the other responses.
4. Except Questions

• ‘Except’ questions ask you to weigh up the evidence

to reach a conclusion
• You should find the most appropriate answer based
on the information in the passage
• Remember not to use any prior knowledge
• Here is an example question
Glaciologists were surprised that 1,000 cubic miles of polar ice disappeared between The passage takes a pessimistic view of
2003 and 2010, suggesting they had underestimated the potential for melting ice sheets Britain possibly becoming a string of islands
to contribute to sea-level rises. The speed of such rises – in cms now but perhaps metres over the next 200 years for all the reasons
in future – implies a risk of forced displacement of perhaps 187 million people in below except:
vulnerable states such as Bangladesh and low-lying islands such as Tuvalu and the
Maldives before 2100. A. glaciologists originally
This evidence supports projections made earlier by Bill McGuire’s team at UCL. Based on underestimated the rate of ice melting
Space Shuttle data, their first scenario is a 7 metre sea-level rise if the Greenland OR the B. we are already experiencing the start
West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted. This would drown the centre of London, leave many of a crisis greenhouse effect
British cities and coastal towns water-logged and fracture parts of the land-based C. the data from the Space Shuttle is
infrastructure. The UCL team believe global sea-levels will rise with the temperatures, from strong irrefutable evidence
the melting of ice sheets at present on land, and the expansion of sea water as it warms. D. there is now nothing anyone can do to
alleviate the process
Their second scenario involves a 13 metre rise if the Greenland AND West Antarctic ice
sheets BOTH melted. The sea would encroach far into agricultural areas such as East
Anglia, Yorkshire and Cheshire. Their doomsday scenario would involve an 84 metre
A is based on information in the first
sea-level rise over the next 200 years if the West AND East Antarctic AND Greenland ice
paragraph.
sheets all melted, with the sea transforming Britain into a string of islands formed around
B is based on information in the second
hills and mountains in Wales, Scotland and the spine of England.
paragraph.
The researchers said this would happen if we did nothing about gas emissions, leading to a C is based on information in the fourth
crisis greenhouse effect. Recent hurricanes, extreme weather and odd behaviour of the Gulf paragraph.
Stream, suggest that in terms of net global emissions that is exactly where we are heading. D is not reflected in the passage and is the
correct answer
5. Most likely Questions

• ‘Most likely’ are, again, questions where you need

to weigh up the evidence to reach a conclusion
• Again you are presented with 4 answer options
• There is only one correct answer, however the
choice may appear less definite and a little more
speculative
• Here is an example question
London’s West End is famous for its theatres but this was not always so. Between 1642 It is most likely that the author believed one
and 1660 all theatrical performances were banned as immoral, corrupt and subversive. In of the main targets attacked by playwrights
1660 drama was legalised once more but in all England only two London theatres and between 1690 and 1730 to be:
acting companies were permitted. Royal sponsorship resulted in strict control of content
and performance while critical comment was forbidden. Theatre catered for upper class A. London magistrates
audiences. B. Members of the government
C. The Lord Chamberlain’s office
In the 1690s commercial interests replaced royal patronage and government control D. Theatre managers and owners
decreased. Owners, seeking increased profits, wanted more socially diverse audiences.
Many dramatists, leading up to the late 1730s, criticised the government and royal family.
As performances became increasingly critical and outspoken the government established
tighter control and imposed censorship. The 1737 Licensing Act was passed following the
reading in parliament of a scurrilous play, The Golden Rump, which offensively mocked King
George’s personal habits. 

The Lord Chamberlain’s office, which censored all plays two weeks before performance, only
licensed them if everything objectionable was deleted. Heavy fines and imprisonment were
used to punish authors and actors who broke this law. Many authors resented this
restriction on their freedom to criticise politicians. 

After 1788 magistrates could authorise local theatres. Many new provincial theatres were B is most likely.
built but London theatres were still restricted to two. Country gentry could now enjoy This is supported by the sentence in
culture not available to many Londoners. Censorship meant fewer plays were written so paragraph two, “Many dramatists, leading up
critics of government found new satirical mechanisms and London theatre managers to the late 1730s criticised the government
developed new entertainment forms to attract audiences. Censorship finally ended in 1968. and royal family”.
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Verbal Reasoning Question Tutorial

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