Verbal reasoning (VR) assesses a student’s ability to read, interpret and critically evaluate written information.
The VR is often the section that students struggle the most with, due to being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of text. Therefore, in many cases, students have the largest potential for score improvement in VR.
Verbal reasoning (VR) assesses a student’s ability to read, interpret and critically evaluate written information.
There are (generally) 11 passages of text, which are each associated with 4 questions, totalling to 44 questions to be answered in 22 minutes for the section. Passages can vary in length from roughly 200 – 400 words as well as in difficulty to comprehend, so rather than adhering strictly to 2 minutes per question set, time management should be considered in relation to the overall section.
There are 3 types of VR questions. These are “true / false / can’t tell”, “passage-based comprehension”, “inference questions”. The different question types in VR are determined by the question and answer options, rather than the passage of text, which is relatively similar in length and difficulty between the different question types.
“True / false / can’t tell” questions refer to the three different answer options that characterise this question type. The question will provide a statement to which you have to decide if what is stated is “true” or “false” or “can’t tell”. “True” describes a statement that directly matches the information in the passage, whether it is stated or implied. “False” describes a statement where any part of the statement contradicts the information in the passage. “Can’t tell” describes a statement where there is insufficient information in the passage to substantiate any part of the statement’s claims.
“Passage-based comprehension” and “inference questions” differ from “true / false / can’t tell” questions as they feature 4 answer options which are separate statements that may not always refer to the same question / topic and can be simply “which of these four statements are true or false”. The difference between comprehension and inference is simply with regards to whether the information is more directly stated or indirectly implied.
The sheer length of the passages and the extreme time pressure of this section means that reading the passage word-by-word in its entirety would result in candidates running out of time to answer all the questions. Thus, skimming the passage and scanning effectively for keywords is essential to work as efficiently as possible. This involves reading the question and answer options identifying obvious keywords that “pop out” due to being numbers or proper nouns, or likely repeated in the text, so that it can be easily picked out in the passage. Then, only the sentence it’s in as well as the surrounding text needs to be read in detail to answer the question. This is easier with “true / false / can’t tell” questions, which only have a single statement to refer to and check for keywords in, but is more difficult with passage-based comprehension with four individual statements. With these questions you should also apply a method of elimination, through picking the most likely statement answer to check first, and so on, to save checking every statement. Inference questions are the hardest, as there it requires more than simply keyword scanning, so it may be more effective for students struggling with time in VR to flag and skip these questions, returning to them after completing the other questions.
As with every section, timed practice is the most important revision strategy to effectively improve your VR score. The fundamentals of how to skim and scan as well as operate by elimination can be gained through practice questions untimed, but the awareness of time management can only be achieved through practice under timed conditions, which is the hardest part of this section. Question banks allow candidates to work more specifically on the question type they struggle with, for example, if you score highly on “true / false / can’t tell” you may want to spend much more of your revision time on the other two question types.
Although skimming and scanning are the key skills for VR, reading speed does play a factor, especially in inference questions. Reading too slowly, digesting the text word-by-word, is a common mistake many candidates make, this is not realistic in the short time limit imposed by the UCAT.
Although we suggest using a process of elimination to check the most likely answers first, to save time checking every statement, some students extend this to simply guessing without logic. It is much better to split your time to not have to guess any question, rather than completely half with certainty and guessing the other half.
Time management is incredibly important in all areas of the UCAT, and students should understand that different question types in the VR require different time allocation due to their different difficulties. A key mistake that students make is spending equal durations of the “true / false / can’t tell” questions as the other types, when they are easier and can be done more quickly.
For UCAT, Dr Admissions uses the Consultant-designed EdUCATe™ method to help students move beyond slow reading and guesswork. Students learn to Evaluate their current accuracy, timing and question-type weaknesses, Design a targeted strategy for passages, keywords and inference questions, Understand how to identify relevant information quickly, Consolidate techniques through focused drills, Apply them under strict UCAT timing, and Transform performance through feedback-led refinement. This builds the speed, precision and confidence needed to tackle dense passages, avoid distractors and improve Verbal Reasoning scores.
No, they can vary in length from roughly 200 – 400 words as well as vary in their difficulty
No, the VR does not require any prior assumed knowledge, and application of external knowledge is often a mistake candidates make
Timing improves through question-type recognition, keyword scanning, strict timed drills, and learning when to move on from low-yield questions. A tutor with proven results, can provide guidance on how to do this.
Yes, especially when students stop passive reading and under guidance start using structured strategies for scanning, evidence-matching and eliminating distractors
