By Leah Heartin and Louise Penha
Decision Making
In2MedSchool UCAT Lesson Series
© 2023 In2MedSchool. All Rights Reserved
1
Starter - Practice Question
2
By the end of this session, you
should:
1. Understand the DM section of
Learning the UCAT and all the question
types
Objectives 2. Know how to approach DM
questions
3. Be able to answer DM
questions efficiently and
successfully
3
What do you already know about
this section?
4
Timing and Question Types
Question Types:
Strategies:
- Logical puzzles - Golden clue
- Spatial equations - Sketch diagrams and tables
- Syllogisms
- Probability
Timing:
- Venn diagrams
- Argument spotting - 31 minutes
- Inferences - 29 questions
- 1 min per question
5
General Approach + Strategies
● Answer the question, don’t solve the whole puzzle
● Guess, flag and move on with difficult questions. Come back at
the end if you have time.
● Draw small, simple diagrams and tables so you aren’t
memorising lots of information.
● Practice under timed conditions
● ‘Some’ means anything >0
● With probability ‘or’ means +, ‘and’ means x
● ‘Must be true’ means it is the only option, not just it could be
true
6
Logical Puzzles
● Given a series of statements/facts/diagram and asked to infer
information from them
● Sketch a quick table or diagram to help
7
Logical puzzle - practice question
8
Spatial equations
● Given an equation comprising of different shapes and
you have to solve an equation
● Swap the shapes for letters
● Treat like normal algebraic equations
● Collect like terms
● Substitution
9
Spatial equation - practice question
10
Syllogisms
● Two or more statements followed by a series of
conclusions
● The information may not make actual sense
● “None of A is B” means no A are B, some A are not B
● “All strawberries are fruit” but you can’t say “All fruit are
strawberries” so be careful
● Pay attention to words like some, none, all and only
● Takes some practice to get your head around
11
Syllogism - practice question
N
Y
N
N
N
12
Venn Diagrams
● A variety of questions including interpreting Venn Diagrams and
choosing ones which match the statements
● Don’t forget the numbers outside the circles
● Be careful of overlaps
● Start with the simplest statements first
● Be careful you don’t count numbers twice especially in overlapping
regions
● Jot down totals as you work them out
● When asked to choose a Venn Diagram, check the totals match and
then work through each statement and piece the diagram together
13
Venn diagram - practice question
14
Probability
● Probability is a measure of how likely an event is to occur. 0 (definitely
won’t happen) and 1 (certainly happen).
● Number of desired outcomes/total number of outcomes
● Expected frequency is probability x number of repeats
● Two events are mutually exclusive is they cannot both occur at the
same time e.g. heads + tails = 1
● Convert the data into the same format e.g. fractions, percentages,
decimals
● Convert the data into the positive format, if your told how many
people “don’t” note how many people “do”
● A tree diagram or table format can help
15
Probability - practice question
16
Argument spotting
You are usually given a statement and four presenting arguments. You
need to choose which is the most reasonable and related to the
argument.
Need to be strongly related to the topic of the subject, based on facts
and evidence and not using uncertain language
17
Argument spotting - practice question
18
19
By the end of this session, you
should:
1. Understand the DM section of
Learning the UCAT and all the question
types
Objectives 2. Know how to approach DM
questions
3. Be able to answer DM questions
efficiently and successfully
20
Next steps
● If a question is taking too long you should guess, flag
and move on.
● Remember not to solve the whole puzzle just answer the
question.
● Use algebra where possible to get in a familiar form.
● Make quick sketches and tables to help process the
information.
● Keep practicing!
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