University and Graduate Admissions Tests
If you are trying to secure a place on a professional or
vocational course at a university or graduate school, then you may
need to take a standardized test. These types of test have been
used in the USA for many years and their use has now spread to the
UK, particularly for courses which are heavily oversubscribed, for
example medicine, law and dentistry.
| Standardized Test | Acronym | Country |
| Biomedical Admissions Test | BMAT | UK |
| Common Admission Test | CAT | India |
| Dental Admission Test | DAT | USA |
| Grad. Australian Medical School Admission Test | GAMSAT | Australia |
| Graduate Management Admission Test | GMAT | USA |
| Graduate Record Examination | GRE | USA |
| Law School Admission Test | LSAT | USA & Canada |
| Medical College Admission Test | MCAT | USA |
| Miller Analogies Test | MAT | USA |
| National Admissions Test for Law | LNAT | UK |
| Optometry Admissions Test | OAT | USA |
| Pharmacy College Admission Test | PCAT | USA |
| United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test | UKCAT | UK |
The most widely used tests are listed above, along with their
acronym and the countries where the tests are used. Many of the
organisations that administer these tests maintain websites which
offer information about the tests and practice questions may also
be available.
If you think that you will need to take one of these standardized
tests then you should check the prospectus of the university or
graduate school that you are applying to confirm which test is
being used. You should then find out as much as possible about the
test using the websites listed on this page.
You may also be interested in reading background information on psychometric tests and aptitude tests.
