Auckland is dropping the UCAT: what changes for 2027 and 2028 entry

The University of Auckland has changed how it ranks applicants for medicine, and the change is not a tweak. For 2028 entry the UCAT disappears from the ranking entirely, a situational judgement test called Casper arrives at 50 percent, and GPA stops being a ranking lever at all.

Both weightings are published on the same page, the MBChB programme page. Read side by side they look like two different admissions systems, because they nearly are.

The two rankings, side by side

UoA also carries a general warning on that page: "Entry criteria will change for 2028 entry, please review the relevant entry requirements carefully." Take it literally. Everything below is our reading of what they have published, and the page itself is the authority.

Change one: the UCAT is gone

UCAT ANZ is 15 percent of the 2027 ranking. It does not appear in the 2028 ranking, and UoA states that for 2028 entry you will be required to sit the University of Auckland situational judgement test (Casper) in the year of application. One replaces the other.

Worth being precise about what this does not mean. It does not mean the UCAT is dead in New Zealand: this is one university changing one programme’s selection. If you are applying anywhere that still uses it, it still matters. And it does not affect 2027 entry, where UCAT ANZ is still 15 percent.

Change two: Casper arrives at half the weight

Casper is an open-response situational judgement test run by Acuity Insights. It is not a knowledge test and there is no syllabus. You are shown everyday scenarios and asked what you would do and why, some answered on video and most answered by typing under time pressure.

It is also, in New Zealand, almost entirely unwritten about. UoA has not published which format variant it will use, when in the year it is sat, or what it costs. We keep a page on exactly that, including the parts that are not known yet, and there is a list you can join for when they are.

Change three, and the one people miss: GPA stops ranking you

Under the 2027 rules, GPA across four core first-year courses is 60 percent of your rank. It is the single biggest thing about you. Under the 2028 rules it appears only as an eligibility requirement:

• a minimum GPA of 6.0 across the four core courses, and
• no grade lower than a B in any of your eight first-year courses.

Clear both and you are eligible. Clear both by a mile and you are still just eligible. The two published ranking components add to 100 percent and neither of them is GPA.

The second bullet is the one that deserves more attention than it gets. A grade floor across all eight first-year courses is a different kind of pressure from an average: one C in a paper you did not care about is not something a strong average can absorb any more.

The four core courses, and the chemistry code that is moving

UoA’s Clinical Admissions Selection page names them: CHEM 110, BIOSCI 107 and POPLHLTH 111 in Semester One, and MEDSCI 142 in Semester Two.

The chemistry code is the part in motion, and the two different codes on UoA’s pages are a course change rather than a typo. UoA has introduced CHEM 190, Chemistry for Medical and Life Sciences, effective from Summer Semester 2027, alongside CHEM 110, Chemistry of the Living World. Both are in the 2027 catalogue. Which of the two counts as core for 2028 entry is exactly what UoA says it will settle when it updates that page in October 2026.

A course list is the one thing on a page like this that somebody would enrol against, so check the programme page before you enrol, and check it again after October.

What actually changes about how you would prepare

A ranking of 60 percent grades, 15 percent an aptitude test and 25 percent an interview rewards a fairly specific animal. A ranking of 50 percent interview and 50 percent situational judgement rewards a different one.

• Grades become a hurdle, not a score. The work shifts from maximising an average to not dropping a single course below a B.
• Everything that ranks you is now a judgement test. The MMI and Casper both ask what you think, why, and how you say it. Neither has content to revise.
• Both are performed under a clock, in one take. Three minutes spoken for the MMI, and for Casper roughly one minute per video answer or three and a half minutes to type two answers.
• Both are marked by many different people. Seven separate reviewers for the MMI, one per answer; a different rater for each Casper scenario, with no rater seeing you twice.

Here is how the two differ in practice, which matters because preparing for one is not preparing for the other.

Which cohort is affected

The first application cycle under these rules is 2027, for 2028 entry. So if you are in your first year now, or you are choosing courses for next year, this is your ranking. If you are applying this year, the 2027 rules apply: GPA 60, UCAT 15, MMI 25, and the MMI on 8 September 2026.

In the meantime, the half of the 2028 ranking that already exists, is fully documented and can be practised today is the MMI. Start there.