The UCAT ANZ and Medicine Admissions Timeline

The UCAT ANZ cycle runs on a predictable annual shape, and knowing it early is worth real marks — not because the dates are hard to find, but because almost every planning mistake students make is a consequence of misreading the calendar.

One clarification first, because two different "results" dates get confused constantly. **You get your own score straight away** — Pearson emails you within 24 hours of sitting with instructions to access your UCAT ANZ Score Report, which you can save or print. You will know your scaled scores the same day you walk out.

What arrives later is the cohort context. The UCAT ANZ Office delivers results to the Consortium universities in **early September**, and it is only once the whole testing window has closed that your score can be placed against the year's cohort. So you know your number immediately; you do not immediately know what that number is worth.

Naming: which year is which

The single most confusing thing about this process is the year labelling. The UCAT you sit in July of one year is for university entry the following year. The 2026 sitting was for 2027 entry. When a university publishes "2027 entry" requirements, they mean the test sat in 2026.

The confirmed dates from the most recent cycle

These are the published dates for the 2026 sitting, which was for 2027 university entry. The next sitting has not had its dates announced yet, but the cycle has been stable, so use this as your planning shape and confirm against the Consortium once the new dates are published.

• **Registration and booking opened:** 16 February
• **Standard booking deadline:** 15 May
• **Late booking period:** 16 to 29 May, with an additional fee
• **Final late booking period:** 30 May to 5 June, with a larger additional fee
• **Testing window:** 1 July to 5 August
• **Results to universities:** early September (your own score report arrives within 24 hours of sitting)

Note that the testing window closed on 5 August, not mid-August. If you are working from an older guide that says otherwise, check it.

Fees

For the most recent cycle the standard fee was AUD $335 for tests taken in Australia or New Zealand, with a concession rate of AUD $240 available in Australia, and AUD $405 for tests taken outside ANZ. Late booking added AUD $85, rising to AUD $185 in the final period. Confirm current fees when you register.

When to sit within the window

Sitting earlier in the window has genuine advantages: better test centre availability, less clash with school commitments, more recovery time if something goes wrong on the day, and — since your score report lands within 24 hours — many more weeks to plan your preferences around a number you actually know.

The one argument for a later date is extra preparation time. Weigh that against the risk that the centre and time slot you want will be gone.

Applications

Applications generally run through the state tertiary admissions centre — UAC in NSW and the ACT, VTAC in Victoria, and so on — or directly to the university, depending on the school. For the most recent cycle UAC applications opened in early April, with medicine deadlines around the end of September.

Deadlines for medicine are often earlier than general course deadlines, and missing one is unrecoverable. Check the specific date for every school on your list.

When undergraduate interviews are actually held

This is where most timelines are wrong, because they quote the graduate-entry calendar. Graduate programs that select on GAMSAT typically interview in September. **Undergraduate programs that select on UCAT interview much later — broadly November through January.**

From the most recent cycle, to show the shape:

• **Invitations** generally start going out from mid-to-late October.
• **UQ** provisional entry sent invitations in mid-to-late October with interviews in mid-to-late November.
• **Western Sydney** invited from mid-to-late October with interviews in late November.
• **JCU** sent first-round invitations in early November and second-round invitations just before Christmas.
• **UNSW** ran rural entry interviews in late November, sent general invitations in mid-December for interviews the following week, then ran further rounds in mid-January for applicants with delayed results, and a final round for New Zealand applicants.
• **Newcastle and UNE** interviewed NSW, ACT, QLD and rural applicants in November and December, with interstate non-rural applicants attending a January session.
• **Monash** ran a January round for Year 12 students who completed their studies interstate.

Offers followed in January, in rounds.

The practical takeaway: if you are an undergraduate applicant, your interview will most likely fall somewhere between late November and mid-January, and it may well land over the Christmas break. Plan around that. Every year, applicants book travel for December and then receive an interview date inside it.

International applicants run on a different clock

If you are an international applicant, the domestic timeline above does not describe your cycle.

UNSW, for example, interviews international applicants **monthly from June through to January**, online, with a fixed number of interview places available across the year and no rescheduling once you are booked. Several other schools run international rounds well before their domestic ones — mid-June is common, and some run multiple rounds spread across June, August and October.

Two consequences. First, applying earlier genuinely matters, because places are consumed across the year rather than allocated in one round. Second, your interview preparation timeline may need to be complete months before a domestic applicant's — you cannot assume you have until November.

A planning shape that works

Working backwards from a July sitting:

1. 1**The preceding summer and early in the year:** technique work, one section at a time, mostly untimed. Registration and booking open in February — book early for the date and centre you want.
2. 2**Autumn:** timed section practice. Your accuracy will drop when the clock arrives; that is the actual work.
3. 3**May and June:** full timed mocks under exam conditions, spaced out enough that you can act on each one. Watch the booking deadlines in May.
4. 4**July:** sit the test, ideally early in the window.
5. 5**August:** applications, and start assembling interview material. You already know your scores, so preference thinking can begin now.
6. 6**September:** universities receive results and the cohort picture firms up. Finalise preferences on evidence rather than hope.
7. 7**October to January:** invitations and interviews. Domestic undergraduate applicants should expect this to run into the Christmas period.

Confirm everything

Dates, fees and formats change between cycles, and universities adjust their selection methods more often than students expect. Treat this article as the shape of the year, and every specific date as something to verify against the UCAT ANZ Consortium and each university's own admissions page for your application year.