krisblade (Offline)  

About krisblade

Name

Kris

Where I study

Nonsuch High School For Girls

Star Sign

Undisclosed

About me

Feel free to PM about Sheffield Uni, medical applications, PS, UKCAT, whatever I try to be as helpful as possible and normally respond with in a day or two.

To rep: No one

I have insomnia and I prefer to stay up all night, sleep all day... so if I post at 5am or something retarded, I've probably been asleep all day

Academic Info

University of Sheffield - Medicine 2009-2014

A Level Chem: A
A Level Physics: A
A Level Bio:A
A Level Critical Thinking: A
AS Maths:A
Bio AEA: Merit

UKCAT: 770 (680,870,770,760)
BMAT: 21.7

GCSEs: 7A*, 3A's

(I got a B in German, but we don't talk about that simply cos had I gone to the exam it would have been a U )

Extras

I often get PM'ed by people asking Should I start revising for the UKCAT [insert ridiculous value here] weeks before I apply?! NO. Its not based on knowledge, you can't revise for it. If you're spending more than a couple of days on the UKCAT, you're just wasting time. Spend your time getting work experience, upping your grades and if applicable, revising BMAT, which actually requires some vague knowledge and you could do with practising a few essays. I don't think spending three weeks on it will increase your score that much over just spending a few days.

It endlessly worries me when I see people revising for the UKCAT this early. I took mine right before the deadline, I didn't even start thinking about it til my exams were over, my PS was finished and I'd done a ton of work experience over summer and I did pretty damn well. And I'm not the exception. Many people I know who allocated a reasonable and not excessive amount of time to the UKCAT excelled, and those who spent weeks on it screwed up and sacrificed time better spent on other things.

If you wanna know one of the reasons why I think this, a friend I had the year above me took the UKCAT in y13 and got 620 and failed to get into uni, the next year she spent WEEKS revising for it and got.... 630. Tbh a difference of 10 is probably not stastically significant, and was more likely random chance. And even if it did increase her score by 10, the impact this wouldl have on her application would be minimal compared to say volunteering for several weeks, or revising more and getting A*'s.

If you wish to know what I did and things I believe can help you in the exam from personal experience feel free to PM me But don't expect me to tell you to spend weeks on it!