MEGATHREAD - The Big Medicine UKCAT 2013 Entry Thread

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Original post by The Unique Bloke

Just started doing a few Quantitative Reasoning questions from the 600Q book , and now i can surely confirm that UKCAT is the most bogus testing tool ever , i can appreciate the level of difficulty etc. etc. but how the hell do they think we can do well with a stupid useless on screen calculator?? No brackets , no ANS keys and it always gives the wring ans.. do they really expect us to sit there clicking away at the computer all the way through?? , i am so much faster with my hand held calc... Usually i am up for the challenge but this is ridiculous....

You break it down into parts, as you would have to in a real life situation using mathematics. No-one would expect you to be able to do 100/sqrt(10.5x997) immediately in your head, but in real life, you could guesstimate 10.5x997 as 10,500, and then work out a square root, which is around 102? And then 100/102 is obviously just like 0.98 or something similar in pretty quick time. It's this type of quick calculation, not necessarily with pinpoint accuracy, that they are looking to test, and having a calculator which can do it all for you doesn't really make it a quantitative reasoning exam, more of a 'if you can understand the fairly simple question then you can get the answer without any difficulty at all' exam.

Reply 481

cptKernow

Original post by The Unique Bloke

Yes but i doubt merely keeping it together is gonna help achieve a good score..
I need a freakin HAND HELD CALCULATOR , i am not asking for much

Apparently they did originally supply calculators with the test but there were always problems with things like batteries running out etc.

You just got to practice using the onscreen one. Learn the shortcuts - alt C gets it up and del is clear. Make sure you get a bit of practice with a number pad too.

I agree though fiddling with a keyboard should not be a factor, but it appears to be.

Reply 482

cptKernow

Original post by Straight up G

The problem I've had with this approach is you get a fairly decent answer, then you look at the options and they are all almost the same as each other.
I suppose the moral is always look at the possible answers before diving in.

Reply 483

Straight up G

Original post by cptKernow

I think in a lot of the questions, as you read the question, you get some kind of scope as to where the answer should lie, and then you should immediately check the answer list to see if your overview of the question was correct. If when you check the answer list there is more than one answer in your estimated range then obviously you'll need to do the calculation with some degree of accuracy. It sounds a lot easier on paper, I know :tongue:

Reply 484

manu01

Original post by adsyrah

I found using the keyboard shortcuts to go to the next question, flag questions and to bring up the calculator along with using the numpad on the keyboard for the calculations VERY beneficial.

hey what were these shortcuts ?

Reply 485

cptKernow

Original post by manu01

hey what were these shortcuts ?

> alt n < alt p and alt c for the calc

Reply 486

manu01

Original post by cptKernow

> alt n < alt p and alt c for the calc

sorry but what do the shortcuts do lol
cheers

(bit of a nooob with this)

Reply 487

cptKernow

next and previous question
c pops the calculator up

Reply 488

fairy spangles

Save your dollar and have a nice holiday?
(Im beginning to wonder how much I could make from offering a get into medicine course)

Reply 489

Brachioradialis

I've been using emedica for the past couple of days and I have to say I'm VERY disappointed with AR. They supposedly offer 10 sets, but each of the 10 sets contains the same style questions in the same order with slight differences. Medify kicks Emedica's arse, it's official in my eyes. Still can't comment on Ace Medicine.

Reply 490

Georgiina_Tee

The first draft for medics was due in last Monday, the rest of us is this Friday.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e

Reply 491

EternalDoom

Good thing this is a computer test, I am FAST on the computer :3
All these years of playing video games on the PC might have helped, since i can click really fast xD

Reply 492

RSP18

how long does the test roughly last for?

Reply 493

inspiron1

Original post by RSP18

how long does the test roughly last for?

It clearly says the exact length on the UKCAT website.

Reply 494

inspiron1

Original post by cptKernow

next and previous question
c pops the calculator up

Did you find out the shortcuts through trial and error or does it list them all on a website/in a book?

Reply 495

ERdoctor

Hi,

I was wondering if you had any tips for increasing speed. Some questions seem impossible to do in 30 seconds. So far I have been doing the Quantitative Reasoning in the "600 UKCAT Questions" book. They are all pretty easy, when you know what to do, but its all the input into the calculator that takes time.

Are these questions representative of the UKCAT questions in terms of the time it takes to do them? I need to know if its something to worry about or not. Especially if I am only going to get a crappy calculator in the real thing, that would take more time :s-smilie:

Reply 496

Zubby77

Practice, practice, practice

Download the practice UKCAT programme from the website, and do those tests as well, and get used to the calculator. Also, I found when I did it that QR in the actual test was easier than in the 600 UKCAT book, so do as many questions as you can to get quicker at answering.

Reply 497

tikkitak

Its mostly just about practice. The more you do, the quicker you get. Set yourself time limits for the questions so you know if you're doing them quickly enough. And if you find yourself spending too much time on a question, you have to just guess and move on to the next one. That seemed to work for me anyway!