The Student Room Group

* MEGATHREAD * - UKCAT 2016 Entry Discussion Megathread

Scroll to see replies

Ok so I just did the Medify Easy Mock and got:

VR : 730 (missed out 5 due to timing)
QR: 740
AR : 800
DA : 510 (don't know what the **** happened! It's my best section- worrying)

SJ: 740 (40/66) - don't know what band that is.

If I can get that DA up and maintain the others I'll be chuffed


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by HCAssistant93
Ok so I just did the Medify Easy Mock and got:

VR : 730 (missed out 5 due to timing)
QR: 740
AR : 800
DA : 510 (don't know what the **** happened! It's my best section- worrying)

SJ: 740 (40/66) - don't know what band that is.

If I can get that DA up and maintain the others I'll be chuffed


Posted from TSR Mobile


I found that medify mocks weren't that representative when it comes to scores as measures you against other medify users.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Ebbsy
I found that medify mocks weren't that representative when it comes to scores as measures you against other medify users.


Posted from TSR Mobile


Ye true! I have the Kaplan ones too but just fancied doing one.

Just looked at my DA and all the ones I changed (like 6-8 of them) the original answer was right. Need to go with my gut and give myself time cos there's loads of it.


Posted from TSR Mobile
i'm really struggling with the quantitative mocks, i find it really hard to actually understanding the text/graphs, can someone please help as i've got the exam in two weeks? in the mock i just did i got 11!!! it's really stressing me out and i feel like giving up.
Original post by u_s_e_r
i'm really struggling with the quantitative mocks, i find it really hard to actually understanding the text/graphs, can someone please help as i've got the exam in two weeks? in the mock i just did i got 11!!! it's really stressing me out and i feel like giving up.


I had the exact same problem with the QR section. My best advice would be skip the text/graphs and go straight to the question and then look at the graph to pick out the relevant information.
Also practice practice practice all the basic math techniques they regularly ask you to use like percentage increase/decrease, averages etc. It really makes a massive difference. I found the mocks were a lot harder than the real test anyway so if you get enough practice you'll be able to go through the questions far easier.

And as hard as it is to do, don't stress. Trust me, the QR was by far my worst section in the mocks but I ended up getting 810 in the QR section on the day.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Natha_Lite
I had the exact same problem with the QR section. My best advice would be skip the text/graphs and go straight to the question and then look at the graph to pick out the relevant information.
Also practice practice practice all the basic math techniques they regularly ask you to use like percentage increase/decrease, averages etc. It really makes a massive difference. I found the mocks were a lot harder than the real test anyway so if you get enough practice you'll be able to go through the questions far easier.

And as hard as it is to do, don't stress. Trust me, the QR was by far my worst section in the mocks but I ended up getting 810 in the QR section on the day.


Are these the official mocks you're talking about? I find them hard as well. 810 is amazing! What is your technique to spot the long winded ones to guess and flag? Any other tips?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Natha_Lite
I had the exact same problem with the QR section. My best advice would be skip the text/graphs and go straight to the question and then look at the graph to pick out the relevant information.
Also practice practice practice all the basic math techniques they regularly ask you to use like percentage increase/decrease, averages etc. It really makes a massive difference. I found the mocks were a lot harder than the real test anyway so if you get enough practice you'll be able to go through the questions far easier.

And as hard as it is to do, don't stress. Trust me, the QR was by far my worst section in the mocks but I ended up getting 810 in the QR section on the day.


congratulation on your score :smile:
what resources did you use to practise?
Original post by Lainathiel
I just did mine! I got VR-700; QR-880; AR-660; DA-710 and SJ-2. :smile:

I did all the UKCAT official tests and the 600Q book to prepare. In my opinion, verbal was about the same as the book, quantitative and abstract were easier (still struggle with abstract though) and decision harder. I was getting pretty much full marks on DA in practice and hardly any in QR, so you can see how that turned out!

I thought the SJ was a bit odd - I wasn't sure what the situation meant in some cases, being able to be interpreted in several different ways. :/

Good luck anyone still to do it! :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile


Congrats on your score!
Did you only use the 600Q and official tests to prepare (ie not medify/other resources)? I haven't signed up for medify and I'm not sure whether it's worth it for four days, so I'm just trying to get a feel for what others have done.
Original post by HCAssistant93
Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 18.55.55.png

Can anyone explain this logic? The divide by 2 confuses me!


This also confused me, but according to Google there's a rule that if you have a square (ie so both sides are the same length) if you multiply the diagonals and divide by two it gives you the area. I asked my dad and he'd never heard of it either, but apparently it's a law?
Original post by HCAssistant93
Are these the official mocks you're talking about? I find them hard as well. 810 is amazing! What is your technique to spot the long winded ones to guess and flag? Any other tips?


Posted from TSR Mobile


Yeah the official mocks and the 600Q book.
I didn't really flag any questions in the real thing but if I struggled with the layout of the graph I just clicked an answer, flagged it and moved on to the next question.

I also spent a lot of time practicing my mental maths and learning ways to shorten my calculation steps, which really helped speed up my answering and left me with enough time at the end to review my answers.




Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by u_s_e_r
congratulation on your score :smile:
what resources did you use to practise?


I used the official UKCAT questions, the 600Q books, and any free resource I could find around the Internet (there are a lot)

I really didn't want to pay for anything else so I can't tell you about how useful medify or Kaplan is.

I just went through the questions, studied where I went wrong and did them again after a week or so to see if I improved.



Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by ForeverDay
This also confused me, but according to Google there's a rule that if you have a square (ie so both sides are the same length) if you multiply the diagonals and divide by two it gives you the area. I asked my dad and he'd never heard of it either, but apparently it's a law?


Oh really! Could you give an example so it's clearer? So if it a square with a diagonal of 200?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 1712
Using the KAPLAN score system for every 28 Practice questions of DA and I'm averaging 800 - how representative of the real scoring system do you think the KAPLAN one is?? I'm gutted they're making it harder this year for DA as this is probably my best section 😩


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by HCAssistant93
Oh really! Could you give an example so it's clearer? So if it a square with a diagonal of 200?


Posted from TSR Mobile


I found the link I used, and it has some more information under 'The "diagonals" method' part. :smile:
http://www.mathopenref.com/squarearea.html
Which medical schools rank you before interview purely on your UKCAT?
Original post by ForeverDay
I found the link I used, and it has some more information under 'The "diagonals" method' part. :smile:
http://www.mathopenref.com/squarearea.html


Thanks 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽


Posted from TSR Mobile
My worst section is Quantitative Reasoning.. The questions always throw me off, the questions are hard in itself and with timing restrictions it's impossible.. Does anyone have tips for this section? :frown:
Original post by shooting_stars
My worst section is Quantitative Reasoning.. The questions always throw me off, the questions are hard in itself and with timing restrictions it's impossible.. Does anyone have tips for this section? :frown:


I'd say improve fast calculations such as percentage increase/decrease, addition subtraction, averages, speed/distance/time, areas. Then you have to pinpoint which questions will take you a long time. These questions you should guess and flag and come back to them because it is highly likely you will encounter easier questions near the end. Be ruthless with timing. So if you're not sure and are spending more than 30 seconds, guess, flag and move on. That'd be my advice and that is what I'm trying to improve on as well!


Posted from TSR Mobile
My exam is in 18 days and I feel like I'm improving but I am also terrified that I'll just have a **** day and it'll **** everything up. Does anyone else feel the constant need to practice because you're scared you'll forget what you're doing? How long are people revising for each day?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by shooting_stars
My worst section is Quantitative Reasoning.. The questions always throw me off, the questions are hard in itself and with timing restrictions it's impossible.. Does anyone have tips for this section? :frown:


There are the standard calculations that you should be familiar with: percentage change (difference/original), speed = distance/time, ratios and percentages of a total (part/whole) etc. Additionally, review some basic geometry (e.g. area of a square, area of a triangle, area/circumference of a circle, volume of 3D shapes, Pythagoras' theorem).

It'd be a good idea to be comfortable with unit conversions and timezone conversions as well :smile: these aren't too hard, just do a few practice questions to get a hang of it.

I'd say definitely read the question first, then consider the data. Make good use of your whiteboard!! Some long calculations are difficult to remember, especially because I don't think the UKCAT calculator would do 3*5+9*2=33, instead I think it does (3*5+9)*2 given that you press the keys in the order of "3*5+9*2". I'm not too sure about this, though, so you might want to check. A good way to get around fumbling with the calculator and the keyboard is to work on your mental math skills!

Also for some questions it's possible to reduce the number of calculations you have to do just by looking at the data. A good example of this is in the 600Q book (if you have it) - question 18.4. You can find some options to rule out quite easily.
(edited 8 years ago)

Quick Reply

Latest