UKCAT Help

Hi there,

I'm currently preparing to write the UKCAT this summer. As a Canadian student, I've only been able to access some books (I only have one book right now, and I have ordered a couple more) for preparation. I have several questions from each section:

For the Verbal Reasoning, I'm having trouble with my time management. I seem to rush the questions too much (out of fear for the time limit), and then I score really poorly. If I take my time, then I score much better. Is there any advice for this section I could use?

I'm surprised that in the Quantitative Reasoning section, the calculator is issued on the screen! Does anyone have any advice regarding it? I'm terrible at punching the numbers correctly using a mouse :\

I am particularly having difficulty studying the Abstract Reasoning section. Firstly, I find myself spending more than a minute on the questions, and I never seem to figure out the patterns correctly. My average on this section is quite low. Again, advice anyone?

If you all have any other sources or suggestions, I would appreciate them a lot. Thank you very much!
- M.

Reply 1

MicheeO

Foreword: I've just finished typing this post and have realised how eye-wateringly long it is haha, so sorry :colondollar:

I've tried to bold-face key points as best I could, and I hope at least some of it helps (excuse any spelling/grammar errors, it was too long to go back and proof-read, and I'm lazy so :tongue:

)!!

Hi, I did my UKCAT last year for this 2014 entry, and did better than I expected (750 average) which was good enough to get me an interview for Medicine at Newcastle which uses it as their main criteria, so I can let you know some tips and tricks I used, and I hope it helps :smile:

.

Just to say I didn't pay for any online courses or anything like that because from a lot of reviews it seems that what they "teach" you is pretty common-sense that you can figure out yourself with enough practice. I just bought the 600 question book which was a lil' out of date but still my golden saviour and I did every single question in that book and the first mock I tried was from there too. I took and adapted some of the timing tips out of there to suit my brain pace, mouse speed, and attention span for maximum efficiency, so definitely get that book if you don't have it already (available via Amazon) :smile:

VR: 610
My worst of the 5 sections, and like you it was time-management that I found an issue (I was timed out in the real one :s-smilie:

) On ye ol' interwebs, you can find these psychometric tests for verbal reasoning (just do a Google search) that you can use to practice fast reading and the True/false/can't tell type questions.

I wasn't able to find much practice for the new type of question where they give you statements and say which is the most relevant assumption/conclusion etc. (probably where I lost all my points) but I found the short version practice paper on the UKCAT website good for that. Also reading the statements before the text can help save time because your brain knows what key phrases to look out for.

Also basic timing yourself reading 200-300 word passages from news article/holiday brochures/novels and to yourself thinking what assumptions/conclusions does the text make can be good to get your mind in that kind of mindset, but yeah... this new format wasn't my strong point.

QR: 730
Probably my biggest shock considering I was averaging a 500 in the mocks I did, but I found some gems and great tips like 2 days before my test that really saved me on this section.

Fist as always the 600 question book is your best-friend, not only because of the vast number of QR practice questions, but also the questions are sooooo much harder than what you will get in the real test, trust me! Every question in the book is like one of the hardest questions you'll get in the real thing, and its good prep for all the hard graph and long text ones. Also has great tips like orders-of-magnitude and short-cuts like that for multiple choice.

As for the on-screen calculator don't tap in numbers using the mouse, it takes too long and also it takes to long to open the calculator with your mouse Top tip: if memory serves me right you can press "Ctrl C" on the keyboard to open/close the calculator, which I found so much faster. Also most likely the key board with have a number pad on it, to the right, which looks like a calculator, so tap in the numbers on that instead.

I found the most useful thing for this section was (it sounds silly) but practising basic division, multiplication and doing percentages the quick way on the calculator (e.g. x0.8 = 80%). Also key learn the decimal form of common fractions and some odd ones to use in the calculator quickly like 5/9 = 0.55555555.... which I just typed in as 0.5555. This saves time in questions using fractions to throw you.
Practice as much mental maths to avoid using the calculator as much as possible (you should get a little paper pad to do written notes on, if you don't ask).

My BIGGEST TIP: was how I calculated timings:
You get 36 questions for 22 minutes right? I decided I'd do 28 questions in 20 minutes (so 7 questions every 5 minutes) giving me about 43 seconds per question (more than enough!) as opposed to the average 36 seconds you would have otherwise for each of the 36 questions. That means I had more time to concentrate in trying to nail an 80% correct answers on QR ad 2 minutes to guesstimate the other 8 questions. Risky, but it paid off for me :wink:

Here are the links to some helpful sites for quick maths practice

For the "psychometric-success" site ones, if you scroll down a bit there's a place to download practice the tests (they're what I used):

A good one for quick, short mental maths. 30 questions, 10 minutes, no calculator:
http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-numerical-computation-practice-tests.htm

"Guess-timation" practice can be useful when tight for time:
http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-nume rical-estimation-practice-tests.htm

Great practice for reading tables and graphs and pie-charts.
http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-numerical-data-interpretation-practice-tests.htm

For this one I'd say questions 17 to 22 are the most useful:
http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-numerical-reasoning-practice-tests.htm

AR: 770
Another surprise for me because like you, this was a little hit and miss for me in my practice... I know I keep banging on about 600 question book, but for this section in particular its all about practice, practice, practice and exposure to the weird kinds of questions. It gives excellent tips on what to look out for in terms of number of sides, prime numbers, number of overlapping edges, symmetries, number+ type of angles, colours etc.

Unfortunately there are some new types :frown:

that the book doesn't have practice for but again the internet is your friend, and I found these great times exercises to try that I used and saved my life:

I quite liked this one because it was timed and you got an explanation about the answers (somewhere below the test I think):
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/spatialtest.htm

This one can be good for speed practice; a tiny bit easier than the real one (barely though). It says 25 in 20 minutes but I tried 25 in 7, then 6 minutes.
http://www.psychometric-success.com/downloads/download-abstract-reasoning-practice-tests.htm

DA: 890
This had always been my best section (although I wasn't expecting it to be that good! It really made up for my VR). You didn't mention this as a problem area, so I'm guessing you're pretty good at this type of thing too. :smile:

I treated it like a little reward game (I genuinely found it sooooo much fun hahahaha :colondollar:

), and always tried to finish with time to spare to give me a rest period before that SJT that took what felt like years and drained me of every last drop of energy!

Again I just used 600 questions book, and that was it for that really.
One thing I would recommend, particularly if you're applying to universities that just look at the whole UKCAT average and not individual sections I tried to get as high as possible in strong sections to cover my weak point (which I expected to be QR but was actually VR) so that would be a good plan to get a good average.

SJT: Band 1
More universities are starting to use this section more and more as they find it tests many aspects of competence, responsibility and empathy and doctor-type qualities quite well.

Can't really offer too much help on this section I'm afraid, to me it was more of a decision analysis that the DA section hahahha!

I can just say that in terms of team work ones, anything that involves confronting the person causing an issue in a team task in a sensitive yet assertive way is your best bet, if anyone's doing drugs/cheating reporting them whether you're friends or not is the most appropriate thing, but other than that you can't really revise for this section... its like a multiple choice interview.

General Tips:
Use the mock exams papers on the UKCAT website as the final bits of revision because that is the most life like mock practice you'll get.

I found some of the best tips I used from Youtube: this one guy Hugh something particularly was my biggest help!

Marking your practice papers: No-one really knows how that scoring works properly for UKCAT no matter what they say. What I found the most reliable (although a little crude) was this:

Lets take QR as an example, say your score is "n" and the total for that section is 36. So, (n /36) x 600 + 300 = you score for that section

So if you got 26 of QR, you score is (26/36) x 600 +300 = 733
That's a rough estimate so don't invest too fully in it :wink:

I know you said you're Canadian, so if there is anyone else you know applying as an international to a UK medical school, I'd get together and practice, especially with AR because different people notice the most different things. I'm from the UK, so we had an after school group of about 6 of us with one of the Physics teachers who knew loads of people in Medicine admissions and doctors and things, so she learned how to do the test and practised with us. See if one of your teachers can do that for you.

Also UKCAT have a free app if you're desperate for your next hit of questions, as you will be eventually ahahah.

Try to do you test, late enough in summer so you have most of the holiday/vacation to revise/study but definitely before you resume school. I started school in September 4th, so did my test on 27th August. My friend did hers when we got back to school and she found it hard to juggle new year school work and UKCAT prep.

I started preparing half-heartedly in May (like 2 questions a day) then really got into it 5 weeks before and did a couple of hours an evening, and loads at the weekend.

Choose the time of day your brain is most alert... remember its 2 hours long and you don't want to start flagging before the SJT. I would avoid around lunch, or too late in the day. I went for an 8am test because although I felt like a zombie, there's no denying how alert my brain is that early. The testing centre was two hours away so I ended up waking up at 4:30ish EATING BREAKFAST and doing some last minute practice on the app. Worth it, and considering you get the results right after, I got the whole day to celebrate and relax :biggrin:

This was literally the longest thing I've typed in months hahaha, but I hope it was helpful to you and anyone else who makes it to the end, good luck! :biggrin:

Reply 2

matka00

Thank you so much for all the advice! Also, congratulations on the amazing scores! O.o I'd consider myself lucky if I can even get the average. :smile:

Thanks for all the feedback!

In terms of books, I have the Mike Byron 750 Q book, and I'm also ordering another 680 Q book. I will also see if I can order that you were talking about.

Once again, thanks so much! :smile:

Congratulations!

Reply 3

MicheeO

Original post by matka00

Thank you so much for all the advice! Also, congratulations on the amazing scores! O.o I'd consider myself lucky if I can even get the average. :smile:

Congratulations!

Cheers mate :tongue:

and you're more than welcome! You sound super prepared already though, what's that like what 1430 practice questions already?! Woah! :eek:

Try not to over-do it though, because you don't want to peak too early, but I'm sure you'll be fine! You're definitely capable of getting high scores especially considering how much work it sounds like you're preparing to put in!

Although it is best to err on the side of caution and not be too confident, don't underestimate yourself either like I did and feel all miserable and angsty the day before. I didn't expect much for myself, thinking I would be extremely lucky to even meet national average, and I'm lucky that didn't have an adverse effect :s-smilie:

. Do one of those cheesy "I can do this!" talks before, sounds so cringey but it helped balance my nerves so much :smile:

Also remember to do those little things like packing your a bag with all your admin-y bits'n'bobs the night before so you're not faffing around in the morning trying to find the printed email confirmation of you exam *cough*cough* :colondollar:

hahahahaha! Oh dear, I'm going off on one again, I'll stop now! :colondollar:

Good luck again! :biggrin:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

matka00

Hi there,

I have a quick question regarding the Decision Analysis...On the section where there are multiple answers, is there a penalty if you answer with extra letters, or if you miss 1-2? Also, they give a quick introduction before giving the codes; is it necessary to read it (it just explains the context of the codes)?

Thanks!
- M.

Reply 5

MicheeO

Original post by matka00

For the DA they will normally day "the most useful/appropriate code" in which case choose 1 and only 1, but other times they specify like "the two most useful additional codes" in that case only put 2. I can't remember exactly but either they do penalise you if you choose more/less than the desired amount, or it won't even let you select more/fewer if you try anyway.

The introduction I found is pretty standardised so after you've done a few mocks you know what the codes are like and how to define them without reading the foreword bit... depending on how I felt by the time I reached DA I either used the minute to relax before I started, or just skipped ahead and ploughed on :smile:

Reply 6

MicheeO

Original post by MicheeO

Oh and yeah I didn't bother looking at the context of the codes table bit where they give examples, you've done so much practice by that time, it would be unlikely that you wouldn't know how the coding works hahaha :biggrin:

.... That said though sometimes you might draw a complete blank so it is handy in that respect, but if you don't need it, don't waste answering time reading it :smile:

Reply 7

matka00

Great, thanks so much for answering my questions! :frown:

Sorry, I'm just terrified about this test...Because I'm in Canada, it's kind of rare in my school to even try this test :\ I'm going to have to wait till late June (when my school closes) for actual studying...I think for now, it would be best if I just glance through questions?

Thanks for all the great help!