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UKCAT for 2017 Entry to UK

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Original post by Gogregg
Oh God my UKCAT is way too soon.
It's on Wednesday, and I don't feel prepared at all. I haven't even done a full mock yet...

@Joanne86


I don't mean to scare you, but you are the best judge of how prepared you are for the test. If you aren't, move the test date. And IMO, you should be doing mocks for at least a week. Then again, that's just the way I look at it. Different strokes for different folks! :biggrin:

Good luck! Believe in yourself. If you've worked hard, you should do well.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by UKCATmagic
Doing a good job for 1000 q book, aye ?
I would recommend master UKCAT or 1200 q book.


There's a 1200 book?!
Original post by dakshsaksena
Hey guys
So my UKCAT is this friday, hoping for a good score (who isnt)
So my question is, what to do the day BEFORE the exam? Should I practice some questions? Should I not practice at all? Whats the scene?

Over the next 4 days, Ill take 3 mocks (ISC, Kaplan and on the UKCAT website) and do some Medify drills for my weaker sections. But thats about it. Is this fine ?

On mocks, my avvg score is around 630-670ish. Total score is in the 7-9 deciles
Is my POA fine?

Please help @uniadmissions @themedicportal

Thanks


IMO, you should do 2 mocks the day before and not stress yourself out too much, Go over your notes, if you've made any (I haven't) and as @UKCATmagic advised, sleep early, rest well and have faith that you're going to do well.

On the day of the test, don't do any tests. Maybe the notes, but that's about it. You need to be focused for your exam.

All the best, Daksh!
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by UKCATmagic
Yes. 1200 q book, cheaper than 1000q. The book is really good and explains things easily. I found it very helpful.


Oh thanks! Doesn't make a difference to me anymore, but thanks anyway! :smile: When is your exam?
Original post by Dental.I.Prep
Theres no right answer.
I would presonally go over a bit of everything the day before. Not too much not too little, avoid panicing and relax.
Go in calm and with a clear mind. And make sure everything is ready the night before.

Posted from TSR Mobile


I'm not really sure there is much value in doing a bit of everything at the last minute. It's not like a knowledge exam where you can cram in a few hard facts. Plus if you find you are still struggling with some things it might actually kill your confidence. I would personally just relax the day before so you are fresh for the exam
Can I just double check that on the real test the calculator isn't as infuriating as the medify one?! Do all of the shortcuts on the keyboard work (multiply, divide etc)? I'm assuming you can press enter for =? And please tell me escape can be used to go back to zero??!
Original post by Joanne86
Can I just double check that on the real test the calculator isn't as infuriating as the medify one?! Do all of the shortcuts on the keyboard work (multiply, divide etc)? I'm assuming you can press enter for =? And please tell me escape can be used to go back to zero??!


Yes, the calculator in the real thing is better than the ones in the practice tests. You can do all the things you asked about on the real thing. :smile:
Original post by usycool1
Yes, the calculator in the real thing is better than the ones in the practice tests. You can do all the things you asked about on the real thing. :smile:


Yay!! That's made me feel loads better, I started to get angry with my laptop hehe :smile:
Original post by isabella1999
Yeah abstract is alright. Verbal isn't toooooo bad some passages are great just others are really complicated and you can't find key words takes too long scanning for then


Just chill. You will be fine.
Hey!

How long do people spend preparing for the UKCAT? My exam is at the start of September and so far I have only really touched on each section a little bit due to working 14 hour days as a carer:coffee:
Should i try and do a little bit every day or dedicate one day a week to it? :colondollar:**
Original post by Yammy
lol why u quoting me? :smile:


Because my post complete what you suggested. Work hard in the run up to test and let brain relax to charge, just before the real thing.
Sorry if you feel bad. I can remove the quote
Original post by raniafern
Oh thanks! Doesn't make a difference to me anymore, but thanks anyway! :smile: When is your exam?


September but trying to see if I can do it early.
Original post by hayleeyy
Hey!

How long do people spend preparing for the UKCAT? My exam is at the start of September and so far I have only really touched on each section a little bit due to working 14 hour days as a carer:coffee:
Should i try and do a little bit every day or dedicate one day a week to it? :colondollar:**


A little bit every day. Constant revision and practice is important. And hey, you work as a carer? That'll be amazing for your PS. Good luck, Hayley!
Original post by raniafern
A little bit every day. Constant revision and practice is important. And hey, you work as a carer? That'll be amazing for your PS. Good luck, Hayley!


Thank you for the advice, I will attempt to do an hour or two every day. I need a good UKCAT score because I will be applying for graduate medicine!* Thank you very much :biggrin:
How can i revise on a camping holiday for 2 weeks? i have 2 week when i get back for solid revison until my test and get an ave of 660 at the moment, it's QR pulling me down, any tips for holiday revison as i wont have a computer but will have my phone
Reply 675
Did UKCAT last week. Totalled 2110 I think and averaged 700 across the three scored sections; best score was QR at 750 and scored band 2 on SJ. The week before the test, I completely took my foot off the gas and can honestly say I didn't put 100% in as I was hoping to apply for foundation medicine at Durham; which no longer exists as this year will be the final intake. I still decided to take the test though as I'd already booked it and wanted to see what it was like after months of preparation!

Bit of advice here if anyone is interested. Just a little background info, when I first started UKCAT practicing I was awful and was scoring a guesstimate 400-500 on all of the mocks I could find in November. I practiced approximately 2-4 hours a week from January until a month out, then upped it to about 12 a week including mocks. The last week, as I mentioned, was on and off as I knew I wouldn't be studying medicine after all.

Sources used:
- ISC Medical 600 questions book (very good, questions mostly harder than the real thing which is good)
- ISC Medical 1000 questions book (bought this when it was released however a lot of the questions are repeated from the 600 edition, however, still a very good resource)
- Kaplan free mock and practice questions
- How to master the UKCAT (decent resource, bit dated now but extra questions came in handy at a later date in my revision)
- Medify for 2 weeks (highly recommended as the interface is extremely similar)
- UKCAT official site questions
- Any AR and GCSE maths questions I could find on the net

Thoughts on the actual test:
VR - I hardly had any true/false/CT questions, most were sentences asking what could be inferred from the passage etc. I would recommend you use an up to date resource to practice these types as I thought the T/F/CT questions were easy to speed read and not worth revising as much as the other subtypes. Overall I found this section harder than revision for this reason and I'm better at English than maths! Practice speed reading whenever you can.

QR - Easier than revision, had some very basic questions thrown in with some harder ones. The best advice I can give anyone for this section is to practice using the keyboard calculator, shortcuts and page down function as it saved me a hell of a lot of time during the real test being able to switch between keyboard and whiteboard and is far better than having to use the mouse and notepad. Practice this technique, I'm glad I did. 5 questions I would say were tricky to the point I guessed due to time reasons. I actually thought the calculator was worse than the Medify one and disappears when you press next.

AR - probably similar to revision, most the patterns were recognisable. This was by far my worst section when I started and I was doing extremely bad in the mocks. I think the key is to use a variety of sources for this area as every resource seems to have their own little trends and common themes. I had to guess my last 5 or so which I was disappointed with. Best advice I can give is to resist looking at the test shape until you've found the pattern.





Posted from TSR Mobile
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by clairebear101
How can i revise on a camping holiday for 2 weeks? i have 2 week when i get back for solid revison until my test and get an ave of 660 at the moment, it's QR pulling me down, any tips for holiday revison as i wont have a computer but will have my phone


Download the UKCAT app. Do the questions when you can. Also, try to find an app that is about Maths, and use it to improve your Math skills for the QR.
Hey guys i've got my ukcat booked for mid september, I've ordered the 1000q isc book and will get medify 2 weeks before the test. How did you guys go about revision? Did you use the 1000q isc untimed practicing the questions and getting used to the technique and then slowly increasing your speed? also are there any other sources that will help? im a bit worried about the DA section being gone because that will impact my average massively. Thanks!
760 average. Will this be good for this year? Considering there's no DA
Original post by M7133
Did UKCAT last week. Totalled 2110 I think and averaged 700 across the three scored sections; best score was QR at 750 and scored band 2 on SJ. The week before the test, I completely took my foot off the gas and can honestly say I didn't put 100% in as I was hoping to apply for foundation medicine at Durham; which no longer exists as this year will be the final intake. I still decided to take the test though as I'd already booked it and wanted to see what it was like after months of preparation!

Bit of advice here if anyone is interested. Just a little background info, when I first started UKCAT practicing I was awful and was scoring a guesstimate 400-500 on all of the mocks I could find in November. I practiced approximately 2-4 hours a week from January until a month out, then upped it to about 12 a week including mocks. The last week, as I mentioned, was on and off as I knew I wouldn't be studying medicine after all.

Sources used:
- ISC Medical 600 questions book (very good, questions mostly harder than the real thing which is good)
- ISC Medical 1000 questions book (bought this when it was released however a lot of the questions are repeated from the 600 edition, however, still a very good resource)
- Kaplan free mock and practice questions
- How to master the UKCAT (decent resource, bit dated now but extra questions came in handy at a later date in my revision)
- Medify for 2 weeks (highly recommended as the interface is extremely similar)
- UKCAT official site questions
- Any AR and GCSE maths questions I could find on the net

Thoughts on the actual test:
VR - I hardly had any true/false/CT questions, most were sentences asking what could be inferred from the passage etc. I would recommend you use an up to date resource to practice these types as I thought the T/F/CT questions were easy to speed read and not worth revising as much as the other subtypes. Overall I found this section harder than revision for this reason and I'm better at English than maths! Practice speed reading whenever you can.

QR - Easier than revision, had some very basic questions thrown in with some harder ones. The best advice I can give anyone for this section is to practice using the keyboard calculator, shortcuts and page down function as it saved me a hell of a lot of time during the real test being able to switch between keyboard and whiteboard and is far better than having to use the mouse and notepad. Practice this technique, I'm glad I did. 5 questions I would say were tricky to the point I guessed due to time reasons. I actually thought the calculator was worse than the Medify one and disappears when you press next.

AR - probably similar to revision, most the patterns were recognisable. This was by far my worst section when I started and I was doing extremely bad in the mocks. I think the key is to use a variety of sources for this area as every resource seems to have their own little trends and common themes. I had to guess my last 5 or so which I was disappointed with. Best advice I can give is to resist looking at the test shape until you've found the pattern.





Posted from TSR Mobile


Can I ask what sort of technique you used for AR? I'm practising now on medify for tomorrow and they all seem really hard. I've practised this so much over the past few months and I seem to be struggling more than ever. Did you have a system where you looked at colours, amount of shapes, amount of sides, then moved on to angles etc? I just seem to be looking and thinking of things at random instead of in any particular order.

Did you manage to answer all QR questions in the time?

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