UKCAT for 2017 Entry to UK

aurora.di.nicola

You could apply to less UKCAT heavy schools like Queen's University Belfast. Your UKCAT is quite high for their ranking system (4/6 points). I applied this year as a graduate with 640 average and have an unconditional offer.

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/mdbs/medicine/Prospectivestudents/Applying/

Hey, do you mind if I ask you a couple of things regarding Unis in Ireland? For some reason I've only been considering England and Scotland, probably because I can't find much info about Irish Unis, but I'd like to know more :smile:

Reply 861

agahaga

6

my ukcat in in 3 weeks and i havent started revising yet, have i left it too late? im planning on doing 8 hour days for 2 weeks and 3 hours a day for 1 week (completing CREST award during that week). also is it possible to over revise for the ukcat which may hinder my results?

Reply 862

Nuba123

16

Just did practise test b on the Ukcat site and tried coverting my scores heres approx. what I gotVR- 570QR-600AR-500I'm ABSOLUTLEY SCREWED my test is next week... and I did the untimed version so this is probably more than what I'd get in timed conditions. I'm guessing most of them and can't stick to the time limit. PLEASE HELP. :frown:

Reply 863

Gogregg

14

Original post by agahaga

my ukcat in in 3 weeks and i havent started revising yet, have i left it too late? im planning on doing 8 hour days for 2 weeks and 3 hours a day for 1 week (completing CREST award during that week). also is it possible to over revise for the ukcat which may hinder my results?

3 weeks is plenty of time, don't worry so much!
8 hour days is probably way too much! You only really need to be practising questions, and then looking at where you went wrong. With 8 hours a day you'll probably run out of resources wayyyy tooo quickly. People say it's possible to peak before your actual test, and the official UKCAT statistics say that those who practise for 20-30 hours tend to do better than others

Original post by Nuba123

Just did practise test b on the Ukcat site and tried converting my scores heres approx. what I got VR- 570 QR-600 AR-500 I'm ABSOLUTELY SCREWED my test is next week... and I did the untimed version so this is probably more than what I'd get in timed conditions. I'm guessing most of them and can't stick to the time limit. PLEASE HELP. :frown:

It's very difficult to accurately convert your scores, so that may not be what you'd actually get.

Also, a week is plenty of time to improve your score.
Which areas do you struggle with the most, or is it just timing?
If it's timing, just practice without the time limit. Don't even think about the time until you start doing it quicker, and feel more comfortable doing it within time constraints. Then start doing it to time. There's no point timing yourself if it's just going to force you to guess every question! :h:

Reply 864

ronnydandam

9

Original post by ronnydandam

Right so I have just over 3 weeks till my actual exam and I just did the Kaplan Diagnostic and got:
AR: 650(Had to guess the last ones)
VR:630
QR:730
So average of 670.
Is this exam meant to be easier than the actual exam? I hope I can bump up my average by at least 30 points in the next three weeks.

anyone else done this or know about the difficulty?

Reply 865

aurora.di.nicola

I've just done test B on the ukcat website as well, timed version, but it probably wasn't the best choice... I was only able to do like half of each part and didn't even get to see the rest, so I'm going to redo it, untimed version this time... I'm really struggling :frown:

Reply 866

tashywashy

I've heard from many people that the actual exam is much easier than the practise ones they have, so don't worry too much!. I have my test next Saturday so I can post its difficulty relative to practice resources then. If timing is a huge issue then aim to complete around 70/80% of the exam only, but to a high quality. You don't need to complete the exam to get a good mark. Just flag any difficult questions and move on, there will be a high enough proportion of easy questions for you to do well :smile:

Reply 867

Athos

1

Original post by agahaga

my ukcat in in 3 weeks and i havent started revising yet, have i left it too late? im planning on doing 8 hour days for 2 weeks and 3 hours a day for 1 week (completing CREST award during that week). also is it possible to over revise for the ukcat which may hinder my results?

8 he days is way too long!
I'm finding hard going in this either to do anymore than 2 hrs at a time, maybe total 5/6 hrs a day of quality

Otherwise my eyes start to go funny an I lose concentration!

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Reply 868

Nuba123

16

Original post by Gogregg

3 weeks is plenty of time, don't worry so much!
8 hour days is probably way too much! You only really need to be practising questions, and then looking at where you went wrong. With 8 hours a day you'll probably run out of resources wayyyy tooo quickly. People say it's possible to peak before your actual test, and the official UKCAT statistics say that those who practise for 20-30 hours tend to do better than others

It's very difficult to accurately convert your scores, so that may not be what you'd actually get.

Also, a week is plenty of time to improve your score.
Which areas do you struggle with the most, or is it just timing?
If it's timing, just practice without the time limit. Don't even think about the time until you start doing it quicker, and feel more comfortable doing it within time constraints. Then start doing it to time. There's no point timing yourself if it's just going to force you to guess every question! :h:

Thank you! That's very kind of you!! :smile:

But I have to be realistic I haven't been trying at all until like 5 days ago so I decided the best way forward is to re-book my test for September. I was way too relaxed and now that the fear got very real I'm going to try harder. I've completed the Kaplan diagnostic test (free) and got the following: VR- 470 QR-430 AR-370 AND SJ- Band 2 (overall 1270) which is nowhere near what I'm aiming for. Also can anyone let me know if investing in courses like KAPLAN is worth it - I really need more resources. :frown:

I purchased a book (1200 questions by uniadmission) its only really helped me with VR but I don't seem to be benfitting in other areas. Pleas feel free to recommend any resourced -it would appreciated I'm kind of on a sinking ship... :/

Reply 869

Athos

1

Original post by Nuba123

Thank you! That's very kind of you!! :smile:

But I have to be realistic I haven't been trying at all until like 5 days ago so I decided the best way forward is to re-book my test for September. I was way too relaxed and now that the fear got very real I'm going to try harder. I've completed the Kaplan diagnostic test (free) and got the following: VR- 470 QR-430 AR-370 AND SJ- Band 2 (overall 1270) which is nowhere near what I'm aiming for. Also can anyone let me know if investing in courses like KAPLAN is worth it - I really need more resources. :frown:

I purchased a book (1200 questions by uniadmission) its only really helped me with VR but I don't seem to be benfitting in other areas. Pleas feel free to recommend any resourced -it would appreciated I'm kind of on a sinking ship... :/

Yeah I bought the uniadmissions 1200 book as well but found there was too many mistakes and it was slowing my revision down. Ditched that back to amazon as soon as I could

I've found that Medify was the best one to be honest, got decent solid questions, and their computer mock mimics the real exam one too. Not yet gone to the MedPortal course yet, but I'll see how revision goes, I might cancel it and just stick with Medify tbh if time is limiting.

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Reply 870

D.I.Prep

1

My advice, practice as much as you can.
Especially if that is your nature.
I know I practiced a lot, but thats what I'm like!

I have mates (everyone has a mate like this) who did a couple of hours of revision and completely SMASHED IT!
He is now studying Medicine at Cambridge Uni, Trinity college.

Try your best! Don't worry too much about others!

Dental Interview Prep.

Reply 871

mliela

14

Original post by D.I.Prep

My advice, practice as much as you can.
Especially if that is your nature.
I know I practiced a lot, but thats what I'm like!

I have mates (everyone has a mate like this) who did a couple of hours of revision and completely SMASHED IT!
He is now studying Medicine at Cambridge Uni, Trinity college.

Try your best! Don't worry too much about others!

Dental Interview Prep.

Just remember everyone is different. I found that some people just take to it more than others. It doesn't really correlate with how smart/ how good someone's grades are. Plus Cambridge doesn't use UKCAT.

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Reply 872

Gogregg

14

Original post by Nuba123

Thank you! That's very kind of you!! :smile:

But I have to be realistic I haven't been trying at all until like 5 days ago so I decided the best way forward is to re-book my test for September. I was way too relaxed and now that the fear got very real I'm going to try harder. I've completed the Kaplan diagnostic test (free) and got the following: VR-470 QR-430 AR-370 AND SJ- Band 2 (overall 1270) which is nowhere near what I'm aiming for. Also can anyone let me know if investing in courses like KAPLAN is worth it - I really need more resources. :frown:

I purchased a book (1200 questions by uniadmission) its only really helped me with VR but I don't seem to be benfitting in other areas. Pleas feel free to recommend any resourced -it would appreciated I'm kind of on a sinking ship... :/

That does sound like a good idea, but just take it easy for now. Start doing proper work again about 3 weeks before your test. It is a good idea to keep yourself refreshed by doing some practice questions every so often, but just take a rest now. You never know, it may be what it takes for it to properly click with you :h:

I, personally, only used the ISC 1000 Qs book and Medify. I'd definitely suggest you get the latter. The ISC book contains very good tips and tricks, but the questions are very difficult, so maybe only get it if you have spare budget or get to a point where you do want to stretch yourself :u:

Reply 873

Nuba123

16

Original post by Gogregg

That does sound like a good idea, but just take it easy for now. Start doing proper work again about 3 weeks before your test. It is a good idea to keep yourself refreshed by doing some practice questions every so often, but just take a rest now. You never know, it may be what it takes for it to properly click with you :h:

I, personally, only used the ISC 1000 Qs book and Medify. I'd definitely suggest you get the latter. The ISC book contains very good tips and tricks, but the questions are very difficult, so maybe only get it if you have spare budget or get to a point where you do want to stretch yourself :u:

Thank you everyone for the advice!! <3 I'm going to trust yall and invest in Medify as it seems to be getting a lot of good reviews. :smile:

And yeah I noticed the 1200 questions book does have a lot of errors. I think UKCAT should stop companies trying to profit out of medical applicants and increase the quantity of resources they have. Also, I was looking into a KAPLAN course and it costs £330 - which is btw INSANELY OUT OF MY BUDGET. I really want to do well but everyone who seems to be doing well has invested a lot into achieving that. Even though UKCAT is supposed to make medicine, dentistry,etc. more accessible it's also restricting. :frown:

AND LOOL no chance of going to Cambridge just saying. I'm looking into unis in Scotland ( Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and St Andrews) which apparently are UKCAT heavy. Lord help me. lol.

Reply 874

koolkat95

5

Original post by mliela

Just remember everyone is different. I found that some people just take to it more than others. It doesn't really correlate with how smart/ how good someone's grades are. Plus Cambridge doesn't use UKCAT.

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Yeah so true, everyone is different. Just because he applied and went to Cambridge, doesn't mean he didn't apply to other unis that required the UKCAT

Reply 875

mliela

14

Original post by koolkat95

Yeah so true, everyone is different. Just because he applied and went to Cambridge, doesn't mean he didn't apply to other unis that required the UKCAT

Of course. But there's no correlation between Cambridge and the UKCAT.

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Reply 876

rayrk

4

I agree with you - the uniadmissions 1200 book was a waste of my time. It only made me more stressed out so I tossed it aside after a few questions.

Edited: reason being that there were so many wrong answers or questions that did not match the answers logically.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 877

saudkhan2508

1

How much do the official mocks on the UKCAT website reflect the real test...? can someone shine a light on this pleaseeee :colondollar:

Reply 878

Hugh Laurie

6

Original post by saudkhan2508

How much do the official mocks on the UKCAT website reflect the real test...? can someone shine a light on this pleaseeee :colondollar:

i found the VR section to be similar if not harder in the real exam. the qr section was noticeably easier in the real thing, so do not be discouraged if you do badly in the mock (as long as you still understand how to do the maths) - the same applies to other mocks you may have done like from the 1000Q book and Medify. similarly the AR section was also easier in the real thing, IIRC many sets had just one simple rule instead of multiple, and the patterns were far less complex (think simple, like number of shapes or sides). i averaged low to mid 600s in my mocks and got 790 in the real exam. hope that helped!