UKCAT for 2017 Entry to UK

Just finished my UKCAT. I was honestly *****ing myself before I went in so I just wanted to reassure people that it isn't as bad as your darkest nightmares suggest.

I did medify mocks, kaplan mocks and the UKCAT official mocks for two weeks running up to test day.

VR- so this was harder for me when ljudging the answer but easier timing wise (not sure if that makes sense). Medify mocks are easy compared to this so I suggest looking for harder sources. It's pretty hard to find an exact representation of what the difficulty is like when looking for practice material though. My advice for test day would be to go with your gut instinct when choosing an answer and then keep moving through the questions. If you don't hesitate it's straightforward in terms of getting through the entire section under intense time pressure.

Practice: was getting between 570-700 (with one 830💃🏻!)
Test Day: 720

QR - So much easier! If you feel you didn't do great in the VR, this section boosts your confidence and your score so use it well. A lot easier than Medify/Kaplan/official mocks.

Practice: 550 😮 - 860 🤓
Test day: 890 (I took my time, didn't rush through like I did in the practice tests)


AR - My experience was a little varied. Started off not being able to find the patterns for the first three sets so I chose B for the first 15 questions and almost punched the computer screen. It was an exact repeat of a practice test that I did where I couldn't answer the first 15 and ended up scoring 500 🙄 Luckily I came back to them at the end found patterns for 10/15 before my time was up.

Practice: 500 - 800
Test Day: 800 👌

SJ - honestly couldn't give a toss about this section after what I thought was a horrific AR so I just spent 10 mins on it and ended the exam. All the mock exams adhered to the style of the real thing. The only reason I was chilled about this is because Southampton don't look at it. If your unis do look, you might want to take this more seriously than I did.

Test day: Band 2 🤔

Overall: Average of 803 + Band 2
My mocks were so inconsistent that at one point I was considering switching to a different career path. But then I remembered I was doing the BMAT ...

Good luck to everyone doing this, hope it helps!

Thanks!
Okay so I did medify mocks, Kaplan, and the official mocks.
My highest average I ever got was 670, after 3/4 weeks of preparation, so I knew I wasn't going to get over 700 because I just didn't feel like it was possible for me and hence I didn't bother rescheduling since it would take time out of more important work.
Verbal reasoning, is about the same as medify, and Kaplan. The official tests are more difficult. My score was on the lower end of what I usually got in mocks but to be fair i think I messed up in the exam so I was lucky to get that score.
Quantitative reasoning was much much easier, the score I got was the highest I've ever had.
Abstract was harder for me, but again I feel like it was my performance on the day. I've seen easier patterns in exams I've done in the past so I once got 830 on abstract but got 650 in the real thing.
Situational was pretty much the same.
Good luck

No problem! If there's any specific advice anyone needs please feel free to ask. I know that this thread was my mental lifeline whilst I was practicing (and crying). And thank you, the QR was my best experience of the entire thing, if you can get near 70% at any point in a medify QR mock I personally believe you have nothing to worry about. I wouldn't take it easy though, thinking that the mocks were like the real thing made me improve my speed so that once I got to the real thing I could take it at a relatively slower pace. Also, use the calculator, mouse and keyboard as much as you can when practicing. The whiteboards for writing on were absolutely fine, I only used one A4 side. Good luck!

Just finished my UKCAT. I was honestly *****ing myself before I went in so I just wanted to reassure people that it isn't as bad as your darkest nightmares suggest.

I did medify mocks, kaplan mocks and the UKCAT official mocks for two weeks running up to test day.

VR- so this was harder for me when ljudging the answer but easier timing wise (not sure if that makes sense). Medify mocks are easy compared to this so I suggest looking for harder sources. It's pretty hard to find an exact representation of what the difficulty is like when looking for practice material though. My advice for test day would be to go with your gut instinct when choosing an answer and then keep moving through the questions. If you don't hesitate it's straightforward in terms of getting through the entire section under intense time pressure.

Practice: was getting between 570-700 (with one 830💃🏻!)
Test Day: 720

QR - So much easier! If you feel you didn't do great in the VR, this section boosts your confidence and your score so use it well. A lot easier than Medify/Kaplan/official mocks.

Practice: 550 😮 - 860 🤓
Test day: 890 (I took my time, didn't rush through like I did in the practice tests)


AR - My experience was a little varied. Started off not being able to find the patterns for the first three sets so I chose B for the first 15 questions and almost punched the computer screen. It was an exact repeat of a practice test that I did where I couldn't answer the first 15 and ended up scoring 500 🙄 Luckily I came back to them at the end found patterns for 10/15 before my time was up.

Practice: 500 - 800
Test Day: 800 👌

SJ - honestly couldn't give a toss about this section after what I thought was a horrific AR so I just spent 10 mins on it and ended the exam. All the mock exams adhered to the style of the real thing. The only reason I was chilled about this is because Southampton don't look at it. If your unis do look, you might want to take this more seriously than I did.

Test day: Band 2 🤔

Overall: Average of 803 + Band 2
My mocks were so inconsistent that at one point I was considering switching to a different career path. But then I remembered I was doing the BMAT ...

Good luck to everyone doing this, hope it helps!

So I did the UKCAT today and did so badly.
I got:

550 in VR
670 in QR
610 in AR

I'm so sad and don't know what to do. I prepared so much for it. I don't know what happened to me. I don't think any unis will accept me now. What should I do? I've been looking at Keele but I heard that they want over 630. My average is 610. Any advice is much appreciated.

you've scored slightly below average. don't worry or feel bad- the UKCAT is a hard test full of random junk. have you thought of the BMAT?

Wow that's an amazing score!!! Thanks I'll try out Medify! I really hope it's easier on the day. If you don't mind me asking what unis do you want to apply to?

Hey, that is a great score and Barts and Warwick are very much on your table. I don't know the cut offs for Newcastle so I can't comment on that.

May I ask what helped you achieve 720 in VR? were the passages longer compared to medify?

That's a great score, congrats!

Wow well done! How did you manage to do quantitive in the time given? I struggle with it, mostly get right answers but take like 20 seconds longer per set than youre supposed to

I had that too when I was doing mocks, I'll just post what I sent someone else just now. With VR I was getting 830 one day and then 550 the next. The kaplan and medify VR sections were hard for me because I couldn't finish the entire section; actually choosing the right answer was never an issue with these. The actual VR exam was easy to finish in the time as long as you don't spend too long second-guessing your answers. BUT I did find it harder to choose the answer. I was pretty much 50% confident about most of my answers in the real thing and I can see that if I hadn't practised the time-pressured sections that were in the medify/kaplan mocks, I would have probably spent a lot longer wondering whether my answers were right. Because I was used to panicking about getting through the questions in mocks, I forced myself to keep moving and that got me through the entire section.If your main problem with VR is finishing all the questions (which subsequently makes you lose marks) then practice as much as you can! Learning to scan the text efficiently will improve your entire score in the real thing. VR is tricky and having the confidence to keep moving even if you doubt your answers will help you get those marks.

AR patterns were fairly easy to spot after the first fifteen. There were a few simple patterns like the number of small shapes inside a big shape = the number of shapes outside the big shape minus one. There were a few Type 2 and 3 questions but not enough to throw you off.



One of the sets was horrifically simple. Set A had a diagonal line of symmetry from top left to bottom right and the Set B had one from top right to bottom left. The reason I didn't see this earlier is because each box consisted of squares, with 5 types of shading, in a 7x7 grid and so I was more focused on counting how many types of each square there were than actually looking at the box as a whole. I'm afraid I don't remember the one for the second set and I never got the third one. Hopefully some of those Bs were correct

Sat my exam this afternoon!

VR - 700
QR - 850
AR - 750
SJ - Band 1

Average of 767 which I'm thrilled with as I'm applying as a graduate. I was expecting VR to be my highest score and I must have had a really good day on those QR questions because I started to run out of time towards the end. Hoping it's high enough to be competitive at Warwick and Newcastle!

Hi isabella1999

Hoping I can offer some advice for the QR section...

Firstly get familiar with the on screen calculator and use the calculator with the keyboard for speed. Make sure you practice this... it's really important!

Look for hard questions and skip these straight away, there is no point in wasting valuable time. If the question is hard to understand, the data you need is complex or there are many stages to the calculation then I would consider this a hard questions and move on. When you move on just guess an answer and flag for review in case you get extra time later. Remember there is no negative marking so always worth a guess!

Hope that helps!

UniAdmissions

Hi I don't really know what to think about my results in really confused by it all, I am an A grade student but got:

VR- 630
QR- 700
AR- 620
And band 2

Please if someone can help me I am so confused if this is even good, I'm looking at Manchester Liverpool and Sheffield, thank you!!

Hi I don't really know what to think about my results in really confused by it all, I am an A grade student but got:

VR- 630
QR- 700
AR- 620
And band 2

Please if someone can help me I am so confused if this is even good, I'm looking at Manchester Liverpool and Sheffield, thank you!!