UKCAT for 2017 Entry to UK

Anyone who has done the ukcat, Were there QR questions with a lot of text in them? If so what proportion of QR would you say had them?

Internal exams are exams that aren't credited by an exam board I think, so your school makes you a paper up or you get a paper but it doesn't get sent off to AQA etc! Yeah new reforms are harder and my exams were hard but if your teacher could make you up your own exam paper do you really think they would make it that hard (I doubt they would personally) and plus it's hard to compare as you don't sit it nationally like everyone else. No I won't be able to push for 3 a stars unfortunately.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Thank you! Haha I have emailed them already (and not phoned) don't think I'll be applying to Exeter as I'm predicted A*A*A I believe happy but can't apply to Exeter with that tbh. I'm planning on ringing all the uni's I want and just bombarding them with questions lmao they will hate me 😂 just don't want to waste an application as my ukcat is good but it's not safe if you get me!


Posted from TSR Mobile

This is a good point actually. I wonder how it will affect the admissions process if Universities are receiving a lot more applicants with AAA+ predictions, makes it harder for them to trust the teachers predictions.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Predicted grades don't get students into university, achieved grades do. And besides, if that was the case schools can still predict people with low grades to get high grades at the end. That's more logical than giving a false representation of the exam and deceiving them into thinking it's easier than it's going to be and then having them get lower achieved grades.
A part of difficulty is the grade boundaries. If they can score 20/100 and still get a good grade then the test is easy never mind if the 100 questions were hard.

Haven't done much practice this week but will try over the next few days. My test is on Tuesday. I'm grateful for this thread.*

Does Exeter have a particular admissions policy about high predicted grades? I would have thought A*A*A would be more than enough...

This is a good point actually. I wonder how it will affect the admissions process if Universities are receiving a lot more applicants with AAA+ predictions, makes it harder for them to trust the teachers predictions.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Well for Exeter they get you into uni. Yeah but doing an internal exam you don't normally use the national grade boundaries, there's no cap on the amount of A's you can get that way so I don't think you understand where I'm coming from in terms of predictions.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Hmmm...

I'm still going to risk it, what do I have to lose? (Lol 1 rejection >.<)

Hey btw if you don't mind me asking, what did you get at GCSE and A level?

I understand that there are no national grade boundaries but that was my point. If they were low, although they would get higher grades then they would be given a false representation of the real exam and lower expectations of the real exam and thus lower achieved grades.
For Exeter they don't get you into university, they get you an interview and a conditional offer which is often dependent on your predictions. Many universities give you a conditional with higher grades than minimum based on your predictions.
Even so, if the schools aim was to predict them higher grades their would be no point in potentially lowering their achieved grades by false representations instead of predicting them high grades no matter what grades they actually received. If someone got a C, there would be nothing preventing the school from predicting the student an A or A*. That would be the more intelligent alternative instead of giving them an easy test so then in tern their actual achieved grades will be lowered.

Exeter put you into tiers so three a stars is tier 1, 2 a stars 1 A is tier 2. They invite people for interview and whatever tier they reach the end of: let's say 500 to interview, they invite all of the 400 in tier 1. There could be 200 applicants in tier 2 so they then use their cut off to select 100 for interview from tier 2. That's what I was told by the uni anyway.


Posted from TSR Mobile

how can I improve my VR Score????

I'm not talking about getting in I'm talking about offers. I completely agree that it is a false representative.


Posted from TSR Mobile

I struggled massively with VR at the start, used to get less than 50% on medify.

But I started by reading the first sentence of the text, so you know roughly what its on about. Then scan the rest for about 5 seconds before moving on to the answers.

Also if the text is about something which you have knowledge about, then I didn't even read the text I just answered based on my own knowledge. Although they say dont do this, it worked for me.

ahh ok! Cuz what i struggle with is that i can't scan the passage and understand/read the words at the same time so i forget everything i've read :s

same here!!!!

ahhh! i know how annoying is it?? my eyes just end up wandering around the passage so nothing makes sense and time just goes to waste for me