When should I give the UKCAT??

Hey! I'm in my AS currently, and will be giving my AS CIES in May/June 2018. I'm aiming to apply for Medicine, for the 2019 fall entry. I'm confused when to give the UKCAT. I've read that the UCAS application deadline for 2019 entry for most courses in Medicine is Monday 15th October, 2018. Should I give the UKCAT in the first sitting i.e July 2018 or the second one i.e October 2018? For the October sitting, the results are delivered to the universities in early November 2018. So the deadline to apply for the universities would've passed right? I'd love any advice I can get for preparation too, TIA!

You can choose to sit it any date between 2nd July and 2nd October. I'd recommend booking earlier rather than later as you can always cancel and reschedule(its free to reschedule it up until two(or so) days before before the date you chose, any closer to the date will cost you the test fee). That way you can get a good time to sit it at and not at 8am of something like that.
Personally I did it in August, before school went back as then it gave me time to decide my unis(your score, which you find out as soon as you take it, can affect this) and also focus on my PS and BMAT(if you apply to BMAT unis). It's also cheaper to do the test in July and August than September/October.

Personally for preparation I used the 1250 q book(harder than the real thing) and all the online free resources I could find.
I also began revising for it about 6 weeks before I sat it, however only intensely the week before.

thanks for your reply! I think I’m most probably gonna register for july/august. Also I read somewhere that if you give your exam in July/August/September, they send the result to you. But if you give the exam in October, your results are sent directly to the university, not to you. Do you know if that true? Also how long do the results usually take?

Does the difficulty of the test change event by a tiny bit at any point of the test taking period?

Does the difficulty of the test change event by a tiny bit at any point of the test taking period?

AFAIK, no. You're ranked against your peers anyway, so in a year the average scores may be higher than another, leading to higher cut-offs. So don't worry about taking it early or late. Just whenever you have the time and are ready.

They have a bank of however many questions.
Each person's test is different and the questions are randomly selected for them to do. Some people may have slightly easier or harder tests however across the board they will all be a similair level.

You can choose to sit it any date between 2nd July and 2nd October. I'd recommend booking earlier rather than later as you can always cancel and reschedule(its free to reschedule it up until two(or so) days before before the date you chose, any closer to the date will cost you the test fee). That way you can get a good time to sit it at and not at 8am of something like that.
Personally I did it in August, before school went back as then it gave me time to decide my unis(your score, which you find out as soon as you take it, can affect this) and also focus on my PS and BMAT(if you apply to BMAT unis). It's also cheaper to do the test in July and August than September/October.

Personally for preparation I used the 1250 q book(harder than the real thing) and all the online free resources I could find.
I also began revising for it about 6 weeks before I sat it, however only intensely the week before.

If you don't mind me asking, what UKCAT score did you get? I'm a hopeful medic wanting to apply on October 2018.

3070, average 757.5

That's a solid score! Which unis did you apply to and did you get accepted?

Edinburgh-offer
Aberdeen-offer
Glasgow- rejected post interview(I messed it up very badly and they only consider the interview at that stage in the application process)
Cambridge- rejected post interview

Oh nice! You must have really good grades! What resources did you use for the UKCAT? And BMAT

1250 question book(the questions are harder than the real thing, but it makes the real thing seem easier)
also any free resources I could find online. The UKCAT website for practice tests and another one.
I didn't pay for anything, only bought the book

Thank you so much!

Just realized I didn't answer the BMAT part of the q. I bought a book for the BMAT(I just read reviews online and decided which one I thought was best) and then this website https://bmat.ninja/ Again, only using the free resources