UKCAT for 2017 Entry to UK

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Hey guys my friend willmot just finished doing the UKCAT. He got a low score of 603.3 and he's a Scottish applicant. What universities should he think of applying to?

Reply 341

valarmorghulis9

Took my exam today (July 7)

VR: 680
QR: 890
AR: 690
Band 1

Used the ISC 600Q book and a 1 month subscription on medify

Reply 342

Gogregg

Does anyone think it's a good idea to focus primarily on one section so that it could drag my score up, or is it best to do an equal amount for each section, dependant on how good you are at them?i.e doing loads of practice on QR so i could get 850+ on that too make up for possible lower scores on VR and AR

Reply 343

UKCATrocks

Original post by Gogregg

You really need to perform well in as many sections as you can. Some unis look at each section individually and not just the average. Now, QR is probably the easiest one to improve on, next is VR and as for AR, God help us, you either get it or you don't. For AR you can still learn the various patterns to look out for through sheer practice. As for SJTs, once you practice you'll see see it tends to be always the same thing too so that should make it easier to get Band 2 or even Band 1.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 344

WhizzKidhehe:)

Got my exam tomorrow!!!!

Absolutely bricking it!!

Reply 345

clairebear101

Original post by valarmorghulis9

Took my exam today (July 7)

VR: 680
QR: 890
AR: 690
Band 1

Used the ISC 600Q book and a 1 month subscription on medify

where u always getting this good? cuz i just cannot do quantitative reasoning

Reply 346

Euan1603

Original post by WhizzKidhehe:)

Got my exam tomorrow!!!!

Absolutely bricking it!!

Good Luck! You'll do great, got mine on the 28th looking forward to getting it over with!

Reply 347

WhizzKidhehe:)

Original post by Euan1603

Good Luck! You'll do great, got mine on the 28th looking forward to getting it over with!

HAHA thank you!! I'm gonna need heaps of luck LOL The only consolidation I have is that the questions in the book are a lot harder than in the exam but idk about the practice tests on the UKCAT website :P

Best of luck to you too, I'm sure you'll ace it!! xD

Reply 348

Maw1979

Hi everyone. I'm a mature student (36) and I'm doing my UKCAT the first week of September.
Now I like to think I'm quite level headed and I was wondering, of those of you who have already done the UKCAT, whether my opinions are correct or not on the following resources.

600Questions book. I found this near impossible in places. Some of the QR and AR would easily take a few minutes at best.
Kaplan book. I thought this was a well structured book with a reasonable sense of difficulty. very achievable with good techniques.
Medify. Is it really that good and worth it. Thinking about signing up but what is it like in comparison to the real thing.
1000 questions book. Is it the same or different to the 600 book. Is it worth getting.

Many thanks and looking forward to the replies.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 349

UKCATrocks

The QR in the 1000Q book contains tHe same questions as the 600Q book but they have also added about 100 new questions which are of more standard difficulty. Same with AR to which they have added the 3 new types of questions with varying levels of difficulty. Also you get all the SJT questions which were not there before and the new style verbal questions.

But the key really is making sure you get the techniques. In my opinion the 1000 is worth doing simply because it is up to date. But also because it doesn't make you complacent. Kaplan is good too.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 350

OneAfrica

Original post by Maw1979

Medify is definitely worth getting it. Without it i would have probably got a lower score then I have now. And the questions they provide you withare very similar to the real UKCAT.

Reply 351

UKCATrocks

Original post by OneAfrica

Medify is definitely worth getting it. Without it i would have probably got a lower score then I have now. And the questions they provide you withare very similar to the real UKCAT.

Yes modify is good though I and nataliek98 did find it easier than the exam, and it does not have all the AR styles of questions.

Reply 352

maxross

what raw marks are people getting? and is there any possible way to convert raw marks into a score between 300 and 900? just roughly ?

Reply 353

Euan1603

Original post by maxross

what raw marks are people getting? and is there any possible way to convert raw marks into a score between 300 and 900? just roughly ?

I found this online, it gives you a ruff idea of mark allocation.

Reply 354

michrab123

Original post by maxross

what raw marks are people getting? and is there any possible way to convert raw marks into a score between 300 and 900? just roughly ?

When I was practicing I did the raw mark as a percentage of 600 + 300
e.g. if you get 33/44 in VR, that's 75%, so 75% of 600 = 450, + 300 = 750.

It's not really helpful though as the real thing is curved so depending on how others found the exam you may do better/worse than the raw mark conversion

Reply 355

Maw1979

Thats the Kaplan method of scoring in their book. It's pretty accurate. Which is bloody depressing.

Reply 356

Joanna_p

Original post by Maw1979

There is Medicportal too.

Reply 357

UKCATrocks

Original post by Maw1979

Thats the Kaplan method of scoring in their book. It's pretty accurate. Which is bloody depressing.

Well, it's pretty much a linear scale with some rounding. That would be accurate if people were spread equally among the curve. But my guess is that there are a lot of people in clusters. Hence why they say the scale errs on the side of caution.

Reply 358

manya.june

Original post by Maw1979

I have modified above posts and added results of my own research for completeness but keeping it to anything that’s updated for 2017 entry. As old resources may be available but outdated. This way, we have many choices. I will end up by saying what I have chosen. This is my choice and someone can as easily justify choosing differently.
Books
600Questions book.I found this near impossible in places. Some of the QR and AR would easily takea few minutes at best: Hard but if you do well, you should feel confidentfor real exam
Kaplan book. I thought this was a well structured book with a reasonable sense of difficulty. very achievable with good techniques. Good book.
Medify. Is it really that good and worth it. Thinking about signing up but what is it like in comparison to the real thing. Easy compared to real exam. Good forpractice.
1000 questions book. Is it the same or different to the 600 book. Is it worth getting. Yes, it is same book as 600 questions with 400 more to add up to 1000 ( as some one said earlier). Have one or the other. Otherwise you are doing same questions twice which will falsely raise your score
1200 questions book.This has the most questions available currently.
Web based resources
Almost every company that has anything to do with UKCAT is offering these. Some offer web based only, some are add-on to the courses or books. Do a good trawl through the internet and decide. No point doing an online course that only offer a limited number of questions or same questions that get repeated as one goes through over days. This will affect score but one has no way of knowing if this will occur.
Courses
Many courses available. Format of the courses vary. Some available formats are:
Face to face
Online (instant) lecture
Skype based tutoring
Online courses
Course Duration: Some are one day some are two days. Skype or web-based tutoring available for those that are not able to attend physically. Some courses are expensive; some are not so. Look carefully and ask around. What does small group mean ? Some courses would say 25 is small group some would say that is too much. Decide what kind YOU are? Are you someone likely npt to ask if something is not clear due to the fear of looking like a fool in front of 24 or 99 other student? In that case, course will be a waste of time.

I would suggest, use as much as available for free/using books and see where one stands. Do some form of mock and see if extra benefit will be gained by doing extra (course/web-based) No book, course, tutoring, online course can turn a lump of coal into diamond but practice does make perfect.

Lastly, I am doing free resources and using 1200 Question books to supplement.

I chose this because this has max questions. It will be another few days before I can fully comment on the book. So far it is good. I am not sure if I will do course or online course. Will keep you posted.
Hope this helps. Sorry for a long reply :h:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 359

NoMSGplease

Original post by manya.june

Courses
Many courses available. Format of the courses vary. Some available formats are:
Face to face
Online (instant) lecture
Skype based tutoring
Online courses
Course Duration: Some are one day some are two days. Skype or web-based tutoring available for those that are not able to attend physically. Some courses are expensive; some are not so. Look carefully and ask around. What does small group mean ? Some courses would say 25 is small group some would say that is too much. Decide what kind YOU are? Are you someone likely npt to ask if something is not clear due to the fear of looking like a fool in front of 24 or 99 other student? In that case, course will be a waste of time.

Personally I feel that attending a UKCAT is pointless anyway because it is all about acquiring your own technique and surely there is enough material available around to be able to do that without forking out 100s of quids.

Secondly, if one was to attend a course, given that those courses last say 8 hours, one you account for breaks/lunch that only gives 1.5 hours per section which is really not that much time. During those 1.5 hours you either talk about techniques but then you won't learn anything out of this world, or you end up just doing exercises, which you might as well do online or on a book. So I would say the only courses worth attending, if you really want to attend one, would be one that spans over more than one day.