UKCAT help for 2018 entry

hi, I'm currently in year 12, going on to year 13 and want to apply for medicine. I'm in the process of revising for my UKCAT test which is on 22nd August. I have done all the 100 UKCAT questions book (which is very HARD) and i have tried to doing questions under timed conditions on the UKCAT website. I have gotten averages of like in the 500's and Quantative reasoning I CANNOT do at all. I was wondering does anyone have any tips or advice which can help me because i have done so much practice but my score isnt improving.
I find Abstract reasoning and quatitative reasoning most diffcult. I got an A* in gcse maths yet i am only able to anser at mos 5 of the questions under timed conditions in the quantitative section

Have a look at where you're going wrong with the quantitative reasoning and do some BBC bitesize or something to make sure you understand how to do the type of questions that you're struggling with. Also make sure that you're not getting bogged down or confused with any of the extra information that they put in.

With the verbal reasoning section, make sure that you're not answering from your own knowledge. I found it far faster to read the statement and skim the text for the answer rather than reading the whole passage and then trying to answer the questions.

For decision making, ensure that you understand Venn diagrams and probability calculations. You can also guess and flag questions to come back to at the end so you don't waste time on questions you're struggling with.

With AR, you can use the acronym SCANS if you're really struggling to instantly see a connection. (Shape, colour, arrangement, number, size). Don't get bogged down in looking at one aspect if you are finding it difficult to see a pattern, move on and think about something else. Somewhere that a lot of people get stuck is with the ones that look like clocks, as they often don't have anything to do with the time that the hands are pointing to. Also look to see whether the pattern is rotating!

The key with the whole thing from my POV is knowing when to just move on. If you feel panicky or stuck on a question just guess an answer, flag, and move on. You can then go back to it if you have time, but if you don't then at least you've put something!

Have a look at where you're going wrong with the quantitative reasoning and do some BBC bitesize or something to make sure you understand how to do the type of questions that you're struggling with. Also make sure that you're not getting bogged down or confused with any of the extra information that they put in.

With the verbal reasoning section, make sure that you're not answering from your own knowledge. I found it far faster to read the statement and skim the text for the answer rather than reading the whole passage and then trying to answer the questions.

For decision making, ensure that you understand Venn diagrams and probability calculations. You can also guess and flag questions to come back to at the end so you don't waste time on questions you're struggling with.

With AR, you can use the acronym SCANS if you're really struggling to instantly see a connection. (Shape, colour, arrangement, number, size). Don't get bogged down in looking at one aspect if you are finding it difficult to see a pattern, move on and think about something else. Somewhere that a lot of people get stuck is with the ones that look like clocks, as they often don't have anything to do with the time that the hands are pointing to. Also look to see whether the pattern is rotating!

The key with the whole thing from my POV is knowing when to just move on. If you feel panicky or stuck on a question just guess an answer, flag, and move on. You can then go back to it if you have time, but if you don't then at least you've put something!

Thankyou so much, youve been such a great help!! i was just wondering quantitative reasoning, i've been doing the online practice questions as well as the book, and i am just about able to answer approx 8 questions, is that something i should be worried about? because i've heard that the QR questions in the exam are much easier than the practice ones

I'm not sure! From what I remember when I did the UKCAT they were far easier than I was expecting, but it might have changed. My average was around 830/840, and I got 890 in the QR section. This was the second time I did it and I had much more of a strategy going in than the first time!