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BMAT - is it as hard as people say?

meema

the title speaks for itself

Reply 1

WokSz

17

Have you seen any of the past exams? Bloody hell some questions were impossible!

Reply 2

meema

OP

no... are there any on the BMAT website

in what way impossible?

Reply 3

*stars and stripes*

6

I don't think this is the place for BMAT discussion- there's a lot of it in the Medicine sub forum :smile:

However, don't let people scare you- it's hard, but it's meant to be! There are sample papers on the BMAT website but there's a general consensus that these were easier than the real thing...

Just concentrate on knowing the GCSE (Science and Maths) syllabi well, perhaps doing a little Critical Thinking to get you in the right frame of mind for Section 1 and for Section 3, perhaps practice writing some essays under test conditions (I also found it helpful to take note of medical/biological news stories because these gave me examples that I could bring into the essay).

It only becomes impossible if you panic! Work fast and calmly and it'll be fine :smile:

Plus, you've got until Oct to sort the BMAT out, so don't stress!

Reply 4

Speedbird2008

3

Post this here: http://thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=195

:smile:

Reply 5

_imperator_

It's not easy but its nowhere near as hard as people say, especially of you're still doing several sciences. I know a few people at my school had a book for BMAT and (i think) UKCAT and admissions info, which was quite useful apparantly, although i didnt use it myself.
The toughest part was the time constraint especially in section two so use the practise papers to try and build up speed.

Reply 6

ph9

10

yeah it is as hard as people say, definitely. not just for the content, the time limit for how many questions they give you is ridiculous

Reply 7

davidjones90

12

Its very very hard! So hard that I'd suggest people spend their 3 month holiday after their GCSE's to practice for it, doing problem solving and going thru gcse science and Essay writing skills, then doing it in yr12, you'll see how hard it really is and have proper practice then you can build up on it do it it for real in yr13.

Practice=Perfection which is what BMAT needs and doing the 'real' test under such constraints would show you whats it all about.

Doing very well in the BMAT really does gives you bonus points.

Reply 8

FFCrusader

12

thats true practice does help...but spending the whole holiday practicing is a tad excessive I think, but hey whatever works for you :smile:

to be honest the only practice i did were from the UKCAT and BMAT one, the BMAT one and from this site http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lapt/bmat/

i probably did well mainly due to doing sciences all through year 12 :p:

so if you're not doing say physics it would be good to brush up on it before hand. The essay one I have no idea how that happened, but the best thing would be to practice writing essays

Doing well in the BMAT does give you bonus points but remember thats not the only part in the application, theres the getting the grades and the interviews etc :s-smilie:

Reply 9

Wangers

16

davidjones90

Its very very hard! So hard that I'd suggest people spend their 3 month holiday after their GCSE's to practice for it, doing problem solving and going thru gcse science and Essay writing skills, then doing it in yr12, you'll see how hard it really is and have proper practice then you can build up on it do it it for real in yr13.

Practice=Perfection which is what BMAT needs and doing the 'real' test under such constraints would show you whats it all about.

Doing very well in the BMAT really does gives you bonus points.

I wouldn't go that far. I mean, an average med applicant should get around 5,5 ish. Having said that - the grade boundries mean that a quesiton can set you back as much as 0.4....

As for the essay - answer all the points and you get 9 - as long as your argument is logiclly sound.

Reply 10

davidjones90

12

Wangers

I wouldn't go that far. I mean, an average med applicant should get around 5,5 ish. Having said that - the grade boundries mean that a quesiton can set you back as much as 0.4....

As for the essay - answer all the points and you get 9 - as long as your argument is logiclly sound.

Nah nah I'm not saying spend your WHOLE yr11 summer revising for it, go on holidays with your mates, get smashed because you worked really hard but when your back get the BMAT book and practice say 1 or 2 essays and look over the GCSE specification so you just get a feel of it then do it. Max work 10-20 hours which over 3/4 months is nothing and by doing this your in a much better position next year when you really are doing it for real.

The average mark is 4.4 for section 1 and 2 from the chart they give with the resit. My essay got 6 which is the average again and I answered everything in the points.

Reply 11

bright star

1

you did all that practice but you didn't get the results :s-smilie:

doesn't seem much like the way to suceed to me.

Reply 12

bummer16

I might be taking the UKCAT and BMAT this year. After seeing the UKCAT and looking at a range of graduate tests: I am happy. The UKCAT looks manageable. The BMAT will have average scores from some of the brightest young people in the country ( in the world more like!). Maybe you should focus more on the UKCAT unis?

Any advice for the UKCAT? How did you find yours?

Reply 13

davidjones90

12

bright star

you did all that practice but you didn't get the results :s-smilie:

doesn't seem much like the way to suceed to me.

Nah I didn't do that but its what I should have done and advise people to do. It's not necessary but it helps. I think its interesting to see the result trend from people who did indeed do it twice if they didn't get in first time round

Reply 14

aarondtaylor90

I got a load of past papers to practice before the exams, and they were pretty easy. I found that in most of them I could get in the 90s percentage wise, and a few 100s (obviously the essay is much harder to mark, so I asked some teachers) but when it came to the actual thing I was completely stuck. It was infinitely harder, and my friend ended up crying after it.

Word of advice - if you're a Scottish candidate doing A-Levels over one year in 6th year, you will need to read ahead in the course. I found that the Physics questions in the BMAT were often things I'd never seen, and then I ended up learning about them in Physics a few weeks later.

But yea, in short, the BMAT was much harder than the practice, but I think it was fair in its hardness.

Reply 15

Davev

aarondtaylor90

I got a load of past papers to practice before the exams, and they were pretty easy. I found that in most of them I could get in the 90s percentage wise, and a few 100s (obviously the essay is much harder to mark, so I asked some teachers) but when it came to the actual thing I was completely stuck. It was infinitely harder, and my friend ended up crying after it.

Word of advice - if you're a Scottish candidate doing A-Levels over one year in 6th year, you will need to read ahead in the course. I found that the Physics questions in the BMAT were often things I'd never seen, and then I ended up learning about them in Physics a few weeks later.

But yea, in short, the BMAT was much harder than the practice, but I think it was fair in its hardness.

Where did you get the past papers from?

Reply 16

Barça

13

Excuse my ignorance, but If you're going to apply via the graduate route, is it possible to do the BMAT, Ukat tests etc. several times i.e 1 every summer when you are doing premed course and then take the best one? Or do you only do it once you apply?

Reply 17

FFCrusader

12

Barca

Excuse my ignorance, but If you're going to apply via the graduate route, is it possible to do the BMAT, Ukat tests etc. several times i.e 1 every summer when you are doing premed course and then take the best one? Or do you only do it once you apply?

I believe you have to take the test on the year of applying and use that score, if you could use other years scores it would be better for me probably :p:

then I dont have to pay again if I'm applying next year...and know that I have a reasonable score too :s-smilie:

Reply 18

Barça

13

How much does it cost?

Reply 19

marshmallow_mayhem

Yes the BMAT was hard but it wasn't as bad as I expected. I got 6.3, 5.9 and 10.5, the last one being a bit of a shock so don't be put off if you come out wanting to faint but it's a bit early to be stressing about it. I'd start preparing towards the end of the summer before or september at the latest. Just get used to writing within a time and word limit, I don't think there's much else you can do.

Barca

How much does it cost?

I think it was 20/25 pounds(someone correct me if I'm wrong). My school paid for me though because I was the only one sitting it this year.

BMAT - is it as hard as people say?

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