The Student Room Group

what to differently when revising ukcat next year

I applied to dentistry this year and I got a very bad ukcat of 590 which is way below average. so I want to take a gap year and apply again next year but can anyone help me on what I should do differently when revising ukcat next year. As I have the grades its just the ukcat which brings me down.
when revising I started 2 months before my exam and did mainly medify practice. I used the official ukcat book a bit but other medical and dental students told me to use medify mainly as its similar to the real exam. I got 700 in QR but low 500's in everything else.
should I take a ukcat course or get tutoring for it next year
as people who did less practice and started later still got higher than me
I didn't use the ukcat book much so should I just use the book as my main revision source next year.
other dental students say you only need a mongh or 2 weeks so what should I do in that time to get enough practice.
Any help would be appreciated thanks
May I ask where you applied and if you have received any offers/rejections? I'm in the same boat, 530 due to personal issues the day of examination unfortunately. I still believe the UKCAT is mainly focused on Medicine applicants and some of the questions on the exam were rather odd for my liking. I'd rather not do the UKCAT again as it wasn't a pleasant experience and if I were to end up with a low score again next year I'd be devastated.
I applied to Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff and kcl enhanced course
I got an interview for Plymouth
a rejection from Cardiff
Bristol put me on hold
and kcl hasn't replied
Reply 3
Original post by Aj53
I applied to Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff and kcl enhanced course
I got an interview for Plymouth
a rejection from Cardiff
Bristol put me on hold
and kcl hasn't replied

Aj53, im in a similar postion
I got an interview from plymouth
I got put on hold by bristol uni
No reply for the kcl enhanced programme
No reply from Birmingham uni
Reply 4
im not sure what to suggest as you did use medify which i found to be the best resource!
however, here is what i did:

I started 6 weeks early
for the first week, i read and worked through several UKCAT books and watched youtube videos for technique
for the second and third week, i worked through kaplan online course (WASTE OF MONEY)
after that, i did medify online bank (best money i ever spent)

i got 757.5 average band 2
vr: 670
dm: 750
qr: 860
ar: 750

i think u may need to find some better stratagies for each section!
good luck
hmm what strategies did you use and if you made any notes or anything like that could you pm it to me pls
Reply 6
Original post by Aj53
hmm what strategies did you use and if you made any notes or anything like that could you pm it to me pls


i dont have my notes anymore... threw them away
tbh, u need to watch youtube vids to find the stratagies that work for u
(edited 5 years ago)
ahhh ok thanks for the help around how much practice did you do a day in those 6 weeks
because I think I work better when I'm copying someone successful so that I don't become lazy 😅
Reply 8
Original post by Aj53
ahhh ok thanks for the help around how much practice did you do a day in those 6 weeks
because I think I work better when I'm copying someone successful so that I don't become lazy 😅


i did about 3 hours a day max until the last two weeks
the last two weeks i was doing anywhere for 6- 8 hours including breaks

overkill tbh ngl
i was just super worried and stressed so legit went into a ukcat cave so i could do as well as possible haha x
ohh ok and when you were doing questions how did you improve like I did a lot of AR questions but I didn't seem to be improving
Original post by Aj53
I applied to dentistry this year and I got a very bad ukcat of 590 which is way below average. so I want to take a gap year and apply again next year but can anyone help me on what I should do differently when revising ukcat next year. As I have the grades its just the ukcat which brings me down.
when revising I started 2 months before my exam and did mainly medify practice. I used the official ukcat book a bit but other medical and dental students told me to use medify mainly as its similar to the real exam. I got 700 in QR but low 500's in everything else.
should I take a ukcat course or get tutoring for it next year
as people who did less practice and started later still got higher than me
I didn't use the ukcat book much so should I just use the book as my main revision source next year.
other dental students say you only need a mongh or 2 weeks so what should I do in that time to get enough practice.
Any help would be appreciated thanks



When applying apply to your strengths(make sure the uni's aren't UKCAT heavy). I don't know if you did that this year, but tip for next year
I personally liked the UKCAT book-it was much harder than the real thing, but it made the real thing seem easier which was nice.
You've just got to keep on practicing-try and identify where you are going wrong with the questions and why they are wrong and practice them
Reply 11
Original post by Aj53
ohh ok and when you were doing questions how did you improve like I did a lot of AR questions but I didn't seem to be improving


i found ar the hardest
at first i practised using the stars stratagy
but in the end.. cos i had done so many questions
i ended up baisically recognising what the patterns were in the real ukcat
so i didnt really need to work them out

for me, it was just practise
in those 3 hrs how did you split the time for each section because I think when revising I had a mindset of improving one section and then move on but I think I should of improved all of the sections simultaneously
Reply 13
Original post by mnnbv
im not sure what to suggest as you did use medify which i found to be the best resource!
however, here is what i did:

I started 6 weeks early
for the first week, i read and worked through several UKCAT books and watched youtube videos for technique
for the second and third week, i worked through kaplan online course (WASTE OF MONEY)
after that, i did medify online bank (best money i ever spent)

i got 757.5 average band 2
vr: 670
dm: 750
qr: 860
ar: 750

i think u may need to find some better stratagies for each section!
good luck


do you have any links or places / resources to find the best places to learn technique? Does medify have technique learning tools or is it just practice Q's?
Reply 14
Original post by hhitch_
do you have any links or places / resources to find the best places to learn technique? Does medify have technique learning tools or is it just practice Q's?


just practise questions from medify
and look at the numerous tutorials on youtube

Quick Reply

Latest