MEGATHREAD - The Big Medicine UKCAT 2013 Entry Thread

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Reply 60

AkDo

Original post by Meltingice

is the course really useful? :s-smilie:

It is possible to work at it yourself, many have done well by doing just that :smile:

personally i found it useful but it was a lot cheaper when I went. Idk whether I would pay for it now... might be worth one person going and everyone splitting but you got to trust that friend completely.

Reply 61

username929724

Original post by tdx

thanks

seems obvious now, but tbh I didn't realise companies like that existed, aha x

No probz... I'd though the same thing... + the name "Kaplan" doesn't really give you a clue so :P x

Reply 62

greg.irvine

I've been doing practice online tests which have been really helpful, what is a course? Does someone who has done both online tests and the course have advice to give on what is better , cheaper? It sounds expensive ... and what does it offer above the online courses apart from forcing you to sit there and do it?

Reply 63

Mangodepo11

Hey, My dad is going away on holiday in a week for a while. So i have to book my ukcat in the next 7 days.

Firstly im aiming for 700+, How early whould I need to start revising to achive this target and to what intensity?

Also what materials should i use cause i dont have a clue were to start and skills i actually have to practice?

Reply 64

This Honest

Go to the official website for the ukcat or look it up in the medicine wiki.

Firstly, focus on your AS levels instead of worrying about the UKCAT

Reply 65

Steerforth

Original post by Richyp22

This Honest is right. Focus on your exams as they are much more important.

However, I studied for about an average of an hour a day for around 4 weeks prior to the test and I got 700 on the dot. Those 28 hours boosted my confidence and I feel really helped me get a good score.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 66

twelve

Original post by Steerforth

This Honest is right. Focus on your exams as they are much more important.

However, I studied for about an average of an hour a day for around 4 weeks prior to the test and I got 700 on the dot. Those 40 hours boosted my confidence and I feel really helped me get a good score.

Sorry, but where di 40 hours come from? An hour a day AVERAGE for 4 weeks makes 28 hours... somehow you slipped another 12 hours in there :P

OP, google it, or search this forum. But as for my personal experience, last year I did about 2 hours revision (yes, in total... :frown:

) and got 665. Second time round, I reckon I did about 15-20 hours in total and got 752.5 average. Everyone will need and want to do different amounts of work - but bear in mind that more revision doesn't necessarily make for a better score. All you can do is prepare the style of questions, whether that takes you 3 hours or 300 is irrelevant. You can't learn to be good at the UKCAT basically, you can just get yourself quicker and more used to the questions themselves and boost your confidence.

Reply 67

Steerforth

Original post by twelve

You are correct, not sure what kind of maths I did there! It has been amended.

And to the OP - just do as much as you feel comfortable with. Twelve is right, there is no set time you have to revise for.

Reply 68

sarahlovesfun

I know some of you might think this a bit early, but I was wondering when everyone is thinking of doing their UKCAT? My sister told me to register now for end of August so I'd have as much time as possible to practice - when are you all going to do your ukcat do you think?

Reply 69

friendlyonejim

I am taking the UKCAT and BMAT this year hopefully, and Im just starting to think about it. Not sure when Im going to register for the UKCAT though, got enough on my plate at the minute tbh!

Reply 70

friendlyonejim

Original post by AkDo

The earlier the better. Having been through the process myself trust me. The course is NOT like a revision course (where it would then be beneficial to do just before) but shows you how to answer the questions systematically, i.e. it gives you a skillset which you need to practice. Give yourself enough time to practice these techniques by booking as early as you can and don't leave your UKCAT too late. Best to know where you stand with it early so you can research which universities are best to apply to with the score you get.

could you tell me if the course was much better than just practicing from a book? kaplans a bit expensive

Reply 71

AkDo

Original post by friendlyonejim

could you tell me if the course was much better than just practicing from a book? kaplans a bit expensive

Kaplan teaches you how to approach questions. For example with the shapes it shows you a systematic way of going through each possible pattern. For code breaking it shows you how to do the q quickly and efficiently. It stresses the importance of skipping questions especially in the maths section. Those things will increase your score only if you didn't do them before. If you think you don't need it then you possibly don't. It is steep but I recommend it because it helps the people who otherwise wouldn't do well. But if you're gifted at this sort of thing, don't do it - spend the money on something else.

Reply 72

HCubed

I'm doing a 2 day course mid July and the test mid August - so I've allowed masses of time to practise.

Reply 73

lisa101

I am finding it extremely hard to score well on the verbal reasoning section. I just cannot get the answers right! This is my 3rd time sitting the ukcat so there is a lot of pressure to get a sky high score, and nope, even after doing the ukcat for 3 years I still haven't grasped verbal reasoning! That section is a killer!

Reply 74

confused dot com

As others had said, there does seem to be some luck (i.e. guessing correctly or getting slightly simpler questions on the day), but this doesn't mean that generally, practice helps you get a higher score. The 600 UKCAT book was excellent (I took it everywhere and would do a couple questions on the train or so at first to ease into it) as were a lot of the free resources on TSR, which are particularly useful as you get used to entering answers online whilst doing working out on paper (which was surprisingly time consuming at first :tongue:

). I think that most of the tips have been covered above so all I'll add is don't get too disheartened at how hard the questions are initially as I was completely rubbish at first, but with practise I managed to get a pretty good score. Good luck to all of you :h:

Reply 75

SuperFantasticB

I was just wondering what UKCAT books/practice materials would be useful to get in order to practice the different types of questions.

I already have the 600Q ISC book and have booked my UKCAT for mid July so thought I'd order the stuff sooner rather than later.

Reply 76

Democracy

I found Succeeding in the UKCAT by Green et al to be quite useful.

Reply 77

SuperFantasticB

Thanks, I'll probably order that book as well after the exams

Reply 78

friendlyonejim

Original post by confused dot com

Cheers gonna need it!

Reply 79

SuperFantasticB

Does anyone know how you can get the Kaplan course materials without having to go on the course (I could probably afford the materials but the course is an ungodly amount of money)