When to prepare for UKAT

i’m currently in y12 wanting to do dentistry and was wondering when to start preparing for the UKAT. i have a feeling i’ll find it really hard so i’m anxious on when to start.

UCAT*

There’s no fixed time frame for when people should start practicing the UCAT.
Most people start 4-6 weeks before their exam, some even start 2 months prior but I personally think that’s excessive and unnecessary. I started 2 weeks before my exam.

i’m currently in y12 wanting to do dentistry and was wondering when to start preparing for the UKAT. i have a feeling i’ll find it really hard so i’m anxious on when to start.

You can give yourself enough breathing space to do very well if you go for the 4-6 week window imo. If you want to start earlier, I advise you get the UCAT out of the way by booking your test earlier in the process next year. I went for just under 6 weeks and got 2880 but my prep was excessive and almost led me to burn-out.

how did you find it, did it get easier with practise

Can’t lie I’m a bit of a UCAT pro,
Got 760 band 2 in 2019
Got 805 band 1 in 2020

I say do around 7 weeks of revision, try to arrange a date in august and avoid doing it in September. I say start revising in July and aim to do the exam end of August.

This is my timetable use it if you’d like

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12S9-Kx7W9ZywLxwo6SbYsgf0TWe8NsUmSXiK8ZRSgLk/edit

Can I ask why you’d advise avoiding September?

I just think it’s best to get it done prior to school starting, medicine/dentistry has so many hoops to jump through it’s best to jump through each hoop without overlap i.e get your UCAT done before writing your PS and doing UCAS

is it a very hard test or just something that requires practise to do well

Can’t lie I’m a bit of a UCAT pro,
Got 760 band 2 in 2019
Got 805 band 1 in 2020

I say do around 7 weeks of revision, try to arrange a date in august and avoid doing it in September. I say start revising in July and aim to do the exam end of August.

This is my timetable use it if you’d like

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12S9-Kx7W9ZywLxwo6SbYsgf0TWe8NsUmSXiK8ZRSgLk/edit

@Uzair63 has some great advice for you in terms of timing (a score of 3040 on his first attempt is easily top 5 percent).
The difficulty of the UCAT varies a bit with how 'natural' a certain section comes to someone but I highly advise you to not be anxious at this point in time - I say this from experience because I was worried about how people said this test was insanely hard and if you fail it, your out of hope for Medicine/Dentistry at most unis.

However, at this point, the UCAT should not be on your priority list and I can (almost) guarantee you that with sufficient practice that is aimed at your weak areas and proper time management, you will achieve a score that gets you at the very least past the cut-offs, much more likely in the top 20 percent.