2 weeks till UCAT- Will I make it?

I have 2 weeks (12 days really) until UCAT and have only familiarised myself with the exam. I do not feel prepared at all and I am aiming for a score above 2770.

I have just done my first medify mock and achieved 2240 (560 average). In this mock, i achieved:

QR: 470
DM: 600-700
VR: 650
AR: 470
(I didn't do SJT as I am not familiar with this yet and am at a band 4)

How can I improve my score to my target in just 12 days? Spam me with tips please. I am so desparate.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 1

SkiWoTB

2 weeks is probably enough for you to improve, but it's not a lot of time. I personally prepared for 2 weeks during the summer (so no school to worry about and I can spend all my time on the UCAT) and got a pretty good score (last year). For VR I think it may be better to read the questions first so you know what you need to look out for in the text, as the text can be very long. Your DM score is pretty decent, you can probably improve that just by practice. For QR, you really have to practice and be familiar with the hotkeys for the calculator, the seconds you save are very important for such a time-sensitive section. There are many Youtube videos that can help you with all of these sections but don't get too carried away. There are some AR videos that have a list of all the possible patterns, for example how many sides, orientation etc. Medify has some information with each section on their website which may help, but I didn't use them as they are very detailed and would take me too much time. You should definitely start on the SJT, I recommend reading the GMC's good medical practice, this can really help you with the SJT.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 2

username5319484

Focus on your weakest sections which are AR, QR and SJT. A band 4 SJT will reduce your choices by a lot so try to get it up to at least band 2. @SkiWoTB has some excellent UCAT advice for each section he besically said all I wanted to say.

Reply 3

bitterlemons

Original post by hungrysalamander

Thank you for your reply- I do know band 4 is not ideal and I aiming for band 1- any advice for where i can get notes on SJT?

Is there a link to where @SkiWoTB gives UCAT advice? Or should i private dm them?

Also if you've done UCAT, what were your individual scores if you don't mind sharing?

Reply 4

username5319484

Original post by bitterlemons

Thank you for your reply- I do know band 4 is not ideal and I aiming for band 1- any advice for where i can get notes on SJT?

Just do practice questions. If you're using medify then they have explanations for each answer so check those when you pick an incorrect answer and you should get the hang of it. I would tell you to read up on medical ethics and GME guidance but you don't have enough time for that. There are also some tutorials on youtube to guide you through the SJT section.

Original post by bitterlemons

Is there a link to where @SkiWoTB gives UCAT advice? Or should i private dm them?

His comment is in this thread.

Original post by bitterlemons

Also if you've done UCAT, what were your individual scores if you don't mind sharing?

I sat the UCAT last year. I don't remember my individual score but the total was 2840 band 2.

Reply 5

_onyourleft

I definitely think you can prepare in that time, any practice is good practice and will reflect in your score. Plus, you probably won’t have time to burn out in 12 days, which was the biggest challenge I faced leading up to my exam. Some of my points have already been covered, but might as well give you my experience, if not simply to reiterate the advice of other posters.

In regards to SJT, if I were to do one thing it would be to read and become familiar with GMC guidelines, and the separate document ‘Advice for medical students’ published by the GMC. I found the latter by far the most useful, as many of the questions on the exam place you in the position of a student, where you have different responsibilities to a doctor, so this advice really helped me to understand what a student would do in each scenario. I made notes on each section of these, highlighting key words which I read back through before the exam. Many people do find the medify videos useful, however I personally found them a bit waffle-y and felt like they sort of just covered the same points as in the GMC guidelines. Although this is only my personal experience, doing these two things took me from a band three literally days before the exam, to band 1 on actual thing. I would also say to just try and do as many questions as possible, as there’s only so many scenarios they can think up - at a certain point they just start to change the names but keep the responses the same! 😂

I also improved my QR massively by using the numerical keypad and calc functions. In mocks before I used the keypad, I would run out of time, end up guessing at least 7/8 questions and averaged approx 500. However once I got the hang of the keypad and M+ / M- / MRC, I sped up significantly and ended up scoring 800 on the actual exam as I could flag difficult questions and actually had time to go back to them. I’d also say that if you don’t see a way into a question within about 10 seconds, just skip it; you’re much better skipping it and answering more questions correctly than having to guess the easy ones because you spent too long on a hard one. ‘Kharma medic’ on YouTube has a brilliant video on the UCAT calculator, which basically saved my life when I was preparing for the exam. You might already be using it, but even practicing to speed up your typing can make a massive difference.

For VR, practice ‘actively’ reading passages. It sounds silly, but I think it’s so easy to scan a passage without actually taking it in at all. After scanning a paragraph, I would mentally ‘label’ it - assigning a key word to sum up the section; this allowed me to consolidate my understanding of each separate paragraph, as well as rapidly refer back to a certain section in later questions.

Good luck, you’ve got this!

Reply 6

Leaf.

Original post by bitterlemons

For DM and VR your actually doing really good - I wish for those I get that kinda score!

Reply 7

bitterlemons

Original post by Leaf.

For DM and VR your actually doing really good - I wish for those I get that kinda score!

really? i mean my QR lowers my average by a ton and i've only got 10 days left :frown:

Reply 8

Leaf.

Original post by bitterlemons

really? i mean my QR lowers my average by a ton and i've only got 10 days left :frown:

Sorry, I meant your other sections are good though. I'm really bad at QR and DM :frown:

- but it's just because when I come across a question that takes abit of thinking time, I start to sweat and panic like crazy, and become uncomfortable for the rest of the exam :frown:

Reply 9

username5319484

Original post by bitterlemons

really? i mean my QR lowers my average by a ton and i've only got 10 days left :frown:

For QR learn the calculator shortcuts and flag, guess and skip any questions which requires a lot of working out. Practice with a number pad on your keyboard if you have one. Use your whiteboard to note down anything as well.

Original post by Leaf.

Sorry, I meant your other sections are good though. I'm really bad at QR and DM :frown:

- but it's just because when I come across a question that takes abit of thinking time, I start to sweat and panic like crazy, and become uncomfortable for the rest of the exam :frown:

For DM read everything carefully and don't infer/assume any information. The whiteboard could also be useful to note down your thought process.