ok so I'll share some things which helped me with UCAT prep: the UCAT is very much a sprint rather than a marathon in my opinion so it’s totally normal to feel stressed out! I would say first of all, last year there were so many whatsapp group chats full of other applicants doing the UCAT the same time as me. I found them really helpful to get access to loads of resources and tips as well as providing a sense of camaraderie and support through the process. So definitely check those out, I found links to them through tiktok and then through further links through the whatsapp groups themselvesRegarding resources, I used a few free UCAT ebooks I found online as well as the Master the UCAT book you can get on amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-UCAT-University-Clinical-Aptitude-ebook/dp/B0BK4XZPZ2. These were helpful for getting myself familiar with the exam and what sort of techniques I would need to be practicing and using. I also used Medify for two months and Medentry as well for the last month and so would SO recommend using both resources because I felt together they gave a good representation of the exam overall and good preparation for whatever would be thrown at me. Some tiktokers post discount codes for medentry so watch out for them. I also went on tiktok frequently throughout. My fyp was FULL of ucat tips from med students and other applicants which i found pretty useful so I would defo recommend to stay on tiktok throughout the process. I also watched a lot of youtube videos eg emileddy, kharma medic going through strategies for the sections and walkthroughs to see how high scorers actually did UCAT mocks.For the different sections, I would try out the techniques I’d learnt from the resources above and whistle down which techniques worked best for me and yielded the greatest scores. My hugest tip would be to GRIND questions to really make those techniques, keyboard shortcuts, ability to spot patterns etc habits as this will really help with time management and increasing your scores.For QR which I especially struggled with, I found this technique helped improve my score: first of all doing questions untimed aiming to get over 80% accuracy most of the time to really practice doing the math quickly and using calculator as minimally as possible; then moving on to banging out loads of mini mocks and timed questions to work on building up accuracy in tight timing. Then keep practising the qs that take up most time, practicing techniques to make you get to the correct answer quicker eg estimation and GRINDING mini mocks. Estimating to eliminate answers and making educated guesses will be your best friend in QR, also guessing, skipping and flagging qs which seem to take long to secure all the quicker qs first. Sometimes you have to skip qs you know you could do if you had time because in the UCAT you don’t have that time and doing 5 quicker easier qs yields better scores than doing the 1. I liked to keep a mindset of I’m only going to spend time on a question if i’m pretty certain I can get it correct, this helped me stop wasting time of questions just to get them wrong.Regarding all of the sections, I kept a huge document with reflections on how I felt the sections went including all the mistakes I made and why I made them to help guide my preparation to target what I’m weaker at. This helped me to organise my prep so everyday was contributing to helping improve my score and can help you to feel less stressed. Reading back on your previous reflections and scores as you get deeper into prep is also really motivating because you can see how far you've come which I found was a massive confidence boostEveryday I would try to do at least 100 questions but ideally the more timed qs, you do the better as you need to get as much practice as you can doing timed qs and developing the techniques as habits.Don't neglect SJT because 3000 b4 is way worse than 2500 b1 as ideally you want band 1 or band 2. Medify were pretty good for learning what you need to know for SJT. I also made a log of the answers for SJT scenarios I got wrong on a document which I read through about 3 times to familiarise myself with what the correct responses are. I made a log of all the AR patterns I missed as well and read over those because after you do a LOAD of AR questions, you start to notice triggers for potential patterns pretty quick eg if there are letters in the boxes, the pattern is usually to do with things like Number of enclosed areas, Number of letters, Curved / straight letters, Position of letters, Intersections between letters. You become quicker at spotting the patterns because you have a better idea of where to start and AR often becomes people's best section.Finally, my biggest tip overall for all the sections would be make sure you are keeping track of ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING: the mocks you do and scores, all the qs you get wrong and why you got them wrong so you can watch out for them next time and learn from your mistakes, strategies that you've tried and work for you. This is so you have clear direction and know exactly what your weaker areas are to make sure everyday of UCAT prep is boosting your score and not just going over the sections you are already good at.
And finally most importantly, celebrate whatever score you get because you worked pretty damn hard in your summer holiday and that deserves a reward
hope this helps!!