Kaplan for UKCAT and BMAT

has anyone been on the Kaplan courses? A course to teach you the UKCAT and BMAT stuff and get practise etc... has anyone been on the course if so how was it?
its £209 for 2 days is it worth it?

Reply 1

Isometrix

11

i went on the bmat course. i didn't do that great on it, and i don't think the course helped me either. it's way overpriced, and i think your best method of preparing for the ukcat or bmat are by using the official online resources.

Reply 2

Democracy

21

You can't learn or revise the UKCAT. The Kaplan course is a scam, don't fall for it!

Reply 3

ashefbjhsdab

It looks like a bit of a scam. The most you can do towards the BMAT is get the official book and do a practise paper or two. (there is one on the BMAT website)

I can't really speak for the UKCAT, but from what I've heard/read about it, it seems mainly based on natural ability and not really something you can prepare for.

Reply 4

ali242

OP

12

thanks for the input guys
anyone else know anything about it?
at the moment i probably wont go....any other views?

Reply 5

tr0n

I agree with the ukcat comments, the only section (there are 4) you can prepare for ist the first one, verbal reasoning, there is a book out there that teaches you to read quicker, that could help, that section was my downfall, still managed 62x, you definitely cant prepare abstract reasoning! It is scary!!!
that is my opinion, I thought it would be the worst section for me but it was the best and I still dont know why and I am a bit scared coz by the look of the things I might have to do it again! you can prepare for bmat, but not in 2 days!!!
hope that is of any help!

OP

thanks

£209!

The UKCAT was designed so that you couldn't be coached for it (so pampered students wouldn't have an advantage) rendering these courses largely pointless.

Reply 8

*Princess*

ali242

thanks for the input guys
anyone else know anything about it?
at the moment i probably wont go....any other views?

Don't waste your money
I went on the BMAT course- against what everyone on TSR told me to do
It was a complete waste of £300 or whatever the price was
The person teaching us was a third year medic at King's College, London
And she ended up leaving an hour early because apparently her dad was ill and she had to get an early train back home
Make of that what you will
She also lied saying that she would check through practice essays for us after the course was over. I emailed her about 4 diff essays and she never replied! What a scam!
You would be best off buying the official book and practising from there. That's all we did for the 2 day course- just practice questions
For the essay get a teacher at school to look over it

Best of luck x

Reply 9

Phalanges

18

Bet she got paid a fair bit for that though. :holmes:

Reply 10

Isometrix

11

*Princess*

Don't waste your money
I went on the BMAT course- against what everyone on TSR told me to do
It was a complete waste of £300 or whatever the price was
The person teaching us was a third year medic at King's College, London
And she ended up leaving an hour early because apparently her dad was ill and she had to get an early train back home
Make of that what you will
She also lied saying that she would check through practice essays for us after the course was over. I emailed her about 4 diff essays and she never replied! What a scam!
You would be best off buying the official book and practising from there. That's all we did for the 2 day course- just practice questions
For the essay get a teacher at school to look over it

Best of luck x

lol was this the one at Manchester? i think i was there too.

Reply 11

jules9000

Its not worth it for £200, but I think that you can improve your score alot in the UKCAT and BMAT if you put a fair bit of practice in, not precisely revision, but familiarization with the questions. Just doing loads of questions gets you prepared for whats its going to be like, in my case I did hundreds of abstract reasoning questions (because I was terrible at them) and I improved greatly in that section.

Reply 12

*Princess*

Isometrix

lol was this the one at Manchester? i think i was there too.

Yes it was lol x

Reply 13

daman2

4

i went to the ukcat one...the material and some tips provided were good....other than that it wasnt very useful

Reply 14

splat5

I went to the UKCAT one and the BMAT one. What a ******* scam. They give you some ******** 4 step method for tackling any problem the UKCAT/BMAT exam gives you. I remember thinking "I'm such a putz for going to this thing." like 20mins into the UKCAT one. Ironically though, I did ok in the UKCAT. The only reason I went to the BMAT one afterwards was cos I was really nervous about the BMAT exam. Turns out I still failed it.

The only good things I can think of are that, they give you a lot of practise material - but you can always find loads online. And also, the people you meet there. Not the staff (who consist of drop-outs), the other students - you get to meet new people and it's all fun and games during the breaks. But worth 200 or whatever quid? **** off. I'd rather go to a club to meet new people. Now some 5-time-medic-drop-out who taught us, has run off with my parents 200 quid and gone off to ruin some other aspiring medics' futures. So basically, there are no good things about the course.

I did **** in my BMAT and only average in my UKCAT - if I have to take a gap year cos of it, I'm going back to Kaplan to teach. I'm ******* getting my parents their money back...

Reply 15

xDeleriusx

2

i went on it and i think it is excellant! i will let u know how i do in my ukcat! it teaches u HOW to approach different types of questions using multiple techniques.. u don't need to be clever to do the UKCAT its all about TIME! if you know the methods on how to approach the different sections with the techniques they teach u it works out in your favour. I don't care what other people say you guys should all do it its wicked for UKCAT trust me!!! We had to do the Exam at the beginning and the then again at the end and i could see straight away how much i improved!!! =)

Reply 16

sunny_D

5

xDeleriusx

i went on it and i think it is excellant! i will let u know how i do in my ukcat! it teaches u HOW to approach different types of questions using multiple techniques.. u don't need to be clever to do the UKCAT its all about TIME! if you know the methods on how to approach the different sections with the techniques they teach u it works out in your favour. I don't care what other people say you guys should all do it its wicked for UKCAT trust me!!! We had to do the Exam at the beginning and the then again at the end and i could see straight away how much i improved!!! =)

have u taken the ukcat yet?if so what did you get?

Reply 17

rmd141

I found the same, and generally for BMAT, I used the following:

Books:

'Preparing for the BMAT: The Official Guide to the Biomedical Admissions Test' (Concise but the most relevant book out there)

'Get into Medical School. 400 BMAT Practice Questions' (Useful supplementary book for additional practice)

Free resources

Past papers - http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/for-test-takers/bmat/preparing-for-bmat/

Past papers (same thing, slightly easier to navigate) - http://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/free-bmat-past-papers.html

Practice Questions (Section 1 and Section 3) - http://www.mjcourses.com/BMAT-Questions

Practice Questions Section 1 (Section 2 also on website) - http://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/bmat-practice-questions---section-1.html

Courses:

BlackStone Tutors (Good balance between experience and value) - http://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/bmat-preparation-courses.html

Kaplan (More expensive but also good) - http://www.kaptest.co.uk/courses/uk-university/bmat/live/bmat-classroom

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 18

charjb

2

Original post by rd1709

To be honest, it is probably worth considering Blackstone Tutors.....not as expensive and good resources (for BMAT anyway....haven't done their UKCAT Course)

BEWARE EVERYONE this guy is just a scammer, check out his 15 'posts' All advertising Blackstones tutor groups whilst posing as a student of the course.

Reply 19

grekoiran

9

Original post by rmd141

I found the same, and generally for BMAT, I used the following:

Books:

'Preparing for the BMAT: The Official Guide to the Biomedical Admissions Test' (Concise but the most relevant book out there)

'Get into Medical School. 400 BMAT Practice Questions' (Useful supplementary book for additional practice)

Free resources

Past papers - http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/for-test-takers/bmat/preparing-for-bmat/

Past papers (same thing, slightly easier to navigate) - http://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/free-bmat-past-papers.html

Practice Questions (Section 1 and Section 3) - http://www.mjcourses.com/BMAT-Questions

Practice Questions Section 1 (Section 2 also on website) - http://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/bmat-practice-questions---section-1.html

Courses:

BlackStone Tutors (Good balance between experience and value) - http://www.blackstonetutors.co.uk/bmat-preparation-courses.html

Kaplan (More expensive but also good) - http://www.kaptest.co.uk/courses/uk-university/bmat/live/bmat-classroom

Thanks for this, was very useful.

Kaplan for UKCAT and BMAT

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