In this blog post, I’ll answer some all-important questions about how to prepare, share my tips and advice on when to start preparing, how much to do, the resources I used and my test day experience.
Let’s begin…
What score did I get?
How long do I need to prepare?
Just for a bit of background, I achieved a 750 average and I did around 2 months preparation with the first month being light practice and mostly familiarisation and then ramped it up in the second month.
When should I take the UCAT?
UCAT testing dates range from the 1st of July to the 6th of October 2020. This is a rather broad range of dates that you can choose from and many opt for later dates as intuitively this means more time to prepare but….
One of my biggest top tips is to take the UCAT earlier rather than later. I did mine in the first week of August and found this worked well. After year 12 end of year exams in May, I had the May half term to relax and switch off completely. Then, in June I began with my UCAT preparation. I started from around 30 minutes a day in the first couple of weeks. Slowly increasing as I went along.
You’ll thank yourself because you’ll have had a somewhat relaxing summer holiday before you tackle the busy and somewhat stressful first term of year 13 – especially if you’re thinking of taking the BMAT too!
On Medify they have a little calendar so you can track when you’ve practised and how many questions you’ve done- try and be consistent, do a little every day, some days you’ll be able to spend 2-3 hours on UCAT practice, other days only half an hour, and that’s okay. The UCAT is all about consistent practise and familiarising yourself with the format.
What resources did I use?
Online resources:
- As mentioned, I used Medify, you’ve probably heard of it before but it most certainly is the best UCAT resource out there. It has massive question banks for each section as well as plenty of timed mock exams. As the user interface is the same as the actual thing it’s a great way to mimic the test day conditions, along with building up the stamina to get through a 2-hour paper.
2. The official UCAT practice tests: I left the official UCAT practice exams until the very end of my preparation as these are likely to be the most realistic, but I and many of my friends found that they were much harder than the Medify questions (especially quantitative reasoning), so if you’ve experienced the same thing don’t stress! Do them but don’t be too put off!
Books:
ISC 1250 UCAT question book- This was yet another resource for practice questions that I would recommend when starting out (definitely isn’t a must as Medify has an abundance of practice questions)
Courses:
The Medic Portal UCAT course: The resource booklet with the top tips is a useful summary and the interactive elements of the course can be a good way of introducing yourself to the UCAT style. These courses are not a requirement but can give you a bit of motivation and clarity about how to go about preparing. You can find most of the tips and information online and achieve a great score simply through familiarisation and practice.
My test day experience
Wednesday 7th of August 2019 at 9:30, a pivotal point on my medical school application… Even though it felt pretty daunting at the time and I felt as if I should just postpone it, I did it and it was okay. I arrived with around 30 minutes to spare at the testing centre. As I walked in there was a front test where they checked my identity (Don’t forget your identity documents!) and then gave me a key for the lockers to put in my phone/ bag etc. Then I simply took a seat in the tiny waiting area and waited to be called into one of the testing rooms. I started mine a little earlier than expected, I was led by one of the staff to one of the booths and shortly after pressed start and began the two-hour exam….
One pointer, I’m not sure whether this is just my centre, but just before the DM and QR sections I removed the lids of the pens – to save myself the time, but when I came to use them they had completely dried out! Stressful, I know, I had to wait until the staff noticed my hand was up, and then ask for another pen. Don’t do the same and save yourself the time. Other than that, the two hours whizzed past and before I knew it I was walking out the room and handed a slip of paper from the front desk with my score.
Pretty simple- all you need to remember is your identity documents and your well-rested brain than is ready to do some mental gymnastics!
Quickfire top tips for each section:
Verbal reasoning
- Timing is most important here- get good at quickly skimming the text- don’t read it all
- Read the question first then go to the passage
- Even with the practice I did I ran out of time to read the passage and ended up guessing the last few!- so make sure you focus on timing
- Two formats- true, false, can’t tell, or the multiple-choice comprehension style, the comprehension style tends to be harder
- A common trick is the dispersion of keywords- read the sentence before and after to see whether there is any mitigation or contradiction
- Don’t use outside knowledge
- Read all options carefully- there may be nuances e.g always, most, least etc.
Decision making
- Use pen and whiteboard to help with more visual questions- draw diagrams
- Mostly probability, statistics- so lots of graphs/ tables/ charts, Venn diagrams- familiarise yourself with the question types
- Some logic questions- syllogisms, don’t let the wording confuse you, don’t get caught out
Quantitative reasoning
The maths itself is not very hard, the skill is gathering the relevant bits of info and mastering using the calculator efficiently
- Use the key board short cuts to speed things up
- Alt + p = previous question.
- Alt + n = next question.
- Alt + f = flag current question.
- Ctrl + C = to make the calculator appear.
- Backspace for On/C = to go back and delete a number you have inputted in the calculator.
- Know your unit conversions and order of magnitudes e.g kilo, milli etc.
- Pay close attention to units
- Lots of practice again at extracting relevant info, often about buying houses, recipes, buying tickets, doing percentage change calculations- get comfortable with these basic skills
Abstract reasoning
This was the section that I found most difficult when preparing but ended up doing the best in on the day
- I kept a book where I wrote down some of the patterns I got wrong especially the more obscure ones that I failed to recognise e.g black shape above white, add number of sides of overlapping shapes, no arrows left/ right
- Look out for the type of shape, intersections, touching sides, number(e.g odd, even), position, direction- mnemonics can help with this
- Do lots and lots of practice- the more patterns you come across the more likely similar ones will come up in the real thing- you’ll get better at recognising them
- Use the flag function if you’re stuck- guess and move on
Situational judgement
This can be very tricky at times as it is difficult to discern between appropriate but not ideal and very appropriate…
- I think that as you come across many example questions you will begin to notice common themes underlying each one e.g cheating, responding to malpractice, an upset peer, confidentiality
- A great way to build up an understanding of what the appropriate course of action is to read the GMC Good Medical Practice booklet- I would HIGHLY recommend this, its quite short but you will see overlaps with the questions asked. It can be found here, along with other useful guidance (good reading pre-interview too): https://www.gmc-uk.org/ethical-guidance/ethical-guidance-for-doctors/good-medical-practice/duties-of-a-doctor
- Aim for Band 1 or 2
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope that it has helped you in some way and guided you to achieve your best score. UCAT preparation can seem difficult but a little practice often goes a long way. Keep at it and good luck!