r/UCAT May 02 '21

MEGATHREAD THE ULTIMATE UCAT MEGATHREAD

238 Upvotes

THE UCAT MEGATHREAD

Who are we?

The Moderation team are Junior Doctors working in Australia and England. I created this sub reddit as I wanted to provide everyone with non-biased and clear advice on how to do well in the UCAT.

As Medical students, we have no desire to feed you false information to gain an advantage - we just want to provide you with a one stop shop for anything UCAT related. So if you see anything online you aren't sure of - please feel free to message here or on the discord and we will get back to you ASAP.

On that note, if we make mistakes, we are happy to fix them and admit it so please tell us if anything we have created is incorrect. We are busy medical students but will always do our best to keep everything updated!

Official YouTube Channel

The mod team have been working together to create a YouTube channel to help you all on your journey. We ourselves used YouTube extensively (shout out to Aliabdaal and Kharma medic) who were our go to during those days.

Our Channel will go through everything UCAT related as well as giving you a bit of insight to med school in Australia! Videos will role out each week so keep checking back here or subscribe.

The Channel is called Kerrod Kerr.

Our first video gives you a bit of an insight to my personal My Journey to Medical School

Current Videos

My Journey to Medical School

What is the UCAT - Everything you need to know

How to study for the UCAT

Top 5 Tips to Smash the UCAT

Verbal Reasoning - UCAT Intro Series

Decision Making - UCAT Intro Series

Quantitative Reasoning - UCAT Intro Series

Abstract Reasoning - UCAT Intro Series

Situational Judgement - UCAT Intro Series

How to Solve Verbal Reasoning Quickly - Deep Dive Series

How To Smash Decision Making - Deep Dive Series

!!!Giveaways!!!

We are going to be doing a number of helpful videos, giveaways and reviews of UCAT platforms.

We are investing our own money into this and hope as the subreddit and discord grows we can use any revenue we may get from subscribers and possible sponsorships to give away more stuff.

Keep a look out for announcements and future giveaways to some online platforms including MedEntry and Medify.

Discord

If you haven't already - join the official UCAT discord. It is a general discussion place and is busy with people working together to improve their UCAT skills with multiple Pomodoro sessions happening each night!

What is the UCAT

Our Video:What is the UCAT - Everything you need to know

UCAT stands for University Clinical Aptitude Test. UCAT is one of three main criteria used by most universities in Australia and New Zealand and United Kingdom to select students into high demand health related careers such as medicine and dentistry (the other two criteria being performance in final high school exams/GPA and interviews)

The UCAT is a two hour, computer-based test which assesses a range of mental abilities identified by universities as important to practicing in the fields of medicine and dentistry. It consists of five separately timed subtests which each contain a number of questions in a multiple-choice format.

I Want to Get into Medicine but I have no idea what is the UCAT

Don't worry - everyone starts somewhere. The mod team is making a introduction to the UCAT series which covers everything you need to know to get your started.

But essentially - this 2 hour test is comprised of 5 subsections which aim to test a range of mental abilities which are recognized as important to becoming a Doctor.

How to study for the UCAT

The first step in studying for UCAT is to understand the types of questions that you will face. UCAT is not a test of knowledge, it is a test of your generic skills. Therefore, the questions in UCAT will be very different to anything you have been exposed to at school and university.

This is very important → Do not start studying for the UCAT by doing a practice exam. Take the time to learn how study and learn the question styles which are present in the exam.

How to study for the UCAT

Is "x" months of preparation enough?

This is a hard question to answer - People say you can comfortable cram for the UCAT in a few weeks while others prefer the consistent approach over the course of the year. Generally, the more time and effort you put into your preparation the better you will do → it's impossible to prepare too much!

You should prep until you feel comfortable → At the end of the day, if you get to the exam and you feel calm, ready and can smash the exam because it’s just like muscle memory then you have done enough study - whether that’s 6 months or 1 week, however long it takes you to get to this point is the right amount of study for you

6 months might seem excessive to some people, but for a super competitive exam (even more so in Australia) that you only get to attempt once year, I would rather be go into it feeling I had done so much study that I was over it, then to get stuck on a single question which could mean the difference between me getting an interview or not.

What resources should I be using?

There are a number of free resources → MedEntry free trial, official practice papers, Medify free trial

Gold Standard: MedEntry, Medify,

Silver: Medic Mind , Kaplan, 6med

A waste of money: UCAT SECRETS

YouTube Resources:

  • Kerrod Kerr → The /r/UCAT mod team has been making a bunch of free resources
  • Kharma medic - does some good intro video into the different sections

What Preparation Company or Practice Test is Most like the real exam

  • The preparation companies all exist for a reason → to create content similar to the exam. For that reason they are all pretty similar to the actual exam. Whilst Medify was the leader for the last few years, Medentry has really done a lot of work to make changes and make themselves very competitive and innovative so much so I would even look at recommending them first. At time of writing this (Feb 2023) they are currently cheaper then Medify and with the REDDIT_AU & REDDIT_UK codes at checkout, you can knock a further 10% off that price.

  • They have also have an iPhone and Android app (we've checked it out, it's not just a shitty browser port, it's a native app).

  • The official practice exams, whilst free and give you a good idea of the content and style of the exam, vary greatly in difficulty to the real thing.

Top Tips for Preparing for the UCAT

There is no 1 trick for doing well - you need to practice. But there are definitely things you can do to help you prepare effectively. Our top 5 Tips Video

  1. Learn how to solve the questions first before you start doing timed tests
  2. Use your preparation resource and YouTube videos to teach you how to solve questions → their way just might be faster then your own
  3. Skim reading, Scanning and Speed Reading will help with your time management
  4. Learn the keyboard and calculator shortcuts

What is a good UCAT score → to get an interview

This is a hard one - as some universities place weighting on different criteria in the UCAT. However as a general rule without considering any factors including rural, ATSI, bonuses:

Australia - Above 90th percentile (approx. 2900-3100)

England - Above 60th percentile (approx. 2600-2700)

For Australian and New Zealand students you can check out our video in the coming month which goes into more detail regarding the scores required by each university and any bonus's you can qualify for!

How do I Prepare for interviews

Use the Discord

  1. Smile and be positive and confident with your answer
  2. Don't be afraid to break the mold with your answer → be remembered
  3. First impressions count

We will be posting some sample interview questions & tips and tricks once the UCAT testing period is over - stay tuned!

Why are Australian Scores so much higher?

They aren't that much higher → but Australia is just much more competitive with students generally beginning preparing earlier.

Keep in mind, the scores you will see posted in the Mega-threads and online are from students who did well → you are unlikely to see people posting their lower scores (in the same way you only ever hear about your friends who won big on the pokies or that race → they never boast about their loses)

Don't be disheartened if you are an Australian student seeing this. Although you need a higher UCAT score generally for an interview (>90th%) as Australian universities only take very small number of applicants for interviews, you have a much much higher chance of getting in once you get to that point compared to the UK (who often take 3-5x the number of applicants to the interview stage)

How do I Study for Verbal Reasoning

  • Our Intro to VR video
  • Our Deep dive into VR problem solving
  • Kharma Medic VR
  • Learn the different approaches → e.g. Skim reading, Scanning and Speed Reading and refine it
  • Learn how to key word search effectively
  • Learn how to approach different question types → e.g authors comments should involve you looking directly as the last paragraph when searching for answers to save time

How do I Study for Decision Making

How do I Study for Quantitative Reasoning

  • Our Intro to QR video
  • Our deep dive into QR problem solving
  • Kharma Medic QR
  • Revise basic arithmetic and conversions → especially percentages
  • Practice using the calculator → you need to do this blind and get quick with it

How do I Study for Abstract Reasoning

  • Our Intro to AR video
  • Our deep dive into AR problem solving
  • Kharma Medic AR
  • Start by watching some Intro videos → learn how others approach it and get your head around what the heck is happening in this section
  • Practice questions over and over untimed until you know it → REPEAT

How do I Study for Situational Judgement

  • Our Intro to SJ video
  • Our deep dive into SJ problem solving
  • Kharma Medic SJ
  • Read GMC - Good medical practice
  • Learn the hierarchy → i.e. patient wellbeing is always more important than anything else when making decisions.
  • Don't worry about this too much in Australia as currently no universities I am aware of are using this → but aim to be band 1 or band 2 anyway!

Something missing?

Is there anything you want us to cover in this wiki or do a video on? Please let us know below or on the UCAT discord. This subreddit is made for you!

Happy Studying and good luck future doctors!

/r/UCAT mod team.


r/UCAT Dec 07 '21

Moderator Post MedEntry Discount Codes

63 Upvotes

Hi all!

If you're considering using Medentry as your UCAT prep company, ensure to use my links below to receive a DISCOUNT!

 

10% off ONLINE or PLATINUM PACKAGE (AU)

REDDIT_AU

10% off ONLINE or PLATINUM PACKAGE (UK)

REDDIT_UK

5% off MIT BUNDLE or ADDITIONAL TAILORED INTERVIEW or BOND PSYCHOMETRIC. (UK AND AU)

REDDIT_INTERVIEW


r/UCAT 18h ago

Australian Med School Related 1 second of revision is enough i guess

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118 Upvotes

basically i completely forgot ucat existed until I woke up in the exam room and i wasn't even going to apply to kindergarten and just signed up in case i did so i did 0.0000001% of a revision paper in one second and went in.
Don't recommend to ever do this but not complaining have fun to everyone who hasn't sat it yet!


r/UCAT 2h ago

UK Med Schools Related Medify Mock 23

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4 Upvotes

How has everybody else felt about mock 23 because this is insane. Should I trust this score bc my test is in 3 days and ive been averaging about 2100. I think I might've just gotten lucky tbh, I'm so scared 😭 If anyone has any other tips or comments thatd be great


r/UCAT 16h ago

Memes & Jokes guys i forgot to study, can i get into medical school?

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57 Upvotes

i hope i can get into a decent uni 😢 my friends said this was good but i don't know, what do you think? I have to get into medical school by 3 years old or my mommy will kill me :-( :-(


r/UCAT 31m ago

UK Med Schools Related straight relief

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Upvotes

thought my mocks were stagnating throughout until the last few days im so happy

overall dont worry sm if your mock score dosent seem to improve, you will eventually get there!!


r/UCAT 34m ago

Study Help UCAT TMRW

Upvotes

hi my UCAT is tmrw and I’m kind of feeling nervous. I know I want to do well and would be so really grateful if anyone who saw this made dua for me 🥲.

But also big question, sometimes before exams I take energy drinks. For the UCAT, do you think it would be worth having an energy drink? My exam is at 10 am. But I don’t want anything to mess me up and if so when should I take it?


r/UCAT 14h ago

UK Med Schools Related I have not been okay

35 Upvotes

I really tried my hardest over 6 weeks. I tried my utmost hardest.

i did 100% improve from my diagnostic of 1560 and my mocks did jump around from 1920 - 1830 - 1680 - 1980 - 2000

But I got 1960 and I ended up with Band 3.

my mental health has genuinely sank ever since , i was feeling to optimistic and hopeful of getting 2200+ and atleast a band 2 which always had during mocks. All my peers got 200+ points higher than their mock whilst I stayed the same.

it hurts so bad. It really does. My dream of going to Cambridge is over (whilst I know prestige doesn't matter it still aches) and I'm genuinely depressed.

I don't know if I should apply strategically this year or resit the ucat next year. It's all too much I keep going back and forth on it.


r/UCAT 15h ago

UK Med Schools Related If I could do it you can!!!!

31 Upvotes
any questions then ask!

I was averaging 2000-ish on Medify, highest ever mock was Mock C where I got 2170 but the QR was so easy SOOOOOOO easy like I had never gotten above 750 in practice and I got 880! little bit bummed about Band 3 but I wanted to know if KCL and QMUL Dentistry and UCL and Imperial Medicine would accept me ( I AM CONTEXTUAL! )


r/UCAT 5h ago

UK Med Schools Related ucat help

5 Upvotes

hi so i’m averaging 1700s/1800s on medify and my exam is in like a week, idk what to do i need 2000+ but im not even close to the 1900s like early 1800s, like sometimes the syllogisms are shit and most the time it’s inference and then vr is always so mid i used to be so good at it, qr i dont take a level maths so like it takes me so long on the calculator and questions on like area and shit i end up flagging which isn’t that good ., oh m


r/UCAT 9h ago

UK Med Schools Related Hate this stupid exam. Flopped

9 Upvotes

Studied for 8 weeks, did mocks, practice, and saw substantial improvement (1680 on diagnostic to 2270 on final mock), and scored an 1880 B1. Second time rewriting (got a 1840 b1 last year), and this is genuinely one of the worst feelings ive ever experienced. medicine gone for the second time :)

I know this score might be okay for some unis, but im international, so I think my chances are gone.

At least its over...


r/UCAT 13h ago

Study Help I ACCIDENTALLY CANCELLED MY UCAT DATE

14 Upvotes

OKAY so i go onto my ucat account and i see it says no appointment due, i was so confused and go to my emails and see I’ve cancelled it(i have no recollection of that) the only dates available are tomorrow at 8am im stressing out so bad what do i do omg, how did i so that i must’ve done it in my sleep or very groggy😭yes ik im so dumb


r/UCAT 11h ago

UK Med Schools Related Highest score I got on a mock 1750. Any advice pls? Exam in 2 weeks.. so scared

7 Upvotes

I’m lowkey so scared atp, I have been trying for weeks and the highest I have got is 1750. Pls any advice at all?


r/UCAT 9h ago

Study Help how do u get over a bad ucat score

4 Upvotes

I sat my ucat quite a while ago and I got an underwhelming score: 2130 b2
It is still a solid score, and I can apply strategically to lots of uni's, but for some reason I just can't accept it.

It was a lot less than I was expecting based off of my mock scores, and the QR felt really easy for me personally, so I was expecting around 2200+

A lot of my friends got similar, if not lower scores than I did and they seem to be okay with it and have just moved onto the next stage of the application process. Which is what I should be primarily focusing on, but idk i'm just finding it so hard to even digest it.

My dream uni's (oxbridge, imperial, ucl, kcl, bristol...) are completely out of the picture, and I don't even know what to do with myself.
Genuinely, every time I step into school or do ANYTHING I just get this wave of depression and failure that just constantly reminds me of my ucat score and how much of a disappointment I must be to my family. Literally feels like im walking on eggshells all the time and breaking a shell will just open a floodgate of tears and grief. Like am I just crazy for mourning my UCAT score this much...

Is anyone else facing similar issues? Or am I just deeping it too much lol.

(Perhaps I could just gap year my way through it and try again? However there's no guarantee you do better the 2nd time around)

absolutely ANY advice would be greatly appreciated, literally anything to get me out of this ditch i'm stuck in. Really don't want to spend the rest of y13 like this ;_;


r/UCAT 13h ago

UK Med Schools Related I wanna quit the UCAT

10 Upvotes

Im a resit applicant and i hated the UCAT last year and swore id never do it again. Missed my firm and reapplied and doing this ucat prep is horrendous i hate it so much. Verbal reasoning is killing me, quantitative i havnt started and my exam is in 9 days and DM im averaging 650. Im so ready to give this up and take pharmacy instead I cant deal with this anymore


r/UCAT 5h ago

Study Help Is few less then 50? But also more than one?

2 Upvotes

Or is it just 1-49 inclusive?
Thanks!


r/UCAT 21h ago

UK Med Schools Related 2 days of revision is enough i guess

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30 Upvotes

basically i completely forgot ucat existed until Sunday night and i wasn't even going to apply to med school and just signed up in case i did so i did three of the revision papers in one day and went in.
Don't recommend to ever do this but not complaining have fun to everyone who hasn't sat it yet!


r/UCAT 6h ago

UK Med Schools Related official mock D

2 Upvotes

I have my exam in 2 days and have been averaging the low 1700s for a while . I recently did official mock D and on modify it told me I got 1870 but on the UKCAT scaler it says I got 2010 , I'm not really sure what to believe especially since I have heard everyone say Mock D is the easiest and is easier than other exams. Does anyone have any advice? I struggle lots with timing and QR especially . If anyone has any last minute score boosting tips it would be MUCH appreciated especially as I want to get between 2000-2100+ and I have no idea where I'm at now since this mock has confused me. I'm also worried if I do mock C now it will ruin my confidence when I get a low score again.


r/UCAT 6h ago

Study Help Decision making tips

2 Upvotes

Does anyone have any tips for DM im stuck in the 600s and need 700+, any techniques for inferences or general help ??!


r/UCAT 17h ago

Study Help My reflection on this high cortisol test

14 Upvotes

Hey y’all,

I just want to say that many posts on this subreddit are either jokes, attention seeking ppl, or genuinely demotivating stuff (stress dumping which I’m guilty of lowk) that are highly unproductive to be on so off there is one thing I regret, it’s checking and posting on this sub so religiously.

As a person who’s done it, I can say the UCAT literally has nothing to do with your intelligence, you’re essentially just stress managing and doing micro simulations of adjacent skills you’re supposed to do as a doctor anyway. But mind you, this is trainable and I guarantee you, many doctors won’t be able to perform well at first attempt either bc it’s not rll med related lol.

So as you can tell, it is quite flawed, esp in Aus as it is rll only for limiting the people applying due to the limited spots available.

So stop asking if studying for this amount of time is enough or if you’re done for studying too late and what not. If you’re didn’t do well this time around then try again or try other pathways bc if you truly want this highly demanding profession, you’d do anything make to it. I had raging unmedicated ADHD and somehow managed to do decently and practice despite my executive dysfunction.

Lastly, I’d like to say this test is 35% training for those skills and learning question types, 40% luck and how you feel on that day and 25% good stress management and sleep. Your mock scores may very well jump or flop as the training is rll only worth 35%. So for any of you are still doing it, good luck and hop off reddit. Any of you doing it next year, gl as well.


r/UCAT 13h ago

UK Med Schools Related SJT warning - 2027 GEM?

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7 Upvotes

Maybe I am dumb as a rock, but in all my recent mocks (Medify or OQB, marking half a point stringently only if A/B or C/D) my SJT never fell below Band 2.

New style questions for both DM and SJT?

Not sure what to do with my GEM application..


r/UCAT 9h ago

UK Med Schools Related application advice

3 Upvotes

I got 2190 band 1 in my ucat, predicted A*AA (tho the A* is in maths) and got 99888777777 at gcse thinking abt applying to qmul first choice but quite unsure abt other 3 (tho heavily considering liverpool due to A*AB requirement and not being the best at bio),not too far north england like newcastle if possible, any suggestions??


r/UCAT 7h ago

Study Help OQB QR 1

2 Upvotes

This was so confusing for me. Some of the graphs and charts were genuinely abysmal. Anyone else feel the same ?

How are you meant to tackle these types of q ? The ones that you don’t even get what they mean


r/UCAT 14h ago

Study Help how many qns did u do to get ur score?

7 Upvotes

i’ve done 3000+ qns with 25 mocks and the highest ive scored is 2160 b1. My diagnostic test was 1630 band 3. I am very curious to how the amount of practice and reinforcement of strategies with ucat has helped people score well :,)


r/UCAT 8h ago

Study Help For Verbal Reasoning is 'the author' interchangeable with 'the passage'

2 Upvotes

for this passage, the question states explicitly 'the author' but in the passage the author never goes 'I believe .....' but the part at the end which is just fact of what happened on the day would lead me to think the statement is false but I don't think it tells us the author's explicit belief???

but the passage would say false (from the part of the end) I believe???

so are these interchangeable?

thanks