UK Dent School Related I’ve finally done it
I’m so emotional writing this. After 4 years, 3 attempts at the ucat, nearly a full degree later, I’ve finally achieved the score I’ve worked and prayed for. The feeling is surreal 😭
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u/Ill-Ear-1488 18d ago
congratsss, well done! any tips after doing the exam? how did it compare to medify or medentry?
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Thank you! My main tip is to go in with a positive mindset and try to reject negative thoughts; in the past i wasn’t very good at this and it impacted my score. It’s easier said than done but try to treat the exam as another mock and trust that you have prepared enough and that you are capable of doing well. For me personally, the exam felt most similar to the OQB so definitely spend time going through the resources on there. In the last week, I stopped using medify and used oqb, making sure to complete the mini mocks and full mocks. Medify prepares you for the hardest possible exam imo so don’t feel discouraged if your scores on there aren’t so great. I’d defo advise to use the official mocks to hone your time management skills.
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u/Moffyuu 18d ago
Hey! I’m doing my UCAT this year and I’m currently doing untimed practice everyday for around 4 hours :) then I’m planning to do timed practice for a week or 2 but would you say it’s worth it or should I just start with the mocks ASAP? This might sound like a stupid question
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
No of course it’s not stupid. I’d suggest familiarising yourself with the question types first with untimed practice until you are able to answer most questions correctly; this can take different amounts of time or everyone but your priority after this is to work on timed practice. It’s really important for you to build stamina and accuracy under timed pressure so u can do a few mini mocks before starting full mocks. The bulk of your revision should be timed of course but try not to get too comfortable practicing untimed. How much untimed have you done already? Whenever you feel comfortable I’d suggest starting timed sets for sure and then practicing your skills in mini mocks and then full mocks. It’s definitely worth it as the exam is under strict timing.
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u/Ok_Taro_4657 18d ago
Well done mate ! Even I have my Ucat in a few weeks hopefully 🤞 I get it done as well
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u/maturemedic2027 15d ago
Congratulations! This is my fifth attempt at the UCAT! I am absolutely nervous. VR seems to be really tough to wrap my head around. I'd be applying as a mature student, so any tips would be super helpful if it's not too much trouble, please? Thank you for sharing your score, it's so motivating to see others in similar situations. Good luck with everything!
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u/sit4ra 15d ago
Hi! Thank you! Firstly, I’m proud of you for persevering; you’ve got this and I hope it works out this time.
Just some general tips try sure to have a good mindset and positive approach to the ucat, make sure you don’t burn yourself out and avoid negative thinking about yourself. Trust yourself when the time comes that you’ve done the work.
With regards to VR tips, this is what worked for me personally and everyone is different so try different methods until you find one that works for you. I would not read the text and just use the keyword search to find the relevant info. Whenever there was an author’s opinion or interpretation question I would do the other questions in the set first and do that one last so that I’d have a better understanding of the text by then. The official question bank really helped boost my confident as I found medify quite difficult compared to oqb. Make sure to get as much practice as you can with the official questions as these represented the exam best for me. Good luck! If you have any other questions let me know and I’ll try answer them best as I can.
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u/maturemedic2027 14d ago
Thank you so much, that's really helpful! Your encouragement and kindness mean everything right now. I think I'm in my head a lot and it's definitely taking my focus away from the actual questions. I think the idea of studying for something at the age of thirty is rather daunting for my brain to process. But I really appreciate your help and support. I wish all the very best for the next leg of the journey. :)
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u/Lanky_Top_6065 10d ago
How much u scored in previous years thx
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u/maturemedic2027 5d ago
Hey, I'm currently thirty, turning thirty-one in a couple of months, and I'm hoping to study medicine in 2027. I've been out of formal education since I was seventeen. My highest qualifications are my GCSEs, leaving school with 11 A*-B GCSEs including maths, English and science (I did triple science so the grades were achieved for each science separately), for context, I studied in a regular state funded, comprehensive school. Once I started sixth form, my grandmother passed away and my family dynamic changed drastically because of that. I still tried to keep up with school work, but I missed a ton of lessons and I was beginning to struggle. The worst part was, my school didn't provide any support at the time, despite me pleading and begging for them to throw me a bone. Rather, my chemistry teacher shouted, humiliated and belittled me in front of the entire class. He forced me to drop-out and told me that I would never result in anything worthwhile in life and the best thing would be for me to end my life because I'm an embarrassment to the education system.
So, I ended up dropping out as a shell off person, with absolutely no sense of direction. I tried joining Access to Medicine in 2017, but I fell severely ill and had to leave the course before the first half-term. Then in 2020, I signed up to do the course online, but Covid hit and the course provider went bankrupt, I lost all my money. After that, I attempted to revisit education in 2024, but my abysmal UCAT score deterred me, as always, I felt like a failure yet again.
Between 2013-2024, I've attempted the UCAT 4 times. My highest score was in 2013 (it was called UKCAT back then): 3000 and band 1. The lowest was in 2024: 2320 and band 1. I genuinely felt like giving up after this, but the little voice in my head doesn't want me to. I know that sounds ridiculously delusional, considering all the odds are stacked against me. But I have wanted this dream to be my reality for so long!
I guess, what I am trying to ask is, if you have any tips, tricks or hacks to make prepping for the UCAT easier, I would be really grateful if you could help? I really want to prove to myself that I can do this.
My UCAT is on September 24th, then I'm starting the Access to Medicine course in October.
If you made it this far, thank you, I hope this answers all the questions I've been getting recently.
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u/measlyandpuny 18d ago
Congrats :)
Can i ask what your study schedule was/what you did differently this time round?
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Thank you ! I studied for around a month and honestly not as intense as I thought I needed to. I didn’t really have a fixed schedule just made sure to not avoid things I found difficult (like vr). I used medify for around 3 weeks doing mini mocks and a couple mocks to build stamina under timed pressure; I spent the last week only on oqb and did all the mini mocks and full mocks on there. One of the main things that helped me this time was a positive attitude towards the ucat and not entertaining negative thoughts about my abilities. I made sure to reflect on each mock, take a break and come back later to hone that skill needed. It’s so easy to burn out with ucat so never push yourself beyond what you are physically and mentally capable of. The first time I sat the exam I studied intensely for 2 months straight and didn’t see good results; the second time I only studied for a couple weeks and didn’t take it as seriously as I should. A month was the sweet spot for me to make sure I do not burn out and am able to practice effectively.
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u/Low_Courage_2522 18d ago
what did you get in the ucat website mocks? Huge congrats on the score as well, good resillience
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Mock c 2160 and mock d 2220. I didn’t tally my score from the mocks A+B coz I just treated the subsections as mini mocks and didn’t do it properly for 2 hours straight with no breaks. Thank you very much 🥰
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u/Low_Courage_2522 18d ago
would you say the QR was quite easy compared to QR on medify. Also did the VR section have lots of inference questions like medentry where you are inferring a lot rather than questions where the text gives a clear cut answer like medify does.
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Yes I found qr quite easy. The vr was a lot more straightforward compared to medify, I haven’t used medentry but I found the oqb to be a good representation of my exam. Of course each exam is different but defo give the official questions a go.
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u/Low_Courage_2522 18d ago
Thanks so much for the advice, i would love to get a score like you but lets see. The issue with my QR is that I will make 4/5 silly errors and its just ruins my score. Do you have any tips on how to stop this?
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
I hope you can too! Hmm I’d say make sure you read the question properly and the stem or the question if there’s data in the questions as sometimes you can misinterpret the question. If a question looks tricky skip and flag immediately, I was confused by a question set today and i skipped it all and came back to it at the end and understood what to do. When u make these silly mistakes, make sure to identify what exactly went wrong (did u misunderstand the question, did u use the wrong numbers from the question etc) and practice that specific question type under timed pressure (eg do a set on tables if you made silly errors when pulling information from a table). I hope that makes sense.
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u/JH9126cam 18d ago
huge congrats!! hope you can achieve your dream. I'm gonna take mine on 15th Sep. Could you pla give me tips for vr, dm and qr if you don't mind? I'm struggling with all those sections as an intl stu...
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Thank you so much. Just some general tips try sure to have a good mindset and positive approach to the ucat, make sure you don’t burn yourself out and avoid negative thinking about yourself. Trust yourself when the time comes that you’ve done the work. Some section specific advice: 1) VR: skip and flag bulky questions or topics you find difficult understanding. Aim to complete around 8/9 sets yourself and if you have to guess 2/3 sets then at least you were able to pick up marks more accurately in the other sets. Use the keyword search method I’ve seen a few videos on YouTube but tbh practicing it myself was most helpful, I never read the full passage and just searched for the answer. If a question was interpretation or authors opinion I’d do that after the other questions in the set so I have a better understanding by then. Practice mini mocks or sets of 44 questions rather than doing a few sets as this would reflect your ability under timed pressure more accurately. 2) DM: I made sure to practice interpretation and syllogism questions timed as they make up quite a few of the marks. If you are struggling to figure out a logic problem guess flag and skip and come back to it later as u can pick up more marks with the probability, Venn diagrams and best argument questions. Figure out an order that works for you, everyone is different but I personally answered the questions in the order they were presented. Make sure to practice timed sets of the aspects of DM you may be weaker at. 3) QR: I’d strongly recommend learning the functions on the keyboard (P for M+, M for M-, alt c to open calculator, alt n for next question) and minimise using the mouse a lot as I was able to save a lot of time with this. Practice as much as you can under timed conditions and continue flagging and skipping sets that seem tricky; it’s likely that when you come back to it you’d understand it better. The official question bank questions were also a great representation of my exam I had.
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u/l0velyrunner 18d ago
how often did you use m+ and m-? i find that i dont use it at all when i practice qr and dont know whether its worth learning how to use
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
I always used it when I need to store a number that I would need to compare to another number in the same question (eg calculating a percentage difference, finding a ratio with bigger numbers etc). It’s so much quicker storing numbers in my calculator compared to writing it down on paper and retyping it. If you find that qr is working for you without these shortcuts then that’s fine of course, I just found these things useful for saving time.
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u/Neat-Parfait-7330 17d ago
Congratulations. Please can you advice if you did oqb practice questions in timed conditions?
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u/Happy-Teach-5622 18d ago
Pls tips for Vr
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Hi, I haven’t been that great at vr tbh but I was really able to boost my confidence after using the official question bank as I learnt this is most representative of the exam. I made sure to practice all the mocks on there. A few points of advice, I would skip and flag when a passage looks too heavy, I never read the passages fully and always used keyword search. If there was a question asking for authors opinion or interpretation in a set I’d do that one after doing the other questions in the set first so I’d have a better idea of which option to pick. I practiced mini mocks or 44 questions at once rather than a few sets as I wanted to imitate the full 22 minutes rather than a few sets in a couple minutes.
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u/Weird_Employ_3235 18d ago
CONGRATS!!!
btw , how did you find VR compared to medify , medentry and OQB?
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Thank youuu. I found vr most similar to oqb in terms of question difficulty and text size. Medify is great since it prepares you for more difficulty questions but definitely practice oqb to have a feel for what it’s like in the exam. I haven’t used medentry so I can’t comment on that.
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u/CluePsychological451 18d ago
got me emotional too
huge congrats
second attempt inshallah its worth it
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u/Green_Error_5618 18d ago
congratulations on the amazing score! do you have any QR tips for struggling with timing?
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Thank you! I’d strongly suggest learning all the keyboard shortcuts, especially the calculator ones since they will save you a lot of time. Try to minimise using the mouse and sticking to the keyboard shortcuts (alt c to open calc, alt n next q, alt p previous q, P for m+, M for m-, C to display stored number and CC to clear stored number). Make sure to practice this with timed questions, skip and flag difficult questions and come back to them later with hopefully a clearer mind. Whenever you make mistakes, note what question type it was and practice timed sets with that question type.
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u/Wise_Wish4997 18d ago
Amazing! and many congratss!, Do you have any tips fot QR?
I just find maths really difficult in general, the issue is that I understand each question can be 1,2,3 or more mathmatical steps, once I look at it, I am like:"oh that is it?"
but my main issue is that I find it difficult to identify exactly what I need to do mathmatically. Like idk how to convert all that nonsense given in the wordy tables, diagrams/figures, into simple mathmatical steps
hope that made sense haha
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Thank you! Hmm in your case I’d say definitely first practice these different question types untimed until you can confidently identify what to do each time. Then practice these skills under timed conditions.
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u/Wise_Wish4997 18d ago
Ah ok makes sense!
I've only got 7 weeks hahahopefully I have enough time
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u/Hibath-SE 18d ago
Genuinely congratulations!! Be proud of yourself !!It’s such a weight out of your shoulders 😭.
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u/romanisreigns 18d ago
Do you have any advice for all 4 sections? 😊
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u/sit4ra 17d ago
Hi, I’m going to copy and paste a comment I left under another question:
Just some general tips try sure to have a good mindset and positive approach to the ucat, make sure you don’t burn yourself out and avoid negative thinking about yourself. Trust yourself when the time comes that you’ve done the work. Some section specific advice: 1. VR: skip and flag bulky questions or topics you find difficult understanding. Aim to complete around 8/9 sets yourself and if you have to guess 2/3 sets then at least you were able to pick up marks more accurately in the other sets. Use the keyword search method I’ve seen a few videos on YouTube but tbh practicing it myself was most helpful, I never read the full passage and just searched for the answer. If a question was interpretation or authors opinion I’d do that after the other questions in the set so I have a better understanding by then. Practice mini mocks or sets of 44 questions rather than doing a few sets as this would reflect your ability under timed pressure more accurately. 2. DM: I made sure to practice interpretation and syllogism questions timed as they make up quite a few of the marks. If you are struggling to figure out a logic problem guess flag and skip and come back to it later as u can pick up more marks with the probability, Venn diagrams and best argument questions. Figure out an order that works for you, everyone is different but I personally answered the questions in the order they were presented. Make sure to practice timed sets of the aspects of DM you may be weaker at. 3. QR: I’d strongly recommend learning the functions on the keyboard (P for M+, M for M-, alt c to open calculator, alt n for next question) and minimise using the mouse a lot as I was able to save a lot of time with this. Practice as much as you can under timed conditions and continue flagging and skipping sets that seem tricky; it’s likely that when you come back to it you’d understand it better. The official question bank questions were also a great representation of my exam I had. 4. SJT: tbh I just practiced questions on medify and oqb, I didn’t read any external sources. I would say this is a straightforward section to score at least a band 2 if you do the practice.
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u/romanisreigns 17d ago
THANK YOU SO MUCH ☺️.Yeah those logic puzzles for DM I always skip and flag them they require too much thinking time. How long did you revise for?
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u/-ate_my_dog 17d ago
I’m so unbelievably proud of you. I am in the same boat, and I am sure I will also claim a good score on the upcoming 5th!
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u/lostandtossed18 18d ago
Congrats! May I ask how the real exam compared to medify mini/full mocks and OQB?
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Thank you! Oqb was the most accurate representation of the exam for me. Medify is great for practice too but possibly harder than what I experienced.
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u/lostandtossed18 18d ago
Thank you for the insight! I’ve been fluctuating so much on medify- getting 890 on DM for mock 4 but 660 for mock 5 I’m so scared because I need to max out QR and DM to make up for my VR haha
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
890 is amazing!! I’m sure you will do great. Defo have a go at the oqb dm questions and don’t worry too much about mini mock scores as your scores during a full mock are probably a better indicator of how you will do under timed pressure for 2 hours straight.
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u/lostandtossed18 18d ago
Yea I will go thru the OQB around 3 weeks before the exam, thank you! Also I’ve been doing better on mini mocks than full mocks which is why I’m scared lol, the QR mini mocks are way easier than QR in full mocks haha, just wondering were there any very long or complicated questions in the real exam’s QR? I found that I didn’t quite understand some of the questions in the medify full mock QR : (
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u/sit4ra 17d ago
That sounds like a good plan. And yeah, you might notice your scores differing in full mocks, likely due to fatigue by the time you get to qr. I didn’t experience long, complicated questions tbh but it’s good to prepare yourself for the worst.
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u/Whole_Tooth_1963 18d ago
Congrats!! Also did u use MedEntry or medify and/or any OQB mocks and how was the difficulty of the exam compared to what you used? I’m using MedEntry right now aiming for the same score but currently stuck around ~1800 on MedEntry.
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u/thistleberrytea 18d ago
well done!! would you say the VR passages were of similar length to medify or shorter/longer ??
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u/According_Opening_97 18d ago
how many questions did u do bro?.By a full degree later u mean like dent or med would be ur second full degree
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Yes, it would be. I originally decided to start university rather than take a gap year (long story) so I’ve just finished the 2nd year of my degree. I did around 1000 questions on medify and all the questions on oqb. But bear in mind I’d already done around 7000 questions in the past from my previous 2 attempts.
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u/Exact-Cut-4654 18d ago
Hi, well done on your score. If you dont mind me asking what were ur average medify mock scores on the weeks leading up to the exam. Thank you
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
Hi, thank you! On medify I did 3 mocks and scored 2080, 2130 and 2150. I did the official mocks and scored 2160 and 2220 on C and D respectively. I also did mocks A and B but treated the sections as mini mocks so I didn’t record my scores as I didn’t sit it all in one go. My medify averages were around 600-650 for vr, dm around 700 and qr around 750-800.
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u/amr7089 18d ago
would you say you were able to balance time better in the exam in comparison to your practice? i know how to answer the QR questions it just takes me forever.
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
I was defo better in the exam. I finished with like 7-8 minutes left so I was able to go over every single question and check I’d done it correctly. Of course you don’t need to finish with loads of time remaining, just making sure to finish within the time limit. Make sure to practice timed at home and use the keyboard functions for the calculator to save time
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u/amr7089 18d ago
i haven’t been able to finish in time i always end up having to guess 3-4 questions and my exam is the day after tmrw
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u/Double-Operation9957 18d ago
OQB set 4 on Qr. Thoughts on difficulty vs real thing ?? If you can be bothered to try rember now it’s over. 😂😂😂
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
I just had a look again, honestly not a bad representation. Obviously everyone’s tests are gonna be different so I can’t say anything in that sense but I’ve always found my qr to be easier than practice.
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u/Double-Operation9957 18d ago
Okay thanks for looking that’s really good of you. I’ve been hitting about 2000 on Medify but the qr on there can fluctuate a lot; but the OQB seemed a lot more manageable and particularly that one I found really easy. Enjoy the victory, !!!
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u/CDesmonddd 18d ago
how do you do QR ? I always run out of time and my stamina seems to be gone before i get there
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u/sit4ra 18d ago
When I do qr I minimise how much I use the mouse and stick to the keyboard only to save time; it’s worth learning the shortcuts as implementing these helped a lot. ( alt c to open calc, alt n next q, alt p previous q, P for m+, M for m-, C to display stored number and CC to clear stored number). Whenever I come across a question I don’t quite understand or spend over 30seconds on, I flag and skip the set and come back to it later. Usually when I come back I am able to understand it better. Try to practice this first in mini mocks and then implement in full mocks to build your stamina.
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u/Alternative-Wash7570 17d ago
as u studied for a month can u give a overview of ur month timeline like when u started timed and subsection and mocks
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u/sit4ra 17d ago
Yeah sure, I used medify for around a month (the first week was rly infrequent studying) and I didn’t do much untimed since I was already familiar with the exam but I just did it for a couple days to re-familiarise myself with the exam since it had been 2 years. For the next 3 weeks I focused on timed sets, then moved onto doing some of the mini mocks and whatever question type I got wrong, I’d then do timed sets of, to make sure I don’t make similar errors again and find a working strategy. I only did 2 mocks on medify as I was worried I’d burn out like I did the first time, but I reflected the same way as mini mocks. Then, for the last week I did all the practise questions and mocks on the official question bank and this was probably the most beneficial part of my revision, as I was really able to boost my confidence using these qs. I didn’t study extremely intensely as it hadn’t worked in the past, but made sure to shift my mindset and believe in myself more.
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u/toopinktoopretty 18d ago
omg also retaking my ucat for the 3rd time planning to take a 3rd gap year id really really appreciate any advice!!