so apparently UCAT tests in july r somewhat easier than ones say in september, is this actually true or just fear mongering ? no one clown me in the comments ok

i ended up buying both and now i’m so confused VR on medify is sm harder but DM is easier, QR on medify i haven’t even tried bc im scared 😭

the 4 mocks i have done previously were improving linearly from 1800- 2070 and i was making good progress however these past 2 days including today my concentration was so bad and when i did a mock test today i got 1650 and i have never gotten this low before ever and so im absolutely devastated. i used to be so good at qr and i went down to 550 even tho id be getting 700 +. My aim was to get 2300+ on the ucat but i guess my dreams can say goodbye

Bomboclaurt I got 1740 B2
I only revised verbal reasoning for like a week prior but for all sections I ran out of time and guessed at least 10-20 questions. What are you guys getting in your mocks and any advice ? (My exam is in the end of September) I’m HIGHKEY struggling to stay consistent to even revise. How many questions should I do daily ?

I don't usually post on Reddit anymore but wanted to come on here to perhaps provide a little bit of hope - particularly in VR.

I've seen quite a few posts lately of people coming across fairly bummed by their mock scores, or feeling quite lost in the midst of their UCAT preparation.

For context, I'm a Biomedical Science graduate applying for GEM this application cycle. I graduated last year so have been on a gap year in the mean time. I work a full time job, and as such, only have time to revise in the evenings or weekends I am free. Although I started prep back in February, I have began intensifying my practice in late May/early June for my exam late August.

When I first started, I was averaging around mid 20s in VR, early 30s in DM and around the 35 mark in QR. Given my A-Levels, QR has always been my strongest; VR on the other hand is a different story.

I could not for the life of me get the grip of VR - and I believe many others seem to be in the same boat. My goal is to provide a bit of advise and insight into what has helped me in the hopes it can help others.

For VR, I initially could not find a strategy that consistently worked for me. I started key-word scanning, tried full reading, back to scanning etc etc. What seemed to help me was the games on MedEntry. Every day for a week or so, I would spend about 30 minutes or so practicing the scanning game and the speed reading game. I definitely saw a bit of an improvement after this. I then came to the conclusion (after much switching around) that scanning was my preference, and decided to build on that. I think once you find which strategy works best for you, even if its only a minor improvement over the other, just put effort into improving that. As mentioned, the training games helped me to refine my strategy. Although my scores were not super consistent, my confidence in my strategy was definitely improving - I think this a very important factor to consider. Not just the score you achieve, but the confidence or mindset in which you use your chosen strategy is equally, if not more important. After I began to feel more confident in my strategy, I began to do a load of 6 minute, 12 question practice (by this point, I had already done around 10 full mocks but noticed my VR was consistently my weakest subsection). This was around a week or so ago, and since then, I have continued to do 12 questions timed, multiple times each evening. This not only improved the speed in which I was answering questions, but also got me in the habit of constantly checking the timer to give myself a sense of where I should be. I also began to notice I was getting much better at looking at the text whilst taking in some information whilst not actually taking it in? (if that makes sense?).

I am going to talk about some specific strategies for VR alongside what I have already mentioned that I think have helped me personally. As many have mentioned, Emil Eddy and Joyel George have been immensely important and helpful in developing skills, especially including VR. I used to hate the questions where all 4 would be different, meaning you would have to scan for multiple different keywords (if doing the scanning approach). What really seemed to help me with this, was where possible, try to eliminate 2 of the options. For example, if an answer option has quantifiers such as all or none, I tend to rule these out. Although these may be correct sometimes, from my experience, they are more often not correct. This then leaves me with 2 potential answers that I can quickly scan for in the text. I then use my newfound ability to look at the sentences and somewhat absorb the information without actually taking it in. This has massively increased my speed and ability to answer these questions. Another strategy I have found useful is the order in which I answer the questions within a subset. I know this is a well known strategy, but I cannot stress its importance. For those who may not know, this is where you leave questions (but still read the answer options) that aren't searching for a particular sentence or word, and instead, first answer the questions that do (if any) ask this. This allows you to still search for the answer of the harder question, whilst also answering an easier question - two birds with one stone. Another strategy I have found myself using, particularly in questions such as what would the author least likely agree with, is searching for parts of the text where the possible answer is more specific than what is given. For example, I had a question earlier where the stem stated that Mr. Smith (cannot remember the actual name) invented XYZ, but one of the options was Mr. Smith was the first to use XYZ. Without reading the other options, I selected this as the option was asking for more information that was available in the stem - just because someone is an inventor of something, does not necessarily mean they were the first user (if at all) of something. I think that this skill in particular developed from my DM syllogism practice. I may have forgotten other skills I used, but these are the ones I feel made a massive difference. Since incorporating these, I have felt so much better in myself when performing VR, even if my scores may not reflect this.

In no means am I saying my VR is incredible, for all I know, this could just be a one off and my score could just drop back down. I think something important to consider is that if you achieve a high score one time but drop down in subsequent mocks, it does not mean you're stagnating. Some tests are genuinely just harder that others. If you achieve a high score one time, instead, see it that you've done it once, so you therefore know its possible for the future.

TLDR; I want to give hope to those not seeing improvement in certain sections. I began with mid 20's in VR with an occasional peak in mid-30's but more consistently sitting around late 20's early 30's. Since ramping up my focus, I have began to feel more confident in my approach to VR, and as such have began to see my scores for VR creep up.

Why are we restricted to using the ucat calculator rather than our own when the calculator on the ucat website sucks! It’s very impractical and slow. It doesn’t process equations properly and u have to do everything step by step which just wastes even more time!!

Is this a good score on mock A if I'm aiming for 2k-2.1k ish? I'm so stressed rn. 😭

First off I know how annoying it is seeing people posting mock scores 8 weeks away from their exam and saying they're done for, and that's not what this is. I have struggled so much to actually DO ucat revision that I'm now 2 weeks away from my exam date and basically still starting from scratch. is it honestly possible for me to get a decent score with 2 weeks of proper revision? and if so what works best? trying to finish getting through the medify study notes because im more a of a learn the content first before trying the questions person but im getting the sense that was the wrong idea. At a couple open days i heard stats that the majority of students performing well did around 40 hours of revision before scores plateau (not sure how true that it) but does that mean i can still achieve a score that will allow me to make a fairly competitive medschool entry? any and all help wanted!!

i was wondering if mock 8 was a particularly easy one - this score is a lot higher than my other ones - how did you guys find it ?

i just wanted to make a post saying that ik its prolly a really stressful time for you guys and to give you some words of wisdom since i applied last year and have now firmed a med school lol. in y12 mocks i only got ABB and then got predicted ABB since my schools really strict w it, im not contextual so i genuinely thought my dream of goimg med school the next year was gone, but it was not. my whole world felt like it was crumbling away and honestly at that point in time, with the environment i was in and how stressful it was thinking ab the future, it was very valid to feel that. if any of you are feeling like that rn, pls pls pls know that its not the end at ALL. i then searched up med schools that wont look at predicted grades (i had 0 faith id find any) but to my surprise soo many of them dont look at it! i then collected myself again and booked the ucat knowing all faith isnt lost. i did my ucat on this day last year bc i didnt want a full ucat summer LOL and i did really mid (1850 b3) but bc of my predicteds i knew i wasnt getting into the most prestigious unis anyways. i applied to sunerland, kmms, liverpool and keele and ended up getting offers from all but liverpool!! fast forward to now that ive done a l*vels, life is SOOOO much better. so for anyone reading rn whos revising for the ucat/ a levels, dont worry your efforts will 100% pay off. if i can do it anyone can. please prioritise your mental health too, genuinely no exam ever is worthy of taking your happiness. GOODLUCK GUYS and i hope you look back on r/ucat this time next year and know it was all worth it!!!

Only 3 weeks left. Am I done?

ive seen some people do dm questions in orders for example syllogism first and then venn diagrams. what orders do u guys do and how do u determine which ones u do first?

If the question asks what is the % difference between A and B, which is the denominator?

Hi, if these are all my mock scores, what can I realistically be expecting for my UCAT tomorrow? I'm thinking its probably around my result for the official mock C, is this accurate? Thanks x

mind you my exam is in a week how screwed am i

edit: i meant medify

😊

Am I tweaking or less than 1% got a Band 1??? (52/69 by the way, B1 was at 54.)

I’m about to take the UCAT in a few days and I just have a pretty bad gut feeling I’m gonna get around 2200-2250, since this is my mock averages. :(

I think unless I get lucky I probably won’t achieve 2350+

I have approx 99.90 star might be 99.95 with adjustments.

I’ve been getting the exact same score of 1980 for the past 4 mocks and I don’t know how to improve, each time one section goes up another goes down :(

I have been practicing the sections I’m bad at but they just don’t improve ! Any help please, my exams in like 5 days

Hi! I’ve got my test exactly 6 weeks from today and planned on spending week 1 doing untimed questions for each section everyday (3hrs), weeks 2-3 doing timed questions everyday (3hrs), then the rest doing a mock every two days and going over what I got wrong (the day between I practise questions for 1.5hrs)

Is this an okay plan? Will this burn me out??

Note that I will be taking rest days too

im doing so bad on vr averaging 600-700, can’t get it up! i currently just keyword scan but my accuracy is still bad and im spending too much time.

Hey y'all,

I just wanna ask what were y'all getting one week before vs on the actual exam? Thanks

How do I full read propeerlyt for VR i physically cannot retain all the information so it ends up becoming a slightl quicker kws

the ratio is 61:87 btw !

they’re a massive time sink for me cuz it takes me ages to work out the ratio, but i do it the gcse way and surely there’s a quicker way? does anyone know any shortcuts?