3 Steps to UCAT Success
4 months ago by Rob
Preparing for UCAT can seem overwhelming. It can be difficult to know how to best prepare for UCAT and how to utilise your precious study time.
Over the last two decades, MedEntry has developed an unrivalled understanding of the strategies used by the highest performers to tackle aptitude tests and get into medicine. This blog describes three steps to succeeding in UCAT.
1. Simulate the UCAT testing environment
It is vital in your UCAT preparation that you simulate the live UCAT as closely as possible. Most importantly, this involves completing full length UCAT exams under timed conditions. UCAT is one of the toughest, most time-pressured tests you will ever sit. The only way UCAT will become more manageable is if you challenge yourself to sit it under timed conditions over and over again.
Another important way to simulate the live UCAT is to ensure you complete questions on an accurate UCAT simulated platform. MedEntry’s platform simulates the live UCAT exactly, so sitting the live UCAT will just be like sitting any UCAT practice test! Don’t fall into the trap of practicing on a poor quality UCAT platform, or even worse, practicing on printed books. This sort of preparation will not help you on UCAT test day.
Ideally, you should also simulate the UCAT in other ways, including completing UCAT exams on a desktop computer, with a keyboard, mouse and simulated UCAT Noteboard (available at MedEntry workshops). The more closely you simulate the live UCAT, the better prepared you will be for UCAT test day.
2. Reflect on your UCAT performance
The highest performers don’t just complete UCAT questions over and over again. Instead, they take a few minutes to reflect.
So, after sitting a UCAT practice exam, set aside 5 minutes to consider what went right, what went wrong, and how to improve your performance before the next UCAT test. Record your thoughts, so you can refer back to them. MedEntry students gain access to a performance report after each UCAT exam, facilitating this process.
The most successful students also reflect on each UCAT question they answered incorrectly, and they think about why. Was it lack of an effective UCAT strategy? Poor UCAT timing? Poor UCAT guessing technique? MedEntry students can log and analyse their mistakes in an exclusive error log.
Reflection allows you to create a plan for improvement, which will help you boost your performance, and prepare for UCAT in the most time-efficient way.
3. Discuss
This the most overlooked part of the UCAT preparation process, but it is potentially the most valuable. Discussion of UCAT questions has many benefits. Not only is it social, but it is also a very effective UCAT preparation strategy. A common theme among high achievers is that they prepared for UCAT in a group of other students.
Group study for UCAT has many benefits:
- Explaining your thought processes can help you clarify your own approach to UCAT questions
- You can learn or reinforce strategies and tips for each UCAT subtest by hearing others’ views
- You can share your UCAT worries to relieve stress.
You can form a UCAT study group by attending a MedEntry UCAT course, or joining one of our UCAT social media groups to connect with other, like-minded students.
Good luck and keep up your UCAT prep!
