Checklist: Are you UCAT Ready? 10 Essentials for UCAT Success
3 months ago by Rob
With UCAT rapidly approaching, many students begin to madly grind out UCAT questions, without pausing to consider their overall plan of attack for UCAT. It is important that you take a few moments to reflect and check that you are indeed UCAT ready. This blog outlines a checklist of 10 essential tasks to complete before your UCAT test day.
1. Check your ID
Acceptable identification is vitally important for UCAT test day. If you do not have acceptable identification, you will not be able to take your UCAT test. Confirm that your identification document is unexpired and that the name and date of birth on the document exactly matches the details you provided to Pearson VUE. Not all forms of identification are accepted – ensure you double check the UCAT official website for details on what can be used on UCAT test day.
2. Review Official UCAT information
Ensure that you have thoroughly read all the information on the Official UCAT ANZ website relating to UCAT. If you feel you do not have time to do this, ask a trusted person (e.g. parent, sibling or friend) to read through the information and note down important points. Also ensure you have worked through the practice resources on the Official UCAT ANZ website (including full length UCAT exams and UCAT subtest question banks).
3. Understand key strategies to optimise UCAT performance
Ensure you are aware of key strategies to boost your UCAT score, including how to:
- Effectively make educated guesses for UCAT questions, and use the process of elimination
- Flag and review UCAT questions efficiently
- Manage your time for each UCAT subtest
- Use your UCAT Noteboard and pen effectively (you will have received one from the MedEntry workshop)
- Use UCAT keyboard shortcuts to save time, including use of the keyboard numberpad for the calculator
- Use the UCAT calculator efficiently
4. Learn key strategies for UCAT Verbal Reasoning
Ensure you are aware of key strategies for UCAT Verbal Reasoning, including speed reading, scanning for keywords, watching out for negatives and qualifiers, and developing a critical thinking mindset.
5. Brush up on UCAT Decision Making skills
Check that you have an approach that works for you for each type of question in the UCAT Decision Making subtest. Also ensure that you understand basic probability, how Venn diagrams work and the principles of logical reasoning.
6. Know how to answer UCAT Quantitative Reasoning questions quickly
Ensure that you are aware of key strategies for UCAT Quantitative Reasoning, including how to ‘eyeball’ data, make estimates, look for short cuts, use your mental maths skills and avoid over-reliance on the UCAT calculator.
7. Develop UCAT Abstract Reasoning skills
Check that you know the commonest patterns that arise in the UCAT Abstract Reasoning subtest, and consider having a mnemonic to help you remember them. Ensure you have a framework for approaching each type of UCAT Abstract Reasoning question.
8. Understand the principles of UCAT Situational Judgement
Ensure you are aware of key principles of medical ethics and professionalism. Check that you have read (or at least scanned through) a document such as the GMC’s Good Medical Practice.
9. Complete UCAT practice exams under timed conditions
Make sure you have completed at least 3 additional UCAT practice exams (ideally more) under timed, simulated conditions on an accurate UCAT platform, such as MedEntry’s. Ideally these should be completed on a desktop computer with a separate keyboard and mouse, to best simulate the UCAT testing experience.
10. Manage stress and optimise your UCAT performance
Ensure you know and apply psychological strategies to manage UCAT stress and boost UCAT performance. These are covered in detail in MedEntry’s UCAT courses.
Good luck and happy preparing!
