3rd October 2020
UCAT test day: Tips from MedEntry UCAT Prep
MedEntry UCAT Course Tips Relax the night before the UCAT. All of your MedEntry UCAT study should be behind you – cramming at this point will probably do more harm than good. As long as you get a good night’s rest you are allowed to have some fun in the evening before the UCAT. Lay out everything you are going to need when taking the UCAT the night beforehand. This will a ...
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3rd October 2020
UCAT is different from School tests
I am sure you know kids who don’t do so well in school, yet somehow manage to ace tests like UCAT. And you probably know other students who do really well in school, yet when it comes to UCAT, they don’t do nearly as well – and sometimes even bomb the test completely. Why do so many bright students have so much trouble on the UCAT? Because taking the UCAT is nothing like ...
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3rd October 2020
Do girls do better in the UCAT?
Girls in general get better grades in school and university in general than boys - so come on guys, get your act together! But here’s a surprise: boys in general outscore girls in aptitude tests. There may be several reasons for this such as: Boys treat aptitude tests as a game to be beaten and strategise Boys are less likely to be risk averse: an advantage in aptitude tests ...
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3rd October 2020
UCAT and careers teachers
Careers teachers knowledge of and interest in UCAT Preparation varies quite markedly. There are those who go to the trouble of inviting UCAT MedEntry to come and deliver a course in-house at their school. At the other extreme, there are those who do not have time to research UCAT Preparation, and may be critical of its value for various reasons. If you are in a school where the careers te ...
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3rd October 2020
Does UCAT coaching work?
Psychometric tests such as UCAT have been in use in Australia for the last 25 years, but in the US numerous such tests have been in use for well over a century. Coaching organisations are therefore well established there. The officials at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) at Princeton say that they have no objection to the coaching because what is important is that students learn the ski ...
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3rd October 2020
Time management in UCAT
Timing is perhaps the most stress-inducing factor of the UCAT exam. If the UCAT were at take-home test, you would all score well. Managing time is the key. Most of your MedEntry UCAT practice will include timed sections, allowing you to become more familiar and comfortable with the pacing of the exam. The UCAT is not a test of intelligence. Although it is used as a predictor for success in ...
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3rd October 2020
UCAT Prep: Establish your personal scoring goals
Your main goal should be to maximise your potential on the actual UCAT test. Very few students get every question right. You have to be realistic. Strive to work within your own abilities. Students often ask: How does my practice test performance translate to how I will perform on the actual UCAT test? Questions are “graded” for difficulty throughout the MedEntry UCAT prep ...
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3rd October 2020
Why do universities need UCAT scores? Isn’t my ATAR enough?
Good university admissions officers will use your UCAT scores to help them assess your readiness to do tough medical school work. Although the UCAT does not assess broad subject knowledge, it provides a universal benchmark that your high school transcript can’t. It assesses skills that are essential to succeed in a competitive Australian medical school: problem solving, data interpreta ...
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3rd October 2020
Doesn’t the UCAT do a poor job of predicting medical school grades?
UCAT-bashers have long liked to claim that the UCAT isn’t valuable to universities because it doesn’t predict university grades very well. They miss two important points: first, smart university admissions officers don’t want it to predict grades, and second, it correlates very well with something more important than grades—real success in academic fields like medicin ...
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3rd October 2020
Doesn’t the UCAT just measure “test-taking skills”?
Unfortunately, some UCAT prep courses try to convince students that taking the UCAT has nothing to do with real academic skills. They prefer you to believe that it’s all about their test-taking “secrets.” This is great marketing for them, but little help for you. Although there are a few basic test-taking skills that you should know about—process of eliminat ...
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