UCAT Practice - MedEntry Blog

UCAT Practice

Distributed Practice and the UCAT: What you need to know Part 1

Over the last few years the education sector has been rampant with ideals of “studying smarter not harder”, doing “less work for more reward” and a series of other catch phrases that seem too good to be true. Nevertheless, there is one system that eclipses all others in the research conducted, the widespread implementation and the unanimous praise it has received from scientists, psychologists, students and teachers alike: distributed practice.In part one of this two part blog series, we look at what distributed practice means, why it works and why you should implement it for your UCAT study.What is distributed practice?Distributed...

Exclusive UCAT Skills Trainers for all UCAT Subtests!

MedEntry is delighted to offer our students innovative, exclusive UCAT skills trainers for each of the four UCAT cognitive subtests. You will not find anything like our skills trainers on any other UCAT platform.These skills trainers have been developed by an expert team of IT Engineers, academics and high achieving UCAT students.The UCAT skills trainers:Target key UCAT skills that are important to master to boost your UCAT scoreEnable you to compare your performance with other UCAT candidatesAllow you to build up your skills gradually, with beginner, intermediate and advanced levelsCover the skills required to succeed in UCAT Verbal Reasoning, UCAT Decision...

UCAT Practice

UCAT Preparation During Coronavirus - TIP 3: Make the Most of Remote UCAT Learning

The coronavirus pandemic has probably caused a significant change to your life over the past few weeks. In addition to this, there has been a lot of uncertainty regarding the impact of the pandemic on UCAT, UCAT preparation and medical entry. It may have left you feeling overwhelmed or anxious. We at MedEntry are here to help!This blog series covers how to effectively prepare for UCAT during coronavirus and social isolation. The principles outlined in these blogs are also useful for your school and university study.Our last two blogs covered tip 1: Optimise Your Study Environment and tip 2: Create a...

Keyword Scanning Trainer

Most students find UCAT Verbal Reasoning to be the most time pressured subtest. You will have less than 30 seconds to answer each question! An effective strategy to answer UCAT Verbal Reasoning questions correctly is keyword scanning. This involves identifying keywords that appear in the question stem, and scanning the text for them. Reading around the keywords can help you to quickly locate the information required to answer the UCAT question.MedEntry has developed an exclusive Keyword Scanning Trainer, which will help you to train your brain to quickly identify keywords in a passage of text.To use the trainer, select the number...

UCAT Practice

Keeping The Balance

Keeping the balance is something we all struggle with in our final year of schooling, myself included. At the commencement of the year, I jumped into everything. Then, at the end of term one, I crashed, and in term two I tried to do nothing. Neither of these worked for me, and over the remainder of the year I learnt some important lessons about keeping the balance. Not only was I happier and more well-rounded as a result, I was also able to succeed in both UCAT and in my final exams. The golden rule for staying well-rounded is that you...

UCAT Practice

MAKING TIME FOR UCAT: EAT THAT FROG!

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.– Mark TwainBrian Tracy’s 5 minute YouTube video discusses a time management strategy that has changed many people’s lives (including mine!). It discusses time management in the context of the workplace, but the strategy is applicable to HPAT and high school/university study too. This blog summarises the key points. As Mark Twain said, if the first thing you do in the morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that’s probably the worst thing you will do...

UCAT Practice

Persisting Through Underwhelming Marks

Disappointed with your scores? Vinay scored 100th percentile in UMAT (now UCAT) and in this video, he shares his tips for persisting through underwhelming marks.

UCAT Practice

5 steps to balancing UCAT: the extra subject

Year 12 is a busy year – we all know that. However, it can get a whole lot busier if you’re studying for the UCAT as well. It can be like taking an extra subject – one that has no teacher, and there are no deadlines (aside from the exam). In addition, it is an exam for which you cannot cram (sorry to burst your bubble).So how do you manage the meticulous balancing act between not letting your school grades drop, whilst also keeping yourselves in good stead for the UCAT?Planning. Yes, you’ve probably heard it all before, but if you’re...

UCAT Practice

WHY UCAT PRACTICE DOESN’T NECESSARILY MAKE PERFECT

In life, we are told that ‘practice makes perfect’. The more you practice a particular skill, whether it be playing the piano, swimming or writing essays, the better you become at it. So, in theory, it should be the same in UCAT – the more practice questions you do, the better you are at UCAT – right? Not necessarily.Just like any skill, to do well in UCAT you first need a basic understanding of what it is, what it tests and how to approach the various types of questions. Without this understanding, you may still be able to improve by practicing...

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UCAT Practice

Why practice exams are the best UCAT preparation

Be under no illusions: the UCAT is the single hardest and most important test you will ever sit. This is a scary (and for some maybe terrifying) thought. So what can you do to make it less daunting? The answer may seem counter-intuitive: the best way to make UCAT seem do-able is to face it over, and over, and over again. How? By completing high quality, full length trial exams under timed exam conditions.UCAT is scary because it is so different to any other test you have done in school – it is much harder, longer and much more time-pressured, not...

New Feature! Retry your incorrect UCAT exam questions

At MedEntry, we are committed to continuous improvement and constantly strive to improve the services we offer our hard working students. Our Learning Management System is all about you and this feature is another way we personalise your UCAT training. Retry your incorrect UCAT questions Once you have completed a practice exam on the LMS, you can now re-attempt any questions that you answered incorrectly! To retry an exam: 1. Click on the Exams icon in the UCAT course (accessible by clicking the UCAT link in the menu on the top of each page): 2. When an exam has been completed, a "Retry" button will appear on the...

TIME MANAGEMENT: EAT THAT FROG!

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.– Mark TwainBrian Tracy’s 5 minute YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKOMTZ7PPLg discusses a time management strategy that has changed many people’s lives (including mine!). It discusses time management in the context of the workplace, but the strategy is applicable to UCAT and high school/university study too. This blog summarises the key points. As Mark Twain said, if the first thing you do in the morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that’s probably the worst thing you will do...

UCAT Practice

Managing UCAT with other commitments

As many of you would have noticed, UCAT preparation takes time. And I mean a LOT of time! It’s often overwhelming trying to get those practice exams you’d promised yourself to get done as well as study for that first chemistry quiz if you’re in Year 12 or dealing with a cranky boss at work. In many cases, students often lose time, confidence and their interest in UCAT since it simply adds to their already overwhelming workload. So before you start stressing about the UCAT exam, let’s just take a quick look at how you can manage studying for the UCAT without...

UCAT Practice

How to Stay Organised at School/University (and Life in General)

Year 12 is a juggling act between all-important tests and exams with your other commitments, be it sport, music or a part-time job. On top of this, you have to squeeze in quality time for your family, friends and personal relationships. Well, once you leave Year 12, you may find the added pressures of medical school can be overwhelming at times! Here are my trialled-and-tested tips for reining in the chaos that University can be at times. Honestly, if someone had given me these three pointers in my first few weeks at UNSW, it would have made the transition immeasurably easier!...

Set your mind on your mindset

Preparation is key for any exam, and UCAT preparation is no different. But we’ve all had that horrible experience when the nerves hit, and all that preparation is thrown out the window because your brain is more interested in stressing itself out than answering the exam questions. But you can, of course, prepare for that too.1. PracticeSince I’m supposed to be telling you what to do when it feels like preparation isn’t working, you might not expect a synonym for “preparation” to be the top tip. But it is, so hear me out. Nothing is as reassuring as the safety blanket of...

UCAT Practice

Maximise each UCAT practice question (and your study time!)

So you’ve decided to spend x hours per week preparing for the UCAT. Well done on making a commitment! But it doesn’t end there. The next step is to squeeze as much as you can get out of those UCAT preparation hours. One way of doing this and making the questions work for you is to carefully review solutions. When going through UCAT practice questions, it’s very tempting to avoid reading the solutions for one reason or another. As someone who achieved 99th percentile in the UCAT, I’ll try to make a case for reading the solutions all the time. Excuse 1:...

UCAT Practice

Why You Should Be Studying For the UCAT Right Now

Are you all aboard the express train to Procrastination station? Are you experiencing a motivation crisis? Are you just about ready to give up? Well you’re not going to give in to the internet, not this time. I am here to remind you WHY you should be studying for the UCAT right now. The UCAT is one test. If you do well in the UCAT, you will have significant leeway with your high school results, which is not one test but a result based on a series of assessments and a number of different subjects over an entire YEAR! Your UCAT is an...

UCAT Practice

Improving your UCAT skills in VR, DM and QR

Rather than assessing your knowledge, the UCAT is an exam which isolates certain deductive skills that will be important in work as a doctor and requires you to apply them in various scenarios. Therefore, if you wish to succeed in the UCAT, you will need to nurture these skills, sharpen them and know exactly when to use them. If your eager mind has begun this uphill climb towards UCAT success and if you have thoroughly scoured the LMS and still seek ways to better your logical reasoning, this guide will show you how.Logical Reasoning & Problem Solving questions in the UCAT (in...

UCAT Practice

Planning time for UCAT preparation

A very common question asked by aspiring medical students is “How do you balance your school work and UCAT practice?” Given that the UCAT can be equally or even more important as the ATAR in the medical school selection process, it is crucial that students devote sufficient time in preparing for the UCAT, without neglecting their year 12 studies.The key to finding this balance is planning your time. Many students attempt to fit in UCAT study in their ‘spare time’, which is hard to find in year 12. It is more productive to set aside blocks of time which are specifically...

UCAT Practice

Making Friends with UCAT Practice

In the game of UCAT practice, consistency beats brilliance. It is important that we not wait until we have lots of motivation before we start practicing. Good UCAT skills come about in the context of practicing in a more routine and ordinary manner, rather than sporadic bursts of insight. The goal should be gaining meaningful and valuable UCAT skills every time you practice. Expecting anything more may create too much pressure and lead to debilitating blocks and limitations. To be successful at the UCAT, you need to develop UCAT practice as a practice or discipline.UCAT = Meditation?In this sense, UCAT practice...

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