ucat- does it get better over time? i need motivation

[dedformed]

Hello there,

I'm sitting next year's UCAT and currently have really poor mock results. I'm trying not to lose hope but it's really demoralising to prep constantly and still get a low (and I mean very low) percentile. I'm scared that even if I improve significantly I'll still be stuck in the 60th percentile (currently, the best I can manage is a 30th) Is this true for everyone? People who sat it this year: how much did you improve from your first trial?

[Hello132]

Hello there,

I'm sitting next year's UCAT and currently have really poor mock results. I'm trying not to lose hope but it's really demoralising to prep constantly and still get a low (and I mean very low) percentile. I'm scared that even if I improve significantly I'll still be stuck in the 60th percentile (currently, the best I can manage is a 30th) Is this true for everyone? People who sat it this year: how much did you improve from your first trial?

Hi there!

Having sat the UCAT myself this year (scoring 3000+), I thought I'll give you and other med/dent hopefuls some advice. Currently with your results, you would not be eligible for a place yet alone an interview. (unless you are rural/indigenous). HOWEVER, you do have time to improve. First and foremost, REALLY assess your motivations to pursue medicine or dentistry. This is because you will have to put in A LOT of work to improve your scores and you do need an extremely strong drive. If after you've had a good think about why you want to study medicine, its time to get stuck into the UCAT.

What I'm about to say not only applies to the UCAT but also in life. If you try a certain thing and you continue to do poorly or it continues to fail, then it is an obvious sign that what you are doing is not working and so its time to change it up.

Initial preparation:
1. How are you going about doing this? Are you just jumping straight into doing mock exams/practice questions? If you have answered yes to this question then you are going about it in a very ineffective and inefficient way. FORGET everything you've done and first understand what the UCAT is and how it goes about testing different cognitive skills. (you can find this info on the UCAT ANZ website, Youtube videos, med forums etc).
Just as a very generalised and basic view: Verbal Reasoning (tests your ability to extract relevant information from texts and make inferences), Decision Making (tests your ability to come to logical conclusions and reason your way around answers), Quantitative Reasoning (tests your ability to apply maths in problem solving), Abstract Reasoning (tests your ability to recognise patterns etc), Situational Judgement (your ability to make ethical decisions)

2. Familiarise yourself with the format of the exam E.g. length, number of questions, different subsections

3. Learn the different questions types that are under each subsection

4.  Start with some untimed practice, get used to answering the questions. Try to fit in just 10 questions a day for each section and you will see a drastic improvement over time

Note: all this information can be found on the UCAT ANZ website and other forums. This initial stage should take the longest amount of time to really learn these skills


Exam preparation:
1. When you feel comfortable with what the UCAT tests and what the different sections and types of questions are then you ready to do exam practice

Simulate exam conditions; straight 2 hours, no breaks, quiet environment, no food/drink etc. (This should probably done in the few months closer to the exam)

2. Start to reflect on your mistakes and why you made those mistakes (this is most important step): Really analyse how you went about doing the questions, how you felt etc and really try to implement ways to minimize those mistakes. For example: reading the question, then reading the text etc
(This will be up to your own individual learning preferences and is something you will find from experimenting and practising)

3. In the weeks leading the exam, know every detail of how the exam day will work E.g. directions to place, what to wear etc. Simulate your final exams EXACTLY (recommended) E.g. wearing what you going to wearing on the day, waking up at the same time you will on the day etc (this might seem trivial but every little detail will contribute to whether you succeed or not)

Final comments: The UCAT is not the be all and end all, there is always post-graduate entry and you can always take a gap-year. If you are absolutely set on medicine/dentistry as a career, then you should be resilient and keep working towards your goals. Be realistic, only 10% of candidates achieve a 90th percentile and above; however, do not let this kick you down if you do not achieve your goals. But ultimately, this is but one chapter in your life and try to understand that. Do your best; but if your best is not enough, then alas, there is nothing much to do but try to better next time. Hope this is insightful and inspirational.

[Hello132]

Just adding to my previous post, anecdotal evidence of my journey doing the UCAT will hopefully gives some inspiration/motivation.

With one week leading up to the exam, I was still scoring 500-600 on the abstract reasoning section and I thought I was just going to stuff up my UCAT and ruin my chances at getting into medicine. But rather than just give up, I thought about my motivations to study medicine and realised if I did not pick up my game and try something else, I was not going to get in. And so, I literally spent all week (8-10 hours a day) changing up how I approached this section. I spent hours memorising common patterns and writing literally hundreds of patterns I've seen before with the hopes of priming myself to recognise these on the day. After sitting the UCAT, I opened my results and to my surprise, what was once my worst scoring section, turned out to my best section, scoring close to 900 out of 900. And so the lesson in this, is not to not give up hope and that you can improve if you really put your mind to it. Whilst in hindsight, I do not recommend what I did (simply because it was incredibly difficult and definitely superfluous), I do recommend having that mindset whereby you either sink or you swim. If your heart is truly set out on medicine/dent, do what ever it takes (as long as its legal

[dedformed]

Thanks for your advice, and congrats on that score! I hope you achieve the goals you're set for:)

I'm well aware my current results aren't anything close to what I need to get in; I've tried working on my skills and struggle with time. Your post was very inspiring and I hope to work efficiently (and legally!) to get where I want to.