The UCAT: How it wentActually, I don't think I ever properly mentioned here that my UCAT test date was the 25th of July. That means that yesterday, I FINALLY completed probably the most difficult test I've ever had to prepare for (AMEB theory probably feels boycotted by that statement xd). Overall, I'm
extremely EXTREMELY happy with my score: I never thought I'd ever come even close to what I got on the real thing. After months and months and admittedly, a straight week doing nothing but 9 hours of UCAT a day, I can't express the relief of finishing this first step to med. I'm writing now because whys' extremely comprehensive description of the UCAT experience was a huge source of comfort for me so I've been inspired to make this gigantic update that hopefully will at least be a bit of ~themed entertainment~ for anybody who's scheduled to do it in the next two weeks hehe.
Now for the REVEAL (prob the only thing anyone will read):
AHH RESULTS
Verbal Reasoning: 700
Decision Making: 740
Quantitative Reasoning: 830
Abstract Reasoning: 800
Total: 3070
Situational Judgement: 623
I'm still shocked beyond words... from when I decided to just take the UCAT because 'wHy nOt' to realising that I really wanted to try and give it all, I don't think I ever, ever expected this. It's so surreal, that now instead of having dreams about AR shapes looming over my head, I might actually have a chance at an interview (?!??$#$?E34) which is already more than I ever would've thought possible. T^T
VROn the whole, VR was definitely a bit difficult. The first text I had to read was about the Tet Offensive and
man, it was NOT a very forgiving start to the exam. All the questions on it demanded a pretty detailed understanding of the information and I think two asked for implied motivations, which ngl escalated my heart rate quite a lot. 14 minutes remaining, and I'm still on Q17. At that point, I became frantic, trying to get through the multi-paragraph Incan artefacts text wall, which eventually I just abandoned because god knows I'm not going to remotely understand let alone remember an Incan code's ciphering timeline with 12 minutes on the clock. After that text, I still think I did get a
reasonably (reasonable for UCAT LOL) gratuitous paper in that a lot of the true/false was very straightforward; however I definitely struggled with the time and had to guess around 4-5 questions. I'm not sure if it was also because of exam stress, but for comparison I certainly found the real thing slightly harder than official mock A.
DMOH no. Given that this was always my best subtest, I didn't go nearly as well on DM as I had imagined, although I'm still quite satisfied with how I did. Something that definitely threw me off was the syllogisms; as Passmedicine (which doesn't include multi-answer syllogisms in DM) was my only source of practice questions other than the official banks, I definitely wasn't accustomed enough and it came as a bit of extra time pressure as well. With VR as well, I've always found it hard to distinguish between yes/no/can't tell, because??? if something isn't stated but implied???
HELP Thankfully, I got through the paper with relative ease otherwise; the numerical-based questions were really easy and I remember everything looking really familiar, which was so reassuring. Looking back, I really wish I'd started using the official questions much earlier on; maybe it would've made a little difference to my score. But oh well, still happy with it
QRI definitely went into this nervous as HECK. I even conducted a mechanical keyboard heist (sorry to my brother) at like 11 pm the night before just to test the numpad again: I was scared beyond imagination that I would freeze up and forget how to type properly under all the exam stress. To be completely honest, I might've considered wearing ski gloves to the exam venue (which I actually bought and wore to a piano exam when I was 12- I've never been skiing xd) to be extra safe but decided that was maybe a little bit too ridiculous,
even for me. There were no tax questions, no weirdly complicated data plots; it was so easy to understand and I actually kind of cruised through this subtest. I finished with a whole 3:14 (pi) minutes left and I definitely felt it was going to be a lot better than my mocks. Turns out it was! I still find it... just shocking that what was once my worst section that I scored 4 4 0 on one time (no no you heard nothing) was actually my best one on the real thing.
ARBy the time I reached AR, I really didn't even feel nervous anymore. Maybe it's the fact that AR has the shortest time allocation, but by then I was starting to think I had AR under control. Besides, I did okay on the mocks, which were reputedly harder than the real thing, so it couldn't be that bad right? And thank god the odds were definitely in my favour yesterday. I wasn't sure of my performance just after; I'd been predicting maybe a 700, because there was this one pattern that I couldn't fully get despite coming back to it to spend 4 minutes on it ALONE so I started to seriously doubt the credibility of my other choices. Certainly it wasn't a bad experience because most of the patterns were super typical; shape, colour, number of sides, all things you'd find in those AR most common acronyms on Medify. On the whole, I didn't find time pressure too bad because I got lucky with all those easy 'two black, three white' type patterns that let me just fly through a lot of the test, so that was a huge relief xd.
SJT[clown voice] I will admit, after I found out that SJT isn't really important and doesn't contribute to your cognitive score, I totally just sidelined it. On the real thing too, I read and filled in everything but just finished the exam before time was up (I think many, many people had the same idea tbh xd). Before I really approached the pointy end of my preparation, SJT was kind of fun and I'd always use to take a break from VCE stuff or the harder subtests... because it's still technically revision right?? RIGHT? (say right) Anyways, despite clowning this section, I'm not really fussed about it and not surprised either (who needs social skills what are those anyway) HAHAH.
What a monster of an entry; sorry in retrospect to anybody who actually trudged through that mess. To everyone who's still awaiting judgement day (xd jks), I wish you the
absolute BEST OF LUCK!! You're gonna roll into that computer lab and think to yourself,
why did I worry about doing the same two questions I've seen all year? Piece of cake. Stay calm and smash that UCAT, it's got nothing on you.