UCAT third party tutors - worth it?

[dedformed]

Hello peeps,

Being an aspiring med student I get two million ads from everywhere telling me about deals on UCAT packages from medentry/ icanmed/ medify/ other companies. Can someone who's used these tell me about their experience with them, and if you've used multiple, which one would you recommend? I'm sitting it next year (for 2022 entry) and am debating between whether I should purchase practice exams (ebooks from, say, Kaplan) or get the packages offered by tutoring companies.

Thanks!
penelope

[james.358]

I finished my UCAT now, and from my personal experience and what I see from my friends, Medify is by the best, and they're the most popular for a good reason. They have lots of tutorials teaching you how to approach the questions, and also a comprehensive question bank for literally every question style you will encounter.

*Edited from original response reflecting my wiser, post UCAT thoughts

[markmorstentine]

I personally would only recommend medify, due to it actually being based of the Ukcat which is identical to the UCAT, but has been going for more years, so they have more experience. I didn't do much UCAT prep and still got 89th percentile (not the best, but not the worst), however I used my friends medify account 2 days in advance and it really helped me to get a good grasp on the content. Also they used multiple companies like ICM and medentry and all agreed medify was the best.

[whys]

If you’re going for a paid resource then I recommend Medify. I did the UCAT this year (I’ve posted some tips and my experience on my journey journal further back and on the UCAT experiences thread) and purchased several resources, none as good as Medify. I would steer away from Australian companies since UCAT was only recently introduced, Medify has collated their question bank over many years and has the best one in my opinion. However, don’t feel pressured to buy paid resources, there are some great free ones and the ones you should be using the most are the official question banks and mock exams from the UCAT website. I really don’t think tutoring is necessary. Most people who did well that I know of didn’t do tutoring. UCAT is based on your practice, and the more you do the better you’ll get, tutors won’t help with much for this unless you find yourself struggling and might need one or two lessons to get you on track or something. Unlikely you’d find yourself in that situation, anyhow, there are some great youtube videos and websites that talk about different strategies that can help you develop your own.

All the best!

EDIT: fixed some typos

[dedformed]

Overall I definitely recommend the ICM course, but Medify is also not bad (but DON'Tgo to MedEntry whatever you do )

Thanks james.lhr! Is there a specific reason why you don't like medentry?

[dedformed]

Thanks whys! Been following your journal for a while (inspired me to start my own lol)

If you’re going for a paid resource then I recommend Medify. I did the UCAT this year (I’ve posted some tips and my experience on my journey journal further back on on the UCAT experiences thread) and purchases several resources, none as good as Medify.

I'm debating between medify and icanmed - my friend used icanmed earlier in the year and she found it useful, but I agree that medify must have more relevant sources.

[whys]

Thanks james.lhr! Is there a specific reason why you don't like medentry?

MedEntry’s QR question bank was notoriously difficult and didn’t emulate the real thing at all, but other than that it wasn’t too bad I guess. I’d only purchase MedEntry if you’ve got nothing left to do and have done all the free resources and practice exams, as well as all the questions and mocks on Medify. I only really used MedEntry for their mock exams and didn’t even finish them, so found it a waste of money. That might partially be because I didn’t plan out my revision and just did the UCAT whenever I felt like it, leaving a lot of mocks incomplete. That being said, MedEntry can be a last resort purchase if need be, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

[fun_jirachi]

If you’re going for a paid resource then I recommend Medify. I did the UCAT this year (I’ve posted some tips and my experience on my journey journal further back and on the UCAT experiences thread) and purchased several resources, none as good as Medify. I would steer away from Australian companies since UCAT was only recently introduced, Medify has collated their question bank over many years and has the best one in my opinion.

I did UCAT last year - and all my peers/friends literally said the exact same thing. Chills

I don't have experience to call upon for this one, though - but seeing the amazing replies above and seeing that backing up my memories, hopefully this helps you make a more informed decision

However, don’t feel pressured to buy paid resources, there are some great free ones and the ones you should be using the most are the official question banks and mock exams from the UCAT website. I really don’t think tutoring is necessary. Most people who did well that I know of didn’t do tutoring. UCAT is based on your practice, and the more you do the better you’ll get, tutors won’t help with much for this unless you find yourself struggling and might need one or two lessons to get you on track or something. Unlikely you’d find yourself in that situation, anyhow, there are some great youtube videos and websites that talk about different strategies that can help you develop your own.

100% agree. I wouldn't have replied to this thread given the already diverse range of amazing answers - but I think it's really important to note that self-development is really important here. The best services you can get will be the ones that match up to how you develop or are planning to develop. It may not necessarily be the one everyone recommends, but it's something point out. Tutors and notes also can't be in the exam helping you out, so it's important to do some (as a minimum) development on your own. Essentially, think about it as 'would I do the same for any other school subject?' (it's obviously not the same, but an important consideration nevertheless)

Also, UCAT companies provide a service, but they are still a company that needs revenue - some companies will overcharge you and have no qualms about it. Don't feel pressured to spend if you don't want to - and if you do choose to pay, do it of your own volition and make sure you are paying a fair price.

Hope this helps

[Sk1pper_SK]

I have got MedEntry, Medify and ICanMed.
Personally, I found ICanMed too tedious and requried too much effort.
This is why I bought another course. I really liked Medify as it allowed me to quickly learn the content and do practice questions. An added benefit is that every everything is typed out. This allowed me to quickly learn the content and made me want to do the UCAT course rather than writing out glossaries.
However, ICanMed is a good course and I think it will work if you are willing to spend a lot of time on UCAT.
The course is well structured but I feel it was not the best for me. I felt medentry was easy to navigate and had good questions. However, after my friends recommended medify, I begun to use it.