National Education > UCAT

Exam Day UCAT Strategies

(1/2) > >>

A.Rose:
Hi!
I have to do my UCAT exam in July this year in the evening at 6 and I was wondering if there are any good strategies for making sure my performance is still optimal at this time of day? And what kind of things should I do during the day before arriving at the test centre? Obviously, by then I would have done quite a lot of study in the weeks/days before so I presume cramming my day with study isn't a good idea as I want to make sure by the time I have my exam I have energy and I can concentrate and focus. Should I just do a few warm-up questions prior to the exam and mostly relax during the day? Of course, I want to make sure I will be awake and focused but I do want to avoid coffee!  ;D
Any advice for my exam day preparation would be amazing, especially because the time of the exam isn't great but I have to just work with it and I want to make sure I'm giving myself the best chance at performing well on my UCAT.  :)
Thank you!!

Evolio:
Hey A.Rose!   :D

I'm also sitting the UCAT test this July so I've been thinking about this as well:
- Making sure everything you need for the exam is organised the night before. This includes your photographic identification and a printed or electronic copy of your appointment confirmation email
- Arrive early. This is so that you're not stressed about getting late especially if any unforeseen circumstances come up. The UCAT Consortium says that you must arrive at least 30 minutes before your test time to complete the check in process.
- Having a nice, healthy breakfast and making sure you drink water (but not too much)
- I've heard of some past UCAT exam takers going to the test venue before the actual exam, especially if the place is very unfamiliar so that on the actual test day, it doesn't seem that daunting and hopefully you're more comfortable.
- Relating to the above point, make sure you know where to go, planning the travel time etc.
- Sleep early the night before.

In regards to what you should do on the actual day, it depends on you. However, I don't think it would be wise to cram and do heaps of practice questions because as you said, you've done the work in the days leading up to this day, and so I think it's better to keep calm and 'meditative' throughout the day so that you're in a clear and level-headed mindset when it's time to do the UCAT exam.

Here are some helpful links I found which may give more additional info:
UCAT Consortium: https://www.ucat.edu.au/ucat-anz/test-day/
Medentry: https://www.medentry.edu.au/ucat/entry/tips-for-ucat-test-day-and-the-night-before

fun_jirachi:
Hey there!

Just like to add a few more notes:
- Really try to make yourself comfortable before the test; whether that's 'warming yourself up' with a couple of easier questions, taking the day off to grind, or just going about your day normally prior to the test - it doesn't matter because there really is no one way, whatever works for you will make the whole process easier.
- Literally everything Evolio said above - I'd like to emphasise arriving reasonably early, bringing all relevant materials and ID/confirmation, and getting a good night's sleep
- It's important to just back yourself and trust your own ability :) - it's an odd sort of thing when you do the exam you should think about your answers without thinking about them - think to get there, but stop after you've locked it in and trust your hard work!

From personal experience, I had my exam at 3:30, and everyone I knew doing the exam the same day jigged and crammed that last little bit! Some had more success than me, some didn't (make sure you do what works for you!). I just went to school as usual and left football training early to go do the exam, arriving about 30 minutes early.

Any other questions feel free to ask! :)

A.Rose:
Thank you so much! Both of you have given me excellent advice and I really appreciate it.
Yes, I am quite nervous for the exam. Mostly because of the time constraint (particularly for me in quantitative reasoning, I find the time pressure hard).
I am trying to do thorough preparation - a bit during the week and then lots on my weekend and then I'll have two weeks I can completely devote to UCAT in my holidays. I am purely using the free UCAT resources on the website as well as free video tutorials as I decided not to rely on external providers. Hopefully, I can still do well without relying on external resources (and UCAT stressed that they don't endorse these so I'm following with that).
Any other advice with preparation in the lead up to the exam would be greatly appreciated!
So far, I'm thoroughly going through the question banks and mobile app Q's and recording my progress and working on time pressure and then I'll attack the four practise tests from UCAT.
Would I be right in saying, you try and finish the whole test but maybe you have to make guesses for the rest you don't finish due to the time pressure? Also, did you find the actual test to be very similar to the practice tests in terms of difficulty and question type similarity?
Thank you!!!!  :D

angrybiscuit:
Hey there! Just another tip: try to do practice questions near/around the time you're going to sit your UCAT! You mentioned that your time is not ideal which is completely fine, you can of course work around this. Personally, I am very tired at night so I try not to do practice then. My test is at 2 pm so whenever I can I do my practice around that time. This is so that come exam time you won't be fatigued or tired as you are not used to doing questions at that time :)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page