Glasgow opinion: UKCAT?

[lingz87]

Heya guys,

Hope you're all well, and looking forward to starting at Glasgow next year!! I'm on the BMA Intra School Committee at Glasgow, and we would really like some of your views on the UKCAT entry exam. It wasn't around when I was applying for medicine, which seems like a lifetime ago!

So do let us know your opinions on the UKCAT; if you or anyone you know at your school were put off applying to medicine by its cost; whether you received any funding for the test; whether you felt it is the right way of choosing applicants; if you felt increased stress because of it; or if you liked it and felt more emphasis should be placed on it, do let us know!

Thanks a lot,

Ling Zhang
Glasgow BMA ISC


P.S. All 1st year medics get one year of free membership to the BMA, which consists of a monthly subscription to the studentsBMA magazine and the students BMJ, as well as a whole range of discounts and freebies! You can find out more about the benefits of joining at http://www.bma.org.uk/join

[jaykay]

I think you will find that generally people did not like the ukcat
Personally the money didn't really worry me as it was a small price for getting to study medicine, but i can see why people wouldn't like it and it was slightly annoying, especially when the prices changed depending on when you did it - thus making people rush into it before the price increases.

I think the test did generally mirror ability- i.e on the whole cleverer people got higher marks but of course there are always exceptions to this, and the fact that you could study for the test discredited it as a real aptitude test.

The biggest flaw with it has to be the fact that basically 40% of the test was not even used which is totally unacceptable after the price paid for it and all the worrying that people did.

Overall i think they need to go back to the drawing board with this idea, as the ukcat does not really seem to have any significance on the whole in Scotti unis, though having said that i believe 2 people form my school my have been rejected without interview due to their ukcat score. Applicants should be told more about the test so that they don't waste time applying to a uni which will not accept them with a low ukct score

[memyselfandalan]

I completely agree with everything jaykay said about the UKCAT test. Every time I got an email from them you knew it was to remove another section. On the website it tells you not to revise for the test, just to complete the practise questions, but if you type UKCAT into the internet up pops many preparation courses for the test. Does that really make it fair? I live in the Highlands so there would be no chance of me being able to attend a class for the UKCAT so does that make me disadvantaged when it comes to sitting the test if others have done these courses? However, I sat the test for free as I am receipt of EMA and I thought that was very sensible as money shouldn't be a barrier to entering medicine!