Terrified - someone help!!

[JordanUK]

Does anyone know what universitys really like to take the UKCAT score to heart and which ones dont really mind to much?

[sara7000]

OMG I've just looked at your post Sara! An hour a day? You would get like 900! Do half an hour in the week up to it maybe? You would be insane if you did that, the computer would be on fire! Oh yeh and dont listen to what they say about it being innate ability and you can't revise. You can revise for it and you should do a bit if you want to do your best. But not too much!

I would be on mars if i get 900 lolzzz in half an hour i get NOTHING DONE yesterday i did like 17 of those stupid true and false and got 7 correct, i wanted to cry but obv can't in the school library:'(

[sara7000]

im even thinking of postponing my test, itis on the 25th of July.........I can't do it, no self belief here........any encouragement welcome?

[Nurse_to_doctor]

Hi,

Prepare as best you can, then go for it, sara7000. You have Highers in Math, Bio. Chem. and physics, so you should have oodles of self belief!

Everyone finds UKCAT hard; that’s the point, after all. Some people on here get very high scores, but they’re the exception. A 900 score is almost abnormal Most people get between 500 and 600 – the average of us intelligent peeps (and we are intelligent, don’t forget – otherwise we would not be applying for medicine with qualifications in the ‘hard’ sciences). We should aim for 600+ I think, with 650 a good score and 700 being (probably) ideal.

Do the best you can. However, don’t go into the test worrying and anxious about your ability. If you do, then your score will go down, accordingly.

I’m doing GAMSAT, which is a bit of a nightmare. Preparing for GAMSAT is taking up a large part of my spare time Working full-time, as a specialist nurse and trying to prepare!

Good luck with UKCAT in July.

N2D

[beatrix7]

What I meant by don't do too much is don't spend too much time practicing UKCAT when you are still doing A Levels or Highers, it would hurt if your grades dropped because you allocated too much time to this.

Sara don't worry! The fact that you are worrying means that like a lot of people you are not just going too walk into the exam without practising. I wouldn't postpone it, just do your best, which it sounds like you will do and it will be fine! When you get in there think quickly and like a boy in that you just think of one thing when it is on the screen and when it is gone get it out of your head and focus really quicly on the next thing (apparently this is how boys think, but really does anyone?) it is tiring but try to keep your concentration up, check the time and force yourself to think positive. The fact that is was the school library didn't stop me from crying in there. The librarians make you tea, so next time don't hold back........

[justice]

dont stress about it and make sure you do all the practise questions on the internet a few times over - the no.1 most important thing to do in the exam is to GUESS AND FILL IN ALL THE ONES YOU DONT KNOW AND RUN OUT OF TIME FOR - you wouldnt believe the number of people who leave a third of teh questions blank and lose points they could have got from guessing.
also JordanUK- some unis do use it more than others- newcastle use it alone to determine who gets interviewed and who doesnt - notts seem to take it into account as a cut off somewhere, whilst leicester barely use the results at all (basically everyone uses it for something else)
-anything above 640 and up is good enough for anywhere indergrad tbh but getting abovve this wont help you any more- the ukcat works as a cut off for interview and when you get there a score of 850 is no more use in terms of getting an offer than one of 670 for example

[Giggy]

Don't get too wrapped up in the UKCAT website sample questions. the sections for quantitative reasoning and abstract reasoning are as a general rule much harder than what will come up in the actual test. On the practice test I did abysmal at these two sections, on the the actual test they were my strongest two at 780 and 880 respectively.

Do as many practice questions as you can, get used to the format and doing them quickly.

I am doing the exam for a third time this July. I did it in 2007 for my initial application, I was rejected but accepted an offer for Medical Biochemistry at Leicester. There is a chance to apply for a transfer into year 1 of Leicester Medical School if we got a first in our first year but it requires retaking the UKCAT. I misunderstood the info and took it again in 2008, in reality they want people to do it in 2009. I just got my results back for this year on my course and got 77%, i will be taking the UKCAT again this July.

[speedystef]

I am going to book my UKCAT soon now hoping that I get a better result than last year which was 600. The scoring system is very weird, I only got through 22 out of 40 questions in the QR section and it returned me a score of 770 :S.
I just have to say I thought the section was horrible lots of questions involving relative arrivals of trains, just didn't think the timing was sufficient at all. Then in my AR section I answered all of the questions and thought I had done ok but i only got a score of 620 back :/.
It's all very weird but try not to panic to much about it and just try your best especially in the VR section wtih regards to reading the passages quickly! Best of Luck :P:P