UKCAT books for preparation

[nikusm]

While UKCAT is different from the BMAT in the sense that it is more of an aptitude skill, practice, unlike many would say, allows you to score higher, even if add 10 or 100 points on average.
So then I ask, as I did on the BMAT books thread which book would you recommend for preparing the UKCAT?

[conorcd]

I used the The Student Room - Announcements in Forum : Medicine, all of the 4 books and bought kaplan stuff thru ebay.

[nikusm]

Didn't know there is a kaplan book. Now I see there is that Kaplan UKCAT Strategy Book....mia culpa

[conorcd]

oh I also have a book called Succeeding In The Ukcat 2009 by M Green which was good.

[nikusm]

How many books do you have? :|
Which one do you think is the best?

[a-parsons]

I sat the UKCAT at the end of August.

I did not read a single book on it.

I did not prepare in any other way.

I got 720|780|780|700.

Conclusion: The books are uneccesary. Don't waste your money - it is a glorified IQ test, not a science exam. There wasn't a single question on the entire exam that I think I would have done better on had I revised. The most you should do before sitting it is to familiarise yourself with the question style - it threw me a little that the exam made you rush so much, and gave so much pointless information during the question. But I suppose that is meant to simulate getting a patient's story from them...

[Drnic]

I never used any, and wouldn't use any. It's an aptitude test and the books are jus very speculative to how it works an how you answer, but in the end its only your ability which will judge your mark at the end. So don't waste your money

[nikusm]

Well yeah, I know it's an aptitude test and all that. But it's that Abstract Reasoning I just don't know how answer. Does anyone have a clue?

[a-parsons]

I supposy the answer you are looking for is more than "Abstractly"...

But yeah, this isn't exactly an easy section... Here's my method for doing it (and I scored 780 on this section, so I'm going to go ahead and say this method works...):

Identify the linking factor in group A. Once you have it identified, look for a similar link in group B (it will always be a very similar link). Then look to see which of these links with your question picture.

The most common links used (in my personal experience) are:

Number of lines. A circle would be 1 line, a triangle 3, a square 4 etc.
Number of intersections. 2 circles overlapping would have 2 intersections. 3 circles overlapping might have 4 or 6 intersections, depending on their placement.
Third dimensional order. You can sometimes identify if one shape is "on top" of another shape. The connection might be that one group has a single shape as a deffinitive top layer, whilst another has 2 shapes that are on the top.
Colour patterns. This one is very rare, as it is pretty obvious to spot - you might always get a black shape with a white shape on it (or a hole cut out, depending on how you look at it. :L). Don't worry about this one, it is often the most obvious if it IS the connection.

[nikusm]

a-parson...you got good scores are you graduate?