Looking for ways to improve my UKCAT score! Help!

[Kittyco]

Hi, guys. I am desperately seeking help on how to improve my UKCAT score. To me the most difficult one is the VR as my reading speed is too slow and I find it hard to concentrate on reading while doing the test. And I also find it hard to get the correct answer. Can anyone give me some advice on VR? Thanks.

[Chwirkytheappleboy]

Have you tried books about the UKCAT? They usually have some pretty useful things to day about the VR section... it's all about spotting the premises, assumptions and conclusions of arguments

[xsilent_menacex]

Heya

The best way to prepare for the test is to practice. The 600 UKCAT book was a good investment for me. Not only did it give you loads of practice questions it also gave out loads of helpful advice on how to answer the questions. There are sites on the net, but the answers are not always reliable. Older posts on NMM will have loads of advice and links to useful website. There is also some good info on the student room. just do a google search.

As for tips etc, it differs person to person. I'm dyslexic and have trouble reading, but was given an extra time allowance. The best advice I ccan think of is to practice your reading skills, try skimming through articles picking out important bits of information. Being able to do this in the test conditions is the most important bit. Once you understand how the questions work, it's a doddle

But generally speaking:

Questions that are true are the easiest to get right.
False - must contradict something that is written in the text.
If they aren't true or false then they are 'can't tell'. There must be something missing from the text that is required to answer the question.

Are you having difficulty concentrating on the task because of the time limit? Or just generally trouble concentrating? If that makes sense :S.... sorry been revising solidly the whole week and my brain has kinda turned to mush lol.

Hope it helps.

[nerdman]

Before I took mine I did quite a few psychometric tests online that have pretty similar questions, they were quite helpful. There's also 'onexamination' that seems to help people improve their score because you answer questions in a format more relevant to the actual test, and you can get feedback and re-do questions until you understand how to approach them. But my main resource was just the 600 book- that was an absolute Godsend lol

[InternalOptimist]

Agreed, its all about practice - there are so many tools to help you practice all of the UKCAT assessments, including the VR section. From the 11+ help books (perhaps a little simple) through to the official UKCAT books.
Just like with an exam, the best way to get a good mark is to revise revise revise!

[millietwigg]

I found Passing the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) and BMAT 2009 by Felicity Taylor fairly helpful for an all-round idea of the UKCAT. I did the practice exam on the UKCAT website but didn't find that to be too helpful. I cried having done it, certain that I would fail the exam but if you get a couple of prep books, you will be fine. Practice is key for this exercise!

[Fingers crossed :)]

Hi, guys. I am desperately seeking help on how to improve my UKCAT score. To me the most difficult one is the VR as my reading speed is too slow and I find it hard to concentrate on reading while doing the test. And I also find it hard to get the correct answer. Can anyone give me some advice on VR? Thanks.

I got a similar average 2 years ago and i was seriously dreading having to do it again for entry 2010. (coz i got 4 rejections for 2009 entry)
I would DEFINATELY recommend going to the Kaplan UKCAT Classroom course...i know its quite expensive (just over £200) but the techiques i learnt at it and generally all the advice they gave me was invaluable. I only wish i had known that such a course existed the first time i did ukcat.
if your interested, here's the link: Kaplan - We Build Futures

Oh and if your interested, after i attended the course and redid the ukcat, i got an average of 750! so yea, id say its definately worth going to...although some people seem to think that courses like these are a waste of money! All im saying is I found it really useful!

if you want to know anything else about the course, just ask.

hope this helps and best of luck with your application!

[InternalOptimist]

There are always a range of medical schools, some loving the UKCAT and some who put less emphasis on it. Pick a range if you are scared!

[DLS]

I would contradict the post above and would advise you NOT to go on these courses, I believe what you get for £200 pounds, you can also get by spending £10 on the 600 UkCAT questions book.

In VR it is important to learn the best technique for you, to answer I large proportion of the questions in the alloted time limit. My personal technique was to briefly skim through the text (~30 seconds) and analyse what is being covered in each paragraph. Then reading the questions you should be able to pick out which paragraph the information will be in, and as a result find the answer in a quick time. This is the method recommended in the 600 practice questions book.

Doing general reading may also help you with this, particularly academic related articles from magazines such as new scientist, as these contain the more advanced vocabulary that could be present in the UkCAT

[LauraS]

Hi, guys. I am desperately seeking help on how to improve my UKCAT score. To me the most difficult one is the VR as my reading speed is too slow and I find it hard to concentrate on reading while doing the test. And I also find it hard to get the correct answer. Can anyone give me some advice on VR? Thanks.

I know nearly everyone has said it but the 600 Qs book is AMAZING! I think most people on NMM applying this year used it and I don't think i've heardd anyone complain about it. It has practice quetsions, a full mock test and advice on how to tackle each section. Just work through the book, do the official practice test on the UKCAT website and you'll be fine!