Online UKCAT question banks

**hayleyr** · 18-08-2012, 10:40 PM

Hi everyone!

Was wondering if anyone new about any decent online ukcat question subscribtions like those found on emedica, acemedicine and so on.

Also wanted to know if there is any point in getting them atall...is a few ukcat books (which i do have) sufficient ? or is it worth giving these type of subscriptions a go?

If anyone has subscribed in the past and knows if they do actually give alot of help.

Also, i am taking my exam in a months time so i dont actually have a lot of time.. a lot of the subscriptions are over a month long!!

Be grateful for any advice

Thanks

**jcak** · 18-08-2012, 11:27 PM

I used the 600q book a little bit, mostly the "How to Master the UKCAT" book, and practiced on the official tests periodically, but used the UKCAT Revision - UKCAT questions and support from UKCATPrep.com from Emedica a lot and they were incredibly helpful. I doubt I would have got such a good score without using Emedica. I would fully recommend finding a bank of questions which you can just plough through. Even if they don't help, the £25 or whatever it will cost is minimal considerign it COULD help you get a place at medical school.

Good luck!

**hayleyr** · 19-08-2012, 12:27 PM

hey
thank you for that
i ve just subscribed to the emedica questions!
another question.. how long were you revising for the ukcat before you took it?

**jcak** · 19-08-2012, 02:54 PM

I spent maybe 2-4 hours every other day for about 3-4 weeks, and before that about an hour a day using a book (How to Master the UKCAT) just reading through questions.

The more time you spend the easier it gets! Good luck!

**hayleyr** · 20-08-2012, 08:02 PM

I ve been doing the emedica questions...are all the questions in all 4 sections exactly the same level of difficulty than the actual exam? Becuase at the moment, the questions dont seem too bad - but I dont wantt to fall in a false sense of security!!

**jcak** · 20-08-2012, 08:28 PM

No, the QR I think everyone has found slightly easier than the practice they've been doing anywhere so far. The VR and AR is pretty similar to emedica's, I still found the new style multiple choice (non true/false/can't tell) questions harder than I anticipated in the actual exam though.

Finally, the DA. I expected good things from this as I had previously got 710 in the 2009 application year, I was getting consistently 90-100% in the official tests and good results on the emedica tests. The actual exam however really screwed me. I got 620 and had to guess the last 3 questions. They were so much longer than any of the practice ones I had, and the answer sentences were all pretty much EXACTLY the same! Emedica was helpful, but not enough for that section. I haven't found a resource yet which was even on par to the questions I got, so maybe my exam was anomalous and I just had all the randomly hard questions, but I'd say DA is the only section in which UKCAT Revision - UKCAT questions and support from UKCATPrep.com was slightly under performing.

I wouldn't say it's possible to lure yourself into a false sense of security when you think there is no pass or fail, you just have to beat the high performing pack, and you only have one chance this year for it. Not trying to scare you, just instill a need to revise

Good luck!

**hayleyr** · 21-08-2012, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by jcak

No, the QR I think everyone has found slightly easier than the practice they've been doing anywhere so far. The VR and AR is pretty similar to emedica's, I still found the new style multiple choice (non true/false/can't tell) questions harder than I anticipated in the actual exam though.

Finally, the DA. I expected good things from this as I had previously got 710 in the 2009 application year, I was getting consistently 90-100% in the official tests and good results on the emedica tests. The actual exam however really screwed me. I got 620 and had to guess the last 3 questions. They were so much longer than any of the practice ones I had, and the answer sentences were all pretty much EXACTLY the same! Emedica was helpful, but not enough for that section. I haven't found a resource yet which was even on par to the questions I got, so maybe my exam was anomalous and I just had all the randomly hard questions, but I'd say DA is the only section in which UKCAT Revision - UKCAT questions and support from UKCATPrep.com was slightly under performing.

I wouldn't say it's possible to lure yourself into a false sense of security when you think there is no pass or fail, you just have to beat the high performing pack, and you only have one chance this year for it. Not trying to scare you, just instill a need to revise

Good luck!

I have to admit... the DA seems quite easy so far..even I ve been doing well and thats whats slightly worrying..if they were more challenging I could push myself. Atleast now I ve got it in mind that they may be harder and I'm now ready for it!
And thanks for the extra motivation..been putting quite a few hours into the practice but still!!!
Thanks for the help!!

**jcak** · 21-08-2012, 01:43 AM

Glad I could help. I found my section of DA the questions were twice as long as the practice ones. Try halving the time you do the DA practice sections in etc... in order to push yourself so when you come to the harder questions they won't seem as bad.

**hayleyr** · 26-08-2012, 08:43 PM

hi again jcak

ur advice on halving the time for DA is useful... I try to finish with around 8-10 mins to spare and I usually manage it with good results!
I wanted to ask..how mny times do u recommend repeating the same quesitons? I have already completed quite a lot of the emedica questions already!!
Also, i saw on another post that u mentioned something about personal statments..and you said that you showed urs to an admissions tutor. This may seem a silly question .. but u are talking about uni admissions here? I had no idea you could do that!!

Be grateful if you can tell me more about this! Or anyone else worth showing my personal statement too!
Thanks!!

**jcak** · 27-08-2012, 02:55 AM

If you could do questions only once it would be much easier but realistically you are looking to do them as much as possible until you literally can remember the order of the answers without even looking at the questions.
Glad I've helped! I know how much this means to everyone so hopefully it gets people that much closer!
The admissions tutors I've shown it to; in '09 I sent it off to Nottingham as part of the Medlink course, and when I went for a bit of advice on GEP's to my uni's careers office, the woman I was speaking to was undertaking a masters in Medical Teaching and is on the interview board for Hull York Med School. She said she wouldn't mind giving some info for me if I sent her my PS.

If you do want me to have a look at your statement or anything just send me a message and I'll get some feedback for you. Good luck for your UKCAT!