The University Clinical Aptitude Test is an essential part of the medical school entrance criteria for a large number of students eyeing the UK or Australian Universities chiefly. With the emergence of various non-official practice test resources along with the official one, it has become perplexing for students to understand how to go on about their UCAT preparation.
Here are 15 things about the UCAT practice tests that the students need to consider before getting started with their UCAT preparation:
1) Not All Practice Makes Perfect
Practice makes one perfect; that is how the saying goes. It is believed that the more one practices aptitude tests like the UCAT, the better the end results would be for them.
It is not necessarily the truth as the way one is practicing matters a lot and getting stuck in a loop of repeated mistakes makes it not so likely for the student to end up with a good score.
2) Be the Most Productive
Productivity is key and if the student is going about the practice in a way that is either not improving the weak sections of the student or else not helping the student come up with the correct time management methods, it is but a waste of precious time for the student during the tenure of their UCAT preparation.
This is why expert help can make sure the student is practising the most productively without wasting time or effort.
3) All That Glitters is Not Gold
Today there is a plethora of practice material available in the market making it tempting for students to try out different cheap subscriptions and avail of the test papers that look like they would help the students ace the test.
What most people do not realize is how the test papers or simulation mock tests available in the market are only model papers as Pearson Vue does not necessarily release the yearly material in the market unlike other tests like SAT.
As such it is important to check the quality of the material being used for practice. If the student is practising a non-representative test sampler then it is as good as practising for some other tests and not for the UCAT.
4) Lack of Foundational Training
In the absence of any foundational training, if the students start practicing from even the best materials, for example, this Free UCAT Practice Test: Sample Questions with Answers – they would inevitably face difficulties in solving the questions or else they would end up making answers only intuitively.
This would simply make them have inconsistent results while they go on believing that the practice is helping them or would help them achieve good results.
5) Avoid Intuition in UCAT
One should avoid answering purely based on instincts or random guesses even if the time is short. There are specific ways to address the lack of time and the correct answering methods when time is running out.
Do not resort to intuition to save the day.
Intuitive answering is the same as gambling and surely one would not like to gamble on the outcome of the University Clinical Aptitude Test.
6) Avoid Material Hopping
Sometimes the students go on trying out different resources with cheap subscription rates and hope the different platforms and their tests would teach them what they need to know and probably weed out their weaknesses in certain sections.
This myth results in a lot of material or platform hopping and does not necessarily help one as is usually expected.
Professional guidance is the best answer to such a problem as the material you get to practice on has been approved by the experts in the field and is thus safe for consumption and test practice.
7) Develop an Eye for Mistakes
If students keep on practising test papers and go on only passively looking through the answers given for the questions, it is not the most productive for most students as this inevitably wastes a lot of time in repeating the same mistakes.
If students are not aware of the mistakes and do not consciously and cautiously address the same, it would be but a practice wasted.
Expert assistance can make the students recognise the mistakes actively and deal with them so that they do not end up falling into the pit of endless mistakes and end up ruining their scores.
8) Tests Do Not Build Skills
UCAT Practice tests should ideally come at the final part of one’s preparation but some, in the spirit of doing the most, start doing full tests early on and miss out on the sectional practice of the basics which is essential in building skills, especially skills which would take care of the time that is an important obstacle in the UCAT preparation.
9) Not a Level Playing Field
Contrary to belief, aptitude and standardized tests like the UCAT do not provide a level playing field for non-English speaking students from countries that have English as a second language or do not use standard English in their conversations or daily usage.
Such students need expert guidance in building the skills that would guide them in the best possible way without wasting any effort or time.
10) Don’t Break Your Spirit with VR
“Verbal Reasoning” is known as probably the toughest section in UCAT and for very good reason. A number of students do not realize that it is the very first section for a reason. The students are expected to overcome an intense section first before they move on to the next more comfortable section of “Decision Making”.
The student needs to learn how to tackle the intensity without losing focus or spirit because if they do so, it would inevitably result in affecting the next section or perhaps the whole test as well.
11) Practice for Building Resistance
The student needs to build resistance to the pressure the UCAT test inflicts upon their minds, eyes and body overall.
It is an intense test and the intensity is something the students need to train for, preferably under the guidance of trained professionals as that would make it less likely for them to break down and fall apart under pressure during the test.
12) Not Updated Regularly
The UCAT has had a long tenure of over a decade and a half now changing in so many ways since the days of its inception.
The practice tests and resources that are on the official website are not updated regularly with every change that comes about every few years in certain sections; e.g, the UCAT test changed in certain ways in sections like verbal reasoning and situational judgment in terms of question types lately.
On the other hand, it has had changes in the time for the sections as well but such changes, whenever they happen, take time to get reflected on the official resources, let alone the unofficial ones.
In such a context it becomes very important to get expert assistance that can guide students regarding the changes making their UCAT preparation the most productive.
13) Start with the Parts not the Whole
Begin your UCAT preparation with a sound knowledge of the sections and the various kinds of questions in each section.
Doing the full mocks or mini mocks, in the beginning, would hardly benefit the student who has not learnt all the nuances of each of the sections and been familiarized with the strategies accordingly based on question types.
As a result, sectional or categorical practice makes more sense in the initial and middle phases of the practice. Expert assistance or training programmes can cater to such differentiation compared to the simulation mock platforms for a sound foundation for the students.
14) Easier Than the Real Test
The difficulty and standards of the UCAT have changed again in recent years but the practice tests given on the official website do not necessarily immediately reflect the standards that the test-taking authority is imposing on students lately.
In order to remedy this, the trainers and experts can help the students practice accordingly so that the difficulty level matches the requirement of the test as it stands presently.
15) Don’t Break a Sweat
Practising for the UCAT tests may look like it needs to be some sort of sacrificial rite for the student taking on the immense pressure of finishing everything in time and coming out victorious but it need not be so.
If students are not properly trained to deal with the test in the correct way, incessant test practice and the wrong drill can make them end up having burnout rather than a good score.
A well-rounded UCAT preparation with trainer support lessens the burden on the student and evades burnout.
In short, the students need to be mindful of the pitfalls of focusing too much on the practice tests without having a good foundation built first through expert assistance and training. In this way, they can have the best results and enhance their natural reasoning skills or aptitude in the most efficient way possible.
At Edu-mentor we provide end-to-end assistance and guidance in the preparation of tests such as UCAT as well as application assistance for the UCAS. Get in touch with us today for more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
The number of mocks taken does not have a direct bearing on the score as not addressing repetitive mistakes in the mocks will reduce the likelihood of scoring well regardless the number of mocks attempted.
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