UCAT - Top Tips
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Booking the Test
It’s a good idea to aim for sitting the UCAT between late July and mid-August, as this allows you enough time to prepare thoroughly without feeling rushed. A preparation period of 6-8 weeks is generally sufficient to cover all the material, develop test-taking strategies, and practice under timed conditions.
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Score Guide
600-650 is the average score so above 700 is considered very good and 800+ is exceptional but very few people get that high! Band 1 and 2 are really good for SJT. Band 3 is not the end of the world but some universities will not except Band 4 at all. It's a good idea to check the latest information on the website of the universities you're interested in.
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Preparation time
Practice as many questions as possible! Little but often does the job. Over-preparing can cause your scores to decline after a while so 4-6 weeks is the optimal time you should spend preparing. Make sure to also take frequent breaks. Burning out will only make you perform worse.
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Keyboard Shortcut
Learn your keyboard shortcuts and use them during practice
o Next = alt + N
o Previous = alt + P
o Flag question = alt + F
o Calculator = alt + C
o Activate number keypad = Num Lock
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Resources
Use the UCAT calculator when practising to familiarise yourself with the onscreen features (can be found at https://questions.ucat.ac.uk/pages/calculator-ti108.aspx)
Whiteboards (usually a series of laminated sheets put together like a book) – very useful for DM and QR. Use them wisely! Draw diagrams and tables to help visualise information. Don’t bother wiping out the old working out, just use a new page. If you run out of pages (rarely happens) then you can request for a new whiteboard.
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The PEG technique
Prioritise – most questions are worth one mark so don’t waste time on one hard question when you could have completed the next 10 questions easily.
Eliminate – sometimes it’s faster to eliminate the wrong answers rather than working out the answer from scratch
Guess – if you’re stuck on a question, flag it and move on, but don’t forget to guess an answer before moving on. There is no negative marking in the UCAT so leaving a question blank will guarantee you 0 marks in that question but putting down an answer will give you at least a 1/5 chance of getting a mark.
Situational Judgement Example 1
An FY1 doctor catches a fellow FY1 shouting at one of the patients on the ward. He does not know what condition the patient is in or why his colleague acted in that way. The other doctor does not have any prior problems with patients on record.
How appropriate are each of these responses by the FY1?
a) Confront the other doctor straight away in front of other patients and doctors
A) Very appropriate
B) Appropriate, but not ideal
C) Inappropriate, but not awful
D) Very inappropriate
a) Inappropriate but not awful – confrontation is not ideal as it will undermine the respect if the doctor in front of the other patients, but it does put the patient first so not awful
b) Very inappropriate thing to do – the patient should always come first and doctors should keep an unbiased opinion regardless of how well they know their colleagues
c) Very appropriate thing to do – avoids conflict and allows any misunderstandings to be cleared
d) Appropriate thing to do, but not ideal – reporting someone is a very drastic measure and any problems should first be dealt with directly before getting consultants involved, unless serious
Decision Making Example 1
Ruby has two dice which both have six faces. The first die is normal. The second die is biased so that the number 4 appears twice as often as any other number but the other 5 outcomes are equally likely.
What is the probability that when Ruby throws both dice together, she gets the number 4 on both dice?
A) 1/18 – The chance of getting a 4 with the biased die is 2/6, which we have to multiply by 1/6 for the normal die.
B) 1/18 – The chance of getting a 4 with two normal dice is 1/6 x 1/6 = 1/36. But because one die has a double probability, the chance of getting a 4 on both dice is 2/36 = 1/18.
C) 1/21 – The chance of getting a 4 with the normal die is 1/6 and the chance of getting a 4 with the biased die is 2/7 so 1/6 x 2/7 = 1/21.
D) 1/36 – The probability of getting a 4 on both dice is not affected by one of the dice being biased because we are looking to get the same number on both dice.
Answer = C) 1/21 –
The chance of getting a 4 with the normal die is 1/6 and the chance of getting a 4 with the biased die is 2/7 so 1/6 x 2/7 = 1/21.
Quantitative Making Example 1
Mark is competing in a swimming tournament. The swimming pool has a length of 24 metres, width of 8 metres and depth of 2 metres. Mark’s outstretched body has a length of 2 metres. If he swims at 160 centimetres per second from one end of the pool to the other, how long does it take him to reach the other side of the pool. Give your answer to the nearest second.
A) 16 seconds
B) 13 seconds
C) 15 seconds
D) 12 seconds
E) 14 seconds
Answer = E) 14 seconds
The length of Mark’s body is 2 metres, hence he needs to swim a total of 24 – 2 = 22m.
160cm/s = 1.6m/s
Speed= Distance/time
Time taken= Distance/Speed 22/1.6 = 13.75 = 14 seconds