Preparing for UKCAT in two weeks?

[spacescampi]

Hi guys!

 

I'm getting really worried now. As I want to study dentistry in UK after IB, and the universities require me taking the UKCAT, I am going to take this test on October 1. I was planning on buying the "600 UKCAT Practice Questions"-book by Picard etc. for preparation in the next two weeks. However, I have to order this book online, and the shipping will take 10 days. This leaves me with four days of reading this book, as well as doing the practice tests. I tried to look for other opportunities, but the libraries found here does not have this book or any UKCAT Practice-books at all..

 

 

What should I do? How did you post-UKCAT-people study for it? 

 

 

[Sandwich]

I did the UKCAT, did no practice and did pretty badly in it Literally had no idea what the hell the abstract reasoning section was about, and I was kicking myself for not practising! It used to (I don't think any more...) advertise itself as an 'unrevisable' exam, which is utterly untrue, but because of that I didn't really put any effort into it except googling the website the night before. People sit it year after year to get into medical school and their scores go up by hundreds! You can absolutely learn how to do well in it.

 

The practice papers they have online are apparently a good place to start. OnExamination offer a UKCAT section for £26 for the month - http://www.onexamination.com/students/ukcat - and they basically have practice questions, I presume with explanations. I've used OnExamination but never the UKCAT one. However the rest of their resources are really good, so it should be pretty spot on. You don't really need one of the books if you use an online resource, given that it's all just practice questions.

 

Also, just google UKCAT tips and stuff. There's some exam technique to it - like there's no negative marking so just keep going even if you have no idea what the answers are! Guess, guess, guess. When I did it, I spent so long trying to get the questions right I actually ran out of time, and it's multiple choice so even guesses are more likely to get you marks than failing to answer.

http://www.getintomedicine.co.uk/ukcat-tutorials.php

^^ Sites like that are useful

[spacescampi]

I did the UKCAT, did no practice and did pretty badly in it Literally had no idea what the hell the abstract reasoning section was about, and I was kicking myself for not practising! It used to (I don't think any more...) advertise itself as an 'unrevisable' exam, which is utterly untrue, but because of that I didn't really put any effort into it except googling the website the night before. People sit it year after year to get into medical school and their scores go up by hundreds! You can absolutely learn how to do well in it.

 

The practice papers they have online are apparently a good place to start. OnExamination offer a UKCAT section for £26 for the month - http://www.onexamination.com/students/ukcat - and they basically have practice questions, I presume with explanations. I've used OnExamination but never the UKCAT one. However the rest of their resources are really good, so it should be pretty spot on. You don't really need one of the books if you use an online resource, given that it's all just practice questions.

 

Also, just google UKCAT tips and stuff. There's some exam technique to it - like there's no negative marking so just keep going even if you have no idea what the answers are! Guess, guess, guess. When I did it, I spent so long trying to get the questions right I actually ran out of time, and it's multiple choice so even guesses are more likely to get you marks than failing to answer.

http://www.getintomedicine.co.uk/ukcat-tutorials.php

^^ Sites like that are useful

 

Thank you for the links! Appreciated   

 

I too read it somewhere that UKCAT was something you couldn't revise/practise for. As I googled a little more, I ended up reading about hundreds of students preparing for this test for months! I don't even know if I have time to study for the UKCAT even. I am awfully terrible at allocating my time, bleh. Hopefully, this test won't matter as much as the grades   

 

I guess I'll just get started with reading all online resources I can find, and print anything that is... printable