The UCATSEN; My Honest Experience & Important Advice

In my opinion, and one I believe is largely shared, sitting the UCAT is about as enjoyable as chewing a ball of wool. If like I did, you’re sitting the UCATSEN, the stress that comes from the idea of an intensely time-pressured exam is instantly doubled. Other than the SJT, I still fail to see how my index finger blisters due to speed smacking the number keyboard are a good indicator of the quality of doctor I will make. I think it is safe to say that the UKCAT can be summarised as an ordeal, even for the brightest of students. Alas, it is a necessary component of the application process and I am here to reassure you that you can do it, and you can do it well. 

When I first started my UCAT revision I was often tearful and very stressed, but I made it through using my own methods combined with techniques from a few books and courses. In the end I came out with a score strong enough to get me into a competitive graduate-entry course at a London medical school. So, let me tell you about how I prepared, the real exam experience and the tips you can use.

Firstly, start revision early. Many of the UCAT official providers recommend four weeks preparation and I’ve even met people that insist you “cannot revise for the UCAT” – disclaimer, this statement is about as valid as that one kid who insists they scored 950. I allowed six weeks preparation time which meant if I had a day where my brain decided not to work, I could just take the day off. This was majorly important to prevent totally losing my mind. Often, practise can make permanent but not necessarily perfect i.e. if you’re doing it wrong over and over again, you’re likely taking steps backwards. Secondly, it’s worth knowing that you can contact Consortium and request for different screen colours to be activated, I had pink for my dyslexia, and it was incredibly useful. As someone with ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia I really nailed the ‘disability cocktail’ - but clearly, this didn’t stop me! Just because you think differently, this doesn’t mean a good score is out of reach!

The Verbal Reasoning time limit gave me heart palpitations for all six weeks of revision. I remember reading the text and it just not going in, as if there were a little man behind my eyes with a “brain out of order” sign. Reading the questions first and trying to find the key words in a block of text with dyslexia is unrealistic - I struggle to read instructions at the best of times. My advice here is to skim read the whole paragraph only reading the key words of each sentence. I found missing out the connectives really useful to get the gist of what the text was about (hint: they often ask you to pick a statement that best summarises the text!). Another technique is to read the opening paragraph and then the last one or the summarising line to get a feel for the tone of the text i.e. critical or explanatory. Finally, GUESS AND FLAG! I often found a really wordy text, about 4 or 5 stems in. This is designed to hold you up. The flag is your new best friend, leave nothing blank and guess each question before moving on, by reading and choosing one that ‘sounds’ plausible. I found reading just the answers I could often eliminate one of them just guessing (although this isn’t at all guaranteed). Remember it’s the first section and over and done with quickly, if it doesn’t go your way chin up and move on!

As for Decision Making, practise makes perfect. For the wordy “does the conclusion follow” questions, go with your gut feeling. I found the more times I read the paragraph the more I questioned the meanings and read the words wrong (a classic dyslexic mistake) and wasted time!

With Quantitative Reasoning, my dyscalculia and dyslexia really proved an issue. I found quite a lot of wordy questions with lots of information to process in practise resources, but the general consensus is the questions are simpler and involve fewer calculation steps in the real exam and this definitely rang true for my test. 

Although a lot of questions can be done mentally, don’t be afraid to use the calculator! This was my saving grace for percentage changes and there were a lot of them in my actual exam! Rather than waste time thinking if you need the calculator, become familiar with which style of question you need it for and go for it! Again, there is likely to be a really tricky question about mid-way which is designed to hold you up. Don’t be stubborn – if it’s tough then guess and flag and come back at the end with any spare time. Remember, none of the questions are negatively marked.

My dyspraxia really threw me with Abstract Reasoning. My biggest piece of advice here would be to do as many practise patterns as you can during your six weeks prep time; the more patterns you see the more likely you’ll recognise them in the exam. Write down the patterns you struggle with or get wrong. I kept a wall of post-it notes with different patterns on them! Begin by looking at the simplest box. When I found that when I couldn’t spot a pattern immediately it was often an arrangement one, which makes sense with dyspraxia! I’m not saying this is a rule it just seemed to be the ones I frequently missed. This is a really good example of where knowing your weakness comes in. For someone sitting the UCATSEN I found so many points were gained by knowing my weaknesses and adapting to them.

So, there it is. Take on board the tips and advice, good luck and I promise the world will not end.