Against all good advice I fear I did the one thing we’re not supposed to do. I left it to the last minute. UCAS is a giant headache! All those apptitude tests. Why can’t they all be the same?
Five letters U-K-C-A-T, this we be all I’ll be able to think about for the next seven days. Up until now I had one college in mind for UCAS. Now after much talk and consideration I’ve decided to widen that list. I still want to study medicine which means I have to do another apptitude test, the UKCAT. When I made this decision I thought it would be no big deal. I thought I would have a month or two to prepare for it, but no. Much to my horror, the UKCAT has been open for sitting all summer and the closing date is 8th October. The only date I could get to sit the test is next Thursday.
What sucks is that this comepletly disadvantages Irish students because we don’t even really start to consider college courses until 6th year. We’re not as well prepared as British students.
All I know about the UKCAT so far is that it’s like a peped up version of the HPAT and is timed really strictly. I mean I doubt most people even get enough time to finish it. It’s computerised so that’s cool and it’s divided into 5 sections. If anyone has sat the UKCAT and has any tips or advice they would be gladly appriciated.
Best of luck to anyone else sitting the UKCAT in the next few days. I hope your not as underprepared as I am!
I’ve sat the UKCAT last year & it is definitely not one to be studied in a week. It is a lot harder than the HPAT and timing is extremley tight. I paid for an online course to help me see what they were looking for, this even had practise tests which were great – but you NEVER get within the time for the maths section (I’d be impressed if you did!). Anyone I know was only literally half way through when the time ran out. Of course this all depends on the student, but last year a big group of me and my uni friends sat it (as we all wanted medicine(, and 2 out of 6 got an interviewable result & they were not the 2 we would have expected. I don’t remember the online company I used but I really wouldn’t have done as well if I hadnt found it. I ended up with an above average result, but then some uni’s moved their average higher ..boo!!