Post-UCAT Discussion 2020

[nb]

Yikes, that's scary. If Pearson dials the difficulty up to compare to the official resources, I'm 100% sure the mean will not be 600 .

I am worried now lol. I heavily rely on QR to boost my score and if that too is hard, gg wp !

 

[LeSpicyGinger]

I am worried now lol. I heavily rely on QR to boost my score and if that too is hard, gg wp !

Said like a true gamer. XD.

I don't (want to) think it will change much from the previous year. Even if ucatboy is correct, the percentiles will just slide to the left so you'll hopefully still get the relative score you want

 

[ummshakib]

Thank you for your post. Initially booked the test in the first week of July but was made to reschedule to another test centre. Left with dates which I couldn't choose. Glad to see someone had a booking for the first week & congratulations on your results.

Thank you.

I was originally booked for the 6th (I had wanted earlier but it was unavailable). I had to be rescheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions

 

[nb]

Thank you.

I was originally booked for the 6th (I had wanted earlier but it was unavailable). I had to be rescheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions

How were the computers at your test centre? Are the monitors like 1950's block screen ones or decent ones?

 

[ummshakib]

How did u find the VR in comparison to the official mocks? (Specifically in terms of passage length)

VR passage length was similar, in my opinion.

Please forgive me if you find the exam different to how I describe. I guess we are each different. And I have last year to compare to as well.

 

[dotwingz]

Unpopular opinion/hot take: Pearson (allegedly) increasing the difficulty of QR is a welcome change in terms of being able to better differentiate between higher-scoring candidates whilst not impacting the rest of the candidature. Just taking a look at last year's UCAT results, you'll see the majority of users scored 800-850+ in QR, which causes a "bunching-up" of scores at the top end and not permitting the bell curve to run its course. This is obviously an exaggeration but you get the gist:
View attachment 3583
The QR average seems to creep up year by year, it was 660 last year. Adjusting the difficulty of the exam such that the mean lies closer to 600 (like VR, DM and AR) will give a more accurate representation of the cohort's performance.

Now obviously, if QR is as hard as the official mocks, it looks like Pearson may have dialed the difficulty up too far

https://www.ucat.edu.au/media/1314/ucat-anz-2019_summary-test-statistics.pdf

The QR mean score was only slightly above average of QR and DM, and a bit above VR and with an SD of 80 is dead average

This is complete nonsense.

Edit: For what its worth this is what the curve would look like

 

[hazell]

VR passage length was similar, in my opinion.

Please forgive me if you find the exam different to how I describe. I guess we are each different. And I have last year to compare to as well.

Your experiences are valuable to all of us who are still to sit our exams, so thank you!

 

[cocodreams]

https://www.ucat.edu.au/media/1314/ucat-anz-2019_summary-test-statistics.pdf

The QR mean score was only slightly above average of QR and DM, and a bit above VR and with an SD of 80 is dead average

This is complete nonsense

I don't understand what you mean

 

[ummshakib]

How were the computers at your test centre? Are the monitors like 1950's block screen ones or decent ones?

They were decent.

 

[dotwingz]

I don't understand what you mean

QR wasnt significantly easier than other sections in last years UCAT despite what other people try to say

 

[cocodreams]

QR wasnt significantly easier than other sections in last years UCAT despite what other people try to say

yeah because last year a lot of people said QR was much easier so I think we're getting stressed about the fact it's going to be super hard this year let's hope it's decent

 

[nb]

QR wasnt significantly easier than other sections in last years UCAT despite what other people try to say

I agree. It is evident from the mean and SD that QR was only minutely 'easier' than other sections. I just believe that the majority of the MSO test takers last year found it easier as it is simply their strong area!

 

[whys]

QR wasnt significantly easier than other sections in last years UCAT despite what other people try to say

Perhaps everyone's opinions that QR was 'easier' came from the fact that it was much easier than the official resources, but overall was not easy.

 

[whys]

I am worried now lol. I heavily rely on QR to boost my score and if that too is hard, gg wp !

And QR is my worst subsection so if that is hard, my score will be dragged down even more, gg wp

 

[dotwingz]

Perhaps everyone's opinions that QR was 'easier' came from the fact that it was much easier than the official resources, but overall was not easy.

Or that QR is the most 'prepable' section due to the difficulty coming from the speed not the content itself, so those who are on med forums worrying about difficulty at 9:30pm at night are typically the ones that associate with people who have prepped more

 

[Angela2020]

Okay I heard from someone else that QR was a bit easier so guys dw! It depends on you and how you are feeling that day!!! Good job for everyone who did the UCAT today and good luck for the rest Also I heard that they like have idk 2+ different exams that are randomly selected to you when you press enter? Does that mean the difficulty of the different subtests would be the same?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Okay I heard from someone else that QR was a bit easier so guys dw! It depends on you and how you are feeling that day!!! Good job for everyone who did the UCAT today and good luck for the rest Also I heard that they like have idk 2+ different exams that are randomly selected to you when you press enter? Does that mean the difficulty of the different subtests would be the same?

UMAT has this, too. It’s pretty common. The subtest versions would have been standardised, so difficulty should be consistent.

 

[garmonbozia]

Okay I heard from someone else that QR was a bit easier so guys dw! It depends on you and how you are feeling that day!!! Good job for everyone who did the UCAT today and good luck for the rest Also I heard that they like have idk 2+ different exams that are randomly selected to you when you press enter? Does that mean the difficulty of the different subtests would be the same?

Yes, the different subtest question sets have very similar difficulties (you can verify this by looking at the UCAT technical reports - their average marks, standard deviations etc. are within one or two decimal places of each other).

Edit: How the subtest randomisation works is that there are three different question sets for each subtest. You get a random set assigned to you for each subtest, meaning that there are 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 243 total combinations. (It seems that this year's UCAT UK actually had five different question sets per subtest, so we'll have to wait until the technical report comes out for this year's UCAT ANZ to be sure of this.)

 

[whys]

Okay I heard from someone else that QR was a bit easier so guys dw! It depends on you and how you are feeling that day!!! Good job for everyone who did the UCAT today and good luck for the rest

Phew!

UMAT has this, too. It’s pretty common. The subtest versions would have been standardised, so difficulty should be consistent.

Slightly off-topic, but it's interesting that UMAT had multiple tests in circulation too considering UMAT was sat on one day but UCAT is sat over a month.

 

[nb]

UMAT has this, too. It’s pretty common. The subtest versions would have been standardised, so difficulty should be consistent.

I mean that's in a ideal world. But it is clear that obviously the difficulty will vary slightly, as seen through the diverse opinions on the DM section last year! It has got to do with a little bit of luck imho. Hopefully you get dealt a good hand. That's not to say that its all luck. The scores should mostly reflect the amount of effort that one puts in!