So nice to see your improvement. Well done. Any strategies you used for VR and SJ in particular? ThanksDate completed: 21/07/2021, 10:30am
Venue: Auckland Uni, 67 Symonds St
Results (2020 vs 2021):
2020 2021 VR 700 740 DM 700 710 QR 760 800 AR 720 750 Total 2880 (87th %ile) 3000 SJ 688 743
General thoughts: Overall really happy that I was able to improve on each subtest and my overall score. Hopefully this will give me a better percentile this year! The test centre was great, however my computer was not working at the start of the test which delayed my start time by 40 minutes. Didn't help with the nerves but it got working in the end. The staff were lovely. Great experience for an otherwise scary day!!I found VR and SJ to be as expected. DM and AR were particularly difficult for me and I didn't do as well as I had during my practice (although I'm still happy to have improved). QR was easier than expected. All in all super happy and now I can stop worrying about it
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Post UCAT Discussion Thread 2021
- Thread starter DrDrLMG!
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Hollyw28
BSc Biomed, PGDip Biomed, PGDip HSc, MBiomedSc
For SJ I think the key thing is being able to identify which ones are obviously very appropriate/very important versus not important at all/completely inappropriate. Once you've got that down then you can get a bunch correct. Then it comes down to figuring out the subtleties between the middle two options. This will come with practice. In terms of strategy in the test, I personally go through them quite quickly, answering with my gut/common sense, flagging ones that aren't as obvious. Then I have like 10-15 minutes to go through the flagged ones and debate the answers in my head.
For VR, I think practice is the most important thing. My strategy was to skim read the text real quick and give a general title to each paragraph (for example: P1 is introduction to concept, P2 is examples of the concept, P3 is history of the concept, and P4 is critiques of the concept). That way when I see the question I have a rough idea of where to go to get the information. Other than that, practicing doing this quickly within the time limit is super important!
ttttttttttt
Member
Hi!
Well done on your score!
Just a question... Did your test get rescheduled/cancelled etc because of covid? Have mine in Sydney CBD in 2 weeks and wondering if it will be cancelled. Thanks!
Marcus smith
Member
Hey, im just giving you guys an update on how the exam was because I know how nervous it can be to do it.
VR: 600 (was a lot harder than the official mocks for some reason, and still makes me quite depressed thinking about it).
DM: 790 (Same as official mocks)
QR: 900 (Same as official mock C and D)
AR: 900 (Same as all the official mocks)
Overall score: 3190
Thoughts: That vr test was by far the hardest set of questions Ive ever done when comparing to medentry and the official mocks, which of course made me extra nervous after I finished. All the staff were very friendly which made the experience of course a lot better. Computers were quite different to what I usually use and took a while to get used to.
VR: 600 (was a lot harder than the official mocks for some reason, and still makes me quite depressed thinking about it).
DM: 790 (Same as official mocks)
QR: 900 (Same as official mock C and D)
AR: 900 (Same as all the official mocks)
Overall score: 3190
Thoughts: That vr test was by far the hardest set of questions Ive ever done when comparing to medentry and the official mocks, which of course made me extra nervous after I finished. All the staff were very friendly which made the experience of course a lot better. Computers were quite different to what I usually use and took a while to get used to.
That's a brilliant performance and you should be proud of yourself mate. What was it about the VR questions that you found uncomfortable?
Marcus smith
Member
My vr passages were longer than the official ones and i had to actually read the whole passage sometimes to kind of find the answer whereas in the official ones u can kind of eyeball them. There were also lots of big words.
Anonymous987
Member
Well done. Just wanted to ask, what were you averaging for your mocks for verbal reasoning and how did you do soo well in Quantitative, Abstract, and Decision Making (tips?). Were the questions on the online platform you used similar to the real test (in term of difficulty and that you had encountered them all?). Congratulations !!
My daughter said that there were a lot lucky or unlucky chances for the UCAT test. If you are lucky, the question is quite easy. If your unlucky, the question may be quite hard.
She has just finished an half of the online mock tests bought from xxx. Fortunately ,she is lucky in the test.
She has just finished an half of the online mock tests bought from xxx. Fortunately ,she is lucky in the test.
Anonymous987
Member
Right, thank you.
Anonymous987
Member
Hello guys, since in the UCAT test (you can be lucky or unlucky), wouldn't that sorta be unfair for those who find it hard, or does the panel scale the marks for you depending on the difficulty level.
JeydinNewWon
Regular Member
Except that 'difficult' and 'easy' is subjective depending on how well a candidate has prepared. Monkeyman's daughter obviously (assumedly), took ONE version of the test and she has no basis to compare if it was 'easy' or 'hard' for another test - it is likely, under the same conditions, if she was given another test instead, she would've gotten the same score. ucatboy went into a discussion about this saying that an ever so slightly more difficult subtest in one section will have another section easier to compensate. (eg. if you get a 'harder' VR you get a much 'easier' QR or AR). The difference in mean performance in each of these tests deviates by like one more raw score. This isn't a lot, but I'm not entirely sure if this constitutes to a massive difference in difficulty or not. Regardless, the UCAT system is fair considering that candidates sit the test on a wide range of days as opposed to a single day. Candidates who scored low and said it was 'hard' in a section might not have been as well prepared as another applicant, say.
Marcus smith
Member
Ill reply to ur 2 questions now.
My VR was actually quite good in the mocks. Ive done so verbal reasoning questions on /removed/ and were averaging around 870 on the mini mocks and even 700 in the full mocks, which everyone was talking about how hard the vr questions were. So definitely to get 600 was shocking to me. In terms of DM, QR and AR I would say that my brains has always been suited to these kinds of question types so not really much practise was needed. I got high 800s everytime for dm, qr and ar in the mini mocks of /removed/ and the mocks in /removed/. However, i would say really getting used to the different types of questions contributed to improving my score over time.
Despite my high score in my questions for quantitative reasoning, it was a struggle. The questions were very unfamiliar e.g. certain architectural or agricultural techniques and understanding them took some time. In terms of calculations, they were straightforward and were similar to /removed/. Overall I would say I wasnt that blessed in the QR section in comparison to how a lot of people describe. AR had a number of weird and different patterns but overall they are still fairly simple.
For your second question, I would say how they balance it is by making certain sections harder or easier. E.g. my vr and qr sections were hard, which contrasts to the consensus that vr and qr in the actual exam is simpler than the norm. So in a way, I would say its fair.
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Anonymous987
Member
Cool, and last question, how did you efficiently study and prepare for this. What I mean, how many hours did you spend in a week, and since when did you start /removed/
Marcus smith
Member
I probably had about 2 ucat studying sessions a week, with about 1-1.5 hours during each session. I started during maybe feb or jan, cant quite remember.
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Anonymous987
Member
tysm
Hey all, I was disappointed with my results so I wasn’t even going to post them but feel like it’s good in case there are other lurkers like myself out there.
Date completed: July 12th
Venue: Adelaide
General thoughts on your results:
VR - 600 (my VR mock scores were generally high 700s so this was definitely disappointing but not shocking considering the issues with setting up)
DM - 700 (was surprised as I felt very confident during this section)
QR - 870 (was expecting 800+ but not this high, very happy)
AR - 630 (all of the patterns were more difficult than the mocks I had done, was really hoping for more here as my mock scores were generally 750-850ish)
Total: 2800
SJ - 710 (not sure how to interpret this but as my total score is on the lower end I hope it’s considered a good score in case it’s used comparatively!!)
General comments on your experience:
When I arrived the man who was there to meet me seemed to wish he was anywhere else in that moment, not only making myself and the girl I walked in with sign the wrong forms but told us they didn’t have earbuds when I later saw someone else hand them to other students. After I went to the bathroom he took me straight to the testing room and logged my computer on without saying a single word or even looking at me so when I asked him where I was putting my phone and bag; he got angry and made me run with him through the building to put it away in a locker then run back to my test of which the timer had already begun counting down. Definitely damaged my mindset going into VR and I hope such an experience doesn’t happen to other students. A learning experience I wasn’t expecting, but oh well not everything can go smoothly for every test.
Date completed: July 12th
Venue: Adelaide
General thoughts on your results:
VR - 600 (my VR mock scores were generally high 700s so this was definitely disappointing but not shocking considering the issues with setting up)
DM - 700 (was surprised as I felt very confident during this section)
QR - 870 (was expecting 800+ but not this high, very happy)
AR - 630 (all of the patterns were more difficult than the mocks I had done, was really hoping for more here as my mock scores were generally 750-850ish)
Total: 2800
SJ - 710 (not sure how to interpret this but as my total score is on the lower end I hope it’s considered a good score in case it’s used comparatively!!)
General comments on your experience:
When I arrived the man who was there to meet me seemed to wish he was anywhere else in that moment, not only making myself and the girl I walked in with sign the wrong forms but told us they didn’t have earbuds when I later saw someone else hand them to other students. After I went to the bathroom he took me straight to the testing room and logged my computer on without saying a single word or even looking at me so when I asked him where I was putting my phone and bag; he got angry and made me run with him through the building to put it away in a locker then run back to my test of which the timer had already begun counting down. Definitely damaged my mindset going into VR and I hope such an experience doesn’t happen to other students. A learning experience I wasn’t expecting, but oh well not everything can go smoothly for every test.
Hongxiangren
Member
Date completed: 15th of July
Venue: Lateral Plains Ballarat
General thoughts on your results:
Total: 3230
VR felt average, was likely the nerves that hindered my performance
DM felt pretty good except for a few single questions that I wasn’t 100% sure on which is weird since DM is pretty much always mostly comfortable
QR I normally find this very easy but just got caught with missing small things so score is definitely lower than I wanted it to be
AR Really unexpected but good to see I guess
SJT Really really poor and not a surprise in all honesty, I’m not even sure what happened, just glad it’s not super important
General comments on your experience:
Nice facilities at my testing Center, pretty much very quiet which was helpful, resolution was kinda not used to which is my bad I guess
Venue: Lateral Plains Ballarat
General thoughts on your results:
| VR | 670 |
| DM | 840 |
| QR | 830 |
| AR | 890 |
| SJT | 524 |
VR felt average, was likely the nerves that hindered my performance
DM felt pretty good except for a few single questions that I wasn’t 100% sure on which is weird since DM is pretty much always mostly comfortable
QR I normally find this very easy but just got caught with missing small things so score is definitely lower than I wanted it to be
AR Really unexpected but good to see I guess
SJT Really really poor and not a surprise in all honesty, I’m not even sure what happened, just glad it’s not super important
General comments on your experience:
Nice facilities at my testing Center, pretty much very quiet which was helpful, resolution was kinda not used to which is my bad I guess
Probably the only real "luck" involved in the exam is getting a computer that doesn't crash, everything else is pretty fair and standardised.
Naw that’s awful smoothbrain fantastic SJ score though, in my eyes (and the eyes of a few unis) SJ is the best supplement to interviews if they can’t be delivered so fingers crossed that turns out
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