Post UCAT Discussion Thread 2021

[acbard9]

Yeah, hopefully, it goes up even a little bit. Still pretty jealous of your VR and DM score though.

bro the things i would DO for one of my scores to be an 800 legendary from you

 

[naian616]

Hoping the percentiles go down this year

ill be happy if a 90 percentile is lower than a 2900.... even by like 10 points.....

 

[JeydinNewWon]

ill be happy if a 90 percentile is lower than a 2900.... even by like 10 points.....

I think it’s important to note that you could still get an interview, though it may be unlikely. Say your score can be just off 90th percentile, but unis don’t use your percentile but your raw score. They won’t Thanos Snap like anyone who is below 90th percentile, I think they do consider your raw mark with your ATAR/Selection Rank and make offers from there on out. Best thing you can do is to apply to as many places as you can!

 

[naian616]

I think it’s important to note that you could still get an interview, though it may be unlikely. Say your score can be just off 90th percentile, but unis don’t use your percentile but your raw score. They won’t Thanos Snap like anyone who is below 90th percentile, I think they do consider your raw mark with your ATAR/Selection Rank and make offers from there on out. Best thing you can do is to apply to as many places as you can!

i can only imagine some unis "may" thanos snapping 90% of all applicants in a matter of 2 clicks.... the possible prospect terrifies me lol

 

[5ushi]

Date completed: 22/07/2021

General thoughts on your results:
I ended up scoring 2900+ and was on cloud 9 after checking my results. Practice really does make perfect guys. I scored in the 2400s last year and my med dreams were crushed, but this year I researched the UCAT on MSO, reddit and YouTube and planned my practice.
General comments on your experience:
VR, QR, SJT, DM and AR pretty much had the same style of questions as the practice questions on the official Pearson website. Personally on the day I had a mind blank when it came to making conclusions from the syllogisms in DM and struggled to manage my time; I ended up scoring in the 600s for it. I remember looking at peoples hundies scores on MSO a couple of months ago and thinking it would be impossible for me to score that high too, but after hours of practicing I achieved a good score too!

 

[weeknd]

Hi, new here but I thought I'd post my UCAT experience because I feel it might help encourage those who haven't sat it yet to keep going!

Date Completed: 25th of July, 2021
Testing Centre: Pearson Professional Centre Box Hill (Melbourne)
General Thoughts on my Results: Better than I was expecting. My mock average was ~2520. QR was the biggest shock, I'd never gotten 50%+ (but I think maybe the QR in my mocks were just difficult?). VR had been my best section, with my highest mock score being ~760.

I personally found that VR was the only section that was harder than the mocks, DM was about the same and then QR and AR were easier.

VR: 790
DM: 730
QR: 880
AR: 730

Total: 3130

SJT: 652

General Thoughts on my Experience: At first I was a little nervous going into the exam because although I'd started preparing for the UCAT for months beforehand, I'd only done a few mock exams (not from official website though) and my average wasn't very high. Nonetheless, I think my centre choice helped me - the staff were really nice, the facilities were good (computer, keyboard and mouse all worked well, given laminated booklets for working out, earbuds given too, and was just overall a pleasant experience).

Honestly, I think what helped me the most was that I was not SUPER stressed about my results and that I had low expectations for myself, I was expecting 2700 at most and so I was feeling pretty calm and not fidgety/trembly(?) which I usually am doing assessments.

*edited for clarity + privacy reasons

 

[Shifty95]

Hi, new here but I thought I'd post my UCAT experience because I feel it might help encourage those who haven't sat it yet to keep going!

Date Completed: 25th of July, 2021
Testing Centre: Pearson Professional Centre Box Hill (Melbourne)
General Thoughts on my Results: Not gonna lie, much better than I was expecting. I'd done 3 mock exams in total, with an average of ~2520, my best score being ~2600. For all my sections I'd exceeded my mock scores (QR by a LARGE margin, I'd never gotten 50%+). VR had been my best section in my mocks, with my highest score being ~760.

VR: 790
DM: 730
QR: 880
AR: 730

Total: 3130

SJT: 652 (in case anyone wanted to know)

General Thoughts on my Experience: I was a bit nervous going into the exam because although I'd started preparing for the UCAT last year, I'd only done 3 mock exams (not official by the way, it was with a company), and starting 4 days before. Nonetheless, I think my centre choice helped me - the staff were really nice, the facilities were good (computer, keyboard and mouse all worked well, given laminated booklets for working out, ear buds given too, and was just generally pleasant). Honestly, I think what helped me the most was that I was not REALLY worried about my results and that I had low expectations for myself, I was expecting 2700 at most but when I went in, only VR was the only section that was harder than the mocks, DM was about the same and then QR and AR were easier.

I was actually really nervous to check my results, I only checked this morning even though my results had come out 9(!) minutes after sitting it.

A small piece of advice: take advantage of the breaks between each section, I think having a minute is just barely enough to calm yourself. I especially needed it after VR which was harder and took longer than I anticipated.
Anyways, good luck with your exams!
If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me

What about Vr did you find harder?

 

[weeknd]

Woops forgot to mention, but my actual preparation mostly consisted of hyper focussing on each section, so for me, mock exams weren't that important in comparison to actually "mastering" each section. Especially VR, that took 3 months for me to move past from because becoming able to read passages and recall them better was really difficult for me. I think it's really important to not actually focus on or memorise specific words/phrases, and rather try to understand the general meaning.

What about Vr did you find harder?

The passages were longer (which my friend also found the same), and they were really confusing. Like some obscure topics and so I had to 'guess' a lot of the questions. I don't think the questions themselves were any harder. There were also some more historical/political sort of passages which I don't enjoy.

 

[Shifty95]

The passages were longer (which my friend also found the same), and they were really confusing. Like some obscure topics and so I had to 'guess' a lot of the questions. I don't think the questions themselves were any harder. There were also some more historical/political sort of passages which I don't enjoy.

Well my strength is understanding as a whole, so would you go as so far to say that it maybe in my favour the exam?

 

[Shifty95]

Hi, new here but I thought I'd post my UCAT experience because I feel it might help encourage those who haven't sat it yet to keep going!

Date Completed: 25th of July, 2021
Testing Centre: Pearson Professional Centre Box Hill (Melbourne)
General Thoughts on my Results: Not gonna lie, much better than I was expecting. I'd done 3 mock exams in total, with an average of ~2520, my best score being ~2600. For all my sections I'd exceeded my mock scores (QR by a LARGE margin, I'd never gotten 50%+). VR had been my best section in my mocks, with my highest score being ~760.

VR: 790
DM: 730
QR: 880
AR: 730

Total: 3130

SJT: 652 (in case anyone wanted to know)

General Thoughts on my Experience: I was a bit nervous going into the exam because although I'd started preparing for the UCAT last year, I'd only done 3 mock exams (not official by the way, it was with a company), and starting 4 days before. Nonetheless, I think my centre choice helped me - the staff were really nice, the facilities were good (computer, keyboard and mouse all worked well, given laminated booklets for working out, ear buds given too, and was just generally pleasant). Honestly, I think what helped me the most was that I was not REALLY worried about my results and that I had low expectations for myself, I was expecting 2700 at most but when I went in, only VR was the only section that was harder than the mocks, DM was about the same and then QR and AR were easier.

I was actually really nervous to check my results, I only checked this morning even though my results had come out 9(!) minutes after sitting it.

A small piece of advice: take advantage of the breaks between each section, I think having a minute is just barely enough to calm yourself. I especially needed it after VR which was harder and took longer than I anticipated.
Anyways, good luck with your exams!
If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me

Tafs This is going to be me on sunday

 

[weeknd]

Well my strength is understanding as a whole, so would you go as so far to say that it maybe in my favour the exam?

I'd say so, I think that'd really help you. There are some more specific questions which relate only very certain parts in the passage, so you'd have to recall those parts but there are of course always the questions which are like "the author is most like to agree that.." or "the passage supports that.." which is best answered if you have a good overall understanding of the passage.

 

[Shifty95]

Hiya! I was stress-scrolling through this thread last night and the info here helped calm my nerves - if you're doing the same I wish all the best to you :]

Date completed: 30/07/21
Venue: Pearson Professional Centres - Parramatta

Results from 2021 (and 2020):
VR: 870 (670)
DM: 840 (780)
QR: 830 (780)
AR: 770 (640)
Total: 3310 (2870)
SJT: 644 (639)

General thoughts on your results:
Repeat test taker from 2020 here! I underperformed in VR last year but I'm really surprised at my other results - genuinely didn't think they'd be this good and was close to tears before I opened my score report.

VR had passages that were shorter and more content-heavy than I expected, but otherwise the questions were of a similar difficulty. I think the main struggle for me was reading on the stretched screen, so be prepared to deal with a non-ideal aspect ratio.

DM had some questions that were longer and more detailed than I had expected from my practice, but they weren't necessarily harder. My strategy here was to quickly flip through all the questions first and flag the longer ones so I knew what I could skip if I had to.

QR had questions that were SO! much! easier! than the ones I did in the official mocks. The key thing for me was to not get stuck on a long/challenging question. There was a prompt which had wording that I just did not comprehend so I made educated guesses for all the questions related to it). Also, being familiar with the numpad and the calculator was really helpful for me.

AR... well, I'm someone who really sucks at visual reasoning and stuff like that, so this was the most unexpected result. To prepare, I just spammed as many AR questions as possible (from an outside resource) and made general notes of common things to look for given the ""vibe"" of the sets. I guessed my way through a solid two and a half sets of patterns but the rest were fairly obvious - definitely the hardest subtest for me.

(SJ was basically the same as what was in the mocks lmao)

General comments on your experience:
Might be because I did my exam at 8:00am on a Friday, but the centre was super quiet and I didn't even have to use earplugs. My pen wasn't great so I had to ask for another one (check them before you start, friends!!) and the board was slightly longer than an A4 page so it was nice and big enough! I actually couldn't really hear anyone outside my cubicle and the mouse had super quiet clicks. Make sure you wear something warm but easy to roll up/down because my hoodie barely went above my elbows and it was a bit of a struggle.

Happy to answer any questions (taking the NDA into account lol) if you have them!

Any thing that seemed easier or harder in VR comprared to offical mocks?

 

[Shifty95]

I'd say so, I think that'd really help you. There are some more specific questions which relate only very certain parts in the passage, so you'd have to recall those parts but there are of course always the questions which are like "the author is most like to agree that.." or "the passage supports that.." which is best answered if you have a good overall understanding of the passage.

Would you say that the sizes of the passages were comparable or shorter than what most people say?

 

[weeknd]

Would you say that the sizes of the passages were comparable or shorter than what most people say?

I only had one friend who'd done the UCAT before me and she'd said they were pretty long, which I agree with.

 

[A1]

unis don’t use your percentile but your raw score.

A few fun facts :

- The unis use your UCAT score but don't actively set the cutoff mark. It sets itself at the point the interview spots are filled.

- This last bit shows how the cutoff strongly relates to your percentile rather than your score i.e. the number of uglies having higher scores filling up the spots before your turn.

- So, praying for percentiles to go down is totally justifiable - it's praying for fewer uglies gobbling up spots

 

[JeydinNewWon]

A few fun facts :

- The unis use your UCAT score but don't actively set the cutoff mark. It sets itself at the point the interview spots are filled.

- This last bit shows how the cutoff strongly relates to your percentile rather than your score i.e. the number of uglies having higher scores filling up the spots before your turn.

- So, praying for percentiles to go down is totally justifiable - it's praying for fewer uglies gobbling up spots

Yes. Which I also forgot to mention in my post as I wrote this at like 8am and went back to sleep .

 

[naian616]

A few fun facts :

- The unis use your UCAT score but don't actively set the cutoff mark. It sets itself at the point the interview spots are filled.

- This last bit shows how the cutoff strongly relates to your percentile rather than your score i.e. the number of uglies having higher scores filling up the spots before your turn.

- So, praying for percentiles to go down is totally justifiable - it's praying for fewer uglies gobbling up spots

uglies is a very good term to use to distinguish urself and ppl above.... thank you sir

 

[med23]

just sat my exam.... so disappointed with my mark

Scores (my scores last year)
VR: 630 (550)
DM: 740 (700)
QR: 800 (870)
AR: 800 (820)

Total: 2970 (2940)

SJT: 651 (645)

it was my second time sitting it and although my mark did improve i’m so disappointed with QR and AR... they were always my strongest sections and I was consistently getting 850-900 in my mocks so idk what went wrong.

Overall, VR was much easier this yr compared to last yr whereas I found DM harder. I think QR and AR were pre similar in difficulty to last yr, maybe slightly harder.

in QR tho, I was rlly thrown off by the calculator, idk it was rlly annoying bc u have to click on it and if u click anywhere else on the screen and start punching in numbers it doesnt register it (idk if that makes sense) but yeah even tho it was a small thing it rlly bothered me in the exam and i had to guess a couple questions bc i ran out of time :/

Overall, I’m really really disappointed because I was averaging at least 3000 in my mocks and prepared significantly more this yr compared to last yr... but I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now other than just hoping the uni cutoffs are lowered slightly this yr

 

[Aperture05]

Date completed: 31/07/2021
Venue: Pearson Professional Centre Canberra
Results:
VR: 870
DM: 820
QR: 780
AR: 720
Total: 3190

SJT: 620

Thoughts:
VR: Reasonable difficult, a lot more T/F/CT questions that I had expected (about 4 sets for me) that I somewhat struggled with. Very surprised about score.

DM: Harder than <popular online resource> mocks, most were straightforward but a number of convoluted stems and phrasing.

QR: Ran out of time for the last 5 or so questions, was pretty sure others were correct but oh well...

AR: Ran out of time for last 2 A/B/N sets. Some straightforward patterns mixed with a number of harder stuff.

SJT: lol. I suck at this.

Compared to <popular online resource> mocks I performed somewhat below, since my average across 12 mocks was around 3200-3250 with stronger QR performances.

Comparison with 2020:

	2020	2021	Change
VR	740	870	+130
DM	900	820	-80
QR	880	780	-100
AR	660	720	+60
Total	3180	3190	+10
SJT	587	620	+33

General comments on your experience:

Compared to ITIC in Sydney last year, Pearson Professional Centre in Canberra is much quieter, more professional and offered a better test taking experience all round. Some stricter checks than ITIC, but PC were located in individual cubicles, the test centre had a water machine and it was much quieter (although allegedly there are construction and renovation works scheduled to occur above them soon).

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Date completed: 31/07/2021
Venue: Pearson Professional Centre Canberra
Results:
VR: 870
DM: 820
QR: 780
AR: 720
Total: 3190

SJT: 620

Thoughts:
VR: Reasonable difficult, a lot more T/F/CT questions that I had expected (about 4 sets for me) that I somewhat struggled with. Very surprised about score.

DM: Harder than <popular online resource> mocks, most were straightforward but a number of convoluted stems and phrasing.

QR: Ran out of time for the last 5 or so questions, was pretty sure others were correct but oh well...

AR: Ran out of time for last 2 A/B/N sets. Some straightforward patterns mixed with a number of harder stuff.

SJT: lol. I suck at this.

Comparison with 2020:

	2020	2021	Change
VR	740	870	+130
DM	900	820	-80
QR	880	780	-100
AR	660	720	+60
Total	3180	3190	+10
SJT	587	620	+33

General comments on your experience:

Compared to ITIC in Sydney last year, Pearson Professional Centre in Canberra is much quieter, more professional and offered a better test taking experience all round. Some stricter checks than ITIC, but PC were located in individual cubicles, the test centre had a water machine and it was much quieter (although allegedly there are construction and renovation works scheduled to occur above them soon).

That VR score though! Def WSU interview right there.

Also, (assuming!) you’re a Sydney test taker, did you have to drive all the way to Canberra just for the exam or was it last year that you had to drive to Sydney as a Canberra resident? Cheers!