Post UCAT Discussion Thread 2021

[Aperture05]

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!

Moved to Canberra for uni haha, got caught in the lockdown in Sydney and had to apply for an exemption and a lengthy (and expensive) hotel quarantine to sit the exam in Canberra since Pearson Vue was less than helpful.

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Moved to Canberra for uni haha, got caught in the lockdown in Sydney and had to apply for an exemption and a lengthy (and expensive) hotel quarantine to sit the exam in Canberra since Pearson Vue was less than helpful.

And how did you also find the official mocks compared to the exam? What were your VR strategies?

 

[Aperture05]

And how did you also find the official mocks compared to the exam? What were your VR strategies?

Didn't do the official mocks this year, since I've done them all last year. Can't quite remember how they compare anymore lol.

Given that the passages for me this time was relatively short compared to what I've been practising with (they were only about 3-4 paragraphs this time), I could spend about a minute reading through the passage and answer most of the questions without having to look through the article again. More generally, the choices will usually be worded in such a way that 1 of them are obviously wrong, 2 of them sound right but one isn't supported by the passage and the other may have done a false rewording of the content, and one that is correct (what I mean by false rewording is that the choice may say unenthusiastic while the passage says enthusiastic, which is something you would gloss over when under time pressure).

With regards to T/F/CT questions, unless the passage specifically refers to the content in the question, its generally CT. This is doubly so if the question is a well known and established fact, eg. Protostars are the first stage in a star's life cycle, but would still be CT if the passage did not mention the life cycle of a star, even if its somewhat implied.

 

[Ray1_1]

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!

Hey, congrats on your score, esp VR!!! Just wanted to ask, what was your technique for VR if you dont mind me asking. Did you read the passage first or the questions?

 

[springss]

Hi everyone,
I did my Ucat a few weeks ago and scored 2920. I was very disappointed with my score as in practice mocks I would consistently get 3100-3200. I was just wondering if my score would still be 90+ percentile.
Thanks

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hi everyone,
I did my Ucat a few weeks ago and scored 2920. I was very disappointed with my score as in practice mocks I would consistently get 3100-3200. I was just wondering if my score would still be 90+ percentile.
Thanks

No one can answer this meaningfully. You will just have to be patient and wait until percentiles are released. Best of luck!

 

[JohnDoetheFirst]

Hey everyone,
I have been a lurker on this forum for a while, and have found the insights of everyone very helpful. To pay it forward, I only feel it is fitting that I post my results and perspective on the exam. I took my exam (31/07/2021) today at midday.
In all honesty, I had been preparing for a few months. I developed some strategies for the subtests and by the day of my exam, I had done 19 mocks and 15000+ questions.

My results were:
VR - 630
DM - 850
QR - 740
AR - 860
Total (excluding SJT) - 3080
SJT - 663

My thoughts on the subtests:
VR - Pretty content dense, as aforementioned by others. VR was never really my strength, so I was kind of expecting this kind of mark. However, the aspect ratio of the screen really decreased my speed, as the text is stretched along with the screen (that is something that I wish I was aware of beforehand as I found myself reading a lot slower than normal). On the morning of the exam, I found that reading Wikipedia articles on my laptop. With VR, for T/F/CT questions, I read the questions first and then tried to identify keywords in the passage to get the answer. With other questions, I just tried to identify keywords unless it was a question like "What is the main message of the passage?" - in which case I would read the first and last line of every paragraph quickly. Most importantly, if you can't get the question, flag and move on. That is probably the most important thing.
DM - Good DM skills are built through hours of practice in my opinion. Especially with syllogisms, they require you to not make any assumptions whatsoever, so you have to create logical mindmaps that detail the relationship between certain things in the question. You can either mentally visualise these relations or write them out (I never wrote them out by the way, for me it was a waste of time). The notepad and marker are your best friends in DM, especially for the worded questions that usually follow the syllogisms. But I must admit, the DM that I faced was quite hard, I did not think I would have achieved 850.
QR - I was very disappointed with my QR mark as I was averaging 850-900 in mocks. I think it was because I was anxious following what I thought was a bad DM performance. Just remember to keep a level head and apply the appropriate mathematical formulae. Also, learn how to master the calculator, particularly with a keyboard with a small number pad on the right-hand side so you develop muscle memory as to where numbers are and increase your speed.
AR - This section wasn't my best before the exam, but somehow I performed incredibly well in it. I found the questions alright, but then again, Abstract Reasoning skills can only be built with practice. Something that most don't pick up on is knowing when something is a distractor - for example, if an aspect of the pattern appears to be random or not following any given rule, then it is probably a distractor. In that case, totally ignore it, as considering it to be something meaningful will only hinder progress.

Thank you very much to the previous contributors to the thread. To those who have already sat the UCAT this year, congratulations. To those who are yet to sit their exam, all the best.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have any

 

[silentsonata]

Hey, congrats on your score, esp VR!!! Just wanted to ask, what was your technique for VR if you dont mind me asking. Did you read the passage first or the questions?

I personally read the question first! But while I'm looking for the answer in my subsequent scan(s) of the passage, I also try to retain as much information as possible. I actually was able to cut down my speed a whole lot during the UCAT because there were one or two passages where I remembered enough to not look back at anything

 

[Ray1_1]

I personally read the question first! But while I'm looking for the answer in my subsequent scan(s) of the passage, I also try to retain as much information as possible. I actually was able to cut down my speed a whole lot during the UCAT because there were one or two passages where I remembered enough to not look back at anything

Ok thank you!! Also, sorry if i might be missing something obvious, but is there any reason you have to roll up your sleeves?

 

[vehura]

Ok thank you!! Also, sorry if i might be missing something obvious, but is there any reason you have to roll up your sleeves?

I assume it would be so they can make sure you have nothing written on your arms which you can then use to cheat during the test

 

[dotwingz]

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.

Wow amazing score. I've never heard of any test centres doing this before... Seems odd because notes in the UCAT can't be that helpful as its largely just digesting the info given to you in the exam. Maybe its just a pearson policy?

 

[medboy20]

Hey guys! This may seem like a silly question but to the people who have done the exam - when you finish the last question of a specific question, is the next page like a review page of the qs you have flagged/incomplete? (Content removed)

 

[jhsane]

Is the last testing date different for NZ and Australia this year then? :0

 

[naian616]

Is the last testing date different for NZ and Australia this year then? :0

to add on this, when could we expect percentiles to come out due to the extended dates? nervous for my percentile

 

[2xq]

to add on this, when could we expect percentiles to come out due to the extended dates? nervous for my percentile

Just chill fam take a few deep breaths and do something else. play a game with friends!

 

[2xq]

Hey guys! This may seem like a silly question but to the people who have done the exam - when you finish the last question of a specific question, is the next page like a review page of the qs you have flagged/incomplete? (Content removed)

Review of the section where you can go back to incomplete or flagged questions etc. exactly like how the practice exams are on the official question banks.

 

[A1]

when could we expect percentiles to come out due to the extended dates?

Last year due to the extended dates it came out on Sept 8th, probably similar this year.

But look, you guys are still better off than us UMAT lot. We sat the test mid-July and had to wait two months till mid-Sept to get our scores let alone percentiles haha.

 

[DootDoolaDoot]

Last year due to the extended dates it came out on Sept 8th, probably similar this year.

But look, you guys are still better off than us UMAT lot. We sat the test mid-July and had to wait two months till mid-Sept to get our scores let alone percentiles haha.

Do you remember when the testing finished last year?

 

[A1]

Do you remember when the testing finished last year?

Late August last year UCAT ANZ released preliminary stats but said there were still ~150 candidates to sit in Sept

https://medstudentsonline.com.au/forum/attachments/1598528256910-png.3942/

 

[Purplefolly]

Date completed: 1/08/21

Venue: Bridge St, Sydney

Results:
VR: 670
DM: 880
QR: 800
AR: 860
Total: 3210

SJT: 615

Thoughts:
VR: VR was traditionally my strongest score of all the subsets on mocks (scored >730 on every mock). I am not sure what happened..

DM: Seemed easier than official mocks.

QR: This has traditionally been my worst section (scored 550 – 600 on mocks). I have no idea how I scored 800 today.

AR: Totally surprised by this score too. I didn’t crack 800 even once in mocks.

SJT: Hmmm….

General comments on your experience:

Centre was great. No complaints. Everything went smoothly.

I am not sure what to feel and cannot recall much of the details of the test now.

Happy with overall result but confused and deflated by VR.

WSU was by far my first preference as I live in GWS. Have I blown my chances with this VR? On the WSU formula, I get 745. Is that enough for an invite??

With regards to preparation, my mock results were all over the place and I did not expect this overall Total Score today, so I do not feel I can offer any reliable advice on how to prepare that will provide any predictability to anyone else…