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Post UCAT Discussion Thread 2021

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kscj said:
Did anyone driving to one of the Sydney test centres get stopped by police? I'm trying to time my commute so that I'm not too early, and not late. In particular, I suspect there might be police on the City West Link (A4), but I haven't been out in a while. Can someone comment on this?
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I drove from Canterbury-Bankstown LGA to Bridge St yesterday and did not get stopped once. No traffic along the way so got there very early, though I also left home with lots of time ahead, in case I was stopped and needed to explain reasons for travelling out of my LGA. Had all my documents ready on hand. Parking in the city was abundant. Walked into the exam centre early and they let me take the exam early, so it all worked out well. Didn't get stopped returning home either. Good luck!
 
Have spoken with a large number of friends and fellow students i know who already sat the UCAT this year (content removed) and so far everyone has reported lower than expected scores and those expected to get 3000+ were getting in the 2800-2900s! Just thought that it was interesting to note :) keep working hard you’re all producing amazing scores!
 
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smoothbrain said:
Have spoken with a large number of friends and fellow students i know who already sat the UCAT this year and (content removed) and so far everyone has reported lower than expected scores and those expected to get 3000+ were getting in the 2800-2900s! Just thought that it was interesting to note :) keep working hard you’re all producing amazing scores!
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this is the type of news i like to see.... makes me feel better about my extremely mediocre ucat score
 
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seaarm said:
Does spamming Alt+N in the real exam buffer or lag at all like it does in the official practice bank?
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When I did my exam, there was no lag or buffer and it was quite quick. However, I do believe that this delay does vary across centers as I have heard people who have had lag. Hope it helps :).
 
Test Centre: Parramatta (11/07/2021)

VR - 570
DM - 740
QR - 880
AR - 870

Total - 3060
WSU total : 681.6

SJT : 591 (We don't talk about this hehehe)

Overall, happy with my score, although I bombed VR VERY hard, I managed to offset it with QR and AR (might as well say goodbye to WSU hahaha). Honestly, general experiences at the centre were good, I had no issues getting there, and the staff were friendly! Really hoping to get an interview at JMP, UNSW, Monash and UAdel (Considering I am EAS eligible for the last 3). It would be amazing to land an interview at WSU, although looking at the VR *cough* eventhough I qualify for GWS. I guess we wait for percentiles to dictate now ....
 
smoothbrain said:
Have spoken with a large number of friends and fellow students i know who already sat the UCAT this year (content removed) and so far everyone has reported lower than expected scores and those expected to get 3000+ were getting in the 2800-2900s! Just thought that it was interesting to note :) keep working hard you’re all producing amazing scores!
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To be honest, it goes both ways. If you think of your performance as a range with its own normal distribution, you're most likely to get your average score, but you can also get really lucky on the day (everything just "clicks") and get a higher score, or really unlucky and vice versa. There are numerous people on MSO this year who have happily reported their actual UCAT score being their highest score yet, higher than any practice exam they sat. Unless you're able to survey everyone's who sitting the UCAT this year, the only thing we can really do is wait for percentiles to come out.
 
I am giving my UCAT soon, in the last week my performance at mocks has been dropping :(:( Did any of you encounter the same issue. What is the best way forward...I know there is mention of breathing techniques...it does not seem to work for me. Any other tips please :)
 
borenkar said:
I am giving my UCAT soon, in the last week my performance at mocks has been dropping :(:( Did any of you encounter the same issue. What is the best way forward...I know there is mention of breathing techniques...it does not seem to work for me. Any other tips please :)
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As you go into the later mocks, your performance is also going to be compared against people who are consistently more and more prepared for the UCAT, so its perfectly normal for your performance to be dropping/plateauing (in terms of percentiles), but I think you should try to see whether its your actual scores that are dropping or percentiles. If its the percentiles, then don't worry about it much, I saw mine drop into later mocks as well, but my aggregate score was still improving. In terms of techniques, all I can say, is just try and keep your focus consistently peaking throughout the exam and don't let previous sections influence your performance on others (i.e. I know my VR was awful, but I tried as hard as I could to just do my DM section as if VR never existed ahaha).
 
Thanks so much!!! This was really helpful. Yeah I have noticed that my scores have been increasing as I keep practicing, so hopefully it gets better!:)
 
ucatboy said:
To be honest, it goes both ways. If you think of your performance as a range with its own normal distribution, you're most likely to get your average score, but you can also get really lucky on the day (everything just "clicks") and get a higher score, or really unlucky and vice versa. There are numerous people on MSO this year who have happily reported their actual UCAT score being their highest score yet, higher than any practice exam they sat. Unless you're able to survey everyone's who sitting the UCAT this year, the only thing we can really do is wait for percentiles to come out.
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Exactly my point! Just thought it was interesting :) am definitely intrigued to see how the percentiles compare to last year- can never know what they’ll be till we get them! Happy waiting everyone
 
MB03 said:
As you go into the later mocks, your performance is also going to be compared against people who are consistently more and more prepared for the UCAT, so its perfectly normal for your performance to be dropping/plateauing (in terms of percentiles), but I think you should try to see whether its your actual scores that are dropping or percentiles. If its the percentiles, then don't worry about it much, I saw mine drop into later mocks as well, but my aggregate score was still improving. In terms of techniques, all I can say, is just try and keep your focus consistently peaking throughout the exam and don't let previous sections influence your performance on others (i.e. I know my VR was awful, but I tried as hard as I could to just do my DM section as if VR never existed ahaha).
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as much as I dont want to worry you, I reckon if your score is decreasing but your percentile remains high then you would be better off than your score increasing and your percentile dropping. For example if you begin to drop into 2900 and 2800 but your percentile remains 90+ then that would be better than 3000 but your percentile being 88. While this occurring is rare, since ucat is percentile based it would be better to see if your percentiles increase or stabalises rather than the cumulative mark. I hope that makes sense.
 
aaliyah1998 said:
very
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asan_chan said:
as much as I dont want to worry you, I reckon if your score is decreasing but your percentile remains high then you would be better off than your score increasing and your percentile dropping. For example if you begin to drop into 2900 and 2800 but your percentile remains 90+ then that would be better than 3000 but your percentile being 88. While this occurring is rare, since ucat is percentile based it would be better to see if your percentiles increase or stabalises rather than the cumulative mark. I hope that makes sense.
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no actually, this isnt quite the case! You are assuming the sample of students is the same throughout all of the mocks. The cohort in later mocks is more competitive. So the same score in mock 1 and mock 18 will generally translate to a higher %ile in mock 1 than in mock 18.
Also later mocks are less likely to have a proper bell curve due to a smaller sample size...
 
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