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Pre-UCAT Discussion 2019

Q3

Regular Member
Hello, I'm a student in year 10 hoping to get into med. When would be the best time/age to start UCAT studying?

There is no set answer that anybody can give you. The answer is different for every person. As with the UMAT, some people will do excellently with minimal study, others will study for several months and do poorly. And vice versa.
 
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There is no set answer that anybody can give you. The answer is different for every person. As with the UMAT, some people will do excellently with minimal study, others will study for several months and do poorly. And vice versa.
Ohhh, I see. I guess it doesn't really depend of the amount you study then? Thank you so much! :)
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
Ohhh, I see. I guess it doesn't really depend of the amount you study then? Thank you so much! :)
That’s quite debatable, but there would probably be little difference between someone who’s done a few months of study compared with someone (of the same base ability, however that may be measured) who’s done a year or more of study - i.e. you definitely don’t need to start studying for a long time yet!
 

Ruffle

Puffle
Emeritus Staff
Ohhh, I see. I guess it doesn't really depend of the amount you study then? Thank you so much! :)
The point of the UCAT/formerly UMAT was to provide a form of testing that was influenced less by socioeconomic status than ATAR- a test that couldn't be "studied for" per se. (Obviously this didn't stop the prep companies). :p
Some people find that study and prep help, whereas I have friends who scored 99th percentiles without studying (one of them wasn't even considering med and took it just for fun!). I haven't heard of people starting in year 10 and don't see the point in doing so tbh- most people begin 3-4 months out from the test. After a certain amount of study, the benefits stop increasing as much anyway. And one possible reason they switched from UMAT to UCAT is that UCAT is harder to prepare for, making it less worth your time to prep.
Enjoy high school before it begins getting too stressful imo :)
 

pi

Junior doctor
Emeritus Staff
Enjoy life while you can, plenty of time for study later. Certainly, year 10 is too early to be dedicating time to study for a test nearly two years away.
 

Perplex

Emeritus Staff
Emeritus Staff
Enjoy life while you can, plenty of time for study later. Certainly, year 10 is too early to be dedicating time to study for a test nearly two years away.

I agree with this advice. The worst thing you could is study very hard now and just burn yourself out. Pacing yourself is key. Starting to study intensely now will more than likely lead to burn out by Year 12. I'd suggest taking it easy and studying when it matters most.
 
The point of the UCAT/formerly UMAT was to provide a form of testing that was influenced less by socioeconomic status than ATAR- a test that couldn't be "studied for" per se. (Obviously this didn't stop the prep companies). :p
Some people find that study and prep help, whereas I have friends who scored 99th percentiles without studying (one of them wasn't even considering med and took it just for fun!). I haven't heard of people starting in year 10 and don't see the point in doing so tbh- most people begin 3-4 months out from the test. After a certain amount of study, the benefits stop increasing as much anyway. And one possible reason they switched from UMAT to UCAT is that UCAT is harder to prepare for, making it less worth your time to prep.
Enjoy high school before it begins getting too stressful imo :)
UCAT is rly intimidating... ahhh! but wow im so jealous of ur friend! haha

Enjoy life while you can, plenty of time for study later. Certainly, year 10 is too early to be dedicating time to study for a test nearly two years away.
True, I should enjoy my life rn and stress about things in the upcoming years :)

I agree with this advice. The worst thing you could is study very hard now and just burn yourself out. Pacing yourself is key. Starting to study intensely now will more than likely lead to burn out by Year 12. I'd suggest taking it easy and studying when it matters most.
I agreee, i think pacing is rly important when approaching this type of challenges
 
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L

Logic

Guest
Hello, I'm a student in year 10 hoping to get into med. When would be the best time/age to start UCAT studying?
I would be careful of studying anything early. A lot of kids in my grade burned out on subjects because of this kind of thing, so I would enjoy the time you have as a year 10 :)
 
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geek

Member
Hello UCAT 2019 people,
As the UCAT has recently been introduced in Australia for the very first time,I was wondering if anyone was interested to form an online study group where we can ask each other questions and form a timeline for our preparation.I feel quite lost and I think an online group will motivate us all to work hard.
Comment below if interested

P. S use this thread to ask any questions
 
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Kat92

(Student BNurs WSU). Hopeful for JMP
If the admins allow it we could perhaps have a forum somewhere dedicated on here at MSO.

I would be up for it when I have time between what I am currently studying health-wise, as I have just currently been going through some of the UKCAT stuff online and in one of the books I purchased.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
We did something similar to this for UMAT 2017 in particular so I’d be happy to set up a thread here. It was just a pre-UMAT discussion thread, but about 10 of us used it pretty solidly to share tips and thoughts and experiences with prep materials, to ask questions, and to keep each other motivated.

Is that the kind of thing you’re thinking of? If so, I’ll just re-name this thread something a little more obvious and it can be underway that quickly :D
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Yes please,that would be wonderful LMG....thanks a lot :)

Done :) Just a head’s up that you may struggle for ‘members’ this side of Christmas but things will pick up early in the new year. Also, in 2017 when the UMAT prep thread was incredibly active and collaborative, a small group of us who were doing the exam that year really drove things. It may take some effort to get off the ground. I’ll do what I can, but it really works best when people who are invested get involved. It’s also a little hard to predict how the change to UCAT will affect things. My gut says there’ll be more activity as everyone will be uncertain, but who knows!

Good luck :D
 
M

medicallyblonde

Guest
One thing I have been prepping is a Situational Judgement document based on the seven broad topic areas with the two different types of answers (appropriateness and importance), it would be a great resource with extra collaboration?
 

geek

Member
One thing I have been prepping is a Situational Judgement document based on the seven broad topic areas with the two different types of answers (appropriateness and importance), it would be a great resource with extra collaboration?
Hey can you please link up the document so we can all add in our stuff

cheers
 

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