Pre-UCAT Discussion 2020

[rjexik97]

This might sound a little trivial but what size screens did they give you on the day? if you were to like guess how big would you say they were. Does anyone even possibly know what model they used?

The test centre I went to in Sydney had pretty small screens and looked like something from the late 90s lol. I had to get super close to the screen to be able to read everything and the quality wasn't that great unfortunately.

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

The test centre I went to in Sydney had pretty small screens and looked like something from the late 90s lol. I had to get super close to the screen to be able to read everything and the quality wasn't that great unfortunately.

Is this test centre located in the CBD area?
I'm trying to get as much info on the test centres in Sydney CBD particularly the one on Bridge Street.

 

[ponyswordz]

Is this test centre located in the CBD area?
I'm trying to get as much info on the test centres in Sydney CBD particularly the one on Bridge Street.

In Sydney last year, I went to the Parramatta one on Macquarie St Level 5/31 (rectangular screen so text was a bit elongated but I am used to it since I play video games on pretty whacky dimensions due to bad computer specs) but had a decent experience there (all functions and shortcuts worked exactly as expected -> most important timesaver imo). There were a number of really high UCAT scorers who also did theirs at Parkus Technologies (also in Parramatta, not sure about screen dimensions) so if you are living out in the West, those 2 are solid locations. I heard a lot of people went to the ITIC (in the CBD) and had a LOT of mixed responses (some had delays with calling for help whilst others said that the experience was very smooth) so essentially a mixed bag. However, experiences do vary from year-year and as such, the best thing you could strive for is to prepare to do your best on the UCAT.

 

[garmonbozia]

In Sydney last year, I went to the Parramatta one on Macquarie St Level 5/31 (rectangular screen so text was a bit elongated) but had a decent experience there (all functions and shortcuts worked exactly as expected -> most important timesaver imo). There were a number of really high UCAT scorers who also did theirs at Parkus Technologies (also in Parramatta, not sure about screen dimensions) so if you are living out in the West, those 2 are solid locations. I heard a lot of people went to the ITTC or ICCC (in the CBD) and had a LOT of mixed responses (some had delays with calling for help whilst others said that the experience was very smooth) so essentially a mixed bag. However, experiences do vary from year-year and as such, the best thing you could strive for is to prepare to do your best on the UCAT.

By ITTC do you mean ITIC? If so: for the love of God do not go there. Staff are terribly disorganised, there's no supervision in the room whatsoever - they told us they had us on CCTV but I found out this was false the hard way, when my test froze and I had my hand up for help for half an hour before a staff member luckily came in. Avoid this place!

 

[ponyswordz]

By ITTC do you mean ITIC? If so: for the love of God do not go there. Staff are terribly disorganised, there's no supervision in the room whatsoever - they told us they had us on CCTV but I found out this was false the hard way, when my test froze and I had my hand up for help for half an hour before a staff member luckily came in. Avoid this place!

Yeah, was referring to the ITIC.

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

By ITTC do you mean ITIC? If so: for the love of God do not go there. Staff are terribly disorganised, there's no supervision in the room whatsoever - they told us they had us on CCTV but I found out this was false the hard way, when my test froze and I had my hand up for help for half an hour before a staff member luckily came in. Avoid this place!

Yeah, was referring to the ITIC.

Thank you for your response. I'm trying out for the one at Bridge Street Sydney CBD as it is the most convenient one to where I am.

 

[nb]

Hey. On the official test (on the day), can you like hold control and scroll to zoom in and make the page larger? I tend to perform a lot better when the VR passage is slightly larger... lol kinda weird ik

 

[garmonbozia]

Hey. On the official test (on the day), can you like hold control and scroll to zoom in and make the page larger? I tend to perform a lot better when the VR passage is slightly larger... lol kinda weird ik

No

 

[ucatboy]

Hey. On the official test (on the day), can you like hold control and scroll to zoom in and make the page larger? I tend to perform a lot better when the VR passage is slightly larger... lol kinda weird ik

Just move closer to the screen

 

[rjexik97]

Is this test centre located in the CBD area?
I'm trying to get as much info on the test centres in Sydney CBD particularly the one on Bridge Street.

I did it at ITIC in the CBD. Everything else was great though. There was a lot of people so get there early and you might have to stand around for a bit but it wasn't too bad. However, reading this thread I'm seeing a lot of mixed responses. I took the PM session on a weekend towards the end of July so maybe I just got lucky.

 

[Sokka]

Hey, how similar are the official mock VR from the actual UCAT VR?

 

[Smelly Boy]

Hey, how similar are the official mock VR from the actual UCAT VR?

I’m not sure if this is the appropriate place to discuss this (so mods apologies in advance and feel free to re-locate this - done! From LMG!) but the official mock VR is pretty much the same difficulty as the actual UCAT VR. I personally thought it was spot on

 

[dande]

Anyone here who sat their UCAT at the Melbourne CBD test care to share the screen sizes?

 

[Sokka]

Hi everyone!

Just a quick but very important update.

You may note that a couple of UCAT threads have disappeared. They have been hidden from view for now (though not deleted) because we have received notification from the MSO site owner that we (moderators and administrators) must place an immediate embargo on discussion of ALL UCAT prep courses.

Any mention of prep companies, whether directly or implied, will be deleted. This is something that we moderators and administrators have been asked to carry out, not something we have decided to put in place ourselves, so please help us out and do not post discussion, questions, reviews, or comments about any prep companies for the time being. I can't give you any additional information at this stage (partly because I don't really have any! Just this instruction!).

General chat, support, and advice seeking is absolutely a-okay, and we definitely encourage that to continue, but, for now, that's it.

Thank you all for your understanding.

From LMG! on behalf on the moderators and administrators and, ultimately, on behalf of MSO's site owner.

Is there any way we could access the thread through an external link? I found the "predicting UCAT scores" thread in particular really helpful.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Is there any way we could access the thread through an external link? I found the "predicting UCAT scores" thread in particular really helpful.

Nope, sorry, not at this stage.

ETA: I'm trying to see whether I can remove the prep company information in that thread in order to re-open it, but I'm not sure how feasible that will be. I'll keep you all posted.

ETA2: Done. Please see the reminder about discussion of prep companies.

 

[rjexik97]

How is everyone spacing out full-length mocks? To the people that did well last year, what was your mock schedule like? Not sure when to start but also don't want to leave it too close to the date.

 

[skid_]

For the resource I've chosen, it's pretty set out for me:

• Do theory/understand subtest
• Do 2-3 quizzes per subtest
• Mock exam
• Go back and focus on weak subtests
• Mock exam

... and so forth.

 

[Smelly Boy]

How is everyone spacing out full-length mocks? To the people that did well last year, what was your mock schedule like? Not sure when to start but also don't want to leave it too close to the date.

I did mocks once I felt that I knew what The test was about.

I spent some time (~2 weeks) doing questions with and without a timer and once I realised what was going on, I attempted full mocks. I would say give yourself 4-8 weeks before the exam date to complete mocks. Divide the mocks evenly so that you complete your last mock test about ONE WEEK before your exam e.g. if you have 8 mocks and 5 weeks before your exam then do 2 mocks per week (over 4 weeks) so that you have one week at the end to do some light practice to warm up before the big day.

Anything more than 2 mocks per week is kinda overkill. I doubt that the majority of people would be able to meaningfully reflect on the 3+ mocks they complete and figure out how to improve for the next time. It’ll be more like brute forcing yourself through mock exams and expecting a better mark to magically appear.

 

[ThunderDragon]

Hey everyone I got my UCAT in about 10 weeks. Was just wondering how I should split those 10 weeks between learning question techniques, prac questions untimed, prac questions timed and mocks?

 

[whys]

Hey everyone I got my UCAT in about 10 weeks. Was just wondering how I should split those 10 weeks between learning question techniques, prac questions untimed, prac questions timed and mocks?

I personally think it's good to move onto mocks once you're familiar/comfortable with all the subtests and associated question types. I also recommend doing mini-quizzes/mini-mocks if you have access to those. I agree with Smelly Boy above in that you should attempt to split it up evenly so that you can actually look over what went good/bad and improve. I guess with timed/untimed, just do untimed till you're comfortable to move onto timed. Ideally, most of your practice should be spent on timed practice because this is where the exam's main difficulty factor stems from.

EDIT: different people take different amounts of time to learn the techniques and apply them, so move on when you feel comfortable doing so, but make sure most of your time is spent practising questions in timed conditions.