Pre-UCAT Discussion 2020

[cocodreams]

What kind of paper is provided at the centres? Is it a small whiteboard, A4 paper or laminated sheet?

 

[Fili]

What kind of paper is provided at the centres? Is it a small whiteboard, A4 paper or laminated sheet?

A4 laminated booklet

 

[ucatboy]

What kind of paper is provided at the centres? Is it a small whiteboard, A4 paper or laminated sheet?

It varies - I got two laminated pieces of paper that were pretty big (somewhere between A3 and A4).

 

[bigyikes]

What kind of paper is provided at the centres? Is it a small whiteboard, A4 paper or laminated sheet?

I actually didn't get a whiteboard or laminated paper, I just got a few pieces of plain A4 and a pen.

 

[cocodreams]

It varies - I got two laminated pieces of paper that were pretty big (somewhere between A3 and A4).

Which test centre were you in?

A4 laminated booklet

What was your test centre?

 

[Fili]

What was your test centre?

Otago, New Zealand.

 

[ucatboy]

Which test centre were you in?

Thebarton, South Australia

 

[cocodreams]

How did everyone prepare leading up to the UCAT (last 2-3 months) How many practice exams did you do a week? And is it really quality > quantity because even though I try my best to reflect on my exams it doesn't really seem to work

 

[sunnyrain]

Hey cocodreams.
Yeah, I get what you mean about reflecting on my performance but getting nowhere. However, as we do more questions and implement what we learned through assessing where we went wrong, we should be getting better. The improvement may be really slow but there will be improvement. We should just do the best we can and be patient.

 

[cocodreams]

I guess? You get scores ranging from 300 to 900 for each section.

Oh so the 300-900 is scaled score and the numerical scores e.g. x/44 is the raw score?

are the official UCAT mocks harder than the actual UCAT?

 

[ponyswordz]

Hey guys.
You know for the timed practice on medify where you're able to select the number of questions you want to do timed? What percentage of questions do you guys get correct? I've recently started timed (yesterday) and my scores aren't great, compared to when I was doing it untimed.

Thank you for your input!

Whilst the ucat is a percentile based test, you should ideally be doing the questions to the best of your ability and not worrying about the performance of what others are doing. In an online forum, anyone can say anything. It's not about getting to the threshold of where others are at but oversucceeding your expectations and goals. Rule of thumb is that if you are not getting 100%, there is always room for improvement

 

[dotwingz]

Hey guys.
You know for the timed practice on medify where you're able to select the number of questions you want to do timed? What percentage of questions do you guys get correct? I've recently started timed (yesterday) and my scores aren't great, compared to when I was doing it untimed.

Thank you for your input!

To be honest if you have just started doing timed i wouldnt worry too much thus far. Give it another week and see how you go

 

[TMG]

Hey guys.
You know for the timed practice on medify where you're able to select the number of questions you want to do timed? What percentage of questions do you guys get correct? I've recently started timed (yesterday) and my scores aren't great, compared to when I was doing it untimed.

Thank you for your input!

Yeah I gotta agree with the two people above.

If it makes you feel any better, I was getting like 20 percentiles when I started off and am now managing to get 90+ percentiles. (no flex) Point is, just keep at it and persevere through and you will do just fine !

 

[1029384756]

does anyone have any updates about what's happening with the UCAT considering the whole pandemic thing?

 

[Some guy]

does anyone have any updates about what's happening with the UCAT considering the whole pandemic thing?

Their latest announcement (from late March) is its going ahead but the test dates might be delayed. - COVID-19 | UCAT Consortium

 

[ucatboy]

890 is an amazingly good score! Looking at my own, I only occasionally broke 800 during practice.

Variations in AR scores are to be expected and nothing to worry about because AR is, at its core, only 10 "real" questions (the last 5 questions are easy so I won't count them) : for each 5 question set, you either get the pattern or you don't (not counting getting part of the rule, which I'll disregard for simplicity's sake here). So for every pattern you get, that's an instant addition of ~60 to your AR total. Conversely, for every pattern you DON'T get, that's ~60 deducted from your maximum score. It can be quite frustrating when you come across multiple unsolvable question sets in a single mock (feeling your heart sink as you realise 4 unsolvable sets = 20 questions = ~200 score), but with practice I'm sure your scores will improve and become more consistent as your brain keeps taking in previous patterns.

 

[TMG]

The solution which can be seen on the bottom right essentially takes the total income that someone earns and minuses it form the max income in each tax bracket.
For example, if someone earns $40000 a year, RATHER then using the 'Basic rate' tax (20%) on that whole income, the solution does 40000-11850 = 28150, AND then uses this value and applies the 20% tax rate. (and ignore the FIRST 11850 as there is a 0% tax rate on it)

Is this correct? I am pretty sure I have seen elsewhere that to calculate tax for lets say a $50000 income person, you simply get the tax rate and multiply it by that income, rather then minusing it from each tax bracket's max and applying the separate tax rates.

Can anyone clarify please?

PS. Photo is attached at the bottom

Thanks,
TMG

 

[cocodreams]

How accurate is the official ucat practice test? I got so many incorrect in SJ that would otherwise be partially correct. How do I determine my percentile?

 

[loser]

How accurate is the official ucat practice test? I got so many incorrect in SJ that would otherwise be partially correct. How do I determine my percentile?

Since it's from the official UCAT consortium, then I'd say pretty accurate.

 

[CristinaYang]

How accurate is the official ucat practice test? I got so many incorrect in SJ that would otherwise be partially correct. How do I determine my percentile?

I would say that determining percentiles for SJT is pretty difficult particularly because of the partially correct factor. From what I understand, the scaling of it is also impacted by this because iirc last year the highest score for SJT was in the 700s as opposed to other sections which had people scoring in the high 800s (/900). In terms of its accuracy and how it translates into the actual test I would say your best bet is to gain an understanding of the vibe in each scenario since the themes they ask about are recurring and if you know the extent to which you must act in such a scenario you're more likely to choose the correct answer....you'll get better at this with practice. Once again as people have said above try to focus on improvement rather than the number of questions you've gotten incorrect. All the best!