Hi all,
VR is definitely my worst section. Whenever I'm doing 4-question practise sessions I usually get them all right and in less than the average time, but when doing a practise test I can barely get half of the 44 done. I'm pretty sure the stress of the time limit is what slows me down - how can i speed up under these conditions?
If your biggest hurdle to speed is stress, then it's not necessarily going to be addressed by the usual means. I had a similar experience during UMAT where I was running out of the time I allocated myself for each section (timing for UMAT was a bit different to UCAT) and needed to speed up.
Stress under timed conditions can be caused by a couple of factors and it can be useful to figure out which is the key one for you.
It could be that you're getting distracted by the clock counting down and panicking about that (rather than the material itself).
It could be that you're wasting time on the questions due to stressing about your answers/second guessing yourself.
It could be something else entirely.
I identified my UMAT timing issue as being a consequence of
constantly second guessing my S2 (the closest equivalent to UCAT's VR) answers. I had to literally train myself to pick an answer and
stick with it. I had to accept that it wasn't going to feel great (initially at least) to not just 'have a quick double check'. I did whole practice sessions where I just allowed myself to get used to
feeling uncertain and to accept that I didn't have time for over-analysing and that the over-analysing wasn't helping with either time or accuracy anyway.
This honestly helped my speed immeasurably across the entire UMAT but also improved my accuracy on the UMAT's VR equivalent to a point where I scored 73 (which was about 99th%ile, IIRC).
I highly recommend it as a method if you're having trouble with second-guessing/constantly doubting your answers/changing your answers.
Pick the one that seems right the first time,
then move on. <-- and practice doing this! (In this case, it's not the material you need to practice, it's the ability to sit with the anxiety not double-checking your work provokes that you need to practice).
If you're clock watching, then more generalised stress-management strategies might be useful for you. Practicing some very brief mindfulness or grounding exercises a couple of times every day (I'm just talking something super fast: ~5 seconds-ish*) and getting really used to doing that, and then moving to incorporate your strategy into your practice exam scenario where, immediately prior to hitting start (or however each of the subsections is initiated), you use it to very quickly bring your fight or flight response back into line.
If neither of the above factors is something you've identified as the cause of your 'stress', then it's probably a useful exercise to have a bit of a reflect and see if you can figure out what it is. Once you do that, if you have more questions, feel free to let me know!
* I can suggest some if you're not sure of any