UCAT: 5 Tips for the Final Fortnight
4 years ago by Robert
UCAT is well and truly close now so it’s time to streamline your study and buckle down! Here are five ways to make sure you’re using the next fortnight effectively to set you up for success on UCAT day.
- Use your UCAT practice exams wisely
A practice exam is only a practice exam if you’re doing it in exam conditions. UCAT is a marathon and your MedEntry exams are your trial runs, so use them to recreate UCAT as much as you possibly can. UCAT isn’t just about the questions, it’s about building your stamina, working on your time management, and managing your crunch time stress. Lots of really clever people are brought down by the length of UCAT and burn out halfway through. Now is the time to make sure you’re still going strong when you get to question 233.
- Stop putting off your least favourite questions
No one likes doing things they’re not so great at but now is the time you really need to be focusing on those less strong areas and boosting them up as much as you can. MedEntry does a fantastic job of writing wonderful full explanations in the drills and exams. These are invaluable when working on those subtests that aren’t as strong as your others.
- Study with friends
An hour studying with friends is worth 3 alone! Studying with friends will help you see new ways of answering and approaching questions and even help with time management. It’s almost like having your own team of tutors! Teaching others is also a really great way to learn yourself so even if you feel like you don’t need so much help with UCAT, helping out and teaching your friends is a great way to help you too.
- Work on your UCAT day game plan
Now is the time to start figuring out how you’re getting to the venue, where you’ll park, what you’re going to bring with you, and all those sorts of things! If you live close enough to your venue it can be really beneficial to go to the venue and have a look around and work out exactly where it is you need to be.
- Take care of your whole self
You’re so close now! This would be the worst time to catch a cold or just start feeling generally under the weather physically or emotionally. You need to make sure you’re eating right, getting outside, and taking care of your mental health. When you’re studying so hard and under so much stress it can be easy to let aspects of your health slip, so right now it’s very important that you’re taking care of number one.
Blog Written by Rosanna, a 97th percentile student studying Medicine at the University of Newcastle.