Blogs
3rd October 2020
Is UCAT a fair test?
Every year, debates continue about UCAT. Is it fair? Is it biased? Is it an achivement test or an aptitude test? Is it good? Is it evil? Does it measure intelligence? Does it measure anything? Does it measure how well you will do in medical school? Does it predict whether you will be a ‘good’ doctor? When a test of similar nature was introduced in the USA in 1926 debates raged on for decades ...
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3rd October 2020
UCAT and careers teachers
Careers teachers knowledge of and interest in UCAT Preparation varies quite markedly. There are those who go to the trouble of inviting UCAT MedEntry to come and deliver a course in-house at their school. At the other extreme, there are those who do not have time to research UCAT Preparation, and may be critical of its value for various reasons. If you are in a school where the careers teac ...
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3rd October 2020
Does UCAT coaching work?
Psychometric tests such as UCAT have been in use in NZ for the last 25 years, but in the US numerous such tests have been in use for well over a century. Coaching organisations are therefore well established there. The officials at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) at Princeton say that they have no objection to the coaching because what is important is that students learn the skills that ...
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3rd October 2020
Time management in UCAT
Timing is perhaps the most stress-inducing factor of the UCAT exam. If the UCAT were at take-home test, you would all score well. Managing time is the key. Most of your MedEntry UCAT practice will include timed sections, allowing you to become more familiar and comfortable with the pacing of the exam. The UCAT is not a test of intelligence. Although it is used as a predictor for success in ...
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3rd October 2020
UCAT Prep: Establish your personal scoring goals
Your main goal should be to maximise your potential on the actual UCAT test. Very few students get every question right. You have to be realistic. Strive to work within your own abilities. Students often ask: How does my practice test performance translate to how I will perform on the actual UCAT test? Questions are “graded” for difficulty throughout the MedEntry UCAT prep ...
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3rd October 2020
UCAT Tips: Learn to make intelligent guesses when necessary
Another tip in scoring well in the UCAT test is to try to eliminate as many responses as you can. Here’s why it is important to eliminate at least some choices when you’re guessing. If you get to a question and you’re not sure of the answer, of course you’ll have to guess. Whether you’re guessing among all four choices or you’ve eliminated a couple of obviou ...
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3rd October 2020
UCAT: Speed Reading
The following reading efficiency techniques can boost your reading rate. But even if your rate is fine, these techniques will help you boost comprehension and concentration. (i) Mechanical Approach You’ve probably seen speed-readers moving their hands down a page as they rapidly read the material, the theory being that their eyes follow their hands. The problem with this approach is that it ...
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3rd October 2020
Why do universities need UCAT scores? Isn’t my academic score enough?
Good university admissions officers will use your UCAT scores to help them assess your readiness to do tough medical school work. Although the UCAT does not assess broad subject knowledge, it provides a universal benchmark that your high school transcript can’t. It assesses skills that are essential to succeed in a competitive Australian medical school: problem solving, data interpretati ...
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3rd October 2020
Doesn’t the UCAT do a poor job of predicting medical school grades?
UCAT-bashers have long liked to claim that the UCAT isn’t valuable to universities because it doesn’t predict university grades very well. They miss two important points: first, smart university admissions officers don’t want it to predict grades, and second, it correlates very well with something more important than grades—real success in academic fields like medicine ...
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3rd October 2020
Doesn’t the UCAT just measure “test-taking skills”?
Unfortunately, some UCAT prep courses try to convince students that taking the UCAT has nothing to do with real academic skills. They prefer you to believe that it’s all about their test-taking “secrets.” This is great marketing for them, but little help for you. Although there are a few basic test-taking skills that you should know about—process of elimination, intelligent guessing and chec ...
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