Yesterday I could finally book my UKCAT for the 22nd August 2013 with serious preparation beginning then as well (3 days off from my due date to begin serious prep, but oh well!). I guess the whole angst of things got to me, leading to somewhat defer booking my UKCAT. However, I've learnt from mistakes and the importance of always going for it and not to panic. I'm a lot more at ease now. My summer plans are fully in place + up and running now.
This still gives around a month before the test to prepare, and I'll get it done before term time! I've already spent the past 2-3 months getting the general gist of the whole thing, its purpose/how it applies to skills needed as a Doctor, and learning about the format, structure, basic tips and content. Also, I've scanned through some questions and given them a go. The next month, now, is just for practice and simulation. I'm confident preparation will go down well, and will be relying much on the 600Q book (with the goal being to complete all the questions and mock test by my real test) and MEDIFY, for which I signed up yesterday for the one month service (£30 - not too bad at all).
I did the "short version" mock test on the UKCAT website to identify my strengths and weaknesses. Here they are, with the strongest section first:
DA: 7/11 (64%)
AR: 8/15 (53%)
QR: 6/12 (50%)
(SJT): 6/13 (46%)
VR: 2/12 (abysmal)
So indeed I have much work to do. I was surprised with how accessible I have found AR, considering how unbelievably challenging the questions are in the "Get into Medical School" 600Q book. DA, as I expected is my strongest section. I've got to knuckle down on VR, and MEDIFY really is already proving to be very useful, with lots of great tips (such as encouraging me to read more articles/expand vocabulary). I would highly recommend it. It also conforms to the changes made to the UKCAT (my book is indeed a bit outdated, but have to make the most of it).
I think my technique for prep will follow the MEDIFY METHOD and I'll most likely use the 600Q book to reinforce things: since it has relatively more challenging questions, I'll use them to figure things out untimed, as a way of enhancing mental agility. Practice, practice, practice indeed.
My goal, of course, is to achieve 700+ points average. For that I'll probably need to maximize potential in both DA and AR, and really knuckle down on VR and QR to bring up the average. I'll obviously target Band 1 or 2 out of 4 for the SJT. I'll let you know how I do on 22nd August!
Should also have a decent blog post coming up in the evening...
Another thing is, I think from now I'll work to limiting the character limits for most of my blog posts to max of 400 to keep things nice and concise!
JA
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