Develop a Sound Strategy for Your UKCAT Test
Identify your Weak Areas at an Early Stage
As you practice some simple questions, either using our free UKCAT exam or from one of our online UKCAT practice question packages, you will quickly identify your weakest areas. Many candidates struggle with the abstract reasoning and quantitative reasoning questions, but you might find that you are particularly good in one area and weaker in another. Remember that the majority of institutions aggregate the scores and so by improving your weak areas this is the quickest way to increase your overall mark.
There is always a pay-off between speed and accuracy and the UKCAT is a test of both. If you find that you can work quickly but make basic or silly errors when you review your answers then use the clock to slow down you're pace and double check your answers. Throughout the learning package we will show you ways to spot shortcuts and get to the same answer quicker
The test is not negatively marked
Don't leave questions unanswered as you won't be penalised for getting it wrong you may as well make an educated guess. You will be surprised at just how often an educated guess can be on the money. If you have run out of time, it would be a sensible strategy to go back and make informed guesses.
Spot patterns and develop a set of rules to try
Some questions have a limited number of possibilities. This is particularly true with the abstract reasoning questions. For example, memorise a list of attributes or patterns to check against and eliminate them one-by-one. Our questions contain many of these commonly used patterns. A potential list for the abstract reasoning section which you might like to add to is as follows :
- Object Type
- Number of objects
- Object shading / colour
- Object location
- Object orientation and position
- Relative angles / positions between objects - how they depend on each other
- Number of edges to objects
- Number of overlapping objects
- Symmetry
So really this immediately makes the task far less daunting as you have a clear strategy to work to. Similarly, there are sets of basic skills required for the quantitative reasoning questions. Calculations that you should be able to perform with ease are as follows:
- Averages - mean, median and mode
- Calculating totals over a given time period
- Percentages, percentage increase / decrease and ratios
- Conversions between units - weight, time, volume, area etc
- Round numbers
Finally you should hold a list of keywords that will help you to interpret both the verbal reasoning and the decision analysis questions. Both these question types are based on interpreting information, often with significant vaguities. By identifying keywords and being confident about their meaning and implication you can increase both your accuracy and speed at getting to the correct answer. For example, you should bear in mind the following:
- May, might or can Implies something is possible but not necessarily true at that given moment. e.g. smoking may cause lung cancer or heart disease can cause breathlessness.
- Likely, commonly and frequently Imply an event often occurs but not always. The event is more likely than not to occur. For example, "his hayfever is frequently worse in the summer" implies it is probable that his hayfever will be worse next summer than next winter but not guaranteed.
- Causes, gives rise to, leads to, is due to are all great words because they tell you something is factually associated with a given event. Similarly look for the negative opposites : cannot, impossible etc.
Filter Redundant Information / Distractors
Learn to scan the question (more about speed reading techniques below). Don't take in all the information at first go, get a feel for what the question is about and what you might need to know. Then move straight to the list of options. If you spot the answer and are confident immediately then move on, otherwise eliminate those options that either obviously incorrect or easy to eliminate. If you can't find the answer then look in more detail. This is the quickest way to increase your speed but be careful you don't sacrifice too much in accuracy. Only practice will help you to decide how to make the most of this approach.
Learn to Speed Read
many questions will refer to specific segments of the given information; that is, much of the information given in the question will be redundant and / or distracting. Learn to scan the text, looking for a key paragraph or set of keywords (see above) that lead you quickly to the answer.
Successful speed reading in the exam, requires you to be non-biased and not to use prior knowledge or information. Many candidates find this difficult as it is hard to ignore what you already know. But you must concentrate on deriving information only from the passage. After a little practice this becomes easier as the decisions are actually less complex as they can only be based on the information presented. Ensure you are not answering by what you know rather than what you have read.
Practice speed reading on both our questions and on technical journals / pieces of text. Time how long it takes you to get the gist of what you have read. Then go back and check you have done this accurately and without bias.
If you're interested in finding out more about the speed reading technique and would like some more specific information on how to achieve this then check out our free UKCAT speed reading guide.
For further details about how to answer specific question types, why not sign up to our online UKCAT practice resource.