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I Interviewed The Highest UCAT Scorer In The Country — Transcript

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0:00Would you like to introduce yourself?
0:01>> 42,660
0:03which was one of the highest in the
0:04country.
0:05>> Quite an impressive score. When did you
0:07start your revision?
0:08>> Majority of it, it was in the last 6
0:10weeks. So, if you are kind of 6 weeks
0:12away from your your exams, even 4 weeks,
0:15you've still got plenty of time. I just
0:17used this one paid resource, which I
0:19don't really recommend it.
0:21>> How often do you revise for the UCAT?
0:23There's another resource that you always
0:26mention them
0:27as like one of the best.
0:29>> Oh, yeah. The official UCAT resources,
0:31they're by far [music] the kind of most
0:32accurate to the real thing, especially
0:34Mock C and Mock D.
0:35>> What scores were you working on
0:37throughout?
0:38What's something an average UCAT student
0:40does that you think is a waste of time?
0:42>> I'll be careful with how I say this
0:43because
0:44>> Let's get to the
0:45actual revision. So, the UCAT has four
0:47sections. Your verbal reasoning,
0:49decision making, quantitative reasoning,
0:51and SJT. How did you go about your
0:52revision?
0:53And what tip would you give to a student
0:55that's sitting it?
0:56>> First tip I'm going to give is going to
0:58be a bit of a controversial one. One
1:00kind of key difference between students
1:01doing a lot and students who don't
1:04improve a lot
1:05>> You've pretty much covered everything.
1:06>> Yeah.
1:06>> So,
1:07hopefully you sit in the UCAT this year.
1:11So, would you like to introduce
1:12yourself?
1:13>> Yeah. So, I'm Will Hunter. I sat the
1:15UCAT last summer, scored 2,660
1:18which was one of the highest in the
1:19country. And yeah, I just finished my A
1:22levels, hoping to do medicine at
1:24Cambridge next year. And that's pretty
1:26much it.
1:27>> Quite an impressive score.
1:28>> Thanks.
1:29>> Um so, the main aim is pretty much
1:32anyone who is sitting the UCAT right now
1:34or anyone who sits the UCAT in the
1:35future
1:37they haven't really got a better source
1:38to go to than someone who got one of the
1:40best scores in the country. So, I want
1:42to run through as many questions as I
1:43can
1:44just to get your thoughts on it, get
1:46your opinions on it. How you revised for
1:48the exam.
1:49How you suggest other people revise for
1:51it. Just so they can see what to do.
1:53>> Yeah.
1:53>> So, um
1:54get your notebooks, make notes because
1:57you've got no one no one better to ask.
1:59Um the first thing I want to start off
2:01with
2:02>> Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the video.
2:03I'm just hopping in whilst I'm editing
2:04the video, literally, just to tell you
2:05about our free UCAT waitlist. If you're
2:07interested, it gives you access to our
2:08UCAT tutoring, free UCAT webinars, free
2:11UCAT resources. All you have to do is
2:13just fill out the link in the
2:14description. It will be UCAT waitlist.
2:17So, if you're interested in UCAT
2:18tutoring, UCAT webinars, UCAT resources,
2:20fill out that link.
2:22And also, I'm going to have affiliate
2:23links for MedEntry and Medify that will
2:25help you save around 10 to 20%, which is
2:26actually quite a lot of money. If it's
2:28not there right now, come back to it
2:29tomorrow or the day after. I should have
2:31a link there. It helps you save 10 to
2:3220%, which is quite a lot of money. But
2:33yeah, back to the video. Hope you enjoy
2:35it.
2:36>> Here's your revision schedule.
2:37>> Yeah.
2:38>> So, I think the schedule is one of the
2:40most important things when you actually
2:41revising for an exam, because just you
2:43need to have that structure.
2:44Um the main thing is when did you start
2:47your revision?
2:48>> I started it probably a bit earlier than
2:50I would recommend, which might sound a
2:52bit hypocritical. But essentially, I
2:54started all the way back in April,
2:57right? And I sat the exam September 3rd.
3:00Now,
3:01this probably did help me a bit, right?
3:03Because I always say the more practice
3:04you do, the better in general.
3:07But
3:08for those kind of first few months, I
3:09wasn't doing a lot. Like, I was doing
3:11some, of course, but it wasn't, you
3:13know, the kind of hours per day that I
3:15was doing in the final month or so.
3:17So, I would definitely say, if you're
3:19watching it, you know, at this point in
3:21July and August, and you didn't do the
3:23preparation in April, May, June, you're
3:26probably not behind. And honestly, yeah,
3:28the majority of it it was in the last 6
3:30weeks. So, if you are kind of 6 weeks
3:33away from your your exams, even 4 weeks,
3:35you still got plenty of time, especially
3:37if you do kind of focus up for those
3:39last few weeks, you should be good.
3:41>> So, you know, your revision from April
3:42to July, what did that consist of? Like,
3:44you know, that like minimum you were
3:46doing.
3:46>> So, I
3:48again, something I don't recommend is I
3:50didn't use Medify and MedEntry at the
3:52beginning. I just used this one paid
3:55resource, which I'm not going to say cuz
3:57I don't really recommend it. So, you
3:59know, I won't be kind of mean to them.
4:01But essentially, it helped me a bit. It
4:03kind of helped me understand the
4:04questions, understand what it was about.
4:07But the mocks weren't too accurate. Some
4:09of the advice was a bit a bit iffy. So,
4:12I wouldn't recommend that, but it kind
4:14of, you know, put me in a position so
4:16when I did start Medify and MedEntry, I
4:18was kind of ready to hit the ground
4:19running I suppose. But I think you can
4:21get to that point just with Medify and
4:23MedEntry, which is why why I say most
4:25people just start with one of them
4:26straight away.
4:27>> So, you think like that April to July
4:28revision was pretty much just setting
4:30the foundations for you, like
4:32understanding what the UK is and what to
4:33do.
4:34>> Yeah, cuz I was still revising for my
4:35year 12 mocks at that point. So, it was
4:38little UK.
4:38>> very light revision.
4:39>> Yeah.
4:40>> But it's like someone's not behind right
4:43now because they didn't do that.
4:44>> Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
4:45>> And if I had to give like a definitive
4:47time for when you should start, I'd just
4:49say after your year 12 mocks cuz with
4:52the applications, of course, you need to
4:53make sure all of the kind of boxes are
4:55ticked. And if you haven't got those
4:57year 12,
4:58you know, predicted grades right, then
5:00your whole application
5:02is going to be messed up. So,
5:03>> It's like a hurdle to get to
5:04>> Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I saw your video
5:06on that. Yeah. So, get get your
5:08predicted grade grades good by focusing
5:10on your year 12 mocks and then after
5:12that you can kind of put your full
5:13effort into the UK anyway. So,
5:15>> So, you know, after your year 12 mocks,
5:17once once you start your summer
5:18holidays,
5:19how often were you revising for the UK?
5:22>> So,
5:23I'd say every day. Every day I was
5:25revising pretty much. Probably not the
5:27odd day off just when I had something
5:29with my family or I wanted a day off, I
5:32would take it off. But yeah, I was
5:33pretty much sticking to a pretty
5:35consistent schedule of I just wake up,
5:38do a mock,
5:40relax for an hour, have breakfast, then
5:42just do another mock, and that would be
5:44my kind of daily routine I suppose. And
5:46then that would like free me up for the
5:48rest of the afternoon, so it wasn't too
5:50much of a burden, I'd say.
5:51But yeah, pretty much just those two
5:53mocks or just a mock and some practice
5:55sections every single day.
5:57>> So, how many hours would you say you're
5:58doing on average every day?
6:00>> So, during the final kind of 6 weeks,
6:02which is when the majority of my
6:04practice was, as I said, it was probably
6:08an average of 4 hours a day, just
6:10because some days it would be 6 to 8,
6:12some days I'd just take it a bit lighter
6:14if I felt like I needed to. So, yeah, I
6:16probably average about average I'd say
6:18about 4 hours a day.
6:19>> Yeah. All right. All right.
6:20And what does 1 hour of revision look
6:23like for you? So, let's say you've sat
6:24down outside of the mock, you you've sat
6:27down for 1 hour and you actually want to
6:28revise the UCAT. How did you do that?
6:31>> So, I'd say 1 hour of revision, what I
6:34would do,
6:35pick a section that you want to focus
6:37on, verbal reasoning, quantitative
6:38reasoning. I'd do one section of those.
6:41I always think it's good to do the full
6:42section,
6:44just because if you're practicing kind
6:46of smaller question amounts, so say for
6:49example, a quantitative reason reasoning
6:51section is 26 minutes, right? If you're
6:54only practicing in kind of
6:5713 minutes or 5 minutes kind of blocks,
7:00then that's not really simulating what's
7:02actually going to be like in the actual
7:03exam, because as everybody knows, timing
7:06is such kind of a big aspect of the
7:08UCAT, right? And if you're not getting
7:10that practice in of what it's like to
7:13sit the full 26-minute block, you're not
7:15going to get that practice of when you
7:17should skip questions, what pace you
7:19should aim for. So, I'd say anytime
7:22you're sitting down for for a practice
7:24section, it should ideally be the kind
7:26of full length. So, it would be one
7:29section of quantitative reasoning,
7:31decision making, whatever it is, and
7:34then I always say kind of a 4:1 ratio of
7:37practice to reflection. So, if I did a
7:4026-minute section for quantitative
7:42reasoning. Ideally, I'd spend 5 to 10
7:45minutes kind of reviewing and reflecting
7:47on that section. And we can get into
7:49what kind of reflection looks like for
7:51me, but I think that is one of the most
7:53important kind of aspects of it.
7:55>> You said that you did pretty much
7:57on average 4 to 6 hours a day in the
7:59final 6 weeks. How many hours revision
8:01did you do like overall, would you say?
8:03>> So, I did actually track this and it was
8:05200 hours, almost exactly in the end.
8:07>> Quite a lot.
8:08>> Yeah.
8:09>> Um
8:09I remember when I was in the UK, there
8:11was telling me that you should really be
8:12aiming for like 30 hours, which I don't
8:14agree with. I think 30 hours is too
8:15little.
8:16>> Yeah.
8:16>> I think closer to maybe 100 is actually
8:18>> Yeah.
8:19>> better.
8:19>> Yeah.
8:20>> But did you ever feel like you're
8:21burning out?
8:22>> So, yeah, this is an interesting topic.
8:24So, personally, no, I didn't really feel
8:26like it. And this may have been cuz I
8:29had like a holiday um
8:31kind of in the middle of my preparation,
8:32which might have alleviated some of
8:35that.
8:35But I always say, first of all, the more
8:38practice the better.
8:40Assuming everything else stay the same,
8:41so assuming no burnout, no fatigue,
8:43anything like that. At the end of the
8:45day, the UK is a skill, right? And the
8:47more you practice any skill, the better
8:49you're going to get to it. And I don't
8:51see any reason why that's really
8:52different for the UK necessarily.
8:55So,
8:56all else being equal, more practice
8:57better. Of course, there's a whole idea
9:00of the diminishing returns there. And as
9:02you said, 100 hours of practice, the
9:04difference between 100 hours and 200
9:06hours
9:07it's not going to be that crazy,
9:08especially, you know, comparing 0 hours
9:11to 100 hours, that's going to be a big
9:12difference, right? So,
9:15yeah, more practice is better, but after
9:17a certain point, you're not going to see
9:19much improvement. But for me, I was just
9:21trying to kind of maximize my score, get
9:23as high as possible. So, for me, it was
9:25worth doing more.
9:26And as for burnout,
9:28I would say
9:29compared to like revising for my A
9:32levels, it was actually easier. And
9:34that's just because, as I said, I would
9:36often just get my practice out in the
9:38morning. I didn't have any other real
9:40obligations to do, which is definitely
9:42something that, you know, I was lucky to
9:44have and it, you know, helped me out a
9:45lot because I could just do my practice
9:47in the morning and then for the
9:49afternoon I was kind of just free to
9:51chill or relax or do whatever I want.
9:52So, it didn't feel like too much of a
9:54burden, even though I was doing that
9:56kind of work every single day.
9:58>> So, I feel like
9:59the important thing to understand is
10:01that having that schedule is very
10:04important in terms of
10:05not having your whole day being UCAT.
10:07Yeah. It's just having that schedule of
10:09you're doing X amount of hours per day.
10:10Let's say 5 hours pretty much. You do 2
10:12hours, 3 hours. You have 24 hours in a
10:13day.
10:14>> Yeah.
10:15>> 5 hours is not much out of 24 hours. And
10:18if you can schedule that correctly to
10:20have that revision there and spend the
10:22rest of your day doing whatever you want
10:24because you have the rest of the day to
10:26yourself. It shouldn't really cause you
10:28to burn out if you go about it
10:29correctly.
10:30>> Yeah, and one thing I would add to that
10:32is when you kind of limit yourself to
10:34say finishing your practice by, I don't
10:36know, 2:00 p.m. It's probably going to
10:38make your quality of practice actually
10:40better. Cuz if you know you've only got
10:42up to this certain time period to get
10:44your practice in and then after that
10:46you're going to, you know, force
10:47yourself to relax and chill for a bit,
10:50then that's going to make you actually
10:52want to do the full mock, do the full
10:54sections, which is the quality practice
10:56that actually makes a difference. If
10:58you're just kind of like,
10:59"Okay, I'll revise the UCAT for 1 hour
11:02here and then 1 hour here." You're going
11:03to be doing less quality practice and
11:06even if you're doing maybe more practice
11:08at the end of the day, first of all,
11:10it's going to feel like more of a burden
11:12just because, you know, you're
11:13constantly thinking about the UCAT,
11:15you're constantly thinking, "Oh, I
11:16should be practicing. I should be doing
11:17this. I should be doing that." And also,
11:19the quality isn't going to be there. The
11:21focus isn't going to be there and in my
11:23opinion, that's just not what you want
11:25to be doing.
11:26>> Let's say you were going to sit the UCAT
11:27right now again with the knowledge you
11:29have, with everything.
11:31When would you start your revision?
11:32>> I would say
11:34honestly, you know how I recommended
11:36maybe after year 12 marks, I would say
11:38personally, if I were doing it again, I
11:40would probably start a bit earlier than
11:42that.
11:43Just before my revision for the year 12
11:46marks really kind of gets intense, I
11:48would do just some practice, maybe get
11:52Medify for 1 month,
11:54like back in May, April, something like
11:56that. Again, just because the more
11:58practice, the better. And I do think
12:01just getting through some practice
12:03sections early before the kind of proper
12:05revision for my year 12 marks starts
12:07would be the kind of optimal strategy.
12:10But I would say
12:11if you've only got 4 weeks, if you only
12:14got 6 weeks, you're not really at much
12:16of a disadvantage. As I said,
12:18diminishing returns.
12:20That extra month you do in April, it's
12:21not going to make much of a difference,
12:23but I think if I would really, you know,
12:25if my life were on on the line, I had to
12:28do as well as I could on the UCAT again,
12:30of course I'd practice more.
12:31>> Yeah. So, now I want to get on to the
12:33resources you used. So,
12:35let's say the students watching, they've
12:36got their revision schedule sorted.
12:38They've got this time frame every day, I
12:40want to do 5 hours. Let's say 6 to 12
12:43weeks of revision pretty much. Now the
12:45resources.
12:46>> Yeah.
12:46>> What resources did you use? I'm talking
12:49videos, websites, question banks. Did
12:51you have any tutoring? And
12:54rank them in terms of
12:56what you think was most useful to you.
12:58>> So, yeah, the big two you kind of they
13:00discussed all the time, Medify,
13:01MedEntry, right? And that is for a
13:03reason. Now, they're not perfect.
13:05They're definitely not perfect. And I'll
13:07talk about the official UCAT resources
13:10in a bit because those are pretty much
13:12perfect. There's just not many of them.
13:14So, Medify, MedEntry,
13:16they are about 20 to 30 pound a month,
13:19they're not too bad.
13:20And what I would say
13:22is you get one of them for 1 month,
13:25then the other one for the second month.
13:28So, yeah, if you're doing 8 weeks of
13:30practice, which is a pretty optimal
13:32ideal amount, get either one of them
13:34first and then switch to the other one.
13:36Now, people always ask me which one
13:37should I get first?
13:39Really doesn't matter that much. If
13:40anything, possibly just get Medify first
13:43because MedEntry is slightly easier.
13:46Often people score a bit higher on
13:47MedEntry, so it just kind of gives you a
13:48confidence boost going into the exam.
13:51But, the reason why I actually recommend
13:53getting both is that essentially I
13:56believe you should be aiming to do all
13:57of the Medify mocks and all of the
13:59MedEntry mocks ideally. Now, of course,
14:02that's not going to be for everybody. If
14:03you just want to get kind of the score
14:06for the cutoff of your university, you
14:08start practice and you find out you're
14:09already pretty much there and of course
14:11you don't need to be doing all of those
14:12mocks.
14:13But, as I said,
14:15again, the general principle, the more
14:17practice the better. I do think doing as
14:19many mocks, so all of the Medify and all
14:22of the MedEntry mocks is good.
14:24So, yeah.
14:25Do 1 month, Medify say, do all of the 25
14:29or 20 mocks, however many it is, then
14:31switch, cancel your Medify subscription
14:33if you want, and then do MedEntry.
14:36Again, another reason why I think it is
14:38slightly more optimal to get both is
14:40they do have each have their own kind of
14:42pros and cons.
14:43So, for example, Medify's verbal
14:45reasoning, I got a video where I kind of
14:47broke this down,
14:49but essentially Medify's verbal
14:50reasoning is quite a bit harder than the
14:52actual thing and quite a bit harder than
14:55the official mocks. And I feel like
14:58everybody kind of notices that, but I
15:00kind of did a
15:02kind of study almost on them and I found
15:04out that Medify's verbal reasoning
15:06passages were actually 30% longer than
15:08the official ones on average. So, if we
15:11assume that, for example, you know, the
15:15rate at which you answer the question is
15:16directly proportional to the length of
15:18the passage, then that's going from
15:21being able to answer all of the
15:22questions in the time to only being able
15:25to answer maybe three quarters of them.
15:27And that's what I experienced myself.
15:29When I was doing Medify verbal
15:30reasoning, I was usually having like
15:33eight to 12 questions left at the end.
15:35And in the actual thing, I was able to
15:37answer all of them.
15:38So, what you want with the UCAT is as
15:42accurate as practice as possible, right?
15:45You don't want to be preparing for an
15:47unrealistic exam that is harder than the
15:48actual thing.
15:50So,
15:51I say get Medify and MedEntry because
15:53MedEntry is slightly better in that
15:55aspect, so it's going to give you that
15:56more kind of realistic practice to the
15:58actual thing. Which is going to help you
16:00develop your kind of correct strategy,
16:02your correct pace, and essentially the
16:04right kind of tactics and game plan for
16:06the actual exam. And
16:09that leads me on to the official UCAT
16:11resources, which are the ones that I I
16:13think are the kind of true kind of holy
16:15grail of UCAT preparation essentially
16:17because these are the ones that of
16:19course made by the actual UCAT
16:21consortium. So, these ones are not
16:24perfect to the real thing, but
16:26especially mock C mock D, I found and
16:29everybody else seems to find that those
16:31are the kind of best representation of
16:33the real exam.
16:34>> So, you mentioned Medify and MedEntry,
16:35which are the two main resources
16:37in UCAT pretty much everyone uses them.
16:40Um
16:41but there's another resource that you
16:43always mention
16:45as like one of the best, and that's the
16:47official UCAT questions website. Um so,
16:51you want to talk about that?
16:52>> So, yeah, the official UCAT resources,
16:54they're by far the kind of most accurate
16:56to the real thing essentially.
16:58Especially mock C and mock D, they're
17:00kind of like a very realistic
17:03expect you know, they give you a
17:04realistic expectation of what's actually
17:06going to be in the exam. So,
17:09unfortunately, the only downside of them
17:11is that there aren't very many. There's
17:12only four official mocks and around four
17:15kind of sections um for each of the
17:18subsections, right? So,
17:20what I recommend is you save those to
17:22the final week because essentially when
17:25you save it for the final week, you're
17:27in a position where you've built up all
17:29of the skills, you know, all of the
17:32speed reading skills, verbal reasoning,
17:34the math skills for quantitative
17:35reasoning. So, you're in a position
17:37where you know essentially how good you
17:39are, what expectations you can have
17:42going into the exam.
17:44So, when you do the official UCAT
17:45resources in that final week, that's
17:47going to help kind of inform the
17:49strategies and the tactics that you use
17:52in the real exam. Cuz you don't want to
17:53be basing your strategy on Medify, for
17:57example, because for example, their
17:59quantitative reasoning is a quite a bit
18:01harder. And if you
18:04base your kind of tactics or how quickly
18:08you're going to answer the questions or
18:09when you're going to skip a question on
18:11Medify's quantitative reasoning, then
18:14you're going to not have the kind of
18:15optimal strategy for yourself cuz you're
18:17going to get to the real exam and
18:19realize that actually it's easier and
18:21it's going to take you by surprise. So,
18:23always save the official mocks for that
18:25last week so you know what to expect
18:28going into the exam and you can prepare
18:30fully for that and kind of
18:32I know I recommended like
18:34four to one ratio of practice to
18:37reflection for most mocks, but for these
18:39official ones, you want like more of a
18:40one to one ratio. You want to, you know,
18:42do the two-hour mock and spend two hours
18:46deeply reflecting. What did I learn?
18:48What am I going to change? What am I
18:50going to keep the same for the real
18:51exam? So, you're in a position where
18:53you're confident, you know exactly what
18:55you're going to do going into the exam.
18:57>> We'll get onto the actual revision, but
18:58I think reflection and actually
19:00reviewing how you do in in questions or
19:03question banks
19:05is just as important as doing the
19:07questions, if not more important,
19:08because that's what
19:10makes you better.
19:11>> Yeah.
19:11>> Um, but we'll go on to that for uh, uh
19:14later on in in the video.
19:16Um, now another question I have is
19:19what scores were you working out
19:21throughout?
19:22So, let's say from from the start
19:24towards like
19:26midway and then towards the end, what
19:27scores were you working out?
19:29>> Yeah, so for the first around 40 hours
19:31of practice, I wasn't using Medify or
19:33MedEntry. I was using that other
19:35resource and their mock scores first of
19:38all weren't very accurate and overall,
19:41it just wasn't a very good
19:42representation, so no point really
19:44mentioning what that was. But, when I
19:46did eventually start Medify after 40
19:49hours of practice, so bearing in mind
19:51this was kind of after I was already
19:52familiar with the questions, already
19:55understood the basics and everything
19:56like that, I was scoring around 2,000.
19:59So, 2,000 out 2,600 on Medify.
20:03And then for that kind of month where I
20:05did Medify,
20:06I'd say my scores increased up to around
20:082,200
20:10to 2,300.
20:12And I think the highest I ever scored on
20:14a Medify mock was only around 2,400.
20:17So, you can see that on the actual
20:19thing, either I performed a lot better
20:22than I did on all of the mocks, which I
20:24think was part of it, but also the
20:26Medify mocks are just more harshly
20:28scored and harder.
20:30MedEntry mock scores are usually
20:32slightly higher and I did those in the
20:34kind of final month of my preparation,
20:36so I was, you know,
20:38a better student at that point. And on
20:40those, I think I reached around peaks of
20:42maybe 2,500
20:44and maybe troughs of around 2,300.
20:48So, that's not to say that if you're
20:50scoring that, you're necessarily going
20:52to score 2,660
20:54or if you're scoring below that, you're
20:55not going to be able to score 2,660
20:58because everybody does score differently
21:00on mocks and there are always kind of
21:02random factors that go into your
21:04performance on the day and your
21:05performance on the mocks as well. And
21:07then finally the kind of
21:09final official mocks
21:11I did a kind of score conversion for
21:12those ones and I think I got around
21:142,550
21:15on mock D.
21:16So, I knew going into the exam that
21:19hopefully if everything went right I'd
21:20get a pretty high score.
21:22But I didn't expect it to be as high as
21:242,660 yeah.
21:26>> And you know when you were starting out
21:27let's say maybe after the 40 hours when
21:30you kind of had the foundations and you
21:31were actually revising on Medify was
21:33there any sections that you were
21:36better at and any sections that you were
21:38worse at and how did you get better at
21:40them sections that you were worse at?
21:42>> Yeah, so I always
21:43preferred decision making that was kind
21:45of my favorite topic or section.
21:48Quantitative reasoning though that one I
21:50was able to score
21:52I was able to get full marks like quite
21:54quickly. It was just the kind of silly
21:56mistakes or
21:58yeah, little
22:00the odd question here and there that
22:01kind of caught me off that was stopping
22:02me from getting that. So, essentially
22:05with quantitative reasoning I didn't
22:06really have much improvement for the
22:07final month because I was kind of
22:09already there after a bit.
22:11So, that kind of leaves out verbal
22:13reasoning which was one that's
22:15definitely
22:16up until you know the very final weeks I
22:18was still scoring in the 700 range
22:22like 800 max or like pretty much and I
22:24as I said earlier I was still having
22:26questions that I left unanswered at the
22:28end because I was just running out time.
22:31So, we can talk specific kind of
22:34techniques and strategies for verbal
22:35reasoning. But I'd say the one thing
22:37that actually helped me personally to
22:39improve
22:40was just that process of reflection
22:42essentially because
22:44I would look and I'll kind of analyze my
22:47process of actually answering the
22:49questions and I'd see what personally
22:52could I change to maybe affect this.
22:55So, what I would do is I would just try
22:57out a bunch of different strategies and
22:59see what was actually working what
23:00actually led to better scores.
23:02So, for example, I remember there was
23:04one day where I decided to test reading
23:07the entire passage first, then answering
23:09all four of the questions.
23:11That didn't work for me. I don't think
23:12that works very well for most students,
23:14but I tested it out anyway just to kind
23:16of see if it did work. And then over
23:19time I was able to kind of develop my
23:20own strategy that worked best for me.
23:23And that ended up being kind of a
23:24mixture of scanning for keywords where
23:27possible.
23:29I developed the kind of understanding of
23:32how fast I could read. So,
23:35often people kind of force themselves to
23:37read a bit too quickly on verbal
23:39reasoning. They kind of try to speed
23:40read and they end up not being able to
23:42retain any of the actual information
23:44they're reading. And that was something
23:46I noticed in myself through the
23:47reflection I did. So, actually by
23:50slowing down my reading, kind of
23:51sounding out the words in my head
23:53sometimes, that was another thing that I
23:55was able to identify in myself. And once
23:57I fixed that, that increased those
23:59scores. So, it was kind of just those
24:01incremental changes that I managed to
24:04achieve just by changing things up,
24:07testing stuff out, and seeing what
24:09worked for myself. So, I do think there
24:11are some kind of general tips that are
24:13applicable to everybody for future
24:14subsections, but my kind of overall
24:17advice is always just to test as much as
24:19you can to actually see what strategies
24:20work for you.
24:21>> What do you Obviously, you have so many
24:23students reaching out to you.
24:25What's something an average UCAT student
24:27does that you think is a waste of time
24:29or is incorrect?
24:31>> Okay. So, I'll be careful with how I say
24:34this because it's not a waste of time,
24:37but I think people can take untimed
24:39practice a bit too far and they can end
24:41up doing a bit too much of it, right? I
24:43hear people saying they plan on doing
24:44like four weeks of untimed practice.
24:47And in my opinion, the kind of goal of
24:50untimed practice
24:51is to nail the kind of basic techniques
24:55for the questions, familiarize yourself
24:57with the questions, but beyond that,
24:59they don't really serve much of a
25:00purpose.
25:02So, for example, let's take verbal
25:03reasoning. When you do untimed practice,
25:06the way you answer the question is going
25:08to be different to how you do it when
25:09you have that time pressure. Because,
25:12you know, it's all well and good being
25:13able to read the passage at a leisurely
25:15pace, then answer the four questions.
25:17And sure, you might get 80% accuracy
25:20when you do that. But as soon as you
25:22start switching to timed practice,
25:24that's basically going to go out the
25:25window. So, you do need to do, I'd say,
25:28the bulk, the majority of your practice
25:30under those timed conditions, cuz that's
25:32what the actual exam is, right? Doing
25:35verbal reasoning without the time
25:36pressure is not really doing verbal
25:38reasoning, if you know what I mean. I
25:39would say the kind of one nuance point
25:41of this is quantitative reasoning.
25:44I think untimed practice can be very
25:47useful for quantitative reasoning for a
25:49longer period.
25:50Just because there, you want to make
25:52sure you get like the proper and most
25:55efficient techniques as a habit. And
25:58often, when students put time pressure
26:00on themselves too quickly with
26:02quantitative reasoning, they kind of
26:04slip back into their old bad habits. So,
26:07I'd say, take a bit more time on untimed
26:09for quantitative reasoning, just to kind
26:11of build up the good techniques, the
26:13most efficient techniques, learn how to
26:15use the memory function properly, and
26:17kind of get that ingrained in you. So,
26:19when you do switch to timed practice,
26:20you still keep that good habit whilst
26:22also increasing your speed.
26:24>> Yeah, I think the time part of the UCAT
26:27is
26:27one of the most important parts, and
26:29also one of the hardest parts.
26:31>> Yeah.
26:31>> Because I remember when I was doing it,
26:32it was like 25 seconds a question, 30
26:35seconds a question. And it's quite hard
26:37questions to do in that time, so it is
26:39getting used to that speed of being able
26:41to answer a question in that time limit
26:43you have. Yeah. Don't get comfortable
26:44with
26:45all the time in the world, pretty much.
26:46>> Yeah, and the way you would answer a
26:48question if you had 1 minute is
26:50completely different to how you answer
26:51it in 30 seconds, like it can be a
26:53complete shift in the techniques you
26:55actually use. So,
26:57again, yeah, just practicing with the
26:58untimed,
27:00don't expect that to perfectly translate
27:02to timed. Don't expect to just magically
27:05double your speed as soon as you switch
27:06to timed without, you know, changing the
27:09technique in any way.
27:10>> Now, let's say you've done all your
27:11prep, your exam is tomorrow. What do you
27:13do the night before your your exam?
27:16>> Yeah, so this is something that I think
27:17I kind of had nailed quite luckily. So,
27:21essentially, the night before my exam, I
27:23think I slept like,
27:24you know, 10, 11 hours, like a full
27:26night's sleep. I didn't wake up to an
27:29alarm or anything like that. I had my
27:30exam at like 12:00 p.m. or something
27:32like that. So, I was able to just wake
27:34up at leisurely time, you know, just
27:37kind of wake out of bed in that kind of
27:39cartoonish fashion, like just super
27:41relaxed, super super energized. So, I
27:44think obviously that's going to be very
27:45important. And, you know, I'm not the
27:48like a sleep expert or anything, but of
27:50course, just the general tips of not
27:52having any screens 1 hour before bed,
27:55having a cold room, you know, you've
27:57probably heard it all before.
27:58One thing I would say is the week
28:00leading up to your practice, try to go
28:02to bed the same time that you would the
28:04day of the exam. Try to wake up the same
28:06time as your exam. That way you're kind
28:08of going to get used to it. You're going
28:10to be ready for it, and that's just
28:11probably going to increase your chance
28:13of performing mentally as well as you
28:16can, because yeah, the UCAT, of course,
28:19you can do all of this practice, but if
28:20you're not kind of mentally sharp,
28:22you're not able to concentrate on the
28:23day, that's going to have massive impact
28:26on your score.
28:26>> See, it's quite interesting that you
28:28mentioned that, because
28:29something that I did in my exam, I want
28:31to see if if you agree with this or if
28:33you if you suggest or don't suggest it,
28:35was I started doing my mocks at the same
28:37time that my exam was.
28:39>> Yeah, definitely. That's that's a good
28:40idea. So, yeah, in in that final week,
28:43when you're doing the official mocks,
28:45yeah, treat them like the actual exam.
28:47Do you can to simulate the actual exam
28:50because first of all, you're going to be
28:51doing the official mocks, so they are
28:53going to be very similar to the exam and
28:55you're going to know what to expect. You
28:57might identify some things that go wrong
29:00during those mocks, so maybe you notice
29:03your concentration starts to slip on
29:05quantitative reasoning and then because
29:08you've done that in the exact same
29:09conditions that you're going to do the
29:10real exam, you're going to be vigilant
29:12of that in the real exam. You're going
29:14to know to expect it and you're going to
29:16hopefully be able to mitigate it.
29:17>> So now, let's get to the
29:19actual revision of each section. So the
29:22UK full sections, your verbal reasoning,
29:24decision making, quantitative reasoning,
29:26and SJT.
29:27>> Yeah.
29:28>> Now,
29:29let's put about 5 minutes for each
29:31section.
29:33How did you How did you go about your
29:34revision?
29:35And what tip would you give to students
29:37that are sitting it? Well, let's go
29:38section by section.
29:39>> Okay, verbal reasoning.
29:42First tip I'm going to give is going to
29:44be a bit of a controversial one, so I'll
29:46start off with that. And that's actually
29:48that you can use your prior knowledge or
29:51common sense on verbal reasoning to a
29:53certain extent, but
29:55so
29:56everybody knows that you need to
29:57actually get the answer from the passage
30:00to
30:00to be sure that it's right. However, you
30:03need to understand where these passages
30:04are coming from, right? They're coming
30:05from articles, they're coming from
30:07books, they're coming from people who
30:09actually know what they're talking
30:10about, right? They're not just getting
30:11random posts off the internet or
30:12something. So my point is is that these
30:15articles are not going to contain false
30:17information.
30:18And you can actually use that to your
30:20advantage. So for example, on my exam,
30:23there was a question on like the Roman
30:24Empire
30:25and it was a classic question, which of
30:29these four statements is true and
30:31supported by the passage, right? And I
30:33just knew from just my knowledge of
30:36history, I don't know where I picked it
30:37up, I don't know from a book or
30:38something. I just knew that three of the
30:40statements were just clearly false and
30:43not true. So, what I could do is I could
30:45just select the remaining one and move
30:47on because the other three aren't going
30:49to appear in the passage, so this one
30:51must appear in the passage, right? Now,
30:53that's a rare scenario, but where it
30:56comes in most useful is with actually
30:58guessing questions.
31:00Because most people, I think the stats
31:02are like 90% of people are going to have
31:05to guess at least one question on the
31:07verbal reasoning. So,
31:09if you can improve your odds of getting
31:11that question right that you guess,
31:13that's going to be the difference
31:14between maybe three, two, or two or
31:16three marks potentially, which is, you
31:18know, around 40 to 50 points. So, that's
31:20a big difference. So, what I kind of
31:23recommend is to never blind guess a
31:25question. And what I mean by that is
31:27when you just essentially
31:29Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just select, I
31:31don't know, B for all questions and just
31:33move on.
31:34I think you should always be at least
31:36reading the question and reading the
31:37answer options because even if you don't
31:39have that kind of prior knowledge, you
31:41can at least use your common sense a lot
31:42of the time. I mean,
31:45some of the questions, some of the
31:46answer options just seem ridiculous a
31:48lot of the time and they just
31:51seem completely out of tune with what
31:53you would expect on a normal UCAT
31:55passage. So, any kind of super
31:57controversial sounding opinion or
31:59something that would be unlikely to a
32:02appear in like a academic's view of a
32:04subject, you can probably just rule that
32:06out and move on.
32:07>> It sounds like common sense, but what
32:09you what people what he's done sometimes
32:10is that when they're revising for the
32:11verbal reasoning,
32:12your main focus is generally just verbal
32:14reasoning. You don't even think about
32:15your common sense or like
32:17>> Yeah. History or anything.
32:18>> Yeah.
32:18>> So, it is like a quite a good tip to
32:20just be like, just read instead of Yeah,
32:23really, even if you're in a rush, just
32:25read what it says.
32:26>> And yeah, that's it's not going to be
32:27able to, you know, guarantee the mark
32:29like obviously, most of the time you
32:31should be reading the passage and
32:32actually finding the answer in the
32:33passage. But if it's a case where yeah,
32:36you've got 2 minutes left, you've got 12
32:37questions answer,
32:39instead of spending those 2 minutes on
32:40one passage and then just randomly
32:42guessing the last eight questions,
32:44spend the 2 minutes on the 12 questions,
32:46actually give them a read, and see which
32:49answer makes most sense to you. And in
32:51my experience, that's able to get your
32:53odds from like 25% per question up to
32:56maybe even 50% or something like that.
32:59I should do a test on that. I probably
33:01will in the future. But yeah, I think
33:03that can improve your odds massively.
33:05One thing I'll talk about,
33:07another thing with verbal reasoning,
33:09is of course everybody knows that
33:12ideally you should be scanning for
33:13keywords where wherever possible, right?
33:16So you see a a keyword in the question
33:18scan in the question stem, you kind of
33:20look at the passage, identify it, and
33:23then you read the sentence before the
33:24keyword, the sentence containing the
33:26keyword, and the sentence after the
33:27keyword, right?
33:28And I think one pe- one kind of thing
33:30that people mess up with this
33:33is once they've identified the keyword,
33:36what they'll do is they'll still be in
33:37that kind of speed reading mode where
33:39they just rush through the three
33:41sentences.
33:42But
33:43verbal reasoning requires kind of a deep
33:45understanding of the passage. You can't
33:47just skim read all of it and expect to
33:50know the answer, right? You have to
33:51actually fully comprehend and digest
33:53what's going on. So once you have
33:54identified that keyword, actually take
33:57the time to slow down and fully
33:59understand what you're reading. So one
34:02tip I have is to actually sound out the
34:04words in your head. Now a lot of people
34:06say don't do this, which of course, if
34:08you're just skim reading to kind of get
34:09a gist of the passage, of course don't
34:11do that cuz it's going to make it a lot
34:12slower.
34:13But for some people, they need to do
34:14that to actually slow down and fully
34:17understand what they're actually
34:18reading. Another thing is after each
34:21sentence, you could try recapping it in
34:23your head to make sure you fully
34:24digested it, you fully know what's going
34:26on, and it actually will cause it to
34:28stick in your brain. So when you go back
34:30to the question, you don't have to then
34:31go back to the passage again and reread
34:34it.
34:35So, I'd say
34:36once you commit to reading the passage,
34:38actually read it properly. And then one
34:40final thing that I'll give for verbal
34:42reasoning is often times you'll read the
34:45passage,
34:46you'll know that you've read the past
34:48part of the passage that's meant to
34:49answer the question, but you're kind of
34:51stuck between two answers. Because of
34:53verbal reasoning
34:55it's like once you understand the
34:56passage, that doesn't guarantee you're
34:57going to get the answer right. And I'm
35:00sure that people who do a lot of untimed
35:02practice, they probably know this,
35:03right? They know they've read the
35:04passage, they've read everything twice,
35:07and they're still getting questions
35:08wrong. Now, this isn't something you
35:09could avoid completely,
35:12but one kind of uh framework I kind of
35:14have for making that that tricky
35:16decision between two options that seem
35:18right, it's not which option seems the
35:21most right, but instead which option has
35:24the weakest kind of counter argument
35:26against it. Because you need to realize
35:28that
35:30for each of the incorrect options,
35:31there's going to be something about it
35:33that makes it wrong. Either they add a
35:35new concept to the kind of statement, or
35:38they make an alteration from the passage
35:40that changes the meaning, or they make
35:42the wording more extreme than it
35:44actually is in the passage. So, if
35:46you're stuck between two options, try
35:48making kind of a counter argument
35:49against each of them. And then that
35:51should kind of hopefully help you reveal
35:53which one is more likely to be
35:55incorrect. So, that's just one final
35:56thing I'd say, and I'd say that once
35:58you've done that, you just need to kind
35:59of select one and move on. Don't dwell
36:01on those kind of questions for too long
36:02cuz they can be big time sucks.
36:04>> I think that's like three very good
36:05tips, pretty much different sections
36:07that
36:08if they make notes on that, go through
36:10it, it'll be very useful for them.
36:11Um next section, decision making.
36:13>> So, I'll start by talking about the
36:15timing on decision making. So, it's the
36:17least time pressured out of the three
36:19kind of cognitive sections, but again,
36:22probably about half of the people
36:24answering it won't be able to answer all
36:25the questions, possibly more.
36:27So, one small timing thing that I think
36:30pretty much every student should be
36:32implementing is that if you're running
36:34out of time on decision-making, skip the
36:36logic puzzles. So, the logic puzzles are
36:39the ones where it's got like the four
36:40people and you're kind of matching them
36:42up with the activities that they do that
36:44people will know once they start
36:46practice, right? And these questions,
36:49first of all, they take the longest
36:50amount of time.
36:51Second of all, they're the hardest
36:52questions to get right in my opinion.
36:54And third of all, they're only worth one
36:56mark. So, unlike the kind of syllogisms
36:59or inference questions where you drag a
37:01yes or no, those ones are worth two
37:03marks, so they're definitely worth
37:04doing. Logic puzzles, they take a long
37:06time and they're only worth one mark.
37:08So, what I kind of recommend to
37:09everybody is you skip those going
37:12through the first time because the last
37:1416 questions are the opposite. They are
37:17fairly easy and they are quick to
37:20answer. Those are the kind of Venn
37:21diagram and probability ones. So, you
37:23don't want to be missing out on any of
37:24those. So, skip the logic puzzles, come
37:26back to them at the end, and that should
37:28be kind of the one big thing that will
37:30cause a leap in your score if you
37:32weren't doing already. I'd say the only
37:35reason why I didn't do that and why I
37:37recommend students who are aiming to
37:39answer all of the questions on
37:40decision-making don't do that is
37:42actually because once you answer the
37:44logic puzzles, you're going to have more
37:46time pressure on you and that's going to
37:48kind of force you to take those last 15
37:50questions more quickly. And as long as
37:53that doesn't influence your kind of
37:55accuracy on those final questions, it
37:57can actually be a good thing to kind of
37:59have that extra time pressure on you.
38:01So, that's a kind of general timing tip
38:03for decision-making.
38:05Then, we can talk about some tips I have
38:08for syllogisms.
38:10So, syllogisms are the classic kind of
38:12all eagles are piggles, all piggles are
38:14miggles. Those are kind of classic ones.
38:16And first thing I'd say is you need to
38:19understand the kind of vocabulary that
38:20they use. So, for example, words such as
38:23some have very strict definitions
38:25actually. So, of course, in our
38:27day-to-day life, when we say some, we're
38:29not talking about a very specific thing.
38:32But in the UCAT, it means strictly two
38:34or more, but not all.
38:36And for example, the word not all means
38:38not all, but it also means at least one.
38:41So,
38:42first things first, learn all of those
38:44definitions, and that way you won't be
38:46dropping marks that way. Another thing
38:48is you need to kind of learn the common
38:49patterns they do on
38:52syllogisms. So, one kind of common thing
38:54they'll do is they'll say
38:56all X are Y. So, for example, all cars
38:59are automobiles.
39:00And then one of the statements that
39:02they'll test is they'll reverse that
39:03logic. They'll then say, "Does the
39:06statement all Y are X, so all
39:09automobiles are cars, follow?"
39:12And of course here, you need to
39:13recognize that the answer is no. And
39:16that's just one example, but there are
39:17lots of patterns that they'll do that
39:19come up again and again. So, as soon as
39:21you can start to kind of recognize that,
39:23that will save you a lot of time because
39:25you won't have to kind of think through
39:26it each time. Final thing with
39:27syllogisms is the kind of whole topic of
39:30Venn diagrams or not. So, you can
39:33usually represent the questions in a
39:35Venn diagram.
39:36Now, I didn't do this. I don't
39:38necessarily recommend the kind of top
39:41students or the students who find it
39:42kind of most naturally easy to do that.
39:45Just because again, you want to be
39:47saving as much time as possible.
39:48Ideally, you'd spend no more than 60
39:50seconds on syllogism questions. So, use
39:54the Venn diagrams at the start if you
39:56want because it will help you kind of
39:58understand these kind of relationships I
40:00talked about earlier, the kind of all X
40:02or Y kind of relationships. And then one
40:04very niche tip that I'll give for the um
40:07Venn diagrams is if you want to
40:09represent a possible overlap, always use
40:12a question mark. If you have started
40:14doing Venn diagrams, you'll probably uh
40:17know what I mean by a potential overlap.
40:19But yeah, anytime you want to represent
40:21the possibility that something could
40:23either overlap or could not overlap, use
40:25a question mark. Because that's another
40:27common thing that would that would kind
40:29of test. They'll test whether
40:31you understand the kind of nuance of
40:33whether something is possible or whether
40:35something is guaranteed. And of course,
40:37the answer is only yes when something is
40:38guaranteed. So, that's kind of what I
40:40have to say for
40:42syllogisms.
40:44Then
40:45I don't go through all of the individual
40:47question types, but yeah, that's kind of
40:49the main thing I wanted to say for this.
40:50>> And I think with the Venn diagrams is it
40:53kind of just helps students
40:54what if they are starting out kind of
40:57just be able to like envision it all in
40:58person instead of having it all up in
41:00their heads. Just like get their stuff
41:02mixed up.
41:03>> And going back to logic puzzles, I'd say
41:05even for the top students, writing it
41:07down on the whiteboard is usually the
41:09best strategy. Because you kind of have
41:11to think of it like what's the worst
41:13case scenario. When you're doing it in
41:14your head, the worst case scenario is
41:17you try to do it in your head, you spend
41:18like 1 or 2 minutes on it, and then you
41:20realize you need to use the whiteboard
41:21anyway. Whereas if you just commit to
41:23using the whiteboard, worst case
41:25scenario, you spend a bit more time than
41:27you would if you did in your head, but
41:29overall yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, you
41:32need to kind of assess how it is for
41:34you. Are you somebody who unless
41:37something goes very bad, you won't be
41:40able to answer all the questions in
41:41time, in which case you you should take
41:43the kind of more safe approach. So,
41:45perhaps that's using Venn diagrams,
41:47using diagrams on logic puzzles, uh
41:50writing down stuff where necessary on
41:52quantitative reasoning for example,
41:53we'll get onto that later. But yeah, you
41:56need to assess for yourself whether
41:57you're aiming for a more kind of
41:59high-risk strategy or a low-risk
42:01strategy strategy. And that's of course
42:03just going to depend on what you're
42:04aiming for and what you the kind of
42:06patterns you identify in your mocks.
42:09>> You've done um
42:10the verbal reasoning. Don't let this be
42:12Jamaican.
42:13Quantitative reasoning. That's
42:14>> So, quantitative reasoning.
42:16Again, I'll touch on timing first of
42:18all.
42:19So,
42:2026 minutes, 36 questions, probably in
42:24between the two or in in the middle of
42:26the three for how time pressured it is.
42:28It's become less time pressured over
42:29time actually. I think the year before
42:31me they reduced how time pressured it
42:34was, so
42:35people say that I would have got lower
42:37without it, but
42:38maybe.
42:39Um so, yeah. It's a It's quite time
42:41pressured though, right? Maybe again,
42:43just over half students won't be able to
42:45answer all of them. So,
42:48for this, you to find what your skipping
42:51strategy is going to be.
42:52You need to identify the type of
42:54questions that take the longest for you.
42:56So, those could be the kind of text
42:58questions or the questions with lots of
43:00information that you have to read.
43:03Perhaps the ones with the theme parks
43:04where you have all of the different
43:06combinations of families and prices and
43:08everything like that. Because
43:10at the end of the day, if you've only
43:12got 43 seconds per question,
43:15you need to not be answering the ones
43:17that take you 2 minutes.
43:19So,
43:20that being said, I would say for most
43:22people, just try and answer them in
43:24order. See how it goes. Because
43:27worrying about skipping questions,
43:29although it does can help you save time,
43:32it does also add time in a in and of
43:35itself.
43:35>> just that it's more for you to think
43:36about.
43:36>> Yeah, exactly. Whereas if you're just
43:38kind of automatic with it, like I'm
43:39going to answer this question no matter
43:41what, then that almost makes the high
43:44kind of whole thinking process a bit
43:45more streamlined.
43:47And then, one kind of topic that I like
43:49to discuss with quantitative reasoning
43:52is the balance between speed and
43:54efficiency. So, it kind of sounds like
43:56they're the same thing,
43:57but essentially what I mean by speed is
44:00how quickly you jump into the
44:01calculations. So, essentially, the
44:04normal pattern people follow up
44:05quantitative reasoning is they see that
44:08they have to calculate percentage change
44:10and as soon as I see that they're going
44:11to jump into the method they're going to
44:12start doing X minus Y and Y divided by Z
44:16and everything like that. And that is a
44:19good thing. That's ideally what you
44:20should be doing in the real thing and
44:22that's what I did. However, that does
44:23come at a cost usually of perhaps
44:26choosing most efficient method. So, the
44:28method with the least amount of steps in
44:30it. So, what I generally recommend is at
44:33the start of your preparation you
44:35prioritize efficiency. You force
44:37yourself to kind of choose the method
44:40that has the lowest lowest amount of
44:42steps. Because when you do that at the
44:43start of your practice, you kind of
44:45build the habit of naturally choosing
44:47the most efficient method automatically.
44:50So, then eventually as your kind of
44:52practice goes on, you can start
44:55prioritizing speed more and hopefully
44:58your method should still remain
45:00efficient. Now, this is something that I
45:02actually didn't do at all. I just from
45:04day one just did the most did it as
45:06quickly as possible. Each question as
45:08quick as possible. But this meant that
45:11it should it was more time pressured for
45:13me than it should have been. Ideally, I
45:15would have prioritized learning the
45:17memory function on the calculator from
45:19day one, learning all of the most
45:21efficient kind of tricks to save time
45:23from day one and then they would have
45:25just become kind of natural
45:27a natural habit or my natural kind of
45:29go-to method when I did the actual
45:32thing. And I was kind of able to get
45:34away with it just because I was quick
45:36enough on actually just getting into the
45:39questions and doing the calculations on
45:41the actual thing that it didn't matter
45:42in the end. And I think that's how it is
45:44for quite a lot of people. A lot of
45:45people are able to answer all of the
45:47questions
45:48in spite of their inefficient methods.
45:50But of course, if you're just starting
45:52your UCAT practice now, you want to do
45:54as well as possible. So, always choose
45:56the most efficient method. And then one
45:58final thing I'll add is that you need to
46:00be practicing with that number pad as
46:03soon as possible because in the actual
46:05exam you're going to have the number pad
46:07and trust me you're going to want to use
46:08it because it just makes the whole
46:09process so much quicker. So, if you
46:12don't already have a keyboard with a
46:13number pad just buy like a super cheap
46:15one off Amazon and get practicing with
46:17it as soon as possible.
46:18>> SJT
46:19which I think is one of the most
46:22underrated sections because
46:24so many people that I've spoken to that
46:26have got very very very high UCAT scores
46:29you know, they use you band two or band
46:31three.
46:32>> Yeah.
46:32>> But
46:32>> Well, band three is the kind of critical
46:34one that you don't want to be getting,
46:35right? Like yeah, I had a friend who got
46:382,200
46:39something but he got band three and he
46:41wanted to apply to Manchester but
46:43Manchester have a cut off of band two or
46:46higher so he literally just couldn't
46:47apply. So, despite his good predicted
46:50grades, his top 10% UCAT he was just
46:53completely eliminated from even getting
46:56an interview. So, yes, my number one tip
46:58with the SJT which isn't really a tip
47:00but is basically just don't neglect it,
47:02right? A common thing that almost every
47:05student will do, I did it quite a lot of
47:07the time, I'm ashamed to admit, is
47:09they'll do a mock, they'll do the full
47:11mock, they'll do the first three
47:12sections and they'll just want to know
47:14their score, they'll just want to find
47:16out how they did and they'll just skip
47:17through the SJT and just not even bother
47:19answering it. And that is
47:22obviously not what you want to be doing,
47:23right? You want to be getting as much
47:25actual exposure to the SJT questions
47:28because that's the number one way you
47:29improve in my opinion.
47:31People say the GMC guidelines and this
47:33is useful, of course, that's what the
47:35questions are based off of the
47:38GMC guidelines. So, of course, it can
47:40help to read those
47:41but for me, I didn't read them until
47:44like the last week of practice and when
47:46I did read them, it was kind of just re-
47:48reiterating all the stuff I kind of
47:49already already knew just by answering
47:51the questions. So,
47:53the general kind of process for
47:55improving at at the SJT is to of course
47:58do the questions and then read the
48:01actual answers to the questions of
48:03course. Learn what they come to expect,
48:06learn what they want to see you select
48:09as
48:10you know strongly or like very important
48:12or very appropriate versus you know very
48:15inappropriate. Learn those kind of
48:17patterns cuz they do stay the same
48:18pretty much and most importantly kind of
48:21read the reasoning. So when you read the
48:22reasoning for
48:25why the answer is the answer or Medify,
48:27MedEntry, the official UCAT question
48:29banks, it will give you that kind of
48:32extra information you need to fully
48:33understand the context of
48:36why they believe what they believe, why
48:38it's so important to always report if a
48:41you know doctor is drunk on duty, the
48:44fact that patient safety is the number
48:46one concern. All of that stuff you'll
48:47just naturally pick up on and of course
48:50make notes on it as well just because
48:51that's going to
48:52cause it to be you know more ingrained
48:54in your memory. Something you could do
48:56if you keep finding yourself keep
48:58forgetting this kind of stuff is to of
49:00course make flashcards because it is
49:02much more like a kind of A level GCSE in
49:04that way where it is essentially just
49:06content and you have to learn. So
49:08flashcards, active recall, all of that
49:10stuff can be useful if you find yourself
49:13not remembering it. But essentially just
49:15keep practicing SJT even if you're
49:17scoring band one consistently something
49:19good go wrong on the day. So you want to
49:22make sure you're as above that threshold
49:24for band one as possible.
49:25>> I think for me when I was doing it was
49:27like SJT was kind of like
49:29a bit of chill revision. It was like the
49:31other sections were like
49:33my brain's like locked in and the SJT
49:35was like I could like sit back and I
49:37kind of preferred that it was at the end
49:38of the exam.
49:39>> Yeah, exactly.
49:40It could be like say you do your first
49:42four hours of the day are intense like
49:45verbal reasoning revision and then by
49:47the end of the day you kind of want to
49:48do a bit more just to you know be a bit
49:50extra productive but your kind of brain
49:53is just fried. Yeah. That's the best
49:55time to do SJT, Mark.
49:56>> And I think with SJT, the one tip is
49:57genuinely just
49:59I feel a lot of it is common sense in
50:00terms of just like reading and
50:02understanding. Yeah. Just practice. Like
50:04don't neglect SJT.
50:05>> The more you're exposed to it, the
50:06better you'll get.
50:08>> So, pretty much coming to the end now.
50:10What is your best advice for someone
50:12sitting the UCAT?
50:13>> My best number one piece of advice that
50:15I think everybody, you know, there's a
50:17lot of UCAT advice that doesn't
50:19necessarily apply to everyone, but this
50:21does, and that's just to review in as
50:23much detail as possible,
50:25and review everything, right? So, my
50:28kind of process for reviewing
50:30is it's the simple primary school what
50:32went well, even better if, right? So,
50:35you say,
50:36"What did you do in your mock that you
50:38want to keep the same for next time?"
50:40Because there's always going to be new
50:42behaviors you introduced in each mock,
50:44and if those went well, you want to make
50:46sure that translated over to the next
50:48next session, right? So, you always
50:50write down what went well, because
50:53if you're not if you're making all of
50:54these changes in your behavior, but
50:57you're not actually noting when they do
50:58go well, then you're not going to keep
51:00doing them, right? So, that's the first
51:02step. What went well? What did you
51:04change last time that actually did work?
51:06And then next, even better if, what
51:09didn't go well, of course. So, this is
51:12obviously the stuff like
51:14the questions you got wrong. So, you
51:16know, essentially could be anything from
51:19a quantitative reasoning got wrong
51:21because you didn't use the right method,
51:24or a decision-making logic puzzle that
51:26you ran out of time on, anything like
51:29that. So, you want to make it as
51:31specific as possible, all the way to as
51:34broad as possible. So, the specific
51:36examples are
51:37your logic behind a best argument
51:40question on decision-making. You failed
51:42to understand that the correct answer
51:45had to apply to all aspects of the
51:48original question.
51:49So, you'll note that down. You'll write
51:51for next time, I need to remember that
51:53in the best argument question, the best
51:55argument is going to need to address all
51:57aspects of the question.
51:59And the most important part is you
52:01actually write that reflection down
52:02because
52:04of course, it doesn't have to be, you
52:05know, on pen and pen and paper. It can
52:06be on a Google Doc. But that actual kind
52:08of process of writing it down is what
52:11influences your change in my opinion.
52:12So, I actually had like a massive Google
52:14Doc like 10,000 words of all of my
52:16reflections. And I didn't reread them at
52:19all, really. It's just the fact that I
52:20wrote them down caused them to influence
52:22my change for next time. So, yeah. As
52:24specific reflections as possible, but of
52:26course, also the kind of broad tactical
52:29reflections as well. So, for example, on
52:31a verbal reasoning section, if you find
52:34found out that in that section you
52:36perhaps were slower, you had to guess
52:38more questions, you kind of analyze what
52:40overall went wrong. So, perhaps it was
52:43you didn't skip a passage where you
52:45should have. So, next time you're going
52:47to skip a passage when it looks like
52:48this, when it has that more technical
52:50language, for example.
52:52Or perhaps in quantitative reasoning it
52:55was that you weren't using the memory
52:57function correctly throughout the entire
52:59mock. So, next time you're going to make
53:01that change and implement it. However,
53:03one thing
53:05that I think people mess up with their
53:06review is they will only review the
53:09questions that they actually got wrong.
53:11But often times, there's still massive
53:13improvements you can make on the
53:14questions you get right. So, just
53:16because you got a quantitative reasoning
53:18question right doesn't necessarily mean
53:21you used the most efficient method. It
53:23may have been that you could have done
53:24it in half the time if you had, you
53:26know, used the memory function or used a
53:28more efficient kind of process that
53:31meant you had to type in less numbers.
53:33So, don't just be looking for
53:34improvements on the questions you get
53:37wrong, but also the ones you get right.
53:39And even the questions that you
53:41seemingly answered well in a short
53:43amount of time, there's probably
53:44something you can change. So, I think
53:46one kind of key difference between
53:48students who improve a lot and students
53:50who don't improve a lot is the students
53:52who improve a lot are just kind of ultra
53:53critical of their performance. They're
53:56always kind of seeking for the little
53:58kind of tweaks and changes they can make
54:00to kind of make those gradual
54:01incremental improvements. Cuz
54:03ultimately, that is how you improve at
54:04the UCAT. It's not the kind of big
54:06things, but it's the kind of small
54:07things that stack on top of each other.
54:10>> Thank you. I think we pretty much
54:12covered everything. Yeah. So, help
54:14someone who's sitting the UCAT this
54:15year.
54:16>> Yeah.
54:16>> Um outside of that, where can people
54:19find you? So, you said it.
54:20>> So, my TikTok is just willhunter.
54:23Hopefully, I'll come up with that. It's
54:24will_hunter_w.
54:27My YouTube, I've only got one video on
54:29there at the moment. It is that Medify
54:31versus official verbal reasoning
54:33comparison. It's a pretty good video.
54:35Hopefully, I'll be uploading more on
54:36there. Um but yeah, on my TikTok, you
54:39can find all of my videos, my free UCAT
54:42guide, and you can also learn how to
54:44kind of get in contact with me, get some
54:46free advice. Cuz yeah, I'm always there
54:48happy to help anyone who needs it.
54:50>> That's very
54:52I mean, the fact that students have
54:53access to you as someone who got one of
54:56the best scores in the country is very
54:58useful.
54:59Uh your advice today was very, very
55:01useful. Feel like if I had this 5 years
55:03ago, 6 years ago,
55:05I'll I'll have just smashed my UCAT. But
55:07overall, well done.
55:09>> Thanks.
55:10>> Um I think
55:11hopefully, they made their notes on what
55:14needed to be made. But feel like we
55:16covered pretty much everything that
55:17needed to be covered for
55:19>> Yeah. That's certainly true.
55:20>> Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you for
55:22watching. Make sure you subscribe, and
55:24make sure you go check out Will.

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