 What is up guys? Karma Medic here and welcome back to another dose. In this video I'm going to be answering the question what is the UCAT test and how can you best prepare for it? I'll leave timestamps to all the different sections of this video so that you guys can skip around and click to whatever part of the video that you want to see. If you don't know who I am, my name is Nasser, I'm a second year medical student at Kings College London. If you guys want to see more UCAT and medical school related content from me, feel free to like this video and subscribe to my channel. I took the UK CAT exam in 2013 and then again in 2017 where I managed to score in the 99th percentile. I managed to score so well using a bunch of tips and tricks that I've accumulated over the years and I've taken that information and converted it into a video series here on YouTube to help you guys perform Hello? To help you guys score as best as you possibly can on the UCAT test. This video is sponsored by Medify, an online UCAT question bank with over 10,000 questions and eight full mock tests. More on that later. Now before we get into this video, I want to say a big hello to everyone from New Zealand and Australia. If you're a future medical or dental student there then you might know that the entrance exam has been changed from the UMAT to the UCAT and that's probably why you're watching this video. So let's start off with the very first thing. What is the UCAT test? The UCAT stands for University Clinical Aptitude Test and what that means is that it's a test that is trying to gauge your characteristics and abilities to perform as a doctor in the future. And the UCAT does this through five different sections that I'm going to cover later on in this video. The UCAT is the new name for the previously known UK CAT. So the UCAT is the exact same test as the UK CAT. It's the same in the structure, in the timing, in the content and everything else. The only thing that's changed is its name. Hence all of the videos that I made last year about preparing and studying for the UK CAT are going to apply to the UCAT this year as well. And you can find those videos scattered on my channel somewhere here and I'll put links in the description as well. So why should you take the UCAT exam? You take the UCAT test if you are a high school student who wants to apply to dental or medical school in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. So if you're applying to one of these schools then you're going to want to take the UCAT test. Another question that I get asked quite often is when should I take the UCAT test? If you are going to be applying to UK medical or dental schools then you can take the test at any time between July 1st and October 2nd. If you're going to be taking the test in Australia or New Zealand then you can only take the test in the month of July. Now the UCAT test is to be taken by students who want to apply to medical or dental school in the summer before their final year of high school. So let's say you're starting your final year of high school this year in September of 2019 then you want to take the UCAT test this summer. So what are the five different sections that are tested on the UCAT test? So the first one of these sections is called verbal reasoning otherwise known as the English section. This section assesses your ability to read through a passage quickly and gather all the important information and bigger concepts and then use that information to answer subsequent questions. Decision making. This is the most recent section to be introduced to the UCAT test. This section assesses your ability to follow logic, make deductions and sort of make the correct judgments based on information that they give you. This can often be based on sometimes confusing information so I think it's the hardest one to wrap your head around. Next is the dreaded quantitative reasoning section or the math section. This section assesses your ability to understand numbers presented either in a graphical or visual form or as numbers in a data table or within a passage and then use those numbers to perform calculations quickly. Don't get scared off by the math section they're not going to ask you anything to do with calculus or integration or anything like that. All of the math tested in this section is quite simple and quite basic. Abstract reasoning. My favorite section tests your ability to find patterns in not so obvious places and ways. You will be presented with a series of objects or shapes and you're going to have to try and figure out what is the pattern or the common element that connects the different shapes. These kinds of questions are likely questions that you've never tackled before in your life you've probably never seen anything like them and so this section takes the most to get used to but once you've done enough questions it becomes really really fun. And then finally we have situational judgment. This is commonly regarded as the easiest section or the one that you need to study least for a section where you kind of know it or you don't but the truth is that you can prepare for it just like any of the other sections. In this section you'll be presented with a paragraph that's describing a scenario or situation that would either be likely to happen at your university or in a clinical setting like the wards in a hospital. Then you'll be asked to assess different important factors relating to this scenario or which behaviors would be correct to carry out if you were in that situation. So now that we know the five sections that the UCAT test is actually testing let's talk about how we can actually prepare for the UCAT test. Now the UCAT test despite what you've heard or what you've been told is 100 percent something that you can prepare for and you can prepare for it through lots of practice. I can't stress this enough I genuinely believe that practice is the number one thing that is going to correlate with a good score on the UCAT test. The more questions you do the more you'll get exposed to the types of questions that get asked on the test and so the better you'll be able to answer them in the future. On top of that the UCAT is a time-based test which means that for some of the questions you have maybe even 14 seconds to answer. You don't have all that much time and figuring out that timing is something that takes a lot of practice and is really important that you learn to master early on. I'll be posting plenty more UCAT videos over the coming months this summer to help you guys prepare for each of the sections abstract reasoning quantitative reasoning verbal reasoning situational judgment and decision-making. I always advocate to do absolutely as much practice as you can and the best way to do this is to use an online question bank such as the one provided by Medify. They are an online UCAT question bank which provide over 10,000 practice questions over eight full mock tests and over 18 mini mock tests. Trust me that is plenty of resources and so much practice for you to do. They have a lot of features built into their online question banks such as being able to track your score over time being able to compare how you are doing against other applicants who are preparing for the UCAT test. I'll leave a link to their website in the description down below. Feel free to click on that link and check out what they have to offer. If you want to follow me on Instagram to get a more personal look into my life as a medical student and a researcher you can do so at this link here. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to this channel if you want to see more UCAT and medical school related content from me. That's it from me guys. I hope you're having a wonderful day. Happy practicing, happy studying and I'll see you in the next video. Peace!