How to Get UCAT Ready in 40 Hours | UCAT Masterclass Online Course

The final year of High School is hectic enough without throwing an extra exam on top of your HSC, VCE, or A-Levels. How are you meant to study effectively for the UCAT on top of everything else? Well, in this post we’ll show you how to get UCAT ready with UCAT Masterclass’s online course in 40 hours!

Get UCAT ready in 40 hours with the UCAT Masterclass course

The UCAT Masterclass course is an online course you can complete to help you prepare for the UCAT.

The UCAT Masterclass philosophy is to help you prepare in an efficient and effective way by:

• Explaining the different types of UCAT questions,
• Exposing you to worked examples,
• Completing practice questions,
• Completing quizzes and, finally,
• Undertaking and finishing realistic practice exams.

Our unique intelligent reporting allows you identify your strengths and weaknesses, so you can focus your effort where it’s needed the most.

The UCAT Masterclass is structured into three components:

1. Theory
2. Quizzes (and reporting)
3. Exams (and reporting)

Want to see where you’re at with the UCAT?

Theory Content

The aim of the theory is to present you with a framework for:

• Classifying the question types.
• Identifying the question types.
• Knowing how to approach them.
• Gaining familiarity through worked examples and practice questions.

We’ve divided the theory content into six modules.

The first module gives an overview of the UCAT exam, the different subtests, the timing etc.

The remaining five modules cover the five UCAT subtests:

1. Verbal Reasoning
2. Decision Making
3. Quantitative Reasoning
4. Abstract Reasoning
5. Situational Judgement.

Each module is divided into chapters, and each focuses on a particular question type in that subtest.

Each chapter is divided into lessons, and each focuses on different examples of that question type.

For example, the Verbal Reasoning module is divided into different chapters for the different question types found in Verbal Reasoning (keyword questions, direct comprehension questions, evaluation questions etc).

Each chapter is detailed and provides you with thorough knowledge. For example, the chapter dedicated to keyword questions will explain what they are, how to recognise them, and how to approach them. Within that chapter, the different lessons will focus on different types of keyword questions, with further explanations, worked examples and practice questions.

Quizzes and Reporting

The quizzes can be used for extra practice.

Each quiz represents 10 minutes’ worth of questions according to the UCAT exam timing, but the quizzes are not timed.

This allows you to practice at your own pace and focus first on accuracy – identifying the question types and how to answer them – and then on speed. Although the quizzes are untimed, a timer is shown on the screen in case you want to time yourself.

Quizzes can be completed for each subtest. When you start a quiz, you can choose to have all question types appear, or you can choose to select only some question types within that subtest.

At the end of the quiz, the quiz report shows you how you went in each question, the answer/explanation, your time, and how you performed in each question type.

You can also view your historical performance for each question type within a subtest, and how you compare to other students completing the course. This allows you to identify your strength and weaknesses, so you can control what to focus on next, e.g. particular question types or increasing your speed.

Exam simulations and reporting

To help you practice under real UCAT exam conditions, the UCAT Masterclass course contains five full UCAT exams, with a simulator interface that mimics the real UCAT.

You can only sit each exam once (just like the real UCAT), so only start them if you’re familiar with all the modules, practiced all the question types, and are ready to face the full 2-hour exam uninterrupted and under exam conditions.

Don’t waste these exams!

If you want to browse the questions and practice, then use the theory or quizzes parts of the course.

At the end of each exam you’ll be able to see how you performed in each subtest, and review all the questions, answers and explanations.

One of the exams will also give you more extensive reporting, including your simulated scaled UCAT score, and your percentile compared to other candidates who have sat the same exam.

How should I use the course to get UCAT ready in 40 hours?

You want to be structured and strategic. You should start with the theory.

Complete the introduction module so you get an overview of the UCAT exam and the course, and then start with any other module. Since all the subtests are completely independent of each other, you can complete them in any order.

For each subtest, first work through the theory module in order, revise the worked examples and complete the practice questions. Once you’re happy with that, start practicing using the quizzes. First, focus on getting the questions right, then try to work on your speed. Revise the answers as necessary and use the reporting to direct your efforts to the areas in which you need the most help.

Only once you’ve completed all the theory modules and at least some quizzes, start attempting the exams.

Make sure you make it as real as possible – make sure you have the two hours uninterrupted to complete each exam, only use pen and paper and the on-screen calculator like in the real exam.

Once the exam starts, you can’t stop it (just like in the real exam).

Plan ahead and give yourself at least a few days between each exam, as they can be mentally draining.

By the end of this, you’ll be very familiar with the interface and the exam conditions so should feel more confident going into the real exam.

At the end of each exam (and quizzes), review the answers and explanations and identify your strengths and weaknesses so you can allocate your effort more efficiently.

How long does it take?

How long it takes will depend on what you’re already familiar with and what you may find difficult or easy.

For example, Decision Making contains a lot of logical reasoning that people may not have come across, so they may need more time, whereas Quantitative Reasoning involves maths that most people will be familiar with, so will take less time (and instead you need to focus on speed rather than understanding the content).

We suggest that the course should take you around 40 hours to complete:

Want to give it a try? Sign up for the free trial to see some of the theory content, and to try out a quiz and an exam.