My first UCAT score was 2810. It wasn’t the start I’d hoped for, and for a little while I honestly wasn’t sure what to do differently. I’d done plenty of questions. I’d watched the videos. I just wasn’t getting better.
What eventually got me to 3360 wasn’t doing more. It was preparing differently. Here’s what I wish someone had told me at the start.
1. More questions won’t fix a broken method
I used to measure a good study session by how many questions I’d done. The problem is, if your approach to a question type is shaky, a hundred more questions just means practising the same mistakes a hundred more times.
What helped was slowing down and asking: how am I actually answering this? Once I had a clear, repeatable method for each question type, practice finally started to stick.
2. Get it right first, then get it fast
It’s tempting to go straight to timed practice because the UCAT is so time-pressured. But speed built on guesswork falls apart on test day.
I started working untimed until I was getting questions right for the right reasons. Then I brought the clock back in, bit by bit. It felt slower at first. It ended up being much faster.
3. The mock is only half the work
I used to sit a mock, check the score, feel either good or terrible, and move on. Now I know the review is where the improvement actually happens.
Go through every question, not just the ones you got wrong. Some of your right answers will be lucky guesses, and those are worth knowing about too.
4. Every subtest needs its own plan
Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning and Situational Judgement all ask different things of you. A strategy that works in one can actively hurt you in another.
Give each subtest its own approach, its own timing plan and its own practice. It’s much easier to improve one clear thing at a time than “get better at the UCAT”.
5. Your starting score isn’t your final score
This is the big one. A low first score feels like a verdict, but it’s really just information. It tells you where you’re starting from and what to work on.
A starting score is a starting point, not a prediction.
If you’re sitting with a score you’re not happy with right now, I’ve been exactly there. With the right structure, things can change a lot.
Where to start
If you’re not sure what to change, start small: pick one subtest, work out how you’re currently approaching it, and fix the method before you worry about speed. And if you’d like a hand working out a plan, I’m always happy to have a chat.
