Coping With UCAT Disappointment

Failure happens. Some of the world's most ‘successful’ people initially failed before reaching where they are today. Steven Spielberg, director of blockbuster hit movies and multiple award winner, was rejected by the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts; Thomas Edison, creator of the lightbulb and the motion picture camera, was told he was ‘too stupid’ as a child. Every year, students don’t achieve the grades they need; interview performances are unsuccessful, and UCAT scores are not high enough. This article will discuss how to deal with a poor UCAT score, use it to your benefit, respond to failure during UCAT mocks, and how Future Doc can help.

‘To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.’

Poor UCAT Score

If you have a lower UCAT score than you expected or hoped for, it is normal to feel disheartened. Perhaps your score is below the average score accepted by your university of choice, or perhaps you are accustomed to reaching the highest grades, but this hasn’t been the case for you this time. It is important to remember that this does not reflect your overall potential and that other aspects of your application may bring you up in the ranks. Allow yourself the space and time to be disappointed by these results and avoid bottling up the emotions. Recognising your emotions is vital in moving forward successfully and coping with this outcome. It can be hard at first to accept the results; however, once you have, you can move on to the next phase, which is viewing them as an opportunity to better yourself.

Reflection

If a low score stops your application, it is vital that you use the results to your advantage when it comes to preparing for your next UCAT sitting. Doing this reflection shortly after the UCAT is useful, as if you wait many months later you may forget what areas you struggled with, and it is better to try and reflect with a fresh mindset.

Have a think about why you got the low score. Some problems that you may have noticed include:

• Poor time – management
• Struggling with SJT (this will be reflected in your ‘band’ score)
• Content issues with one of the other sections of the test (e.g. Abstract Reasoning, Quantitative Analysis).
• Exam anxiety/ stress

Identifying the reason for your exam failure can be useful in overcoming this issue next time. If time management was your issue, it may be beneficial to do more timed practice before your next sitting. This way you can get used to the time pressure. Many students find that with increased timed practice, their performance gets quicker. If you had an issue with a specific area of the test, whether that be with the SJT or another section, it is important to note this for future reference. If you think that there was a specific question type that stumped you in the exam, record this. This will direct your future revision so that you can make the most of your future revision time. If anxiety/stress holds you back, it is important to recognise that this is normal and that you are not alone. This is a high-pressure exam, and you should be proud of yourself for even sitting it. Therefore, it is important not to beat yourself up. Suffering from anxiety/stress will not necessarily impact your capability to be a successful doctor or dentist, and it is extremely common. Recognising things that contributed to feeling like this is important. It is common that in stressful periods, students don’t give themselves time off to relax, or often, they don’t look after themselves in terms of eating properly or getting enough sleep. These things are important to contribute to your general well-being and should not be neglected during exam time. By addressing the issue that led to your suboptimal score you will be able to use the information to better yourself next time round.

Failing Mocks

It is important to recognise that you will likely not be a UCAT expert immediately. Don’t be disheartened when you get lots of questions wrong at the beginning of your preparation. These mistakes are made to aid your learning and help you to understand where you have gone wrong and why. When you get questions wrong, the worst thing you can do is ignore them. It is far better to review the answers and figure out where you went wrong. This can help avoid repeated future mistakes. Overworking yourself can also lead to failure; therefore, it is important to have a break, perhaps change the environment or get some food, and then come back to revision. If there is a specific type of question you keep scoring low on, it may be best to pause the question practice and go back to learning the basics to make sure you understand the question type fully before attempting to test yourself.

How can Future Doc help?

Future Doc has a tried and tested UCAT revision plan. Our plan consists of three key stages: grasp the key concepts, put them into practice and get ‘exam ready’. During this phase, we give you a multitude of videos that you can watch and provide you with 1 ON 1 coaching sessions where you can work with your tutor to fine-tune your UCAT knowledge and learn tips and tricks to excel. You can then put this work into practice using questions from our question banks and the official UCAT resources, or if you are with our Academy programme, you will also get access to our partner Medify. Getting exam ready is the later stage when you begin to do lots of exam practice in a time environment. We recommend doing this once your scores reach around 80% in a non-timed environment. We support you along the process with a multitude of resources and expert tutors who guide you along the way. Click here to explore how our 1 ON 1 coaching programme can help you.

To conclude, hopefully, this article has made you feel better about your UCAT journey and given you some confidence, which we here at Future Doc look forward to supporting you with. If your score is not as high as you wanted, however, it might still get you a place. Have a look here to see what you should do after your UCAT exam.

Written by Holly Davidson

Future Doc Tutor