UCAT Verbal Reasoning How to Prepare in 2024

1. UCAT Verbal Reasoning: How to Prepare in 2024

2. UCAT® Verbal Reasoning Overview UCAT® Verbal Reasoning is widely considered as the hardest subtest of the exam. The amount of reading you have to do in a very limited amount of time makes this section very challenging for many students. However, with the appropriate level of preparation, there’s no reason why you can’t excel on this subtest. This guide aims to provide you with an overview of what to expect from UCAT® Verbal Reasoning questions along with some useful tips on how to best prepare. What is UCAT® Verbal Reasoning? • The Verbal Reasoning test is the first subtest of the UCAT® exam. It is designed to assess a candidate’s ability to draw information from a given unfamiliar text under immense time pressure. You’ll be presented with a short passage of text (roughly 250 words long) which you’ll need to read and analyse quickly. You’ll then be required to answer a set of questions relating to the information from the text. This is similar to reading comprehension tests seen through all levels of education. Why is Verbal Reasoning Important for Medicine? • UCAT® Verbal Reasoning questions are designed to assess your ability to quickly and accurately draw information from text. Verbal Reasoning for a medical professional may present itself in reading a textbook, critiquing and reviewing research and journal articles, reading guidelines for patient treatment, interpreting patient notes from previous ward rounds, and many other forms.

3. UCAT® Verbal Reasoning Structure UCAT® Verbal Reasoning questions are designed with a short stem of roughly 250 words. This stem will generally contain information that is relatively unfamiliar to most students. Accompanying the stem is a series of questions that will assess your ability to understand the provided information. These may involve assessing individual statements to see if they are true or false based only on the information given, or to answer reading comprehension style questions regarding the text. How much time do you have on UCAT® Decision Making? • Each candidate is given 21 minutes of test time and 1 minute for the instruction section. This comes to around 29 seconds per question. UCAT® Decision Making Timing • Test Time: 21 minutes    • Number of Questions: 44 questions   • Average Time per Question: 29 seconds  What is a Good UCAT Decision Making Score? • Average Mark: 575 • Competitive Mark: 625 • 90th Percentile Estimate: 677

4. UCAT® Verbal Reasoning Question Types There are 3 types of UCAT® verbal reasoning questions: • True, False, Can’t Tell - questions provide a candidate with a selection of possible conclusions following a text based stimulus. The candidate must decide whether the stem proves these statements true or false, or cannot prove nor disprove the statement. • Complete The Statement  - questions are reading comprehension questions asked in a format where the question stem is an incomplete statement. Each answer option provides an end to the statement, and the correct option completes the statement so that it is an accurate conclusion from the text. • Comprehension - questions are typical reading comprehension questions. Following the text based stimulus, a full question is asked, to which each answer option represents a solution, only one of which is correct based on the text. Such questions may be worded: “Which of the following conclusions is most accurate?”, “Which of the following can NOT be concluded from the text?”, or may reference more specific parts of the text.

5. How to Prepare for UCAT® Verbal Reasoning We’ve asked our expert tutors and compiled the 5 tips below to help you prepare for and improve your performance for the UCAT® Verbal Reasoning subtest: • Practice speed reading - 44 questions in 21 minutes is tough! The best way to achieve this is to read many short texts and develop your own approach. • Use a finger to follow the text as you read • Summarise in your head as you read • Note down keywords you come across and the location in the text at which they appear • Only read key sentences and/or paragraphs in longer texts • Read a variety of texts - The texts given to you can be from a variety of different sources. Some people may be able to read a narrative text very well but struggle to understand when information is presented in a scientific form. You should familiarise yourself with these different forms of text. Some good sources outside of questions are newspaper articles or textbooks. • Practisesummarising in your head or on paper - This may be making a mental note of the topic of each paragraph or keeping a consistent story flowing through your head as you read. This may be done by highlighting key sentences as you read. This could also be done by quickly writing down the key point of each paragraph as you read.

6. How to Prepare for UCAT® Verbal Reasoning • Develop your own approach: Stem first or questions first? - There are different approaches and the best approach will vary from person to person. It’s recommended you trial some of the below approaches as you work through practice questions to find out what works for you. • Some people prefer to read the text first and then move onto the questions; these people generally find it easier to absorb information from a text without distractions. • Some people prefer to read the questions first and then scan the text; these people like knowing specifically what they are looking for when reading the text. • Some people prefer to have a quick scan for the information of the text, then read the questions, then read the text in full; this approach gives people an idea of what the text is about and then gives them pointers of exactly what to look for when reading through the text • Review your incorrect questions - Look back at why you got some questions wrong. Was it because you did not find the relevant section? Was it because you got tripped on a red herring? Was it because you used presumed information from outside the text source? Was it because you got too confused by the jargon? Recognise these patterns that commonly trip you up and be wary of them for questions moving forward.

7. UCAT® Verbal Reasoning Tips • Don’t use any presumed knowledge - This tip is especially true for the “True, False, Can’t Tell” type. The information in the text, in some instances, may appear somewhat familiar to you. Do not use outside information to guide your thinking. Instead, ensure that each statement is proven true or false by specific portions of the text you can identify before coming to a conclusion. • Only read the key sentences in longer passages  - Considering the tight time constraints, some passages may have a lot of information beyond what you need to answer questions. For these passages, it may help to not read the entire passage, but read selectively. For some candidates, this may mean reading the first and last paragraphs. For some candidates, this may mean reading the first line of each paragraph. Find the way that suits yourself the most. • Look for and use keywords  - Keywords are integral for speed reading and for answering UCAT® Verbal Reasoning questions. It is important to see these clues in the question stems and use them to your advantage. It is also important to note potential keywords as you are reading to avoid having to search through the entire text for an answer for each question.

8. Approaching UCAT® Verbal Reasoning Questionson Exam Day For exam day, the best advice for UCAT ® verbal reasoning is to keep calm and get a good night’s rest prior. A clear head will do wonders for speed reading and retaining information. Know how you normally approach these passages and use the same techniques on the day. Trust your gut and don’t overthink! Although it’s hard to say for sure how hard is Verbal Reasoning UCAT ® until you actually take the test, trust in the preparation you have done.

9. Further Materials • Australian Medical Schools: General Overview • Australian Graduate Medical Schools - Admission Requirements • Medical Pathways in Australia • Free GAMSAT Practice Questions and Materials • GAMSAT Results: The Definitive Guide • Don’t forget to tune in to our GAMSAT® To Med School Podcast! Listen as our experienced GAMSAT® tutors explore diverse topics about everything from the GAMSAT® exam to their journeys through medical school: https://gradready.com.au/gamsat-podcast