New Media Medicine Forums - Medical News

How hard is the real Abstract Reasoning?

Posted: 26 May 2013 05:46 AM PDT

AR is definitely my weakest section (followed closely by QR). My brain just doesn't seem to work in the right way. I have been practising using a variety of resources:

Score Higher on the UKCAT (Kaplan)
600 UKCAT Practice(sic) Questions
UKCAT for Dummies
BMAT and UKCAT Uncovered
Passing the UKCAT and BMAT
MEDIFY

The problem I'm having is that the resources seem to vary quite widely in terms of difficulty. MEDIFY and the 600Q book make AR seem absolutely impossible and the UKCAT for Dummies book makes it seem fairly doable. Can anyone who has already sat the exam tell me which resource gives the most accurate reflection of what it will be like? Or at least tell me that any particular resource they used turned out to be too hard/too easy? I know the format of the AR section has changed this year, so the only up to date resource I'm currently using is MEDIFY, but I just find their questions impossibly complicated and rather demoralising.

Does anyone else who finds it difficult have any particularly good strategies for tackling AR that they could share?

Thanks

Some questions on the pbl and tips on how to organise your study time?

Posted: 26 May 2013 05:27 AM PDT

I've got an offer to study the undergraduate medicine course at Liverpool from this September!!! :D

I've heard from some sources that during the pbl sessions, the learning 'objectives' are divided out between the students in the group and then they all feed back to each other at a later date. But some sources suggest there's no splitting of work like this, and that everyone researches all aspects of the scenario. Which one is the case in Liverpool? I would prefer to research everything myself, and then be able to discuss it with everyone else at the next session, rather than relying on other people's research.

Also, how do people organise their self-study time? How many hours do people usually do each day? Is it mainly sitting at a desk with a textbook and a computer, or do a lot of people go to the HARC?

Thanks!