BMAT
The University Clinical Aptitude Test and BMAT (BioMedical Admissions Test) form a very important part of your medical school application. Many prospective medical students find themselves struggling with the third and final section of the BMAT, feeling that as scientists they ‘can’t write a good essay’. In this blog post, we hope to be able to dispel some of the myths surrounding the BMAT essay and help you feel more confident in your essay writing abilities.
It is really important that as part of your BMAT revision you ensure you follow your progress using practice questions. Thankfully, all of the past papers since 2003 are available on the Cambridge Assessment and Admissions Testing website. We thoroughly recommend working through as many of these as possible. Not only will it allow you to refresh your knowledge, but it will allow you to get very familiar with the exam format.
Preparing for the BMAT and UCAT is vital as they are a very important component of your medical school application. The skills tested are all applicable to life as a medical student. The third section of the exam is a 30-minute essay paper which tess your ability to develop ideas and communicate them effectively in writing. You only have one side of A4 to formulate your arguments, so planning is crucial.
Section 2 of the BMAT assesses applicants' biology, chemistry, physics and maths knowledge. Supposedly, the knowledge required is GCSE level. Students usually fall due to the time pressure of this section - there are 27 questions to answer in 30 minutes. You may feel that the BMAT is difficult to prepare for, however, section 2 is probably the section where BMAT preparation is the most important.