Why tutoring?
Tailored to your needs
Though the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) is now commonly used by medical and dental schools or universities in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, it can still be difficult to prepare for.
You may be stumped that the UCAT exam is not like your GCSE, A-Level or other high school tests. You may require more focused help than a group UCAT course can provide. Or, you may have attended a course already but have found particular weaknesses that you need help with.
1-1 tutoring allows your UCAT preparation to be completely personalised.
Our 1-1 tutoring is personalised by:
- Before your first session, we will be in touch to assess your current comfort level with the UCAT. Perhaps you have sat the UCAT before and scored poorly? Perhaps you have only ever done a few questions and really don’t have a grasp on the exam. We will analyse any previous scores or practice tests, and may ask you to take a short UCAT assessment. This is a mini mock test covering all five sections. From this assessment, our Senior Tutor will review the results to gain an understanding of where your starting natural abilities lie. This data will help us to formulate a study plan.
- Sessions are planned based on what you want to cover. Did you do a tricky Verbal Reasoning practice test and want to go over it? Did you find a couple of awkward Decision Making questions that you just couldn’t figure out? Our tutors can go over full exams, mini mock tests, individual questions or your general understanding - based on your needs. Additionally, if you aren’t sure, we will happily lead the way and create an individualised study plan for you.
- Individualised study plans are created by our expert team, to guide you into getting the best out of your sessions. We can create study plans for any length of time, whether you are preparing months in advance, or whether you have 2 weeks to go until your test!
Learn at your own speed
One major advantage of 1-1 online tutoring, is that you learn at your own pace.
Have you ever felt that you have been left behind in a group setting, not able to keep up with the crowd? It may be the case that for certain concepts, it takes you longer to really understand them. Or perhaps you have found yourself moving quickly through the material in a group and you need to move at a faster pace to be challenged? In our 1-1 tutorials, our experienced tutors will teach at a speed that is comfortable for you and that will aid in your learning.
One to one tutoring allows us to vary the speed depending not only on you as an individual, but also per subsection or even per question type within a subsection. From our experience, students' natural abilities can vary within a section, for example you may be good at Probability but fairly weak at Logic Puzzles within Decision Making. Our experienced tutors will be able to note when you are strong in certain areas, and they can move quicker through these topics, leaving more time to delve deeper into your understanding of weaker topics.
Strategy-focused
You can’t just revise for the UCAT like a school exam, but nor will you do well if you only practice. The key to success is knowing what strategies to employ to solve questions - and to be able to do this in good time.
Our 1-1 tutoring sessions are strategy-based, and we teach strategies for sections that are not taught anywhere else.
In Verbal Reasoning, the lowest scoring section on average, we have come up with a method that sees students' scores increase by 100 points. Our method avoids the need to read all passages in full, but also doesn’t rely on scanning for words, which often sees students miss out on valuable marks.
In Decision Making, we teach strategies to solve each question type - of which there are thirteen. We will work with you to identify your strengths and weaknesses in this highly varied section, and can help by teaching you to write effective shorthand, use tables and quick diagrams to solve questions.
In Quantitative Reasoning, we have researched and interviewed high-scorers and have come up with the fastest methods to solve each type of maths question - including Percentages, Geometry, Tax and Time Zones. Often, this can take a 3 step question down to a 2 or 1 step question just by changing to a more efficient method, saving you valuable time!
In Abstract Reasoning, the MSAG approach enables students to get difficult patterns that previously they would have to skip. We do not rely on any mnemonics that you can find for free on the internet, instead, we will teach you a thorough 5-step approach that combines speed with systematic checking.
In Situational Judgement, most students lack an approach and can be caught out by only relying on their gut instinct. We will help you to refine your approach so that you can more reliably be scoring in the top bands.
Personal one-to-one environment
Every one of our 1-1 sessions are designed to be fun and engaging. We can make our sessions fairly formal, if you’d prefer to learn in a similar environment to school. Likewise, if you’d like a more informal approach, we will strive to get to know you as an individual, and you will also get to know your tutors! We’d love to chat about your weekend plans and hobbies whilst still spending most of the time teaching and discussing strategies. This allows you to strive to achieve your best - through feeling engaged and prioritised during your sessions.
