The BMAT is more competitive than ever before, a detailed understanding of the exam is essential when it comes to achieving a top score. These top tips are aimed at helping YOU achieve the score you deserve.
Rearrange the Test
Tackle the easy questions first!
If a question is ‘easy’, you’re more likely to get the mark, so don’t miss out on the easy questions by wasting time on the hard ones. Cherry pick your paper for the questions you can answer quickly, then go back to the ones you can’t.
Flag it, Guess it and Move On. The BMAT Version.
The UCAT comes with a flag button, which means you can flag questions to review at the end. It’s best to replicate this same strategy with the BMAT, although there’s no ‘flag button’.
Say you’re completing section 1, where you have 1 minute 53 seconds per question, you’ve already used 1 minute and you’re getting nowhere, it’s time to mark an answer, make a note that you need to go back to that question and move on.
Remember you do not need one hundred percent on the BMAT to get into medical school, it’s about strategic prioritisation. Some lengthy questions may even have been designed to test your prioritisation skills!
Always Give an Answer
There is no negative marking on the BMAT (yay!). If you’re flagging and moving on, if you can’t get to an answer, or you’re a few seconds away from running out of time, remember to always mark an answer.
You will get marks for what you get correct and no penalty for what you don’t.
Read the Answer Options and Use Them to Eliminate
Some of the answer options may be wildly incorrect, for example, maybe you're looking for an answer in the region of 100, but two of the options are in the region of 1000. This means you can narrow your answer down a little.
This is a great strategy for a maths question you only have time to round with. Remember you don’t have a calculator so you may be rounding in quite a few questions to save time.
Mimic Exam Conditions
The best way to prepare for an exam is essentially to sit that exam with mock questions and conditions.
Use the correct BMAT timings, use a pen and paper and don’t allow yourself a calculator to mimic the exam. This is harder, but if you do what’s hard, what’s hard becomes easy!
Practice is Key
They can only ask so many questions, and there are definitely patterns of the type of questions that come up. If you keep practising, you can expose yourself to as many of these questions as possible.
Best of luck with your BMAT preparation! If you need further help, MasterMedPrep’s BMAT coaching is available.