A guide to the UHS MCAT, especially for the A'levels students!

My fellow A'levels students, you must have always wondered if you will be able to enter the premier government medical universities of Pakistan by doing A'levels. Since, I had done A'levels, I always had that doubt in my mind about such an achievement as studying the FSC books seemed a hectic job. Let me tell you that I was able to erase all these doubts by acing the MCAT test, and making it to the top most medical university of Punjab. Trust me guys, believing in yourself and working hard can easily change anyone's fortunes for the good.

You don't need to be disheartened if you don't have the perfect equivalency. MCAT comprises 50% of the final aggregate that makes up the merit of the medical universities so getting a good score will ensure your entry into the medical world.

As for this guide, I'm sure you people have come across a lot of guides with a lot of stuff so I'm going to mention only the important stuff in Question and Answer style along with my own experience.

My own experience

I began my preparation at the beginning of August, with the paper scheduled for the 23rd of the following month i.e. September. So I had about 45 days with almost (I had attended a few classes at the KIPS academy) no previous experience with the FSC books. My preparation technique included a lengthy notes making process whereby I would write every little fact available in the FSC books in my register. Yes, it was a pretty boring process and it required a huge amount of time and resilience but in the end these notes were quite helpful for me. I was able to go through the books once in about 20 to 25 days and my notes were complete by the beginning of September. From here on, all I did was revise my notes and learnt every single detail I had written. I had my Shifa Medical College test on the 8th of September before which I was able to revise my notes atleast once.

 Following the Shifa test, I started studying the KIPS books (KETS). And frankly speaking, they were utterly useless. They were just a summary of the FSC books, and if I had a choice I would have preferred going through the actual books rather than reading this summary that missed out on many facts. But one book that was quite useful to me among the 5 KIPS books was the supplementary one which gave a detailed view on the UHS MCAT syllabus and covered the missing topics in the FSC books (No question came out of these topics in the final exam). The vocabulary list at the end of English book was also quite useful. In the last 30 days before the exam, I started making flash cards of 25-50 words each day and it made learning them much easier. With my NUST medicine exam on the 15th of September, I was able to complete the KIPS books before that.

In the last 7 days before the MCAT, I revised my notes and attempted the KIPS full length papers (the pictures in my previous post) along with the practice questions given in the KIPS supplementary book.

As for the actual MCAT exam, I began the test with the Biology section. For some reason, I had the instinct that if I was able to do the Biology section successfully, my whole paper would go well. And that is exactly what happened. As I went through the Biology MCQs, I got more confident with every fact I knew and when I moved on the Physics and Chemistry portion, they seemed a piece of cake with some conceptual questions that weren't a big deal for us, A'levels students. I attempted every question in the paper, eventhough I had doubts about some of them. My worst section, as I came to know when I checked the paper, was surprisingly English. I had 5 questions wrong in this one with mistakes in some of the vocabulary questions despite having gone through the list. But my other sections made up for this.

Overall, MCAT was a pretty good experience for me. Biology section had pretty straight forward factual questions that I answered from my knowledge of the FSC books. Physics and Chemistry also had a lot of factual questions but in some cases, you did require sound concepts to come to the conclusion. That's all for my experience.


What should I expect in the entry test? And how should I prepare?

The entrance test is based on the FSC books entirely. There's a syllabus given for the MCAT by UHS. You can check out this year's syllabus. The content, however, will ALWAYS be from FSC, remember that. So you'll need to go over the FSC books. There's no alternative to that. But sticking to the UHS syllabus won't be a bad idea.

There are plenty of Entry Test books available that you could buy to practice MCQs (but they will never follow the syllabus) with Caravan and Jahangir, the famous ones. I used the KETS books. However, it's hard to get your hands on the KETS books unless you are a student of KIPS. 

KIPS or Star Academy?

I'd advice neither. I did attend KIPS last year but I ended up having an attendance of merely 20% just because it was pretty useless. Some people told me that the practice tests are quite useful. But I found out the hard way that they don't let you take the tests home and since we hadn't studied the FSC syllabus beforehand, I was always dumbfounded by the tests. Secondly, their approach to teaching is totally different and quite annoying for us A'levels students. All they tell you is to learn everything by rote and you can do that while sitting at home too. Plus, their tests usually have out of syllabus questions and you'll end up being disappointed. If you really want to get some practice you can attend the full length model paper session that they offer just before the MCAT test. By this time, you would be done with your preparation and so practicing those tests will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect in the final exam. Check out the KIPS tests I posted previously in the MCAT resources post.


I've heard many A'levels students are rejected and end up being disappointed because they can't get admissions, is this true?

You've heard right, I'm afraid so. But in the past 2 years the situations has gotten a lot better with the introduction of A* and printing of a definite syllabus by the UHS. But you've got to accept the fact that there is no alternative to FSC books.

What is the format of the UHS MCAT exam, is it an all MCQs paper?

Yes, there are a total of 220 MCQ's; 30 from English, 44 from Physics, 58 from Chemistry and 88 from Biology. You've got 150 minutes to do all of them.

What is the better option for questions that I have doubt about, guessing or leaving?

I'm sure you guys know that every wrong answer gets you a negative mark while a correct answer gives you 5 marks. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't leave any questions for an apparent logical reasoning. There are 4 options for every question so even if you blindly guess an answer, there is a 1/4 or 25% probability that you do it correctly. So for every 4 questions guessed blindly, you have a chance of doing 1 question correct which gives you +5 marks (for the correct answer) and -3 marks (for the 3 wrong answers), a gain of 2 marks. Playing with the probability is a risky option, but this gain of 2 marks can be of quite advantage. Plus, in most cases there are only two options for every question that you are confused about. So the probability is even more in your favor  But in case, you have a doubt about more than 20-25 questions in the whole paper, then it's better to leave them as the risk is too great then but even then if you get 5-6 questions right, you'll have a final gain. But remember the final choice is yours. If you don't feel comfortable getting that 1 mark cut then you are better off leaving the answer and securing those valuable marks.

How should I prepare in the last 10 days?

I'm sure you would be done with the FSC book at least once by now. So all you need to do is revise. Nothing is coming out of these books and the syllabus, so make sure you learn every minute detail that is needed. Jotting down important words and values on a piece of paper can really help. And make sure you also go through at least 2 full length papers so that you can get proper exam like feel. Do mark yourself so you know where you stand. In each of the last 5 days, I practiced one of the FLPs of KIPS that I uploaded. The results were usually disappointing because these exams are much harder than the actual MCAT but now that you guys have 2 past papers, 2011 and 2012, your practice will be much better.


If you have any other query, feel free to ask. I hope this helps. :)