Inside a Real UCAT Class: True/False/Can't Tell

Below is a lightly edited transcript of the lesson, with timestamps. Dr Kritika introduces and closes the clip; the class itself is taught by one of DreamMedic’s UCAT tutors.

Intro (0:00) — Dr Kritika

Hi, I’m Dr Kritika from DreamMedic. A few minutes from one of our live UCAT classes — two Verbal Reasoning methods. First, answering True, False and Can’t Tell without reading the whole passage. Then the harder kind: no keyword in the question, so you work backwards from the answer options. Take a look.

Method 1 (0:21) — The keyword approach: True/False/Can’t Tell and type-1 statements

Okay, I can see most of you are ready now. Let’s move on to the main technique that we’ll use to solve these questions. Let me show you the keyword approach first. The keyword approach is very, very important.

There are four key steps to the keyword approach. The first thing we do: we always read the first three to four lines — the first few sentences — of the passage, because this gives you a gist of what the topic of the passage is. It’s very important to know the topic of the passage, because this will help us select a keyword in the question.

So remember: this is your passage over here, and this is your question statement. We select the keyword from here — from the statement — not from the passage.

So, as I was saying: we first read the first sentences of the passage to get the topic, then we set a keyword from the statement. The keyword should be specific and niche to the passage. Please don’t select the topic of the passage as a keyword, because it will be mentioned many times in the passage and you’ll be wasting your time. For example, say you read the first few lines of the passage and find out it’s about Beyoncé, and the question says “Beyoncé is a popular artist.” If you search for “Beyoncé” in the passage, it’s going to be in maybe every other line or every paragraph — it’s just not worth it, it’ll be too slow. You want to set a keyword specific and niche enough that it takes you to one specific part of the passage.

Once you’ve set the keyword, you look for it in the passage — and look for synonyms at the same time. For example, if you’re looking for “cost,” look for anything monetary: money, value, anything similar. Then once you find it in the passage, read the sentences around it, and you can select your answer — True, False or Can’t Tell.

If it’s a type-1 statement question, you just want to eliminate the options that aren’t relevant. By type-1 statement questions, what we mean is: the statement is given, and there are four options — A, B, C, D — to pick from. You set a keyword from the question statement and look for it in the passage. Once you’ve found it in the passage, you see which of the A, B, C, D sentences matches it. That’s how we do type-1 statement questions as well — remember, type-1 statement questions have a keyword.

So this is a very effective way of doing the True/False/Can’t Tell questions and the type-1 statement questions. Please make a note — very important.

Method 2 (2:38) — Type-2 statements: no keyword in the question

Okay, so — type-2 statements. In these ones, there is no keyword in the question. These statements will be something like “Which of the following is correct?” — and they’ll give you four statements, A, B, C, D, to use. There’s no keyword in the question; as you can see, it just says “which of the following is correct.”

For these questions, you want to read the first two or three lines of the passage and the last two or three lines to get the topic. Then eliminate any options that aren’t relevant to what you read in those first few lines — anything not really connected to what’s been discussed — or that use extreme language. If any option has extreme language — “the best,” “the worst” — eliminate it, because it’s least likely to be correct.

So let’s say you eliminate option B because it has extreme language. Now, out of options A, C and D, you’re going to have to find a keyword in each of the remaining three options. Now we’re looking for keywords in the answer options themselves, and you search for them in the passage and select an answer. It takes a bit longer for these questions: you search for a keyword from option A in the passage; if that’s not there, you go to C, and then D, and so on.

Closing (3:50) — Dr Kritika

That’s two methods, from one section. In the live course we cover all four UCAT sections — Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning and Situational Judgement — and many more methods like these to improve your score. Every session is recorded, so you can go back over it. If you’d like to talk about whether it’s right for you, book a free consultation.