BMAT Advice and Tips

Here is a selection of advice and tips for the BMAT exam.

1. Practice makes perfect.
   The most important tip is to spend significant time practicing past papers. This sharpens your mind for the real thing, gets you used to the types of exam questions you face and gets you into the rhythm of the exam. Questions and question styles are repeated – year on year.
2. Be tactical.
   If you don’t know the answer, leave it and come back to it.
3. Be time efficient.
   Section 1 is the most time pressured. So practicing under timed conditions gives you the best chance of doing well.
4. Focus on areas of weakness.
   Its fun and confidence boosting to do things you are strong in, but a well rounded candidate who is strong on core principles across the subjects will ultimately do well.
5. Practice mental maths
   In particular fractions. Calculators are not allowed.
6. Don’t forget physics.
   You need to practice biology, chemistry, maths and physics but most people won’t be doing physics, so its important to get familiar with the content.
7. Write an essay plan.
   This will help you coordinate your thoughts and link major themes and ideas. This will provide greater clarity to your answer.
8. Write neatly.
   Make it easy for the examiner and provide a clear message illustrating clarity of thought.
9. Be prepared.
   Section 3 can be about complex medical debates and/or ethical dilemmas. Look at previous essay titles and consider how you would answer them and from what perspectives. You need to provide both sides of the argument (supportive and contradictory), a balanced approach and a strong conclusion. Your answer must be keyword rich and nail down definitions of keywords used in the title.
10. Be confident.
    You need to believe you can do well if you prepare thoroughly to win.