UCAT and fluid reasoning/intelligence (and crystallised intelligence)

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Bithov Vinu Student

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Dec 15, 2021, 5:36:05 PM12/15/21
to Dual N-Back, Brain Training & Intelligence
The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) is an aptitude test that is completed by prospective medical and dental students at age 17-18 by UK secondary (high school) students. Their score on this test is used as part of applications to medical schools.

It consists of 5 subtests:
Verbal Reasoning
Decision Making
Quantitative Reasoning
Abstract Reasoning
Situational Judgement (assessed differently to other subtests)

Practice tests can be completed here (https://www.ucat.ac.uk/prepare/practice-tests/) through the official UKCAT consortium.

I thought this sort of test would be good at determining IQ since the question types are fairly novel - I do a lot of cognitive self-testing as part of my interest in cognition (ICAR16, ICAR60, Raven's short form, Mensa workouts, TIG, Dominoes, etc).

I did one recently and found it much more challenging than any standard IQ test - especially the time constraints. I feel as though with Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning, I could have done significantly better if given enough time - the time restrictions are VERY tight on the UCAT.

Now, students that are going to do the UCAT prepare and practice before hand, sometimes for months - mnemonics and techniques are drilled that help them identify the AR patterns. As a result, since UCAT scores are relative to cohort performance, a person doing it without practice (ie. me or likely anyone here) will have a deflated scaled score. I found the AR particularly challenging.

Is there any reason to believe UCAT scores to be indicative of raw g-f and g-c? I do considerably better on tests strictly designed as IQ tests (esp. ICAR16, the only one I've done really worth giving a damn about) than on the UCAT. For example, with minimal preparation I got significantly better on the QR section than average, but significantly worse on the AR section. I got 14/16 on the ICAR16 (novel questions, likely not as liable to practice effect as other IQ tests I've completed) but this score isn't reflective of my raw UCAT score.

What spooked me was my AR performance - on IQ tests (more specifically, fluid intelligence tests) I do fairly well (GIQ >130, Mensa practice >120, ICAR60 42/60) but I really struggled with UCAT AR questions.



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Recursion

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Jun 8, 2022, 2:41:41 PM6/8/22
to Dual N-Back, Brain Training & Intelligence
I tried it. Practice tests on  https://www.ucat.ac.uk/prepare/practice-tests/ don't provide score (do they?), thus to use UCAT as an intelligence tracking measure I had to find other versions. They are:
1. https://www.themedicportal.com/e-learning/ucat-question-bank-with-mocks/free-practice-ucat-test/
2. https://www.frasersucat.com.au/tools/free-ucat-comprehensive-practice-exam/?role=Student

Both of them are shortened, but I guess, still valuable, cause there is an access to results after test is completed.

I totally agree with you, that it's much harder to get into upper procentile without any practice. Mostly because of tight time restrictions. AR tasks are really tough. As a non-native speaker I struggled at VR as well (which exacerbated time limit problem).

In general I think it can be used as a tracking tool for intelligence. First and foremost because of its difficulty and therefore high ceiling. But I'm not sure about its tolerance to practice effects. Texts from verbal tasks get deep in the memory. It would be perfect if every time you take the test questions are retrieved from a bank (in test versions which I found questions are always the same). I know that on https://www.ucat.ac.uk/prepare/practice-tests/ it is like that but as I said it doesn't return result thus there's nothing to track. 

четверг, 16 декабря 2021 г. в 01:36:05 UTC+3, Bithov Vinu Student:
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