Making Friends with UCAT Practice
1 week ago by Chris
In UCAT practice, consistency beats brilliance. It is important that we not wait until we have lots of motivation before we start practising. Good UCAT skills come about in the context of practising in a more routine and ordinary manner, rather than sporadic bursts of insight. The goal should be gaining meaningful and valuable UCAT skills every time you practise. Expecting anything more may create too much pressure and lead to debilitating blocks. To be successful at the UCAT, you need to develop UCAT preparation as a discipline.
UCAT = Meditation?
In this sense, UCAT practice is similar to meditation. It is very hard to meditate well if you only do so once in a while. Meditating only when you want to reduce stress may provide some benefits, yet many of the most powerful effects require daily practice. When you meditate daily, meditation becomes integrated into the core of your life. Over time it becomes both easier and more beneficial. Having a daily meditation practice forces you to be disciplined, consistent, and focused. Over time, you experience new depths, insights, and benefits. If you miss more than a day or two, you come to feel as if something were missing, as if something were not quite right.
The same is true with UCAT practice. When you are out of practice, the practice drills are daunting. However, when UCAT practice has become a regular part of your life, the problem-solving skills tend to flow -- if not effortlessly, at least more smoothly. Daily or near-daily UCAT practice can even become like a meditation practice, something that takes you outside of yourself, connects you to different parts of your personality, and helps you let go.
Make UCAT practice a daily routine
When UCAT practice becomes a friend, a daily routine, it loses many of its anxiety-producing qualities. When you do not have to worry whether you will be able to produce because you are already producing on a consistent basis, you are free to consider what you want to practise and who you want to become as an achiever. What we are suggesting is that we treat UCAT practice as a life-inspiring practice. This clearly requires an attitude shift for many of us. It is not enough to wish this relationship into existence: it requires practice and work, including work on the psychological and emotional barriers that you identify in yourself. It also can mean learning to view UCAT practice as a vehicle for becoming more fully who you are. For some, this may be an extreme and unhelpful goal. For those of you who do not wish to see UCAT practice in this almost spiritual perspective, at the very least you nevertheless will need to develop consistent UCAT practice.
Developing a ritual is a valuable way to create regular UCAT practice. Rituals mark the end of one period or event and the beginning of another. Developing a ritual might sound like, "Now I move from this past activity to UCAT practice, which is all I will do with this time." This bookmarking of time will help you view your UCAT practice as something special, and signals that other activities can wait until you are done with your UCAT prep.
Make yourself comfortable
One accomplished writer described their ritual like this:
"While I sometimes write at the college or in cafés during the day, I do my best writing at home, late at night. I like to write in my leather easy chair. It has a good large footrest and two wide stuffed armrests. On each armrest I can place four or five articles. My laptop fits easily into my lap and my arms rest comfortably by my side. Before I sit down to work, I brew myself a cup of green tea. I sit in my chair and drink about half a cup, savouring the gentle tastes and aromas. Almost ritualistically, I remind myself how lucky I am to be able to have this time to write and enjoy my tea. I remind myself that my goal is to write either one page or for half an hour, and anything beyond that is pure gravy."
We strongly encourage you to develop your own UCAT practice ritual, one that helps you to see UCAT practice as an enjoyable and enriching activity. Try to incorporate objects and experiences that you enjoy into your UCAT practice.
