3 Steps to HPAT Success
2 years ago by Chris
Preparing for HPAT can seem overwhelming. It can be difficult to know how to best prepare for HPAT and how to utilise your precious study time.
Over the last two decades, MedEntry has developed an unrivalled understanding of the strategies used by the highest performers to tackle aptitude tests and get into medicine. This blog describes three steps to succeeding in HPAT.
1. Simulate the HPAT testing environment
It is vital in your HPAT preparation that you simulate the live HPAT as closely as possible. Most importantly, this involves completing full length HPAT exams under timed conditions. HPAT is one of the toughest, most time-pressured tests you will ever sit. The only way HPAT will become more manageable is if you challenge yourself to sit it under timed conditions over and over again.
Another important way to simulate the live HPAT is to ensure you are completing questions that accurately replicate the style and difficulty of HPAT. Unfortunately there are many HPAT resources available which provide questions that are far too straightforward. This can be misleading, and result in you being shocked by the difficulty of HPAT come test day.
2. Reflect on your HPAT performance
The highest performers don’t just complete HPAT questions over and over again. Instead, they take a few minutes to reflect.
So, after sitting a HPAT practice exam, set aside 5 minutes to consider what went right, what went wrong, and how to improve your performance before the next HPAT test. Record your thoughts, so you can refer back to them. MedEntry students gain access to a performance report after each HPAT exam, facilitating this process.
The most successful students also reflect on each HPAT question they answered incorrectly, and they think about why. Was it the lack of an effective HPAT strategy? Poor HPAT timing? Poor HPAT guessing technique? MedEntry students can log and analyse their mistakes in an exclusive error log.
Reflection allows you to create a plan for improvement, which will help you boost your performance, and prepare for HPAT in the most time-efficient way.
3. Discuss
This the most overlooked part of the HPAT preparation process, but it is potentially the most valuable. Discussion of HPAT questions has many benefits. Not only is it social, but it is also a very effective HPAT preparation strategy. A common theme among high achievers is that they prepared for HPAT in a group of other students.
Group study for HPAT has many benefits:
- Explaining your thought processes can help you clarify your own approach to HPAT questions
- You can learn or reinforce strategies and tips for each HPAT subtest by hearing others’ views
- You can share your HPAT worries to relieve stress.
You can form a HPAT study group by attending a MedEntry HPAT course, or joining one of our HPAT social media groups to connect with other, like-minded students.
Good luck and keep up your HPAT prep!
