5th February 2025
HPATPHOBIA Don’t get Scared, Stay Motivated!
Does the thought of HPAT day make you cringe and consider hiding in your room? That's how I felt in the weeks that led up to HPAT. Being a student in my final year of high school I had rarely been in a position where I was sitting an exam which was so important for determining my future career pathway. Sure I had been through many school exams and academic competitions, but I felt ...
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3rd February 2025
Dealing With Disappointing HPAT Percentiles – 3 Tips
So you’ve been preparing for HPAT by working through the HPAT guides and attempting HPAT practice questions and exams. Then one day you receive a disappointing HPAT percentile. So what should you do? Is it time to freak out? Is it time to give up on your medical entry dream? No! Read on for three key tips. 1. Understand what a HPAT percentile means and how they are calculate ...
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1st February 2025
5 Tips for the Last Fortnight Before HPAT
HPAT is well and truly close now and it’s time to streamline your study and buckle down! In the pivotal two weeks leading up to HPAT, maintaining focus is vital and taking a strategic approach towards your study routine will help ensure that you are fully equipped for success on the big day. Here are five ways to make sure you’re using the next two weeks to set you up for success o ...
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30th January 2025
How to Balance the HPAT and Leaving Cert Mocks
Preparing for HPAT can seem overwhelming. Add in your Leaving Cert mock exams and stress levels can rapidly skyrocket. Unfortunately the timing of the HPAT is often very close to mock exams, or can even be in the middle of mock exams. As the HPAT and mock exams draw closer, it can become hard to balance Leaving Cert study and HPAT preparation. So how do you do it? This blog outlines five ti ...
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24th January 2025
Optimising Your Performance in HPAT: Lessons From Sports Psychology
Preparing for the HPAT is like preparing for a marathon: it requires training, persistence and strategies to optimise your performance on HPAT test day. Just as an athlete prepares for a major sporting event, you must prepare yourself to sit HPAT, which is one of the most important exams that you will face in your career. We can learn much from athletes about optimising performance in HPAT, ...
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23rd January 2025
Attention Parents: 5 Ways to Help Your Son or Daughter in the Lead Up to the HPAT
6th year is a stressful time. Add in HPAT and the pressures of getting into medicine, and stress levels can rapidly sky rocket. As a parent it is easy to succumb to feelings of powerless as you watch your son or daughter struggle to prepare for such an important and difficult exam. However, there are many things you can do to boost their performance and have a positive impact on their wellbein ...
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9th January 2025
6 Tips for Preventing Burnout During HPAT Preparation
Burnout is something almost everyone will experience in their medicine entry journey. Burnout can significantly impact one’s ability to perform, and how an individual copes with burnout can, in some cases, make or break their chance of admission into their dream course. In this blog, I will be focussing on the burnout associated with HPAT preparation, and strategies which I used to help ...
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16th December 2024
Balancing the HPAT and Hobbies
With the HPAT around the corner, as well as school assignments and exams, it can be quite a stressful time for students. Many students will spend hours practising HPAT-style questions and completing HPAT practise exams, as well as devoting a large amount of time to HPAT preparation. However, this does not mean your hobbies and interests should be forgotten. After a long day of lessons, ...
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6th December 2024
The HPAT – A Test of Endurance
Mental endurance can be defined as, ‘the ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.’ The HPAT is so commonly viewed as a test of aptitude, that we forget how crucial it is to also improve our mental endurance for the HPAT exam. In fact, the endurance required for the HPAT is much greater than that required for any school or universit ...
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5th December 2024
Why Full Exam Mocks Are the Best HPAT Preparation
Be under no illusions: the HPAT is the single hardest and most important test you will ever sit. This is a scary (and for some maybe terrifying) thought. So, what can you do to make it less daunting? The answer may seem counter-intuitive: the best way to make HPAT seem do-able is to face it over, and over, and over again. How? By completing high-quality, full-length HPAT exam mocks under timed ...
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