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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27th January 2025
Persisting Through Underwhelming Marks
Many of you may have started your preparation on MedEntry and found that you may not be achieving the scores you hoped for, and let me tell you, you’re not the only one! Many people lose confidence during their HPAT preparation and can’t see themselves achieving the scores they hope to attain. I know this for a fact because I was one of those people not too long ago. When I firs ...
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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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10th January 2025
How to Interpret Your HPAT Mock Exam Scores
So you’ve completed a HPAT practice exam and have no idea how to interpret the wealth of information and statistics you’ve been presented with. This blog has some tips to help you gain a better grasp of your HPAT preparation progress. 1. Look at percentile not percentage The HPAT is a test designed to compare students against each other, thereby giving the univers ...
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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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2nd January 2025
Is It Too Late to Start Preparing for HPAT?
The short answer is no. Preparing for the HPAT is possible and no matter how late you start, you will still be able to improve, just like with any other subject. The long answer is: it depends on how much time you invest and how effectively you prepare. At this stage, it’s important to study SMART. Trying to do as many HPAT questions or HPAT papers as you can is not necessarily the be ...
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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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