One of the great advantages of the modern day is the plethora of technology we have available to assist us in our every day tasks. Whilst these can also be a detriment in their capacity to distract us, the benefits grossly outweigh the detriments and technology can be used to make us more effective in almost every domain of our lives. Examples of these are mobile applications.
This is no less true in preparing for the
UCAT. This can be considered in two ways. The first is in assisting your preparation for the UMAT® Exam itself, and the second being in streamlining your life to provide you with more time to practice and to make more effective use of your time.
One example of an application that can be used to good effect in preparing for the UMAT® Exam is ANKI and other flash card based web applications. These can be used to ensure a regular, easily accessible way of doing practice questions when paired with a question bank. Additionally, many of these applications have algorithmic capacities that will ensure interleaved practice as well as the identification of strong points and weak points and will adjust the frequency of these types of question as appropriate.
Another app that can be useful in the practice of the UMAT® Exam is a Pomodoro Timer. These apps are derived from what is known as the Pomodoro Technique. This is essentially a method for managing cognitive resources to ensure maximal efficacy for a given task. This is achieved by working on a single, specific task in twenty-five minute blocks followed by five minute rests. This is repeated four times and then followed by a longer rest. The idea is to only work on a single task for twenty-five minutes and to be dedicated before being refreshed by the break.
The other aspect to consider is streamlining other aspects of your life to free up more time or to make the use of your time more effective. Examples of what can be useful for this are to-do list apps such as Wunderlist. These can be used as a centralised location for all the tasks that you need to do. By having them readily available you to save time remembering to do the task. Some also have additional functionality in that they can provide reminders for regular tasks or tasks associated with certain dates so that you will not forget and do not have to expend energy in trying to ensure you remember tasks.
Another example are notebook apps such as OneNote and EverNote. These can essentially be used as a central information collection in your life. Because they are accessible from any terminal it can make your information perfectly accessible. These can be used to make notes about approaches to answering questions in the UMAT® Exam as well as tricks you learn along the way. You can use these and the apps above to formulate a schedule with which to do practice questions to ensure that you make regular efforts to practice which will eventually add up over time.
The interaction of all these apps can make a significant change in the efficacy of your preparation for the UMAT® Exam, so why not give them a shot and come up with new ways in which they can make your life more effective.
