steven975 wrote: I will be sitting the HPAT again this year unfortunately! I got 727 last year and missed RCSI because points went up!
UnknownEntity wrote: » Oh man you got so close! Do you have any tips for people like me sitting it for the first time?
steven975 wrote: Another thing is making lists of words and their definitions this really helped me in section 2 which I ended up doing quite well in. Knowing the definitions allows you to tell the slight differences between the 2 answers you have left to decide between. I also did section 2 exams with a friend and we would run through the text and answer questions together because its good to hear someone else's thoughts on something and what they took away from it!
UnknownEntity wrote: » Thanks so much for you help, personally I've been preparing on M3dentry since July. My clearest weakness is in section 2 and if I look even closer it's especially when they use abstract words in the questions that I have never seen before. I've got a hardback now and I'm slowly filling it with words that I didn't understand. It's not even the emotional understanding part of it that I'm weak at because once I understand the words, the questions become so much easier. Section 1 is my strongest at the moment and I'm consistently scoring 90< percentile on it in practise exams and section 3 is also decent so I'm mainly focusing on section 2. I also agree with you that going through the solutions is so crucial and that's where all the learning happens. Do you mind me asking what prep courses you did last year or are doing now?
steven975 wrote: what do you do for section 1 preparation? Another piece of advise I would give is to not use up all your exams too early like if you've started in july I would save most of your exams for the month or two before the exam I used up a lot of mine by December and only had like 3 left for the last few weeks! big mistake haha! I did m******* last year and will be doing that again this year.
UnknownEntity wrote: » Yeah I got the extra 5 exams with the course so I'm spacing the rest out from now till the HPAT. It's true that you shouldn't get them done too early but m3dentry themselves say that one of the biggest mistakes is leaving the exams till the end and spending too much time on drills. Honestly I haven't done that much for section 1, problem solving and that kind of thing have been something that I'm good at for a long time so it's quite natural for me, just like how section 2 could be very natural for someone else. All I can say though is that for problem solving, write down the important info and then it's possible to treat a lot of the questions like maths problems if you get me. For logical reasoning and data interpration, you just need to be 100% focused and keep practising questions. You really need to pay attention to every single piece of information given to you and never make assumptions. As well, was your hpat score/percentile similar to what you were scoring on ********?
steven975 wrote: thanks for the help! I'm good at maths I just don't like the visual problem problem solving and I think theres barely any on m******* in comparison to the exam itself! I had one or two exams where my percentile was close to what I got in the real thing most of the time it was lower! percentiles fluctuate a lot on it I don't think they're much to go on! a lot of people I know got a completely different percentile to what they were getting in the online exams some better some worse!
UnknownEntity wrote: » What do you mean by visual problem solving? I've seen one question on ME where they give you a rubiks cube and ask a couple of questions on it. Is that considered visual problem solving? Or is it when they give graphs/diagrams etc? Also, did you find section 1 in the HPAT easier or harder than ME?
steven975 wrote: Yeah kind of like that but I found the ones in the HPAT a lot harder though and there was loads of them! I found it a lot harder there was barely any logical reasoning which was what I was good at! Graphs are like data interpretation!
BigMac90 wrote: Hey does anyone have any tips on how to study for the hpat without any prep courses?, my parents cant really afford any of the courses especially coming up to Christmas, so does anyone know some free online material that I can use to practice??? and is it possible to get a good percentile without doing a course?? any advice would mean a lot thanks!!
steven975 wrote: » I will be sitting the HPAT again this year unfortunately! I got 727 last year and missed RCSI because points went up!
BigMac90 wrote: » Hey does anyone have any tips on how to study for the hpat without any prep courses?, my parents cant really afford any of the courses especially coming up to Christmas, so does anyone know some free online material that I can use to practice??? and is it possible to get a good percentile without doing a course?? any advice would mean a lot thanks!!
LanaBanana165 wrote: » Oh that’s such a good score! Do you mind me asking was it mainly composed of LC points or H-Pat add on points. I’m just worried I’m not balancing the LC and the H-Pat work and preparation properly, I know they are both so important
alaskayoung wrote: » Hey there I honestly wouldn't panic too much about the preparation courses. In my opinion, they're extremely overrated and have become something that people feel they have to do just because "everyone else is doing them" rather than them being of any real benefit. I sat the HPAT twice, the first year I did an expensive popular preparation course and a reasonable amount of study for the exam and came out with 78th percentile. I sat it again the following year with no preparation and came out with 93rd percentile. What changed? Honestly, I feel the practise the first time around was of detriment to me. Between the course and constantly being ranked in terms of scores and the huge emphasis put on the exam, I went into the exam terrified that day and was far too caught up in the hype to do myself justice. The second year, I booked my place to sit the test and honestly didn't think about it again until the week of the exam when I just refamiliarised myself with the structure and the timing using the official papers from the ACER website. As a result, I went in that day with a much clearer head and a more balanced mindset towards the exam. I've seen the papers made by these preparation courses and they're just not that comparable to the real thing. Perhaps some of the questions on their sample papers this year are similar to last years HPAT (as they get people to feed them the information AFTER the test is over) but ACER change the style of their questions slightly every year to keep an even playing field and simply, they're just not the type of thing you can "learn". Also I'll say that after practising paper after paper of their similar styled questions, it really does throw you when you are suddenly handed something completely different. I know a lot of people who say they wouldn't have gotten the scores they did, without a preparation course but there's no real way they can say that, they don't know what score they would've gotten and frankly I think they should have more faith in themselves. Many people who do preparation courses get high scores, many more get low scores, the same as those who don't. You're busy enough in leaving cert, concentrate on your subjects where study is proven to be effective. Don't buy into the hype being built by these companies just to make money off people's desperation. By all means, download ACER's practise papers, familiarize yourself with the layout, figure out your timing but after that try to just believe in yourself. It's hard to accept that you don't have much control over the exam but if you can, it's only going to be of benefit to you because the pressure's off then, keep a cool head and just do your best. Reeaaaaally waffled on there but you get my drift. I know it's hard but try not to pay much notice to what everyone else is doing. The ACER papers are enough, I honestly think you're better off and the greatest thing you can give yourself on the day is calm so shrug and leave it up to fate
steven975 wrote: » I 100% agree with this and I've seen a trend amongst people I know that the people who go in with the clearest head usually do the best. How did you forget about it though? I'd love to just forget about until the week of the exam but I find it so hard not to prepare because I'm afraid of the consequences of not preparing adequately especially for pick the middle type questions! I'm worried I'll go in stressing this year like I did last year and mess up again
leimmxvii wrote: » You'd be best to focus on HPAT for the week. Your leaving cert shouldn't suffer a huge loss with one week of neglect! For section 3 Pick the middle questions, if 2 of the answer options are entirely identical, then these two options will not be in the middle. And for the other question types this also applies. Then again this scenario may never arise in the exam, but its still a tip. For pick the middle questions you may already know of the 3/2 rule, but know that this rule only confirms that these 3 options will form the start and end and does not mean one of them will be in the middle. A. 32323 B. 32233 C. 33223 Notice above how a 3 group is always at the start and end. And only a 3 group is in the middle in A. For example if 3 of the answer options have smiley faces, the full answer may be: A. Smiley, 2, Smiley, 2, Smiley B. Smiley, 2, 2, Smiley, Smiley C. Smiley, Smiley, 2, 2, Smiley
leimmxvii wrote: Best of luck to everyone sitting the HPAT tommorow! As a repeat here, my best advice would be to stay calm and have a clear head
thereisacar wrote: » What did everyone think??
