A prospective medical student taking the BMAT after following advice from William Clarence on how to prepare for the BMAT.

How to prepare for the Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT)

Rebecca Dowbiggin
April 3rd 2020

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, prospective medical students face an uncertain period. 

Very understandably, there will be fewer opportunities to volunteer and gain experience through work shadowing in medical, and indeed many other social settings, across the summer.  

The BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) provides another effective means by which students can show their potential to succeed in medical and health-related courses.  

But with so much competition from other prospective students applying to study medicine, how can you ensure that you pass the exam with flying colours and get ahead of the game?  

Read on to discover expert advice from William Clarence’s medical school specialists on how to prepare for the BMAT. 

Our advice to candidates 

The BMAT tests your ability to apply your scientific and mathematical knowledge, as well as your aptitude for critical thinking, problem-solving, and written communication. 

Your performance in the BMAT will undoubtedly improve with familiarisation and practice. As such, one of the top pieces of advice on how to prepare for the BMAT that we can offer is completing as many practice papers as possible.  

The BMAT is split into three different sections: 

Section 1 

Section 1 of the BMAT tests your ability to think critically, problem-solve, and analyse data to draw effective conclusions. No specific subject knowledge is required per se, and each question contains all the information required to answer it. 

Section 2  

Section 2 does require some prior knowledge (typically acquired at GCSE level) and examines your capacity to solve problems by application.  

Section 3  

Section 3 is somewhat different to the first two sections; through the writing of a shot (one A4-page) essay, it assesses your aptitude to effectively communicate, organise and present ideas clearly and succinctly, whilst providing supporting evidence.  

Essays are set to include general, scientific and/or medical themes, and you will select a title from a list of three. 

How William Clarence can help you prepare 

Our BMAT tutorials provide you with a good understanding of the skills the BMAT assesses and understanding of how to prepare for the BMAT effectively. This includes enabling you to:  

  • familiarise yourself with the test format 
  • examine the content of each section 
  • get to know the different types of questions that you may be asked in each section 
  • review, with worked answers, how to approach the different question types 

Our specialist team has also supported several students over the years with other aspects of their medical school applications, from finding the perfect medical school course to creating outstanding UCAS applications, running mock interviews and much more.

If these are services that you would be interested in or would like to find out more about, get in touch with our team today.  

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