Section 1: Aptitude and Skills
This section tests generic skills in problem-solving, understanding arguments, and data analysis and inference. These are all skills required as a doctor, and also ones you tend to use in undergraduate study. There are 35 multiple-choice questions, and you have 60 minutes to answer them.
Some tips for answering such questions:
- Don’t panic if you there there’s a lot to do. Break the question down into a series of steps or calculations.
- Check other answers if you have time to prove them wrong.
- The questions are not there to trick you – so think rationally and try and spot patterns.
- Extract the relevant information – you may not need all of what appears in the question
Section 2 of the BMAT exam: Scientific Knowledge and Applications
This tests your ability to apply the scientific and mathematical knowledge you learn in school by the age of 16. There are 27 questions to answer this time, again multiple-choice, and you are allowed 30 minutes.
This section requires you to do some revision!
Section 3: Writing Task
This is testing your ability to select, develop and organise your ideas, and then communicate them in writing. You are given a choice of 3 questions, from which you pick one to answer in 30 minutes.
You will be given space to plan your answer – make sure you use it!
FURTHER INFORMATION
All 3 sections are sat together and you can’t go back to a previous section or jump ahead to the next one. Your responses are collected in after every section to prevent you from doing this. There are no scheduled breaks and the exam usually takes place on the first Wednesday morning of November. You cannot use calculators or dictionaries (electronic or paper) in the BMAT exam.
Sections 1 and 2 tend to cause the most problems and indeed many universities will focus on these two (see: How is the BMAT used?). However, it is important not to neglect section 3 in the BMAT Exam as it is also used to shortlist candidates e.g. imperial have a BMAT essay threshold that applicants must meet in order to get an interview.
WHERE CAN I FIND MORE PRACTICE PAPERS?
You can use the official BMAT exam website to access past BMAT papers, or why not take a look at the bestselling BMAT guide written by medical experts which has more than 800 practice questions, solutions and detailed plans to help you write the essay question.