Getting into medicine or dentistry is extremely tough

That’s why creating an industry-leading UCAT course that genuinely helps every student is even tougher.

Understanding the mindset of a winner

Disbelief and relief; these are the first feelings that almost every student experiences when they are accepted into medicine or dentistry. Why not joy? Why not excitement? Because the journey was just too darn hard.

Let’s take a step back to appreciate the challenges that successful students had to conquer to get where they are today. Spend years slaving away for outstanding school results that put them at the top 1% of the nation. Check. Score at least in the top 10% on the UCAT, a logical reasoning test so complex that it is widely acknowledged to be one of the most challenging university entrance exams in existence. Check. Overcome the scrutiny of interviewers who are determined to figure out if you’ve got the ‘X factor’ and can make the right decisions under unbelievable pressure to save lives. Check.

Staying up late, getting up early and sacrificing precious time with friends and family is the norm. However, what makes the real difference is wit, resilience and tenacity far greater than that possessed by the typical teenager. To build a course that truly helps every student, we must first understand what goes on in the minds of the most ambitious candidates; only then can we support them during the good times, the bad times, and the very, very ugly times.

“I recall that when I first started studying for the UCAT I felt so lost and unsure of how to go about my preparation. Like many of my classmates, I used the traditional approach—sitting multiple practice exams under timed conditions. After about a month of using this approach (with little progress) I started questioning it. After all, the UCAT was different from the UMAT. Didn’t that mean that preparation needed to be different as well?

Feeling increasingly hopeless about fulfilling my dream of getting into medicine, I researched different UCAT preparation companies. Some were sketchy, some expensive, and others used the traditional approach. Except for iCanMed. For the first time, a UCAT preparation company was telling me to solve less questions and develop accuracy instead! Feeling curious (and slightly attacked), I messaged Michael and explained to him my circumstances, to which he patiently explained to me how this learning process worked.

Unlike many preparation companies, Michael and Ashton are a message away, offering 24/7 services. In the previous year, I was able to go to them for practically anything—interview questions, note taking worksheets, study techniques, UCAT. The list goes on. My questions were endless, but despite this, they patiently answered each one, and continued to encourage me. iCanMed uses the approach of studying smart. In my preparation for the UCAT and interviews, iCanMed has taught me to directly identify and target my weaknesses, instead of wasting my (scarce) time on trial and error, and mindless practice. As a student juggling other school subjects and commitments, this was beneficial in saving time, whilst still building the depth required to do well in the UCAT and interviews.

The road to medicine is a very long one, with multiple steps on the way. iCanMed has supported me in each step of this journey, not only preparing me for UCAT, but for interviews, medical application writing and study as well. I must emphasise how large a role Michael’s interview training course played in my acceptance in medicine. Along with teaching me to answer each question type, it gave me peace of mind in understanding what interviewers were looking for and the common marking system.

I am forever thankful to Michael and Ashton and rest of the team for helping me make my dream come true and would highly recommend it to anyone who’s considering pursuing a career in medicine or dentistry."

Dissecting the hurdles better than anyone else

Achieving top marks in the UCAT is difficult enough. What about understanding the test deeply enough to confidently meet the expectations of students who are willing to rely on your advice, recommendations and techniques and entrust their entire futures into your hands? It’s a lot harder to build a great course than it is to do well on the UCAT test.

Our team of highly qualified teachers, question writers and learning designers, who have more than 20 years of combined experience, have spent the last four years breaking down over 100,000 UCAT questions and the test-taking experience. We have broken things down until there is nothing left to break down; by taking into account every nuance, variation, trend and style in the most recent exams, a greater algorithm slowly but surely took shape.

Solving UCAT questions is now a process as systematic and logical as any other skill. Nothing is a mystery. Dissecting the hurdles better than anyone else gave us the courage to take the next step in becoming the educational organisation we’ve always set out to be.

“I first enrolled in iCanMed’s UMAT course in June 2018 and, filled with a boost of motivation, immediately got started on their endless catalogue of comprehensive video tutorials and practice questions. Less than three months later, I’d finally made a dent in the coursework when the UMAT Consortium announced that the 2019 UMAT was entirely replaced by the UCAT—something that initially shocked and incited panic in many prospective medical applicants like me who would be the first in Australia to sit this exam.

On the very day the news was announced, September 24th 2018, Michael sent an email and a Facebook post announcing the news as well as informing us all that the iCanMed team had been working on a UCAT course for several years and were completely prepared with another, equally thorough course designed specifically for the UCAT. He ended the email with “don’t worry because we got you covered.” The way Michael and the iCanMed team handled the next few weeks with complete transparency and immediate around-the-clock replies to any messages and queries in order to absolutely ensure everyone had the most accurate and relevant information was remarkable.

This level of support continued for the following two years and is what I appreciated the most about iCanMed. I never felt lost or confused because of the high level of transparency Michael and Ashton provided to everyone. Knowing that, whether it was a public holiday or 2am in the morning, I could message Michael with a question and receive an almost immediate reply showed me I was valued as a student. From the very first masterclass, where Ashton analysed and broke down every single question type into its core components, to the UCAT practice drills, from lodging the very first application to the very final interview invitation, Michael and Ashton constantly had all the information and were proactive in sharing any new detail or squashing any widespread rumour from the internet.

iCanMed’s approach to all the medical application requirements is methodical and objective in nature, making it significantly easier to implement. Every single UCAT and interview question type are broken down into step-by-step processes for us to approach in a specific manner repeatedly until our cognitive thinking style aligns perfectly with that required to, essentially, get into medicine.

By the end of the two year UCAT/Interview course, I had scored in the 97th percentile on the UCAT, received seven interview invites, and am now studying medicine at my dream university. Looking back, I can say with great confidence that this would not have been possible without Michael, Ashton, and the entire team at iCanMed.”

Making great teaching and learning the foundation of our course

Great teachers do far more than pass down knowledge and skills. They ignite their students’ drive to succeed and transform them into the best version of themselves. Great teachers enable, empower and inspire students to strive for what means the most to them, even when faced with difficult odds. Our course does precisely that—it motivates and equips students to take the extra steps needed to achieve entrance into their dream course.

Seamlessly applying our understanding of the journey and our question-solving expertise to help every student develop the perfect UCAT skillset requires all the tricks in the education toolbox. The seven learning styles, Kolb’s experiential cycle, competency-based learning, instructional scaffolding, reflective learning and mindful practice are just some of the advanced learning methods we use to make our course airtight.

“iCanMed has helped me immensely in both my UCAT and interview preparation this year. Coming into the year I had absolutely no idea what the UCAT test was and what the question styles were like. After joining the Pro Course, iCanMed’s systematic approach towards the UCAT really helped me understand each and every question style and how to tackle them with ease and confidence. What really makes iCanMed stand out is all its video lessons and video solutions which meant that lessons were very flexible and I actually had a person interacting and going over questions which made it far more enjoyable to learn. The step-by-step video solutions by Ashton were highly beneficial as the very detailed nature of them meant that I was able to understand all the thinking processes and steps required to complete a question, which are absolutely crucial when completing the UCAT examination. Above all, Michael and Ashton are both highly dedicated towards helping their students and whenever I had any queries, concerns or just general questions, they would answer within 24 hours.

Michael’s interview course was also a major reason why I was able to get into medicine. Knowing that the interview is the one component that can make or break your medical application, I was pretty worried and unsure on how to best approach it. However, Michael is peerless in his knowledge on the interview process and he provides invaluable advice on how to approach questions and how to really stand out as a medical candidate. Overall, iCanMed was primarily why I was able to get into my dream course and I strongly recommend anyone who intends to study medicine to learn from iCanMed.”

Relentless in the pursuit of perfection

Making the learning experience perfect for every student requires extensive refinement. After every teaching opportunity, we gather mountains of feedback and performance data to adjust our approach and help students achieve their very best on test day. After countless iterations, our course is consistently able to develop students’ critical skills, making the preparation path far more manageable and predictable.

In 2019, 719 students achieved a UCAT score of 90th percentile or higher, of whom almost 400 students achieved a score of 96th percentile or higher. As a result, 603 iCanMed students were awarded medical and dental school offers for a 2020 start, a monumental achievement considering that 2019 was the first year UCAT testing was conducted in Australasia. Are we happy with what we’ve achieved? Definitely. Are we done improving our course for all future students? Heck no! Anyone can try to teach the UCAT—but to support the best students, we need to be the best.

“Having no idea what the UCAT was about or how I was to go about preparing for it, my hopes of getting into medicine seemed pretty slim in Year 12. Yet here I am, receiving 96th percentile in the UCAT and about to start studying Medicine at UNSW. So what happened in between? iCanMed did. Before I discovered iCanMed, sitting trial UCAT exams meant getting predicted to hit somewhere in between 5th or 6th deciles. But with video tutorials and tutors online to answer any and every question within 24 hours, iCanMed helped boost my competency and gave me a holistic understanding of every type of exam question. Both Michael and Ashton were always ready to give concise and constructive feedback and responses were always given as soon as possible. Not only that, iCanMed provided video tutorials and worksheets that broke medical interviews down to the core, making it hard not to be as prepared as possible. In short, iCanMed has helped me improve from a no-hope to a student ready to attend a top-end medical school. I recommend the online course to anyone and everyone planning to sit or getting prepared for the UCAT exam or upcoming medical interviews. Trust me, it’s a real game changer.”

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Getting into medicine or dentistry is extremely tough

Understanding the mindset of a winner

Dissecting the hurdles better than anyone else

Making great teaching and learning the foundation of our course

Relentless in the pursuit of perfection

Let's chat! You'll love the iCanMed experience!

Sign up to our free newsletter!

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