The Careers Adviser: 'How does one prepare for the UKCAT? And what degree do I need to become a librarian?'

My daughter is applying for medical school and has to take a test called the UKCAT. How can she prepare for this?

The mandatory 90-minute UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) is now used as a selection tool by most medical and dental schools. Those who devised the test say it is looking at aptitude rather than academic achievement, and that the test doesn't draw on any body of knowledge a candidate can learn in advance.

It doesn't endorse any commercially available preparation courses. But it does advise practice: to aid familiarisation with question styles, the multiple-choice format, and the look of the on-screen test. This year, it will increase the number of practice questions on its own website and put up an entire mock test.

Dr Mark Parkinson, who co-authored a recent test and runs a website, Dr Test (www.drtest.co.uk), which offers free and paid-for tests (at around £12 per test), says it's essential to complete the tests offered by UKCAT.

"Practising tests helps to increase confidence, decrease anxiety, and speeds up the test-completion rate. The more ground you cover, the higher your score is likely to be," he says.

He adds that if you're paying for tests, you should check that they have been designed by people familiar with the testing process, that they cover the right areas of ability and are full-length. The tests should be timed and the results compared with past scores, so you can test yourself against others. School careers services should also have information about free practice psychometric tests.

If you want to become a librarian, is it advisable to take a degree? If so, does it matter which subject the degree is in?

You don't have to have a degree to start as a librarian: school-leavers can work as library assistants with GCSEs or A-levels (numbers and grades needed vary according to employers).

Once working in a library, you can join the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (www.cilip.org.uk) and after two years apply for certification, which is an award designed for assistants to recognise achievements and learning. This can eventually lead to chartered, professional status.

Librarians are often known as information managers or learning advisers these days, and the job has changed enormously as more information is stored and retrieved online.

For that reason, if you are keen to work in this area, you might want to consider a degree in information services, as it is most often called. You could then quickly amass a lot of information about the most up-to-date techniques, and you would also be better equipped to apply for jobs that interest you.

There is an enormous range of work out there: there are business, children and youth, government, health and law libraries, as well as the better-known public, school and university ones.

If you are not so certain that this is the career route for you, however, you can take a degree in any subject and follow it up with a postgraduate degree later.

Most librarians don't use their first-degree specialism, and areas differ: law librarians don't need a law degree, whereas a music librarian would find it very useful to have a music qualification or sound music knowledge.

Librarians with science or engineering degrees would stand out from other applicants in specialist libraries. There's career advice and a list of accredited university courses on the CILIP site.

Careers adviser: Anne Marie Martin, director, the Careers Group, University of London. Send your queries to Caroline Haydon at 'The Independent', Education Desk, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS; or fax 020-7005 2143; or email to chaydon@blueyonder.co.uk