Is your GAT result an indication of your UMAT result?

[Stroodle]

So I was speaking to my friend, and he says that just about every med student he's spoken to got a least 40 in the maths/science and humanities sections on the GAT.

Besides for the spacial awareness section, he reckons that doing prep courses are a waist of time; some people just aren't naturally intelligent enough to get the score they need (he thinks they basically rote learnt their way to a high 90 enter...)

What are your thoughts?

[the.watchman]

You may be right, but the UMAT incorporates other skills other than those needed for success in the GAT.
I guess some sort of correlation makes sense (unless you bludge the GAT)

[vexx]

nah they are completely different.

the gat has the english written parts, the maths/science questions & the humanities section.
while some parts of the latter two could possible be in the section 1 of umat, they aren't really similar, perhaps moreso the humanities part of the GAT as the umat section 1 makes it so you can't apply any outer knowledge to the situation, it's all about interpreting that data, and it's muuch harder then any part of the GAT.

also the other two parts of the umat are completely different with nonverbal reasoning and emotional reasoning.

and yes, the umat can be improved in all sections (particularly section 1 & 3) by doing heaps of practice questions and exposing yourself to different people/emotions (section 2), lots of different articles (Section 1) and IQ tests (section 3).

but the improving part is different for everyone, i've heard of people improving from below 50%ile to above 90%ile just by practice, and others haven't improved at all even with practice.

[Greggler]

I dont really understand how you could improve anything other than section 3 really...

the main thing about sections 1 and 2 is getting into the right frame of mind. section one you simply can't make assumptions and i think section two just relies on gut feeling and not over thinking the questions too much. section 3 is possible to make improvements on as sequences and patterns etc. are commonly used.

maybe reading lots of material from a wide range of sources could help for section 1 and 2 but really its not like anyother vcaa exam where you can do heaps of questions and when you're doing the  exam you're going to come across a similar one.

[Potter]

I find that I suck at Sections 1 & 3... Section 2 is the only one I seem to be good at. Hopefully I can improve over the next couple of months.

[stonecold]

gosh i hope not.  my GAT results were absolutely woeful!

[appianway]

I don't know if the GAT's a true indicator of ability anyway...

[polky]

I think there would be a positive correlation between UMAT and GAT scores since "smarter" people are likely to score better at both.  Both test reasoning, communication and logic.

The UMAT requires better time management to complete (the GAT is easy to complete on time) but again this favours smarter students who can work quickly and accurately.

[physics]

if they were i would be smiling right now...but i'm not...