Yacoubb's UMAT thread

[Yacoubb]

I know this is probably a FAQ, but how do you do well on the UMAT. I know there are three sections, and that the UMAT is held over 3 hours, and is all multiple choice. What strategies/amount of study/sections to study should I use to do well on the UMAT, which is held around mid-end of July in 2014.

Thanks

[Stick]

It's a bit of a tough one. While studying for the UMAT might seem like the logical thing to do in order to increase your mark, there's a lot of people that invest a lot of time and get nowhere and others that do nothing and do really well. Personally, I didn't want to invest a lot of time into something that could blow up in my face, especially when that time could be used to study and increase my marks in VCE, something which can be studied for. I did a a couple of practice papers in the lead up to the UMAT only so that I was familiar with the types of questions that can be asked and also learn a couple of strategies for solving the problems. I liked this approach so it's something you may wish to consider for yourself.

Should you take my advice, I strongly recommend buying Section Zero, which was, to me, pretty spot on for sections 1 and 3, and the explanations were also really thorough. It's definitely not worth Medentry or some other UMAT preparation course if you only intend to do this much. For section 2, I'd actually suggest you have a look at some of the passage questions in the multiple choice of the GAT. I found that these were more similar to the real UMAT questions than any other material I had seen. If you have a bit of a Google, you'll also find some free UMAT papers floating around online, which you might find helpful.

[Yacoubb]

It's a bit of a tough one. While studying for the UMAT might seem like the logical thing to do in order to increase your mark, there's a lot of people that invest a lot of time and get nowhere and others that do nothing and do really well. Personally, I didn't want to invest a lot of time into something that could blow up in my face, especially when that time could be used to study and increase my marks in VCE, something which can be studied for. I did a a couple of practice papers in the lead up to the UMAT only so that I was familiar with the types of questions that can be asked and also learn a couple of strategies for solving the problems. I liked this approach so it's something you may wish to consider for yourself.

Should you take my advice, I strongly recommend buying Section Zero, which was, to me, pretty spot on for sections 1 and 3, and the explanations were also really thorough. It's definitely not worth Medentry or some other UMAT preparation course if you only intend to do this much. For section 2, I'd actually suggest you have a look at some of the passage questions in the multiple choice of the GAT. I found that these were more similar to the real UMAT questions than any other material I had seen. If you have a bit of a Google, you'll also find some free UMAT papers floating around online, which you might find helpful.

Thank you Stick
Yeah I don't intend on spending time actually studying for it, but rather developing strategies of how I can approach the questions. I will be purchasing section zero, and I'll also be doing past GAT questions (excluding the Math ones) because I really felt even a subtle similarity when I sat the GAT this year, having already seen some past GAT questions.

How many questions are there per section?

[Stick]

This year was the first time we only received one book where the questions were all jumbled up, so I'm not too sure.

[pi]

How many questions are there per section?

Have a quick read through the first post of this, will answer most general FAQs UMAT and Undergrad Entrance Resources, Information and Links

[Yacoubb]

Have a quick read through the first post of this, will answer most general FAQs UMAT and Undergrad Entrance Resources, Information and Links

THANK YOU

[DJA]

It's a bit of a tough one. While studying for the UMAT might seem like the logical thing to do in order to increase your mark, there's a lot of people that invest a lot of time and get nowhere and others that do nothing and do really well. Personally, I didn't want to invest a lot of time into something that could blow up in my face, especially when that time could be used to study and increase my marks in VCE, something which can be studied for. I did a a couple of practice papers in the lead up to the UMAT only so that I was familiar with the types of questions that can be asked and also learn a couple of strategies for solving the problems. I liked this approach so it's something you may wish to consider for yourself.

Should you take my advice, I strongly recommend buying Section Zero, which was, to me, pretty spot on for sections 1 and 3, and the explanations were also really thorough. It's definitely not worth Medentry or some other UMAT preparation course if you only intend to do this much. For section 2, I'd actually suggest you have a look at some of the passage questions in the multiple choice of the GAT. I found that these were more similar to the real UMAT questions than any other material I had seen. If you have a bit of a Google, you'll also find some free UMAT papers floating around online, which you might find helpful.

I second Stick on S0. I recently got Section Zero (like a week ago or so) because like you I want to start developing strategies to approach the UMAT.
S0 has been amazing so far. The beauty of it is that each question has a video solution so when you get a question wrong you can find out EXACTLY what you did incorrectly and why your thought process was wrong etc etc. Been fantastic learning this way.

I started off getting like 3/10 for Section 2 and now averaging around 9/10 (when I do a 10 q drill).
Similarly for the other sections.
Just make sure you review the questions you did wrong to see how to improve your thought process and also check the ones you got right to see where you went well and what works for you.

Gl! 

[Yacoubb]

I second Stick on S0. I recently got Section Zero (like a week ago or so) because like you I want to start developing strategies to approach the UMAT.
S0 has been amazing so far. The beauty of it is that each question has a video solution so when you get a question wrong you can find out EXACTLY what you did incorrectly and why your thought process was wrong etc etc. Been fantastic learning this way.

I started off getting like 3/10 for Section 2 and now averaging around 9/10 (when I do a 10 q drill).
Similarly for the other sections.
Just make sure you review the questions you did wrong to see how to improve your thought process and also check the ones you got right to see where you went well and what works for you.

Gl! 

Thanks so much for that! This really helped actually! I'll definitely be purchasing S0. Thanks again!