UMAT Queries

[Hotcurry]

Sorry if this has already been asked but I've got several questions.
Firstly those that have done UMAT, how did you guys prepare? Did you do intensive preparation?
It's just that I've tried a few Medentry exams and my self esteem is plummeting down.....I've always wanted to be a doctor....please give me some advice.

[datfatcat]

Sorry if this has already been asked but I've got several questions.
Firstly those that have done UMAT, how did you guys prepare? Did you do intensive preparation?
It's just that I've tried a few Medentry exams and my self esteem is plummeting down.....I've always wanted to be a doctor....please give me some advice.

First of all, don't feel too upset about your Medentry results.  Not many people have started doing the papers now.  Those that who started are very kean students.  You will see more students taking the exams in June and your percentiles are more likely to go up.  Also, your results in Medentry do not directly reflect on how well you are going to perform in the actual exam. I know many people who did badly in Medentry but ended up getting amazing result in the actual exam.

I think what you can do now is to do the ACER practice papers. Please note that the difficulty isn't going to be the same as the actual exam (actual exam is going to be a lot harder), but doing the practice papers are going to allow you to get used to the styles of the questions.  If you made any mistake, make sure why you chose the wrong answer and work on these areas on Medentry and Section Zero (if you bought it).  Get to a study group if you want, but I don't really know how effective it would be.  I didn't do intensive preparation for UMAT, I just did some papers days before the exam.

Good luck!

[Hotcurry]

thanks ...but i'm like freaking out inside..because everything depends on this stupid test

I know you did umat when the test was split into 3 different sections, but if you were to do it this year, how would you tackle the test? would you go right from the beginning to end?

[datfatcat]

thanks ...but i'm like freaking out inside..because everything depends on this stupid test

I know you did umat when the test was split into 3 different sections, but if you were to do it this year, how would you tackle the test? would you go right from the beginning to end?

I would still do the paper from the beginning to end because I think selecting questions to do is a waste of time since 1. you need to spend at least a second to read each question to decide if you are doing that question or not and 2. when you are putting your answers to the multiple choice sheet, it is easy to move up/down a spot if you are not doing the question in order (to avoid that, you always need to double check the number of question you put your answers in, which is a waste of time) 

Of course when you are doing the paper in order, you still need to check if you make any mistake on the multiple choice sheet but you don't have to do that per question.

[Hotcurry]

Thanks....

How did you exactly prepare? Did you just do questions before hand or did you specifically learn techniques?

[Oathkeeper]

I would still do the paper from the beginning to end

MedEntry is adamant about tackling the UMAT one section at a time. Section 3 can be distinctly separated from the other 2 and so they suggest placing a symbol next to 'section one' questions on the answer sheet to guide the student. Although this may be time consuming, they claim those who go from start to end will have to constantly change their frame of mind to suit the question type (whether it's from section 1-3) and are more inclined to feel mentally fatigued than someone who does the questions categorically from section 1-3. Do you personally think categorising the questions is worth it?

[xenial]

Lol. I totally question the people who used those separation methods. Seems more like 'advice' they can sell to you.. but perhaps it has merit.

As for me, I didn't actually do a single exam to time, lol. I probably did about 4 exams worth of questions in total.. but not a single one to time. Probably could have helped because I had to guess like 15~ questions on the day haha. In my head I was all like 'hmm I'm not sure about this question, it could be A or C, I'll put a star next to it and come back later' then ended up having to guess them all at the end.. Better to make an educated guess on the spot than make a complete guess at the end.

I didn't have medentry so can't comment on that..

But the real exam certainly wasn't more difficult than the ACER practice exams! Not in my opinion, at least. Except for Section 3.. but that was my worst by like 10 haha.

RE: 'Everything depends on this stupid test' don't get into that mindset. Everything does not depend on the UMAT - there are heaps of avenues to get into medicine which don't require it whatsoever. Many people do terribly on the UMAT and go on to comfortably get admitted into postgrad Med courses.

And secondly, you have not 'always wanted to be a doctor'. That is a mindset probably fostered by a preconceived idea that medicine is more prestigious than other similar careers. There are dozens of career paths that employ the principles of medicine without necessarily having the same title. Nursing, paramedics or medical science to name a few!

[datfatcat]

MedEntry is adamant about tackling the UMAT one section at a time. Section 3 can be distinctly separated from the other 2 and so they suggest placing a symbol next to 'section one' questions on the answer sheet to guide the student. Although this may be time consuming, they claim those who go from start to end will have to constantly change their frame of mind to suit the question type (whether it's from section 1-3) and are more inclined to feel mentally fatigued than someone who does the questions categorically from section 1-3. Do you personally think categorising the questions is worth it?

Personally (it really depends on what works best for you), I don't think categorising the questions is a good idea. What you need to do when categorising is to spend time reading the first line of each text, decide which section it is on (either section 1 or 2. Section 3 is obvious of course) Then you go to the answer sheet and draw a symbol (let it be a circle, triangle or square). After going through ~100 questions and putting ~100 symbols, you need to find the symbol for section 1 and do the questions. You would then put the answers in the right field on the answer sheet and so on. Such processes would require time and you can easily make silly mistakes (putting answer in the wrong field).

I understand you would need to "change their frame of mind", but to be honest, I cannot see any problem with it.

[Scooby]

If you're going to categorise questions, I'd say just seperate S2 from the rest. Sections 1 and 3 are similar enough (in terms of mindset) to be grouped together imo

[Hotcurry]

thanks guys....I tried an exam by doing s3 first, s2 and then s1. I felt less tired actually so i think I'm going to stick to this....
also datfatcat, how did you prepare before hand?

[datfatcat]

I wrote an article last year on how I studied umat: http://www.medstudentsonline.com.au/blogs/drfatcat/studying-umat-effectively-dr-fat-cat-659/
Hope this helps!