UMAT Discussion Thread 2016

[Maz]

any tips in regards to dealing with stress on the day of the umat exam.... there's a lot riding on my umat percentile:(

pi has a really good point
some little tips that shouldn't (i hope), be drastic changes in your routine:
- when you are really stressed while studying, for that moment I would advise just stop studying. There is absolutely no way you will effectively learn things when you can't stop thinking about how much it is weighted and what influence it makes on your grade/entry into medicine
- Have a shower. Even if you have had one that day/morning. Showers do wonders (for me anyway); they are relaxing and just amazing in general
- Music. Maybe listen to music for a bit. Now I don't mean put your iPod on for 2 hours and completely forget about studying. Just take a 10-minute break
- Go for a 10-minute walk: It clear's your head and provides fresh air. Especially around a park (green area helps: I mean like plant based green area. Not green buildings  )
- Get out of your room or wherever you are studying. Just escape from that environment for a few minutes. Maybe do a lap of your house, go talk to a sibling, wander around the kitchen and nibble at things.

I do a lot of these myself. I'm going to repeat this: they should be around 10 mins in duration. Just enough to calm yourself down. It won't help if they are extended over 2-3 hours (then you are just wasting time)
Hope I have been of some assistance 

[mmeelinh]

Can anyone explain the percentile thing to me? Ive kinda been alone my entire UMAT journey and all I know is the raw percentages i'm getting in practice tests

[pi]

<snip>

Good general tips, but virtually none of them can be applied to the sole duration of the UMAT exam (as per OP's suggestion)

Can anyone explain the percentile thing to me? Ive kinda been alone my entire UMAT journey and all I know is the raw percentages i'm getting in practice tests

The rank your scores (for each section and for the total of them all added up) and assign you a percentile. It's not really worth worrying about, but generally you'd want 90+ (or to be safer, 95+) to stand a chance at most unis.

[mmeelinh]

to stand a chance at most unis.

o damn there goes my dreams 

[pi]

o damn there goes my dreams 

Who says? It's not done until it's done. And even if it is, doesn't mean you're not fit for medicine in Australia.

[Maz]

Last weekend  before umat!
How is everyone feeling? 

[Khosh98]

Hey, could anyone that did the umat last year inform about the changes to section 3. I heard that section 3 changed drastically and about half the questions were new. Would really appreciate if someone could highlight the new patterns they utilised.

[mmeelinh]

Last weekend  before umat!
How is everyone feeling? 

nervous! ive been practicing diligently for months and my score has not improved

[A1P]

o damn there goes my dreams 

In case you misunderstood, pi meant you need to get 90+ percentile not 90% of the questions correct.

For each section you get a raw score out of ~100. A section score of 65 is highly respectable.

The three section scores added together is your Overall score: 180 ranks ~90th %ile, 190 ~95th %ile.
So don't lose heart you just need around 65-70 percent of the questions correct.

[mmeelinh]

In case you misunderstood, pi meant you need to get 90+ percentile not 90% of the questions correct.

For each section you get a raw score out of ~100. A section score of 65 is highly respectable.

The three section scores added together is your Overall score: 180 ranks ~90th %ile, 190 ~95th %ile.
So don't lose heart you just need around 65-70 percent of the questions correct.

ohhh yeah okay that makes more sense now 70 percent is achievable does that mean that each question is not worth only one mark? and furthermore, it would also depend on how other people perform right?

Does anyone have an idea of how many people attend the Sydney exam?

[A1P]

does that mean that each question is not worth only one mark?
and furthermore, it would also depend on how other people perform right?

The percentile numbers above are from my year 2015, good enough for guidelines as they don't change significantly year to year.

You can get max 100 marks per section so total 300 for 134 questions, 2.2 each on average but it's evident the questions are not all equal in marks. Since you are more likely to miss the higher ones better to use an estimate of 2 marks each.

I read somewhere around 18,000 students take Umat Aus-wide, maybe 7-8,000 in Sydney/NSW.

[pi]

Fairly sure you can get above 100 for a section, I have friends that did.

[A1P]

Fairly sure you can get above 100 for a section, I have friends that did.

That was true but not recently Pi. Pre-2012 Umat was valid for two years, I think Acer scaled a year's results against the previous to make the cohorts comparable resulting in some scores scaled to >100. No need for that now Umat is valid for a single year.

I checked a few section score curves in MSO, the pre-2012 scales go up to 105-107 while both 2014 & 2015 max at 100.
2010 : http://medstudentsonline.com.au/forum/attachments/percentile10s1-jpg.161/
2015 : http://medstudentsonline.com.au/forum/threads/2016-17-med-schools-selection-criteria-for-y12s.31845/#post-297500

[Maz]

I'm doing so horrible at pretty much every practice test. The only two I did well on were the medentry one (predicted of 95-100) and a matrix one (90+). Coincidently, those were the only two I did on paper...I wonder if that makes a difference?
This close to the umat do you think it's more worthwhile doing exams and going through them, or just spending time learning more principles?

[The Usual Student]

I'm doing so horrible at pretty much every practice test. The only two I did well on were the medentry one (predicted of 95-100) and a matrix one (90+). Coincidently, those were the only two I did on paper...I wonder if that makes a difference?
This close to the umat do you think it's more worthwhile doing exams and going through them, or just spending time learning more principles?

i reckon exams + review
Yeah maybe do your exams on paper, I found my scores increased by a good 10 percentile from the medentry ones