UMAT Discussion Thread 2017

[mtse]

With the school year starting, it means there's only a few months left before the UMAT arrives 

I've seen quite a number of posts where people ask "how in the world do I study for an aptitude test?" and "can I really improve on the UMAT" and "after doing 10000000000 exams, I still suck - why is that?" 

Having been through the whole traumatic 3 hour torture session, a.k.a the UMAT, as well as helping numerous students recover from their UMAT PTSD in 2016, I'd like to offer my assistance.

Basically feel free to post here if you have any questions and I (or other UMAT survivors) will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you are a bit shy and don't want to post, my inbox is open but fyi i can assure you there are definitely other students who probably have the exact same question.

[Quantum44]

How much study did you do for the UMAT? I've heard of people who study heaps for it and do badly while some do no preparation and get above 90th percentile.

[plsbegentle]

From your expereince, how much time and effort do you need to put into UMAT, i'm a little hesistant to do it because it might affect my prepartion for school; sacs,exams etc.

[mtse]

How much study did you do for the UMAT? I've heard of people who study heaps for it and do badly while some do no preparation and get above 90th percentile.

I originally had planned to do 3 hours a week for the UMAT starting in March. My plan failed horrendously to say the least. I continually procrastinated preparing for the UMAT.

During Term 1 holidays I spent a bit more time on it: 4-5 hours a week. 3 for a practice exam and 1-2 hours to go through my mistakes and write my own solution. This was cause the company I used for preparation didn't have good explanations so I decided to figure out the logic sequences and patterns for myself. This preparation was actually really good (bumped my section 3 score from 18/42 to 40/42 in practice exams - was also my top section in the real exam).

By the time term 2 started, it was hectic so I maybe did 1-2 hours a fortnight. I really only cracked down the fortnight before the UMAT and did one practice exam (and analysed my mistakes) every 3-4 days.

TLDR: So in total I'd say over the course of 6 months, I did maybe up to 30 hours of UMAT prep.

I have to agree - unlike VCE subjects, UMAT prep is not a work hard = score well situation. UMAT score is NOT directly proportional to time spent studying/preparing for it.
Zero effort tends to get bad scores.
Some effort + natural logic often gets the best scores.
Lots of effort but little logic = bad scores - most of the time it's not because these people are not logical but rather that they think that they can study for the UMAT the same way they study for subjects like biology, HHD, legal etc. It's not a memorisation test - remembering past or sample questions will get you pretty much no where - it is a lot more important to actually understand the logical reasoning concepts upon which the questions are based.

Hope that answers your question

[mtse]

From your expereince, how much time and effort do you need to put into UMAT, i'm a little hesistant to do it because it might affect my prepartion for school; sacs,exams etc.

Regarding time devoted to UMAT prep look at my answer above.

I had friends in a similar situation to you. They weren't 100% sure if they wanted to do the UMAT etc. I often encouraged them to do it because it opens up the choice of undergraduate medicine, and if medicine ultimately is the dream then no opportunity should be forsaken.

The UMAT exam is held in late July and although you will spend time preparing for it, it shouldn't majorly affect your school preparation.
I think it's super important to learn how to prioritise.
E.g. Major SAC that will require at least 3 nights of revision - well don't do UMAT prep in those nights then!

The idea is to start early (like now) so that closer to the exam you won't have to worry about juggling VCE/HSC and UMAT and whatever else is going on in your life. If you are planning to invest in a prep company, it is also super important to find one that will work for you.

I have seen two main methods via which companies teach the UMAT:
1. Some companies provide a lot of questions but little teaching which means you have to figure out the logical concepts behind them.
This is a little like english - you practice an essay, you get a grade, then you refine your essay to figure out how to improve

2. While others (admittedly not as many because most companies just don't know how) teach students how to do the UMAT questions, and the logical reasoning concepts behind the questions, and THEN provide questions for you to practice on.
This is like maths - you get taught the basic concept of for example differentiation before you attempt to do a question that involves the quotient rule/chain rule/product rule etc.

Depending on the student, preferred study method differs. However if you are worried about time constraints then I'd say the "get taught then practice" method is a lot more efficient.

[zhen]

I was wondering what do you think is the most effective strategy when studying for the umat?

[mtse]

I was wondering what do you think is the most effective strategy when studying for the umat?

Sorry for the delayed response :')

In terms of strategy I have seen two main methods via which companies teach the UMAT which i mentioned in the answer above:
1. Some companies provide a lot of questions but little teaching which means you have to figure out the logical concepts behind them.
QUESTION --> ATTEMPT TO ANSWER --> CHECK ANSWER --> REFINE ANSWER --> DEVELOP LOGICAL REASONING
This is a little like english - you practice an essay, you get a grade, then you refine your essay to figure out how to improve

2. While others (admittedly not as many because most companies just don't know how) teach students how to do the UMAT questions, and the logical reasoning concepts behind the questions, and THEN provide questions for you to practice on.
TAUGHT LOGICAL REASONING CONCEPT --> ATTEMPT BASIC QUESTION --> if correct, ATTEMPT HARDER QUESTION --> if correct, ATTEMPT EVEN HARDER QUESTION --> REFINE TECHNIQUE & KNOWLEDGE
This is like maths - you get taught the basic concept of for example differentiation before you attempt to do a question that involves the quotient rule/chain rule/product rule etc.

In my opinion the second method is more efficient when studying for the UMAT especially when you have very limited time during Year 12. Spending time on analysing questions (as per method 1) is extremely time consuming and you may not actually be able to figure it out for yourself, because UMAT questions are usually relatively basic concepts wrapped in layers and layers or "distracters" and "confusers" that make the question appear complex. To an "untrained" eye these distracters etc. are barely discernible from the necessary information.

If I were to redo the UMAT, I would start my preparation using "method 2" (i.e. learning the logical concepts upon which the UMAT questions are based on) and practice using those concepts i learnt. Then closer to the exam, I would integrate some of "method 1" to make sure I am able to "unravel" the complex parts of a question and discover the basic concept beneath in order to answer the question.

[elephant105]

How do you study logical reasoning!

[Quantum44]

How do you study logical reasoning!

Reading guides and doing practice questions. Is there really any other way?

[mtse]

How do you study logical reasoning!

ahhaha this is a super vague question and really there is not one single answer.
Section 1 involves pure logic - i.e. interpreting only what you are given and not bringing in your own knowledge
e.g. if they tell you 1+1 = 3 then you are going to say it equals 3 and not 2
Indeed practicing questions will help this, but I also recommend practicing logical reasoning in your everyday life (like even with your year 12 subjects - particularly science ones) and finding materials (via youtube or paid courses etc) that ACTUALLY TEACH YOU how to approach logical reasoning questions.

The majority of students jump straight into attempting questions without any concrete understanding on how to approach them. It's like being given calculus exam papers to do before your first calculus lesson at school. Doing questions before learning basic theories will make practice super confusing, difficult, stressful, slow etc etc. Also, by practicing with no basis means that there is no way of finding out whether or not you actually used the correct process in answering the question, nor would you be able to isolate what steps you need to fix for future improvement.
I highly recommend spending some time on the internet looking for guides (there's free ones on youtube and here (scroll down to class curriculum for the preview videos).

Sorry for the relatively short crappy answer (super busy these few days) but please feel free to PM me if you want more specific advice

[Quantum44]

UMAT is over!!! How did everyone find it?

[clawds]

UMAT is over!!! How did everyone find it?

difficult but I'm proud of my efforts

[Ahmad_A_1999]

I had to guess so many because I could not manage my time  I'm glad its over though, really difficult.

[2352300]

A bitch and a half. Section 1 was an actual headache, section 3 was so-so. I found that you didn't have to map too much or figure out the pattern because there were always two that were really similar so you could cut out the rest assuming those two were purposely made similar to confuse you ie. One of them is correct. After that applying the pattern of one component was enough to figure out which was likely to be correct. Section 2 was weirdly easy, but there were always two very similar options so I'm just hoping I chose the right one. Had 4 bubbles left when the lady said pens down rip. Btw, if you rub out an answer and it leaves some faded grey behind will that confuse the machine that scans your answer sheet? Cuz no matter how much I rubbed it was always sort of grey. Sorry if this is a stupid question 

td;rl not confident and not expecting a good result but oh wells 

[tinagranger]

Someone please clarify - does the 50/50/50 rule still hold at Monash? There is a thread that says it has been removed from admissions requirements but I want to make sure for 2018 admissions.