UMAT prep courses

[bec]

Is it worth forking out $500 to do a course like medentry? Do they really make a difference to your score?
Has anyone done one/known others who have? Or...do you know people who have done well in the UMAT without doing a course?

[BA22]

I really don't like the prep courses, i went on one and the information they provided was not worth the money spent. It's not the cases of people doing well with prep courses that should sway you, it's the significant number of cases of people who do poorly despite going on these courses. Buy the Acer question booklets as they give the best insight into the UMAT. The courses are full of bullshit (especially interview preparation) and the prices range from unreasonable to extortion. MedEntry provide the same material every year, and their tests give you unbalanced feedback on how you will perform on the real UMAT, as the percentages are derived from medentry student performance. Med Entry is one of the better ones, but ulitmately you'll still walk into the UMAT blindly for the most part.

Look for some of those MENSA quiz books with shape problems in them, they can help and are only around $15.00 - $20.00 each

[squance]

Nope!! Don't waste money on that UMAT prep crap!!!!!
My parents forced me to go to this $350 course last year...
It was sooo boring and useless!!! I still didi crap in the UMAT (I think i got an overall score of 140 something or other....)
The only good thing about the course was that it included food...mmm...pizza....

[ed_saifa]

Nope!! Don't waste money on that UMAT prep crap!!!!!
My parents forced me to go to this $350 course last year...
It was sooo boring and useless!!! I still didi crap in the UMAT (I think i got an overall score of 140 something or other....)
The only good thing about the course was that it included food...mmm...pizza....

What company did you go to?

[squance]

Nope!! Don't waste money on that UMAT prep crap!!!!!
My parents forced me to go to this $350 course last year...
It was sooo boring and useless!!! I still didi crap in the UMAT (I think i got an overall score of 140 something or other....)
The only good thing about the course was that it included food...mmm...pizza....

What company did you go to?

VIE
"St Vincent Institute of Education"
Its coordinated by a bunch of asians and they get people from Melbourne Uni to run the courses

[ice_blockie]

VIE
"St Vincent Institute of Education"
Its coordinated by a bunch of asians and they get people from Melbourne Uni to run the courses

That would be probably why...(not the asian part)...were they uni students? most likely coz VIE always hire uni students...

Anyway, so does MedEntry and they also only hire health professionals???

MedEntry is a team of health professionals, academics in the health sciences field and students who have been successful in the UMAT and interviews.

My friends suggest going to NIE... Its run by people actually qualified in the area they are lecturing/teaching. adn they actually have really good notes and stuff. For example:

SECTION I Logical Reasoning

Ms Daniella Forster BA (Monash), BA Hons (Monash), DipEd (Melbourne University)

Currently finishing her PhD in the area of Teaching Informal Logic, Daniella is a highly skilled and experienced teacher within a leading Melbourne Philosophy department.

Thats what I called qualified...LOL

[BA22]

no-one is ever qualified to train students for the UMAT, especially not for those prices

[iamdan08]

no-one is ever qualified to train students for the UMAT, especially not for those prices

lol. You are very sceptical about these programs. What UMAT score did you attain to get into Medicine (if you don't mind me asking)?

[BA22]

a really bad one: scaled scores combine = 161 = 54 overall, monash cut off was 59. I got an interview under DRL.

I used two programs and found them both for the mosrt part useless, and the information was contradictory between the two sites. UMAT preparation is a sordid scam that offers "genuine" help at extortionate prices, using recycled and sometime stolen material. (Note MedEntry's ongoing legal dispute with Icarus College). They prey on the desperation of students and waste their VCE time by saying that students most devote x amount of hours to UMAT prep per week.

I used them becuase i was mostly naive to their nature, (and my parents paid for some reason). They can help some people but are ultimately not worth it. They are not endorsed by ACER, and are heavily discouraged by university med faculties and the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA). Ultimately there is a large risk of walking in to the UMAT overconfident or having prepared in a certian manner only to be suprised by the types of questions asked (and you don't get 5 minutes to crap yourself because you just realised you wasted potential schoolies money). It results in you ditching $600.00+ worth of "education" as you have to wing the entire thing like most other students

Not.Worth.The.Money

Some of these organisations make their spats public

http://www.icaruscollege.com/studentalert.htm
http://www.medentry.edu.au/news.asp

It's quite sad, and these people are playing with kids dreams, i'd avoid the whole mess altogether

[enwiabe]

(looking at the links)... LOL I love how Dallas Gibson of ICARUS can't spell/use grammar for the life of him, yet he's selling 'intelligence training' :')

[ninwa]

Ultimately there is a large risk of walking in to the UMAT overconfident or having prepared in a certian manner only to be suprised by the types of questions asked

Exactly. My parents paid around $700 (and to think of what I could have bought with that money ......) for Medentry and I was consistently getting 90s percentiles in all the practice exams. So I walked into that exam feeling pretty good about myself. Came out crying my eyes out because I ran out of time on all 3 sections, and literally had to guess half of section 1 (i.e. didn't know what the question was because once time is up you can't go back to that section, so just filled in random letters for all the qs I had left)

IT'S NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!! It is the most horrible feeling walking out of that exam hall knowing you just threw away $700 and hours of study. If you truly suck at the UMAT like I do, no amount of prep courses are going to help. Just get those ACER booklets and MENSA books like BA22 suggested. And spend the money on more important things (like shoes ). And concentrate on VCE.


EDIT: Btw I got 249 I think, and I know two people who didn't do any prep course who got 279 and 284 (or around there anyway), both of whom are now doing med

[rasangi]

So Icarus college isn't worth it? On their site they say that they are endorsed by doctors.
Their feed back from students were also very endorsing..

[mullums1]

So Icarus college isn't worth it? On their site they say that they are endorsed by doctors.
Their feed back from students were also very endorsing..

I am not sure about the doctor part, i betcha one doctor approved it and they just sold it as 'endorsed by doctors'. really, its just a marketing technique.

As for students feedback...well i think that at the end of the day ur UMAT skills stay the same. So if you are a crap umatter you are gonna be crap and of you are good, you will kill it. It is this good guy they will find and make an example of him/her saying how icarus' training helped. I guarantee you for every 1 endorsment there will be another 10 dissatisfied students.

[lacoste]

So Icarus college isn't worth it? On their site they say that they are endorsed by doctors.
Their feed back from students were also very endorsing..

I am not sure about the doctor part, i betcha one doctor approved it and they just sold it as 'endorsed by doctors'. really, its just a marketing technique.

As for students feedback...well i think that at the end of the day ur UMAT skills stay the same. So if you are a crap umatter you are gonna be crap and of you are good, you will kill it. It is this good guy they will find and make an example of him/her saying how icarus' training helped. I guarantee you for every 1 endorsment there will be another 10 dissatisfied students.

Or more

[/0]

Isn't Icarus a kinda... bad name... I mean historically? :/