So, how did y'all go on UMAT 08??????

[Pandemonium]

hey guys,
  from past experiences u heard, about what percentage u should get right to have a realistic chance in med? btw can anyone have a guess about what the the mean score would be?

Last year for monash the UMAT score cutoff for an interview was 59. This year it will almost certainly be higher. Percentiles are no longer used by Monash.

wth is this right? it doesn't really sound it...
if you get more than half answers correct, you win interview?
wth.

[ninwa]

59 is a raw score, not a percentage.

Nobody knows how it is worked out. But it definitely doesn't mean you only got half right

59 was the cutoff last year, I have the letter to prove it

[Pandemonium]

ok, relatively did you think you went well?

btw are you doing med atm?

[doboman]

I personaly believe the UMAT is a irrelevent. Can't bring my head around to why Unis endorse such a pointless test. There is not one thing there that suggest that the best UMATer will be the most competent doctor. The money, such a test is making is outstanding to say the least. @ melboure: we had 2 sessions. And in those two session, there was three levels with ~900 people in each level. If everybody paid, on average, 120 (averaging people with conc, norm and late) that around $800 000. Just for melboune. It sure is a good way to make some extra cash.

[excal]

I'll be honest here...from what I've seen, the questions are great for gauging who may be a good doctor. In theory.

Chuck into a high pressure exam, and you're bound to have screws come loose...simply because a Year 12 isn't designed to necessarily handle that kind of stress.

It seems to me as though as it's a stress test (lol) more than anything.

[ninwa]

ok, relatively did you think you went well?

btw are you doing med atm?

are you talking to me? :s

if you are - no I was amazed to have made the cutoff (I got 59 exactly ) as I guessed literally half of section 1, about 8 qs from section 2 and I am the most hopeless puzzles person so I pretty much bullshitted my way through section 3.

so basically if I can get in the cutoff anyone WHO GOT AS LUCKY AS I DID can

and no I'm not doing med, as you can see in my sig I'm doing arts/law, I didn't get past interview stage, you want to talk to BA22 for that

[ed_saifa]

so basically if I can get in the cutoff anyone can

I'm going to feel really bad if I don't make it into the cutoff

[ninwa]

aw sorry ed, I edited it

[merlin]

Along with a decent Umat score, what ENTER is expected for med at Monash, Melb Uni?

[orsel]

I'll be honest here...from what I've seen, the questions are great for gauging who may be a good doctor. In theory.

Chuck into a high pressure exam, and you're bound to have screws come loose...simply because a Year 12 isn't designed to necessarily handle that kind of stress.

It seems to me as though as it's a stress test (lol) more than anything.

I disagree entirely. The questions are absolutely next to useless at 'gauging' the capacity to become a doctor. This mentality of UMAT somehow assessing the qualities that are expected of doctors is exactly the kind of spin and hyperbole that ACER and the universities want you to believe.

Let's see... Section Two tests for empathy and understanding of people, sounds good amirite? So how do they go about this? They take FICTIONAL passages and ask questions about the feelings of non-existent characters, somehow expecting to see whether candidates can relate to a few written words rather than a living, breathing person with a facial expression and body language.

Section Three..."not an IQ test", "assessing qualities that the community expects", lol nuff said.

Section One is kinda okay. But they reuse past questions for UMAT. And after all their zomganticheatinghaxx. Bloody geniuses.

'In theory' I suppose it works. The reality is that ACER has done a half-assed job of creating this 'high-stakes' test while being paid truckloads.

[ed_saifa]

I'll be honest here...from what I've seen, the questions are great for gauging who may be a good doctor. In theory.

Chuck into a high pressure exam, and you're bound to have screws come loose...simply because a Year 12 isn't designed to necessarily handle that kind of stress.

It seems to me as though as it's a stress test (lol) more than anything.

I disagree entirely. The questions are absolutely next to useless at 'gauging' the capacity to become a doctor. This mentality of UMAT somehow assessing the qualities that are expected of doctors is exactly the kind of spin and hyperbole that ACER and the universities want you to believe.

Let's see... Section Two tests for empathy and understanding of people, sounds good amirite? So how do they go about this? They take FICTIONAL passages and ask questions about the feelings of non-existent characters, somehow expecting to see whether candidates can relate to a few written words rather than a living, breathing person with a facial expression and body language.

Section Three..."not an IQ test", "assessing qualities that the community expects", lol nuff said.

Section One is kinda okay. But they reuse past questions for UMAT. And after all their zomganticheatinghaxx. Bloody geniuses.

'In theory' I suppose it works. The reality is that ACER has done a half-assed job of creating this 'high-stakes' test while being paid truckloads.

So true. It's just a money making scheme.

[alias_sammy]

I agree!! It is just a money making vendeta!! Load of rubbish!! I dont even think doctors would be able to get half the questions!! I hope i get enough to get an interview, i really want to get into med, and have ever since i was young!! Anyway, i thought section 2 and 3 were not bad, and i ran out of time for section 1, guessed about 5!!! What i dislike about section 2 is that i can be a variety of answers depending on the tone you read the question in, for eg it could be angry or frustrated... so annoying!! Anyways good luck to everyone and i hope u all do well!! )

[BA22]

Well, just be glad the UMAT is over guys, now begins the nervous wait for results and interview offers. A point of interest is that UNSW typically release their interview offers before the results are released to students.

The UMAT has a clear and necessary purpose as an interview selection tool. Medical schools cannot practically interview everyone who applies, there needs to be some method of selection in this area. You don't necessarily have to ace the UMAT to get an interview, just beat a certain amount of other students, as is the nature of competitive entry.

The UMAT is not perfect, but it exists to serve a useful purpose. Every other country has a similar test to determine students suitable to be interviewed and every other years of prospective med student has also undergone the same test. Section 1 is always long and hard, and you can't prepare yourself for that, despite what people often tried to tell me to the contrary

[beezy4eva]

At a tertiary information session I attended the other day, the representative from Uom said that you can use the UMAT to guarantee you get into the new graduate medicine course after your undergraduate course...

Was she just bulls***ing? I thought you had to do the GAMSAT?

[orsel]

The UMAT has a clear and necessary purpose as an interview selection tool. Medical schools cannot practically interview everyone who applies, there needs to be some method of selection in this area. You don't necessarily have to ace the UMAT to get an interview, just beat a certain amount of other students, as is the nature of competitive entry.

It does indeed have a purpose. The question is whether this purpose is fulfilled. As I have already outlined, UMAT is inherently flawed in many ways, and I could probably state a couple more faults if I felt like it but what's the point of debating on the interwebz anyway?

The UMAT is not perfect, but it exists to serve a useful purpose. Every other country has a similar test to determine students suitable to be interviewed and every other years of prospective med student has also undergone the same test.

Right that it's not perfect, otherwise completely wrong. It certainly does not "serve a useful purpose" other than as a feel-good exercise for the unis to select the 'best' candidates for interviews, while at the same time generating an underground market of prep courses and of course ACER's own 'cheap', dumbed down alternative. Past years of prospective students do in a sense, ironically, undergo the 'same' test; ACER reuses past UMAT questions(lol...). But even so the format of the UMAT has changed since it was first used. Does this mean that the generation that sat that outdated UMAT has not been selected properly?

Not every other country has a selective test. Singapore uses a 'lottery' system. On the one hand, yes, you're not selecting the best candidates. On the other, this at least guarantees fairness, unlike the UMAT in which doing prep courses gives you a small but distinct advantage. Also, why bother testing for empathy, logic, and visual skills when these things can be developed in uni? Imo everybody who can attain a high enough academic record to be considered for med(not easy in Singapore I can tell you, our education system probably doesn't match up to theirs) has the capacity to gain these skills.

Section 1 is always long and hard, and you can't prepare yourself for that, despite what people often tried to tell me to the contrary

I can tell you that I am guilty of using a prep course and it definitely prepared me psychologically and emotionally at the very least.