UMAT 2015 Discussion Thread (6 Viewers)

[torylearn]

the tests were def harder than the practice materials.

 

[iMMORTAL153]

rip.


also they were divorced for 25 yrs

oh thank god, phew.

Acer sort of made this Umat better in a sense though, people couldn't really prepare for this examination

How is that better?

 

[Dennis1348]

oh thank god, phew.


How is that better?

Like by judging purely from this exam, with the visual images, and scenarios. It's either you got it or don't especially for this exam. Allows them to rule in better candidates I guess.

 

[BadBoo]

I got that question, but why do you think it's an experimental one? How many of those do they usually put?

http://umat.acer.edu.au/about-umat/equity-and-fairness

I'm not sure but all the people I've talked to didn't have it, so im suspecting that it probably was one

 

[Squar3root]

pretty good exam, reckon maybe 99+%ile 2ez. Harvard med here I come

 

[Dennis1348]

The pm session took forever to let us out.

 

[iMMORTAL153]

Like by judging purely from this exam, with the visual images, and scenarios. It's either you got it or don't especially for this exam. Allows them to rule in better candidates I guess.

So this exam is biased towards people who are naturally gifted? If they wanted that might as well just do an IQ test and say people below this IQ aren’t eligible (Not the best analogy, high IQ's don’t necessarily make good doctors, just trying to get my point across). I reckon allowing us to prepare would weed out people who aren’t serious enough to put in the effort. Not 100% prepareable ofc but enough so hard work would pay off.

http://umat.acer.edu.au/about-umat/equity-and-fairness

I'm not sure but all the people I've talked to didn't have it, so im suspecting that it probably was one

OMG I put in a lot of effort to make sure I did all those questions correctly, inb4 just a trial questions and not worth anything, just my luck. Could've spent that time on a different question D: Why can't they just give everyone same questions in a different order? (different between sessions)

 

[Dennis1348]

So this exam is biased towards people who are naturally gifted? If they wanted that might as well just do an IQ test and say people below this IQ aren’t eligible (Not the best analogy, high IQ's don’t necessarily make good doctors, just trying to get my point across). I reckon allowing us to prepare would weed out people who aren’t serious enough to put in the effort. Not 100% prepareable ofc but enough so hard work would pay off.

Lol not biased towards people who are naturally good at it. you could have improved your S3 scores through alot of practice. Section 1 and 2 plateau quickly. I was talking to a Postgrad med student the other week. He was telling me how umat is f***ed, so he went on to do the GAMSAT TEST.

Tbh I think 99% of the people at the centre were serious.

 

[whatdoitypehere]

Jimmy's verdict:

Exam staff were impatient and overly pedantic; I had one interrupt me during the test to check to make sure my (analogue) wristwatch wasn't digital.

Exam was tolerable, S1 was achievable, S2 for me was pretty challenging, definitely longer paragraphs to read this time around. I don't understand what all the fuss about S3 is. I found it quite easy, aside from a couple of extreme examples.

All things considered, I think this year's paper was designed to overcome the advantages that may have resulted for candidates who sought private tutoring or purchased commercial training. In my opinion, ACER is probably trying to uproot the UMAT prep course market, that's why questions this year were so left-of-field compared to previous years.

Gold Coast exam population estimate: ~150. The general vibe I got from people I chatted with was that S1 was ok, S2 was easiest (relatively, hahaha) and S3 was torturous. Two of the five people I spoke with guessed at least the last 10 questions, one guy even had to leave three blank due to time expiring.

C'est la UMAT exam.

 

[Dennis1348]

Jimmy's verdict:

Exam staff were impatient and overly pedantic; I had one interrupt me during the test to check to make sure my (analogue) wristwatch wasn't digital.

Exam was tolerable, S1 was achievable, S2 for me was pretty challenging, definitely longer paragraphs to read this time around. I don't understand what all the fuss about S3 is. I found it quite easy, aside from a couple of extreme examples.

All things considered, I think this year's paper was designed to overcome the advantages that may have resulted for candidates who sought private tutoring or purchased commercial training. In my opinion, ACER is probably trying to uproot the UMAT prep course market, that's why questions this year were so left-of-field compared to previous years.

Gold Coast exam population estimate: ~150. The general vibe I got from people I chatted with was that S1 was ok, S2 was easiest (relatively, hahaha) and S3 was torturous. Two of the five people I spoke with guessed at least the last 10 questions, one guy even had to leave three blank due to time expiring.

C'est la UMAT exam.

This is true, looking back at past questions. Acer made this test different, so people can't just achieve success through tutoring and prep mateirals.

 

[iMMORTAL153]

So this exam is biased towards people who are naturally gifted? If they wanted that might as well just do an IQ test and say people below this IQ aren’t eligible (Not the best analogy, high IQ's don’t necessarily make good doctors, just trying to get my point across). I reckon allowing us to prepare would weed out people who aren’t serious enough to put in the effort. Not 100% prepareable ofc but enough so hard work would pay off.

Lol not biased towards people who are naturally good at it. you could have improved your S3 scores through alot of practice. Section 1 and 2 plateau quickly. I was talking to a Postgrad med student the other week. He was telling me how umat is f***ed, so he went on to do the GAMSAT TEST.

Tbh I think 99% of the people at the centre were serious.

Wait a second, are you for people improving section 3 scores by practice or against? Before you were saying this was a better exam because people couldn't prepare for it and now you're saying people can improve S3 by lots of practicing. Pardon me if I have misinterpreted, my mind is still rekt from UMAT. I disliked S3 because it was drastically different from past years and a lot of the effort I put into preparing for section 3 was wasted.

Edit 1, just read comments above; though I still don't see the problem with preparing strategies and tricks for it. It's not like you're rote learning material, you still have to understand how it works. Personally for me it takes longer than norm to figure out the patterns, and if i can’t develop methods to speed up the process, then ill consistently get lower marks, which may cause me to miss out on interviews. The people who beat me, will they be better doctors than i could, maybe, maybe not. What I do know is that the UMAT sucks.

 

[Dennis1348]

Wait a second, are you for people improving section 3 scores by practice or against? Before you were saying this was a better exam because people couldn't prepare for it and now you're saying people can improve S3 by lots of practicing. Pardon me if I have misinterpreted, my mind is still rekt from UMAT. I disliked S3 because it was drastically different from past years and a lot of the effort I put into preparing for section 3 was wasted.

Edit 1, just read comments above; though I still don't see the problem with preparing strategies and tricks for it. It's not like you're rote learning material, you still have to understand how it works.

Out of curiosity, what was your UMAT last year?

 

[Fiction]

vut is this? I thought s2 was harder lol

 

[FranciscoGarcia2408]

They were divorced for 25 years?

 

[iMMORTAL153]

Out of curiosity, what was your UMAT last year?

Don't see why that's relevant but, 2013 - 40th%ill (rekt) 2014 - 75th%ill (good improvement but not enough). Let's hope the trend continues for 2015.

 

[Dennis1348]

"Backup: None, will try as long as it takes."

Mirin dedication, hope you get in lol.

 

[Dennis1348]

They were divorced for 25 years?

Yes, I made a mistake I recall they were meeting up after a long time and the lady was like ohhh you changed?

 

[iMMORTAL153]

"Backup: None, will try as long as it takes."

Mirin dedication, hope you get in lol.

Cheers mate, I hope you achieve your goal too. UMAT massive hurdle for me, GAMSAT probably has better outlook but urgh ESSAYS, and POEMS, I thought i left English back in High School but it haunt a FoB like me everywhere.

 

[Schmeag]

So this exam is biased towards people who are naturally gifted? If they wanted that might as well just do an IQ test and say people below this IQ aren’t eligible (Not the best analogy, high IQ's don’t necessarily make good doctors, just trying to get my point across). I reckon allowing us to prepare would weed out people who aren’t serious enough to put in the effort. Not 100% prepareable ofc but enough so hard work would pay off.

Reading all these comments, I was just wondering out of interest if the UMAT actually predicts good performance in medical school--maybe not. MedEntry responded vigorously to that one, saying that the study doesn't look at the more important thing, that is, a correlation between the UMAT and "good" doctors. In reality, MedEntry offers a skewed response: while there is no evidence to suggest that the UMAT is pointless, there is no evidence that suggests that it is even beneficial when it comes to producing good doctors. Surprisingly, no one has thought to actually evaluate the process despite decades of testing and coaching.

From a layman's search (Google), ACER have based the UMAT on literature in psychometric testing as opposed to actually looking at the actual benefit of the test to the medical community. Also although this is old (2007), line 24 says that they do try to limit success from coaching/tutoring, which sounds like what has happened this time around.

What I am trying to say is: don't be disheartened by failure--it's just a hurdle.

 

[go_cadel]

Sydney test centre (homebush) last year was much noisier/packed than Melbourne test centre (Caulfield Racecourse)
S1 pretty normal, few tricky ones which I ran out of time on. This year seemed a little more time consuming.
S2 easier than last year I reckon, virtually no hard vocab and more straightforward questions in general.
S3 WTF? Last year I guessed probably close to 10 questions (still managed 67 for S3), this year more than 15 guessed. That was hella hard.
Of course, virtually zero prep this year compared to more extensive prep last year.
Redid UMAT on the remote chance I fail the year. (OSCEs sigh)

EDIT: also, to all those stressing out about S3, remember that everyone's scores are relative, you can probably get 20 wrong and still get a 60+ for this section.