Going well in UMAT without prep courses (2 Viewers)

[ubermale]

no way dude, section two
gayest section ever.

it gets a LOT harder in the actual thing. for comparison i got 70 for s1, and 95 for s3.

and for s3... 50. LOL

Whoa that's a huge difference! Well then it looks like I'll have to improve in all three sections I'll be sure to ask my careers advisor to purchase a prep course package. So far Medentry seems to have the best reputation, but I'll have to look into it more. My careers advisor is very skeptical of these courses, so she'll need some convincing.

 

[rcr4fags]

Well it is disputed whether UMAT is appropriate in judging ability to study Medicine or not.

then what is considered? UAI only? in that case you have ZERO chance with a UAI of 96

if it wasnt for UMAT, then only 99.90 student would get into med.


at least now if you didnt acheive a 99+ Uai you can still make it with a high enough umat.

 

[lionking1191]

then what is considered? UAI only? in that case you have ZERO chance with a UAI of 96

if it wasnt for UMAT, then only 99.90 student would get into med.


at least now if you didnt acheive a 99+ Uai you can still make it with a high enough umat.

spots are going to be filled up whatever criterias are used. there are ~500 spots in medical programs in NSW alone, and 99.90+ there are only 100 in the whole of NSW.

plus there's the interviews, and for programs like UNCLE interview alone determines your entrance (after offers are given out for int.)

while it's always debatable whether a test is appropriate to the qualities it's designed to assess, i really don't see any alternatives to UMAT as it is. it's in better standing than GAMSAT at least.

 

[xxstef]

i just did one of the booklets,
s1 - 16/22
s2 - 17/18
s3 - 14/15

how would that measure up in the actual exam? i know the actual exam is harder, but still.
a precentile estimate, anyone?

 

[dp624]

i'm not completely sure
for s2 i got the same as you and ended with a 50
s3 you did quite well, maybe 70s?
s1 im not sure, you couldve done a lot better. i think maybe a 50?

thats 170, so about 80-85th percentile. not sure. just estimating here

 

[xxstef]

yikes, only 50 in section 2? i thought my mark was pretty good!
damn. will have to work harder.

 

[Lukybear]

xxstef can you tell me how you go on trying to scan money off public schools?? Jksjks,,

but keep us informed, cause if you succed i might try as well.

 

[xxstef]

xxstef can you tell me how you go on trying to scan money off public schools?? Jksjks,,

but keep us informed, cause if you succed i might try as well.

is it just me who doesnt understand?

umat should be something that people can't prepare for with coaching! sure, a few practise q's is fine, but paying $500 for it?

 

[Shedow]

is it just me who doesnt understand?

umat should be something that people can't prepare for with coaching! sure, a few practise q's is fine, but paying $500 for it?

I approve of this post.

 

[rcr4fags]

u get kids in year 10 who are preparing for the UMAT to be taken in 2 years time. mind you they are also socially retarded too

 

[dp624]

I approve of this post.

You, sir, are an exception.
Though you might have done exceptionally well in UMAT not all people have your level of intrinsic skill. Practice is one of the keys to success and to be honest the ACER booklets aren't nearly enough.
I maintain that UMAT prep courses didn't help me especially. But for others I know, UMAT prep is of great help.
So yeah, it's very possible to do well in UMAT without prep. But prep helps, somewhat.
And lol, you don't need UMAT for your uni courses (as of latest notice).

 

[nisseltaria]

I just know so many people who don't do prep courses and get around an 80th percentile and just kick themselves saying "I wish i did a prep course"

And I know that I would have kicked myself had I wasted money on one.

I got 100th percentile (224) without prep schools, and my UAI isn't superduperawesome.

From memory the ACT (american alternative to SATs, not area surrounding Canberra) has a science section and a comprehension section similar to UMAT Section 1. I think it could probably be used as prep.

For Section 3, I'd google "high range iq tests". There are at least two with pattern recognition sections similar to the medium-to-hard questions in this section, which you will not find in most free online iq tests.


I cannot provide any guarantee that these sources will be helpful - I did not use anything but the ACER booklet (complete test) in my preparation. I suggest them only because, in my memory at least, their questions/styles of questions are similar to some of those within the UMAT.

 

[arjungamer123]

If anyone has tried the SATs before, the reading and writing sections may be similar to the UMAT exam's.

 

[cccclaire]

is it just me who doesnt understand?

umat should be something that people can't prepare for with coaching! sure, a few practise q's is fine, but paying $500 for it?

Well of course it isn't really fair, but it's ACER's fault. The practise material they provide you with isn't nearly enough, and is also way too easy. People really want to do medicine, so there is demand for these courses (MedEntry is almost always booked out) so they can charge whatever they want. If ACER provided candidates with 5 full-length practise tests of questions the actual difficulty of UMAT tests noone would bother with coaching courses.

And yes my parents spent $700 on MedEntry, and I only used about 1/50th of the material they give you, but I got a 99th percentile so I'm happy.

The course also gives you a different way of approaching some of the questions. I was really bad at section 1 before i started, and they give you different tactics for approaching the different types of questions, and I ended up doing really well in section 1.

Think of it this way, it is a huge amount of money, but if you're serious about doing medicine (and you're not crazy gifted and going to get a 100 in the UMAT without practice) then it's worth the money.

 

[bebo2]

Hmm I think that the prep courses are rubbish...even though I didnt do them..because its just a money making scheme...I just did like 3 past papers I got off someone..

If you really wanna improve, I recommend, reading books for section 1, talk to more people for section 2, and do some random puzzles that you can find anywhere for section 3...voila..that simple without spending hundreds of dollars..

 

[x.Exhaust.x]

yeah, im serious about doing med and im going without the prep courses.
a few friends did face2face and apparently it was a waste of time and money.

And how did they go?

 

[xxstef]

And how did they go?

they havnt done the umat exam yet. they just reckon that the money wasnt worth it.
im still sticking by my "doing no prep course isnt going to place you at a disadvantage".

 

[dp624]

they havnt done the umat exam yet. they just reckon that the money wasnt worth it.
im still sticking by my "doing no prep course isnt going to place you at a disadvantage".

well of course not, it's giving the rest an 'advantage'
maybe not a lot, but it's there regardless

 

[Wooz]

Please do not mention any intention(s) of copyright violations on BOS, be aware employee's of preperation courses may also be monitoring BOS for any such violation.

 

[arjungamer123]

Taking prep courses for UMAT is against the point of the test. It's supposed to test how well you will react to real-life situations, and taking $1000 tutoring is not the point of it.

To answer the thread title, yes you can do well in it. I did my SAT recently, which is another logic/reasoning test. I studied on my own for a whole month and did okay in it, scoring above the 90th percentile for every section. granted I did get shit scores for my expectations.

The moral of the story is, I probably beat some kids in America who pay thousands for similar prep courses.