umat and interview training opinions... (1 Viewer)

[-neurosurgeon-]

hey i was wondering if anyone could give me some opinion of which umat and interview training institutes are good and which ones are a definite no no? thanks heaps =)

 

[ishq]

http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/forumdisplay.php?f=332

There's my good deed for the day.

 

[KFunk]

I resent the fact that it has become necesary (more or less) to do prep courses for the UMAT but I did the medentry course:

http://www.medentry.com.au/news.asp

Which consists of:

- Two Day Workshop

- 10 Full Length UMAT Practice Exams

- Guides for all the sections

- Extra Section 3 Shapes Drills


The guides are pretty average. For the most part they say what is logical but there are still little tidbits which can be helpful so I geuss they're still worthwhile.

The full length exams are handy to have. I don't know that they are all up to the standard of the actual UMAT but they do the job and they're useful insofar as they allow you to get a feeling for the timing of it all and how to approach each section. If someone can get through all 10, they're going to be pretty well prepared. I don't know if I'll even make it through half of them.

If the shapes questions bug you then the shapes drills are useful. I havn't really used them but I assume some people like them.

The two day work shop had its good and bad points. A lot of pretty standard points were made like "think logically" and "read the question stem" etc. etc. but, as with the guides, I found that there were thinngs here and there which I foudn very helpful. The practice exam you do in proper conditions is really good for practice and I think you even get back scores with percentiles, UMAT style.

All up I thought it was good. I don't think I've shown a particularly large improvement having done the course, but I geuss even a moderate improvement of, say, 5% makes it worthwhile.


(P.S. If you do choose medentry, make sure you go for the group discount and save yourself $200. I hope this helped.)

 

[-neurosurgeon-]

thanks guys! =)

 

[mervvyn]

You have to be in year 12 or finished school to do UMAT, so I wouldn't worry about it til next year anyway...

i also resent the assumption that you have to do a course to get a good enough UMAT mark, but whatever works for people is their perogative.

 

[velox]

Many people stupid or not, do the training course in yr11 then again in yr12, so maybe that's what she was getting info for?

 

[nit]

^That's a good idea in my opinion. Unless you end up changing your mind and not wanting to do med after yr 11, which was the case with a friend. In general, for UMAT I'm not against tutoring as such. That can certainly come in handy if the establishments can provide sample questions to practise on.

 

[velox]

But why would you want to do the course twice? Surely the talks/materials are similar?

Did you go anywhere nit?

 

[nit]

Yeh, I went to Dallas for a weekend thing last year, and while his style was highly condescending, that weekend did nonetheless manage to drill into me a couple of the expectations associated with doctors in society.

 

[velox]

Yeh, I went to Dallas for a weekend thing last year, and while his style was highly condescending, that weekend did nonetheless manage to drill into me a couple of the expectations associated with doctors in society.

How did you go in umat nit?

 

[nit]

I screwed up the UMAT with a score of 169.

 

[toeknee]

Yo
whats the 'average' mark for umat
and like whats the mark you should be getting to get into unsw medicine
like lower end to higher ends
how many peopel actually get into medicine at unsw? and do they actually drop students along the way? if so how much fair bit what percent?
cheers

 

[shafqat]

UMAT scores for UNSW:
http://notes.med.unsw.edu.au/home/medweb.nsf/website/2.2.latestnews_local

Search the rest of that site for any other info.

 

[RyBo]

Would anyone recommend doing a prep course/some prep in year 11 and then in year 12. As someone said earlier, aren't the materials from year to year relatively similar?

 

[velox]

im sure the courses in 2006 will have a lot less emphasis on type 2 section three questions.

 

[ishq]

im sure the courses in 2006 will have a lot less emphasis on type 2 section three questions.

WHY couldn't I be a year younger?
WHY?

 

[toeknee]

thanks a lot for the help guys
really appreciated