[Undergrad] Pre-UMAT 2017 Discussion Thread

[A1]

IIRC the drills have a suggested time of 60 mins but I didn't track by each question. I used a wristwatch with hands not digital, then say I start at number 2 I would want to be at the quarter mark by number 5, half mark at number 8 (just a quick glance of the minute hand). That way I could concentrate more on the questions.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

IIRC the drills have a suggested time of 60 mins but I didn't track by each question. I used a wristwatch with hands not digital, then say I start at number 2 I would want to be at the quarter mark by number 5, half mark at number 8 (just a quick glance of the minute hand). That way I could concentrate more on the questions.

I don't think this is the case anymore, @A1. The number of questions per drill varies considerably. Most S3 drills are 15 questions, some S1 ones have been as many as 21.

To illustrate:
Of the three logical reasoning drills I've done so far, they've had 20 or 21 questions and have taken me 21 - 23 minutes to finish.
Of the nine problem solving drills I've done so far, they've had 20-22 questions and have taken me 40 - 60 minutes to finish.
Of the six reflective drills I've done so far, they've had 14 or 15 questions and have taken me 11 - 19 minutes to finish.
Of the six dr/patient interaction drills I've done so far, they've had 13 - 15 questions and have taken me 7 - 15 minutes to finish.
Of the six pick the middle drills I've done so far, they've had 15 questions and have taken me 14 - 30 minutes to finish.

 

[hamp]

Hey guys, when you do drills do you do it with each question timed (by looking at the count down timer) or do you just time the entire thing from beginning to end?

How much time should a drill take to do?!

Personally I've taken to multiplying the no. of questions in the drill by the amount of seconds I want to complete each question by. I then use my phones countdown timer and enter the value calculated.
I leave my phone unlocked allowing me to keep pace, but you can also lock it if you feel extra negative pressure.

When the timer ends I note which questions I have completed, then answer the rest of the questions at my own pace.

I usually use the times (per question):
S1: 90s
S2: 60s
S3: 75s

But by all means use your own times if you find yourself faster or slower, its all personal.
This can be a good method to progressively increase your speed and target specific sections.

EDIT:

I had timers set on my laptop with the ME recommended time for each section multiplied by the number of questions in the drill. Different methods work for different people so try everything and see what works

^Haha this exactly

 

[alexwilko]

ME Exam 4: 89/134

I: 36 (75th percentile)
II: 26 (57th percentile)
III: 27 (69th percentile)

Are these results okay? Yes I see that II is my weakest but usually it isn't (this exam I found harder for section II than the drills and other 3 exams)

Finished just in 3 hours (all one sitting)

 

[DrDrLMG!]

ME Exam 4: 89/134

I: 36 (75th percentile)
II: 26 (57th percentile)
III: 27 (69th percentile)

Are these results okay? Yes I see that II is my weakest but usually it isn't (this exam I found harder for section II than the drills and other 3 exams)

Finished just in 3 hours (all one sitting)

I did UMAT last year and did pretty well in S2 (66, 95th%ile), and, for some reason, I really struggle with ME's S2 questions, so I wouldn't panic too much about your scores.

89/134 on the day will get you (very approximately) 178/300, which (again approximately!) is just under the 90th%ile. Given the comparative difficulty of ME exams, you can add a few %ile ranks to that for the actual UMAT. Plus you've still got a few weeks of practice and familiarisation to go before then

 

[HZL]

I have 20 days of my holiday left and I still have lots of drills and 8 ME exams to complete, and the ACER ones... Anyone have suggestions to whether I should focus on drills more or exams? Would an exam per 2 - 3 day be too often to be helpful? How should I allocate my time?

*Note: I have 90% of the days free for focused UMAT Practice

 

[nira]

I have 20 days of my holiday left and I still have lots of drills and 8 ME exams to complete, and the ACER ones... Anyone have suggestions to whether I should focus on drills more or exams? Would an exam per 2 - 3 day be too often to be helpful? How should I allocate my time?

*Note: I have 90% of the days free for focused UMAT Practice

2 exams a week should be fine. Leaving the rest for guides and drills. Make sure to do the Acer exams at the end.

 

[Dnnysn]

Redoing the S3 drills, some of the questions... Seriously.... So much for "logically and simply completes the sequence"

 

[nira]

Redoing the S3 drills, some of the questions... Seriously.... So much for "logically and simply completes the sequence"

Oh my god this is so true. Some of the pick the middles are just ridiculous

 

[Dnnysn]

Oh my god this is so true. Some of the pick the middles are just ridiculous

Yeah I've messaged them a few times for far easier solutions to the convoluted explanations they have, which they agreed with and said they'd amend, I guess sometimes that's why the answers have various font sizes, just copy and pasting responses from different formatting haha, poor effort.

I get why people say it's counter intuitive and they go in looking for far more complicated strategies than needed after practicing ME material :|

 

[nira]

Yeah I've messaged them a few times for far easier solutions to the convoluted explanations they have, which they agreed with and said they'd amend, I guess sometimes that's why the answers have various font sizes, just copy and pasting responses from different formatting haha, poor effort.

I get why people say it's counter intuitive and they go in looking for far more complicated strategies than needed after practicing ME material :|

Yeah one of my friends nearly bombed section 3 because he forgot to recognise the simplest patterns. Instead he would look for all these complicated and convoluted patterns and disregard the easiest and the most correct answer. ME can be both a blessing and a curse.

 

[Ri97]

Hey all, just did ME's exam 5. (Yes I did just finish a 3 hour long exam at 4:31am, so don't take these scores too seriously).

My marks were:
S1: 33/48
S2: 30/44
S3: 33/42
Total = 96/134

Extra info:
My little pie chart is indicating I'm getting about 86% of the Pick the Middle questions right but I'm not doing so well in those next in sequence questions on ME. I am getting SICK of seeing those cows and dinosaurs and rabbits and satan looking animals LOL, I dread those questions entirely!
I haven't reviewed yet, my problem solving looks to be suffering but there weren't really many in that exam. I am convinced that the cartoons on ME are ridiculous however LOL!

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hey all, just did ME's exam 5. (Yes I did just finish a 3 hour long exam at 4:31am, so don't take these scores too seriously).

My marks were:
S1: 33/48
S2: 30/44
S3: 33/42
Total = 96/134

Extra info:
My little pie chart is indicating I'm getting about 86% of the Pick the Middle questions right but I'm not doing so well in those next in sequence questions on ME. I am getting SICK of seeing those cows and dinosaurs and rabbits and satan looking animals LOL, I dread those questions entirely!
I haven't reviewed yet, my problem solving looks to be suffering but there weren't really many in that exam. I am convinced that the cartoons on ME are ridiculous however LOL!

Oh, I find the cow/rabbit/satan looking animals questions the easiest and can literally do them in seconds now if you want any tips!

And yes, the cartoons are ridiculous!!

That's a great score overall though

 

[HZL]

Oh, I find the cow/rabbit/satan looking animals questions the easiest and can literally do them in seconds now if you want any tips!

And yes, the cartoons are ridiculous!!

That's a great score overall though

Tips please!!

 

[hamp]

Purely for the sake of conversation..

Anyone else notice this on the official acer umat site?

All questions have the same value, therefore by attempting as many questions as possible you stand the best chance of maximising your score. No marks are deducted for a wrong answer.

Possibly not new news, but I was just reading and previously thought scores could be based on question difficulty

Test taking strategy | Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test | UMAT | ACER

 

[DrDrLMG!]

No, I hadn't noticed that, @hamp, and I had previously been under the impression scores were slightly different across questions.

If they're all worth the same, then it actually means the scoring is really straightforward and makes a bit of a mockery of their claims the scoring can't be replicated etc. Unless they're purely referring to the fact that we don't know how many questions are trial ones/not scored at all. Though the above would imply that trial questions are also scored?

 

[nira]

No, I hadn't noticed that, @hamp, and I had previously been under the impression scores were slightly different across questions.

If they're all worth the same, then it actually means the scoring is really straightforward and makes a bit of a mockery of their claims the scoring can't be replicated etc. Unless they're purely referring to the fact that we don't know how many questions are trial ones/not scored at all. Though the above would imply that trial questions are also scored?

i highly doubt the trial questions will be scored. because if they are, it would make the entire test unfair and biased, as different students will have different questions, varying in different difficulties. i would assume they are talking about questions that arent trials, meaning there are less than 134 questions which are actually important, most likely around 130-132. so does this mean that the actual scoring process is just the questions you get right multiplied by two, to give you your raw score and percentile.

 

[A1]

Anyone else notice this on the official acer umat site?
All questions have the same value

We know each section score is expressed on a scale of 0 to 100, even stated so by ACER. If all questions have the same value let's challenge ACER or anyone to explain this:

S1 has 48 Qs thus each is worth *at least* 2.0833 marks (could be more if the top S1 person scores say 45 Qs and is given 100).

Using 2.0833, 24Qs= 50, 25Qs= 52 and so on 54, 56, 58, 60, 63 (rounding up from 62.5)

But we have seen posted in the same year S1 scores of 53, 54, 55, 57, 58... How did ACER manage to do that?
(Note it doesn't matter how many decimal places calculated to then rounded, it's IMPOSSIBLE to make multiples of 2.something to increment by 1).

One possible explanation is all questions have the same value initially, after running them through ACER's algorithms & manipulations they change. But ultimately to us that means the questions have different values.

 

[Ri97]

Oh, I find the cow/rabbit/satan looking animals questions the easiest and can literally do them in seconds now if you want any tips!

And yes, the cartoons are ridiculous!!
That's a great score overall though

Oh yes please LMG! I'd appreciate that so much x

 

[Yamster]

Tips please @LMG!!