UCAT: Abstract Reasoning

[JeydinNewWon]

Theres unmarked questions aswell. So they probably just got very lucky.

Yeah, I was always wondering about that. Isn't unmarked questions....a little unfair? Since I mean, what if someone legitimately used their time on that question and got a lower mark? Or is there some sort of system in place to ensure that doesn't happen?

 

[dotwingz]

Hmm its just kind of something you have to cop. Tests are inherently not fair as they are used to differentiate between candidates. What if someone is really good at arrow based questions but the test only exams colour based questions? Just how it works unfortunately.

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Hmm its just kind of something you have to cop. Tests are inherently not fair as they are used to differentiate between candidates. What if someone is really good at arrow based questions but the test only exams colour based questions? Just how it works unfortunately.

Well, I guess to be fair, if you want a good score, you should ideally be answering all the questions to a good extent. So I guess even if you answer unmarked questions but didn't finish the test, that's more of a result of you being unprepared/unable to finish.

 

[cocodreams]

Hey, how do people tend to approach these types of questions?

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Hey, how do people tend to approach these types of questions?
View attachment 4663

Hey!

I just looked at this question and got it really quickly. My thought process was:
At first glance, I knew counting wouldn’t be an option, since the number of colours is very inconsistent. Second, since all the parallelograms are arranged in a certain sequence, it gives indication for colour and position.


I was thinking, “what if colours and position matched” so I checked A and B and lo and behold there are two pairs of similarly coloured parallelograms in A and another two pairs in B in differing positions.

(From left to right as 1-7). In A, 3 and 7 are same colour and 4 and 5 same colour. These rules don’t work in B.

In B, 1 and 7 are the same whilst 2 and 3 are the same. These rules don’t work in A.

Hope this helps !

 

[cocodreams]

Hey!

I just looked at this question and got it really quickly. My thought process was:
At first glance, I knew counting wouldn’t be an option, since the number of colours is very inconsistent. Second, since all the parallelograms are arranged in a certain sequence, it gives indication for colour and position.


I was thinking, “what if colours and position matched” so I checked A and B and lo and behold there are two pairs of similarly coloured parallelograms in A and another two pairs in B in differing positions.

(From left to right as 1-7). In A, 3 and 7 are same colour and 4 and 5 same colour. These rules don’t work in B.

In B, 1 and 7 are the same whilst 2 and 3 are the same. These rules don’t work in A.

Hope this helps !

Yeah that's pretty much the pattern spot on I should have tried approaching it that way as well, but I think I focused too much on the numbers

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Yeah that's pretty much the pattern spot on I should have tried approaching it that way as well, but I think I focused too much on the numbers

btw looking at it now, I see a lot more pairs and matching than I did initially (I was on my phone when I first saw your post and was omw to walking in the park). Will write a better reply once I’m ready!

 

[Ray1_1]

Hey guys sorry this may seem like a silly question but how do we upload photos on this forum?

 

[JeydinNewWon]

Hey guys sorry this may seem like a silly question but how do we upload photos on this forum?

In the typing box there should be an icon of a sun and mountains. Click it and then click the stripy outlined box then you can select upload from your computer.

 

[JeydinNewWon]

N

Hey, how do people tend to approach these types of questions?
View attachment 4663

Sorry for the really late reply!

But in A, using the same convention as before, 2 and 4 and 5 are all the same (triple colour). 1 and 6 are the same and 3 and 7 are the same.

In B, 5 and 6 are the same, 1 and 7 are the same, 2 and 3 and 4 are all the same (triple colour).

 

[Fili]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any strategies for approaching questions that assign different values to different shapes? I can never seem to get them - maybe it will improve in time? Thanks

I use algebra and note down the first letter of the shape and work it out from there e.g. square = s, triangle = t, circle = c etc

After you do that, it's just a matter of practicing accuracy then speed and next thing you know, you'll be doing these questions very quickly.

 

[Doradoraaa]

Pls help

 

[JeydinNewWon]

View attachment 4721
Pls help

Bad question imo. Nothing like what you would get in UCAT.

Seems like each box is divided into 2 to create the pattern and make it work, which I shall dub as “cell”.

Set A
- In each cell there is an odd number of black shapes and even number of white shapes

Set B
- In each cell there is an even number of black shapes and odd number of white shapes.

 

[Doradoraaa]

Bad question imo. Nothing like what you would get in UCAT.

Seems like each box is divided into 2 to create the pattern and make it work, which I shall dub as “cell”.

Set A
- In each cell there is an odd number of black shapes and even number of white shapes

Set B
- In each cell there is an even number of black shapes and odd number of white shapes.

omg it worked! i was stuck on that question for so long thank you so much!!

 

[hotshot]

Hi all,
I am sitting UCAT this year 2022. I just started my practice in abstract reasoning and noted that I am very bad in the abstract reasoning. I have read all your valuable advise and in that i saw that one has to maintain the notes for complex patterns. can someone share the example how you all keep the track of complex patterns or rule so that you can revise closer to exam and i am only getting 35 out of 55 and I am aiming to improve as much as possible please. any help will be note taking in abstract reasoning is helpful. thanks

 

[Nonstandard983]

Hi all,
I am sitting UCAT this year 2022. I just started my practice in abstract reasoning and noted that I am very bad in the abstract reasoning. I have read all your valuable advise and in that i saw that one has to maintain the notes for complex patterns. can someone share the example how you all keep the track of complex patterns or rule so that you can revise closer to exam and i am only getting 35 out of 55 and I am aiming to improve as much as possible please. any help will be note taking in abstract reasoning is helpful. thanks

To be honest with me what helped me massively was just more practice I found the ones on the day to be super easy compared to what I was seeing in my mocks so it’s really just repetition

 

[dent4life]

Do you guys have any tips on how to approach questions with clocks in it? Especially the analogue ones..

 

[5ushi]

Hi all,
I am sitting UCAT this year 2022. I just started my practice in abstract reasoning and noted that I am very bad in the abstract reasoning. I have read all your valuable advise and in that i saw that one has to maintain the notes for complex patterns. can someone share the example how you all keep the track of complex patterns or rule so that you can revise closer to exam and i am only getting 35 out of 55 and I am aiming to improve as much as possible please. any help will be note taking in abstract reasoning is helpful. thanks

Hey I took a screenshot of the questions I got wrong and then annotated them to better visualize what the pattern was in Set A and Set B. Then I'd close my eyes and try visualize it again and self-reflect on it. After a couple of days I'd come back to the same pattern and see if I'd recognize it. After doing this for 2-3 weeks I just got better at recognizing the patterns and ended up getting more questions correct. Overall noting down the complex patterns is useful, but you need to actively reflect and think about the pattern.

 

[ucat3300+]

Hi all,
I am sitting UCAT this year 2022. I just started my practice in abstract reasoning and noted that I am very bad in the abstract reasoning. I have read all your valuable advise and in that i saw that one has to maintain the notes for complex patterns. can someone share the example how you all keep the track of complex patterns or rule so that you can revise closer to exam and i am only getting 35 out of 55 and I am aiming to improve as much as possible please. any help will be note taking in abstract reasoning is helpful. thanks

Hey mate I got a 870 in Abstract Reasoning last year. First of all, rest assured you're not alone in finding AR extremely difficult. I literally worked through an entire textbook for AR and went through all the patterns on the official website and got 25 - 35 in my subtest mocks.

I too kept a Word document full of difficult patterns at the beginning of my preparation. I stopped doing this after the first few months because I realised it's useless. Basically, it's the thinking process that you need to practise and master. You need to be looking at a pattern you've never seen before, and really nail the process of finding the pattern. It's been too long since I did AR to remember the details, but for example, if there are similar looking shapes for all of the boxes in Set A, then count the number of sides or something like that (I forgot everything and I'm just making this up so don't do this, but you get what I mean).

Basically, commercial preparation companies (which I assume you are using) have way too many AR patterns for you to finish. So don't waste time screenshotting difficult patterns into a Word document thinking you'll look at them again later. This is very inefficient. Instead, read the explanation they have for the pattern thoroughly, understand it, and try applying the pattern that you now know to the set of 5 questions. If you screenshot the pattern thinking you'll look at it again at a later time, you're not pushing yourself that hard, and that's why I say it's inefficient (+ it takes time to screenshot and paste into a Word doc). A much better way is to read the explanation thoroughly, understand it, shove it in your brain as much as possible, and go and attempt a brand new practice question set. As I said, you don't have to worry about running out of questions - you probably won't be able to do all of the questions commercial prep companies have. This is a far better use of your time than screenshotting patterns into a Word document to look at later. AR is all about grinding it out and getting as much practice as possible by looking at a brand new pattern and trying to solve it. Hope this helps.

(+) After you get used to the test format of AR (Set A Set B, complete the pattern etc.) you need to do timed practice. You need to train your brain to the strict time limit of AR which I heard changed for 2022. But yeah, all about pushing your brain to do it within the given time.

 

[mmorris]

AR for 2022 UCAT ANZ is now 50 questions in 12 minutes instead of last year which had 55 questions in 13 minutes btw