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Post-UCAT Discussion 2020

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ucatnoob said:
Say if I was running out of time and had to randomly pick a multiple choice out of the 4 options available, which one do you guys reckon is the best one to go with? (e.g. A, B, C or D)
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I always used to go B during my GAMSAT days on the basis that not all questions are worth the same and most people guess C, therefore me getting a question right by guessing B would be worth more than others guessing a question right with C. It was likely a farce but I justified it :p
 
KM7 said:
Hi everyone,

I sat my exam last week and wanted to share my thoughts on how I went and my general experience!

Date completed: Friday 10 July - 10 am
Venue: Pearson Professional Centre (Adelaide)

The test centre staff were very pleasant, inside the testing room was very quiet (took earplugs provided but did not use) and I went to the bathroom beforehand. I was not rushed and took my time to stay composed and ready for the test.

Results:

Verbal Reasoning670
Decision Making890
Quantitative Reasoning900
Abstract Reasoning870
Total Cognitive Score3330
Situational Judgement640

Overall, I am thrilled with my results. I prepared for about 5 months consistently and it was pleasing to see a significant amount of hard work, reflection and persistence paying off. I was confident that I had prepared enough to do well in each section and be able to answer any type of question in a reasonable amount of time. This was useful in that, despite a lower score in VR (than hoped for), I was able to make up for it across each remaining section. Focus on your weaknesses more than other sections in your preparation to minimise the chances of them having too much of a negative effect on your overall score.

General comments on the exam/exam experience:

The official practice exams are extremely valuable in preparation and I strongly advise you complete and review them in-depth. The test resembles these resources very well in terms of question style and time pressure (except for QR, in exam A especially). The majority of QR question stems in the official resources are useful, but sometimes they include some unreasonably complex units, which you just have to learn to skip and come back to them if there is time.

VR: this was an under-performance for me >> I spent too long on questions trying to be 100% certain with my choices (because it was test day) and in VR this is very costly. I had to rush the final 3 units, but still equally divided my time to at least make educated/logical guesses. Even though I under-performed, the difficulty of official practice exams is very similar to what I experienced. The text length was probably about the same (some longer and some shorter), but it is displayed more narrowly due to the square screen.

DM: overall, I found this section was slightly easier compared to the official exams. I left the interpreting info Yes/No questions to the end and had about 10 minutes left to attempt them, leaving me plenty of time to properly understand the stimulus and make considered judgements. Some of the 'strongest argument' questions had longer stimuli, so I found myself spending up to 60-80 seconds on some of these. Some logic games were tricky.

QR: this has always been my strongest section, and post-exam I expected 900 in this section - I was quite confident I had answered all questions correctly. I had about 1 minute after completing all questions to review some I was unsure of. I did not feel the need to 'skip' any units that were too long or complex (there were none). I found each unit to be of similar difficulty and I kept a relatively consistent pace. Mental maths is sometimes useful.

AR: I found this section to be of similar difficulty to the official practice exams (overall). Some patterns were tricky and I initially skipped 3 units (15 questions). I finished the rest (40 questions) with about 4 minutes left to finish the 3 incomplete units. I struggled with 2 of them but used my gut instinct to make educated guesses based on my observations of differences between each set.

SJ: similar difficulty to official practice exams, especially the later ones which I found more challenging.

The takeaway from my exam is to NOT over-check your answers, especially in VR, as it is widely considered the most time-pressured and evidently the most difficult to score highly in. In all sections except QR, I did not do the test in order of the questions - do not feel forced to go in order of the questions. You may feel more comfortable - as I was - to attempt easier questions first (or those I was stronger at) to allow more time to tackle more difficult questions with slightly more time.

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them!
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woah congrats, that’s amazing :)! for DM, were the Venn diagram and probability questions fairly straight forward or a bit more complex?
 
ucatnoob said:
Say if I was running out of time and had to randomly pick a multiple choice out of the 4 options available, which one do you guys reckon is the best one to go with? (e.g. A, B, C or D)
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Sometimes drawing a picture helped back in the UMAT days when you could see all your choices in one page. I sometimes drew a dinosaur or a flower. Didn't do too well though but yeah dinosaurs are cool :D
 
Fili said:
Sometimes drawing a picture helped back in the UMAT days when you could see all your choices in one page. I sometimes drew a dinosaur or a flower. Didn't do too well though but yeah dinosaurs are cool :D
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Yea thanks for that valuable input 😁 def will use it
 
LMG! said:
This was an important consideration in UMAT! S1 and S2 had 4 options and S3 had 5, so if you went with E in S1 or S2 you wasted all your chance guesses :D
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oh god i remember hte first time i sat umat and on the bus back i realised i had put E for a few s1/s2 questions i hadn't had time to answer at the end and i was just randomly filling in stuff
 
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efurno said:
woah congrats, that’s amazing :)! for DM, were the Venn diagram and probability questions fairly straight forward or a bit more complex?
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To be honest, those two question types are the quickest for me and that may be why I don't remember that much about them. Overall, they were mostly straightforward (not too complex at all), besides 1 very time-consuming Venn diagram question with 4 options of diagrams.
 
ucatnoob said:
idk i thought that there might be like a scientifically proven choice
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If there were a scientifically proven choice Pearson would know about and deliberately steer away from it to trip you up :p

Crow said:
There you have it ucatnoob - B is officially endorsed by myself and LMG! and is therefore what you should guess with whenever necessary.
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My probability-based suggestion is say you have answered 40 and need to guess 5, pick the one that appears the least times among the 40 ;)
 
I also have a feeling that since it's a computer-based test, Pearson has the freedom to randomise not only the order in which questions appear (1-44), but also the order in which the answer options appear (A-D). Which basically means that you probably won't confer any advantage from guessing a specific way.
 
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ucatnoob said:
Say if I was running out of time and had to randomly pick a multiple choice out of the 4 options available, which one do you guys reckon is the best one to go with? (e.g. A, B, C or D)
Click to expand...
I usually guess B when I did my practice mocks, and it scored me a couple of extra points in my practice. For Verbal Reasoning T/F Questions, I'd choose between False or Can't Tell and stick to my choice for the entire question set, and in Abstract Reasoning Set A/B, I feel that choosing either A or B would be better than choosing Neither (more answers in my practice ended up being A/B rather than Neither). In Situational Judgement, I'd choose either B or C, if I were to guess, since there's a greater likelihood of getting a partial mark for that than choosing the extremes (at least in my practice). But it's mostly luck at the end of the day I guess!
 
fray20 said:
I usually guess B when I did my practice mocks, and it scored me a couple of extra points in my practice. For Verbal Reasoning T/F Questions, I'd choose between False or Can't Tell and stick to my choice for the entire question set, and in Abstract Reasoning Set A/B, I feel that choosing either A or B would be better than choosing Neither (more answers in my practice ended up being A/B rather than Neither). In Situational Judgement, I'd choose either B or C, if I were to guess, since there's a greater likelihood of getting a partial mark for that than choosing the extremes (at least in my practice). But it's mostly luck at the end of the day I guess!
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Love this!! Going to use your technique for SJ in a few days time :)
 
Hey guys, I got a funny story! Imagine hypothetically going to the Melbourne Pearsons centre and getting halfway through your test (about to start QR) before the staff burst in and evacuate all from the centre without allowing you to finish?

And then apparently there's been a COVID outbreak at the centre and I don't know if I get a chance to ever re-sit the test...

I mean it just happened to me...😖

^In fact, hypothetically I belong in neither the pre or post UCAT discussion as I am essentially trapped in between for all eternity :)...
 
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