Pre-UMAT 2018 Discussion Thread

[Trinhcent]

What is considered a decent score for Exam 3??
I received 93/134 and Medentry told me it was unlikely I would be offered anything at this rate.

Hmm, if you're going off the MedEntry percentiles I would take it with a grain of salt given that there is little quality control done regarding those (people could have done the exam in conditions that aren't timed etc). You can never know til the actual day and you get your results hahah.

 

[MambaMent..]

Ladies and gents who did Acer practice exam 4 post your marks up plz. I haven’t seen people posting their marks for exam 4 anywhere and I want to know how I did in relation to y’all

I got 97/134 timed, but my s1 was whack (28/48 I think lmao)

 

[Mana]

What is considered a decent score for Exam 3??
I received 93/134 and Medentry told me it was unlikely I would be offered anything at this rate.

Feedback and opinion from multiple cohorts of UMAT takers, myself included in those cohorts, is that the ACER practice booklets are way, way easier than the real thing.

Or, to put it another way:
If you aren't getting all of them (or at least close to all of them, to account for occasional silly mistakes) correct, you're probably going to struggle in the actual UMAT to get a competitive score (which, for the record, puts you in the majority - by definition, if you need, say, a 90 percentile, then only 10 percent will score at or above that).

 

[nts]

Hey!
I plan to do Exam 4 in a week or so, closer to the exam. How do you think it compares to exam 3? I got a mark I was quite disappointed with for 3 and apparently that one is an easy one.

May I ask, what did you get for exam 3. I kind of slacked off towards the end so my score wasn't too good either.

 

[Lear]

May I ask, what did you get for exam 3. I kind of slacked off towards the end so my score wasn't too good either.

93/134 unfortunately.
Things ain’t looking good

 

[nts]

93/134 unfortunately.
Things ain’t looking good

If you're a rural student that's a decent score, however, provided you have a decent ATAR/OP a 93/134 probably translates to 80th percentile which can get you an interview in some places.

 

[Lear]

If you're a rural student that's a decent score, however, provided you have a decent ATAR/OP a 93/134 probably translates to 80th percentile which can get you an interview in some places.

Not a rural unfortunately. Also the acer practice exams are quoted to be much much easier than the actual thing.

 

[toulouse]

Hi everyone,

I want to know how closely MedEntry is to the real UMAT exam. I think there was a thread which discussed this, but now I can't seem to find it.

So, can anybody who has done the UMAT shed some light on how closely MedEntry mocks the real thing?

FYI: I'm currently getting 13+/20 in Section 1 drills, averaging 9+/15 in section 2 drills and 13/15 in Section 3.

Thanks! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I sat the UMAT last year and did Medentry. I found overall the Medentry exams harder than the real UMAT. In terms of S3 I guess they were similar. Section 1 in ME I found to be more complex and lengthier than the real deal. Section 2 in UMAT didn't have as much of the complex vocabulary that ME uses. Hope this helps

 

[feelsbadman]

Been cramming tonnes of umat practice, and the thing I have most problem with are the problem solving questions of Medentry. Given sufficient time, one can solve it fairly smoothly, but the amount of info in the premise they give for the amount of questions is relatively hard and im worried .
Are umat s1 questions as hard as Medentry's problem solving ones? If so, would you guys recommend just skipping them?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

If you're a rural student that's a decent score, however, provided you have a decent ATAR/OP a 93/134 probably translates to 80th percentile which can get you an interview in some places.

Actually, 93/134 is very, very approximately 186/300, and over 90th%ile (I got 183/300 in 2016, which was 92nd%ile, 189/300 that year was 96th).

 

[entirety]

Omg now I'm beginning to really panic. I didn't buy medentry because honestly, I can't afford spending $800 on a course that doesn't even guarantee anything. The only practice I thought would be enough is a couple of online stuff I found + the acer material. If the acer material is considered way way easier than the actual exam and medentry considered somewhat more difficult then... did I just stuff things up for myself :/

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Omg now I'm beginning to really panic. I didn't buy medentry because honestly, I can't afford spending $800 on a course that doesn't even guarantee anything. The only practice I thought would be enough is a couple of online stuff I found + the acer material. If the acer material is considered way way easier than the actual exam and medentry considered somewhat more difficult then... did I just stuff things up for myself :/

Not at all, and panicking about it is going to make things worse. Despite my own anecdotal experience, there’s very little (no?) standardised, peer reviewed data to suggest prep is much benefit. I personally think the best thing about prep is getting an idea of the speed you need to work at (do timed, full length exams, under exam conditions) and S3 strategies that can be learned (a lot of which are free on YouTube).

 

[rustyedges]

Not at all, and panicking about it is going to make things worse. Despite my own anecdotal experience, there’s very little (no?) standardised, peer reviewed data to suggest prep is much benefit. I personally think the best thing about prep is getting an idea of the speed you need to work at (do timed, full length exams, under exam conditions) and S3 strategies that can be learned (a lot of which are free on YouTube).

In fact, there is peer reviewed evidence showing that preparation has no effect.

 

[entirety]

But using an exam which is much much easier than the real thing isn't the best practice in terms of time constraints and whatnot. Easy exams take less time and less thought so I feel like I'm just lying to myself...

Anyway, like you said there's no point in panicking now so I'll just hope the best

In fact, there is peer reviewed evidence showing that preparation has no effect.

Hmm so we basically all go in there equally (in terms of prep or no prep)? So someone who's spent hours preparing has the same chance as someone who's spent no time at all? (By equal I mean excluding other factors such as intelligence, speed, accuracy etc even though you can improve the last two imo)

 

[A1]

Been cramming tonnes of umat practice, and the thing I have most problem with are the problem solving questions of Medentry. Given sufficient time, one can solve it fairly smoothly, but the amount of info in the premise they give for the amount of questions is relatively hard and im worried .
Are umat s1 questions as hard as Medentry's problem solving ones? If so, would you guys recommend just skipping them?

My observation is UMAT S1 is carefully vetted to comprise a range of less challenging to highly challenging questions, whereas ME ones are from challenging to over-convoluted. Roughly speaking in terms of difficulty/complexity, the upper 2/3rds of UMAT are about the same level as the lower 2/3rds of ME.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

But using an exam which is much much easier than the real thing isn't the best practice in terms of time constraints and whatnot. Easy exams take less time and less thought so I feel like I'm just lying to myself...

Anyway, like you said there's no point in panicking now so I'll just hope the best



Hmm so we basically all go in there equally (in terms of prep or no prep)? So someone who's spent hours preparing has the same chance as someone who's spent no time at all? (By equal I mean excluding other factors such as intelligence, speed, accuracy etc even though you can improve the last two imo)

No peer reviewed evidence, but definitely some anecdotal. For example, as a mature aged student who hadn’t sat an exam for about 8 years, let alone a UMAT style one, I purchased ACER exam 3 and did it ‘blind’ (no prep, no clue what I was in for) to see if there was any point in me even registering for UMAT. I got less than half the questions right (inc. 13/40-odd on S3), was completely overwhelmed, and utterly unprepared. If that had been me walking into the actual UMAT, I’d 100% have blown it. Instead, I used that experience to figure out what I needed to do and devise a game plan, and managed 92nd%ile on my first go.

I’d say it depends how you use it. And I can definitely tell you that practice effects are a major confounding variable in psychometric testing. Use them to your advantage if you can!

My observation is UMAT S1 is carefully vetted to comprise a range of less challenging to highly challenging questions, whereas ME ones are from challenging to over-convoluted. Roughly speaking in terms of difficulty/complexity, the upper 2/3rds of UMAT are about the same level as the lower 2/3rds of ME.

I’d completely agree, particularly re. the description of ME S1 as being “challenging to over-convoluted”.

 

[entirety]

No peer reviewed evidence, but definitely some anecdotal. For example, as a mature aged student who hadn’t sat an exam for about 8 years, let alone a UMAT style one, I purchased ACER exam 3 and did it ‘blind’ (no prep, no clue what I was in for) to see if there was any point in me even registering for UMAT. I got less than half the questions right (inc. 13/40-odd on S3), was completely overwhelmed, and utterly unprepared. If that had been me walking into the actual UMAT, I’d 100% have blown it. Instead, I used that experience to figure out what I needed to do and devise a game plan, and managed 92nd%ile on my first go.

I’d say it depends how you use it. And I can definitely tell you that practice effects are a major confounding variable in psychometric testing. Use them to your advantage if you can!

Damn that's such a significant jump! Wth did you do that made you go from less than half the questions of a practice exam right to getting 92%ile? I'm sorry if it's been answered somewhere before but how much time did you dedicate towards "preparing"? And did you start a couple months beforehand or...?

How can that all be down to preparation though? I mean, a lot of people do badly in practice and end up acing the actual thing because it's such a weird test. A lot of people I've talked to say they came out of the test thinking they've flunked it (no preparation) but now they're in medical school. I also know someone who prepared last year and she wouldn't even tell me her percentile because it was that bad. Luck I guess? I'm beginning to think it's more based on luck than "natural ability" lol or maybe the lucky ones are the capable ones

 

[toulouse]

Omg now I'm beginning to really panic. I didn't buy medentry because honestly, I can't afford spending $800 on a course that doesn't even guarantee anything. The only practice I thought would be enough is a couple of online stuff I found + the acer material. If the acer material is considered way way easier than the actual exam and medentry considered somewhat more difficult then... did I just stuff things up for myself :/

Honestly I don't think ME was worth the money I spent on it (I went to their workshops too) don't worry. I personally don't think it was the holy grail to UMAT prep. Between these two weeks focus on your weaknesses within each section. If you would like you could also try out the free mock exams that each prep course has, just go to their websites (I'm sure theres ones from ME, MATRIX, Medview etc.) Don't freak out if you do terribly on these because these exams were made harder on purpose. The things you should have down pat is your timing, how you will approach each question type (especially S1), and be familiar with various pattern types for S3. Remain optimistic!

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Damn that's such a significant jump! Wth did you do that made you go from less than half the questions of a practice exam right to getting 92%ile? I'm sorry if it's been answered somewhere before but how much time did you dedicate towards "preparing"? And did you start a couple months beforehand or...?

How can that all be down to preparation though? I mean, a lot of people do badly in practice and end up acing the actual thing because it's such a weird test. A lot of people I've talked to say they came out of the test thinking they've flunked it (no preparation) but now they're in medical school. I also know someone who prepared last year and she wouldn't even tell me her percentile because it was that bad. Luck I guess? I'm beginning to think it's more based on luck than "natural ability" lol or maybe the lucky ones are the capable ones

Go back to page 1 of this thread (maybe page 2?), where I’ve posted a big run down of what I did.

Short version: I literally learned the S3 mapping techniques and taught myself how to efficiently answer those questions, then I largely worked on understanding and developing the speed required to get through the exam - and I still didn’t on my first attempt. Speed really can’t be underestimated and even an ‘educated’ guess is far more beneficial than a ‘blind’ guess at the end (ie. quickly reading through the question, eliminating the couple of obvious wrong answers, THEN guessing, as opposed to filling in all Bs or Cs for any question you’ve not even read). I had ~15 blind guesses on my first attempt at an actual UMAT but on my second (when I got 98th%ile), I finished the exam on time. It is the key to a successful score, imo, over just about everything else.

Also, don’t forget that “acing” vs “flunking” is VERY subjective. In 2016, I only applied to UTAS and as a nonstandard applicant, needed a score at or above the 96th%ile, therefore I consider my 92nd to be a flunk. But 92nd would have easily got me interviews at WSU and JMP, and if I’d been a school leaver, at a whole host more. And conversely, local school leavers applying to UTAS only need to score above 50th%ile, so anything above that is “acing” it for them.

One person’s “ace” can very much be another person’s dismal “flunk” and so it’s important not to lose focus on yourself and get too caught up in what other people are doing.

 

[Lear]

I'm averaging roughly 70th after completing 6 Medentry exams with a score average of ~85/134. Can someone who has used Medentry themselves please give an indication of what kind percentiles they averaged in ME exams and what they actually got in the UMAT. I'm finding it quite tricky to gauge exactly where i'm at and how much more of my time I should devote towards UMAT. ME mentions that a low percentile may actually not be too bad in the real thing, however I am still doubtful.