Pre-UMAT 2018 Discussion Thread

[Chrismm]

How long does everyone usually spend on the massive section 1 questions? I feel that I’m always losing track of time when doing these questions because they’re so long.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

How long does everyone usually spend on the massive section 1 questions? I feel that I’m always losing track of time when doing these questions because they’re so long.

I allocated myself 90 minutes for S1, total, but no specific time for each question because they tended to vary. That said, if a stem has, say, 4 questions attached to it, you probably don’t want to be spending much more than 6-7 minutes on them (total) as a guide. At that point, if I still hadn’t worked out answers, it’s probably best to educated guess and move on.

Note: if you’re referring to medentry S1 long questions, some of those are ridiculous and not at all like the length of S1 questions in the UMAT. Ditto some of the longer S2 medentry questions.

 

[Lear]

Are those order type questions still prevalent in the UMAT or have they disappeared? I'm talking about those questions where like we get a few different names and are told they all have a specific job, and then we get given hints from which we have to deduce information from. These come in many different forms. In the medentry exams there only seems to be 2-3 of these in any exam if at all. I just wanted to ask those who did the UMAT last year if they still saw some of these.
Thanks!

 

[Trinhcent]

Are those order type questions still prevalent in the UMAT or have they disappeared? I'm talking about those questions where like we get a few different names and are told they all have a specific job, and then we get given hints from which we have to deduce information from. These come in many different forms. In the medentry exams there only seems to be 2-3 of these in any exam if at all. I just wanted to ask those who did the UMAT last year if they still saw some of these.
Thanks!

I don't seem to recall any of those from last year's UMAT

 

[RandoSuddo]

Are those order type questions still prevalent in the UMAT or have they disappeared? I'm talking about those questions where like we get a few different names and are told they all have a specific job, and then we get given hints from which we have to deduce information from. These come in many different forms. In the medentry exams there only seems to be 2-3 of these in any exam if at all. I just wanted to ask those who did the UMAT last year if they still saw some of these.
Thanks!

I'm curious about this too. There's usually [(4 to 7) x 3] variables and you need to put them into a table based on the rules given. I've seen them in some past papers I've done but it's something I'm disastrous at.

An example would be; A, B, C, D, E live in a town called Mcdonaldtown. They each wear a different colour of clothing; Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, Black and Purple. They each have a different occupation; Plumber, Teacher, Policeman, Astronaut, Mechanic, Chef and Author.

A is not a Plumber but wears either Red or Black.
B wears a hard hat for his job and a yellow shirt.

Etc etc.

The question would then be;
Which of the following is not a possible scenario.
A is a Policeman and wears Purple.

Etc etc.

Writing this gave me a headache... :/

 

[DrDrLMG!]

I'm curious about this too. There's usually [(4 to 7) x 3] variables and you need to put them into a table based on the rules given. I've seen them in some past papers I've done but it's something I'm disastrous at.

An example would be; A, B, C, D, E live in a town called Mcdonaldtown. They each wear a different colour of clothing; Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, Black and Purple. They each have a different occupation; Plumber, Teacher, Policeman, Astronaut, Mechanic, Chef and Author.

A is not a Plumber but wears either Red or Black.
B wears a hard hat for his job and a yellow shirt.

Etc etc.

The question would then be;
Which of the following is not a possible scenario.
A is a Policeman and wears Purple.

Etc etc.

Writing this gave me a headache... :/

Yeah, I know the type of question you mean and tend to be fairly decent at them, so was disappointed there really weren’t any in UMAT last year. You’ll probably be safe

 

[RandoSuddo]

Yeah, I know the type of question you mean and tend to be fairly decent at them, so was disappointed there really weren’t any in UMAT last year. You’ll probably be safe

Honestly, it just has to do with time pressure. I could work through it consistently but it'd probably take me 5+ minutes to make sure I'm correct. I mean, I guess it's alright when you consider that these questions usually have 3-4 follow-up questions, but still - they mentally fatigue me.

 

[entirety]

Noooo those are the few S1 type questions that I can do pretty well!! Please dont tell me S1 is mainly those weird long passages and diagrams followed by "which of the following can be concluded/best supported/not supported" questions...

 

[toulouse]

How long does everyone usually spend on the massive section 1 questions? I feel that I’m always losing track of time when doing these questions because they’re so long.

My timing I planned for myself is 30-45 mins for S3, 30 mins for Section 2 and 90 minutes for S1. Always works out for me.

 

[Ruffle]

Noooo those are the few S1 type questions that I can do pretty well!! Please dont tell me S1 is mainly those weird long passages and diagrams followed by "which of the following can be concluded/best supported/not supported" questions...

There were quite a few of those last year (a lot of graphs etc.)
These questions test your ability to analyse reports- I'd go through some scientific reports and just try to understand the graphs and diagrams and what they're trying to represent.

 

[Chrismm]

For those who did a whole section at once in the UMAT (e.g S3, S2 then S1 to finish), did you find that you were rushed towards the end? Also, did you get a lower score on the section you finished compared to the other two? I'm thinking of using this method but I'm scared that I will guess too many at the end (especially Section 1 if I decide to finish with that). I don't want to get a score like 39/54/54.

 

[Lear]

I can’t give you any actual UMAT information as this is my first year sitting it, but LMG’s 30 min S2 —> 80 min S1 —> 60 min S3 technique is working wonders for me. I feel more free to put in adequate time for section 1 and still finish with up to 20 minutes to spare. I think the best thing about this plan is that you can do upto 15-20 S2 questions just in reading time. Otherwise one could be just spending those precious 10 minutes either reading S1 questions without understanding anything or scanning S3 questions trying to do them in one’s head.
Highly recommended to anyone who finds they aren’t getting enough time to do S1!

 

[AMedWannabe]

So, what is the ideal score you should be getting for practice tests?

Is it possible to drastically improve in three days?

 

[Mana]

So, what is the ideal score you should be getting for practice tests?

Is it possible to drastically improve in three days?

The ideal score is to get them all correct, obviously... Not sure if any other outcome could be any more ideal?

Your ability to improve in three days is highly dependent on you. Certainly there are people who could, but they would be very exceptional, I'd say.

 

[Smelly Boy]

Day 3 of no umat pr

So, what is the ideal score you should be getting for practice tests?

Is it possible to drastically improve in three days?

i reckon if u can learn tor recognise which s3 question are going to take you too much time and are able to skip them that would probably improve your score and u can prob do that in 3 days if u B E L I E V E

 

[DrDrLMG!]

For those who did a whole section at once in the UMAT (e.g S3, S2 then S1 to finish), did you find that you were rushed towards the end? Also, did you get a lower score on the section you finished compared to the other two? I'm thinking of using this method but I'm scared that I will guess too many at the end (especially Section 1 if I decide to finish with that). I don't want to get a score like 39/54/54.

I did it section by section and got
S2:66/S3:59/S1:58 92nd %ile in 2016
S2:73/S1:61/S3:64 98th %ile in 2017

In 2016 I was definitely rushed on my last section (S1) because I didn’t fully appreciate the time pressure and didn’t stick to time limits for S2 and S3. I had to blind guess a few questions at the end.

In 2017, with a clearer understanding of the timing required, I set myself limits, stuck to them, finished my final section (S3 this time) on time, and wasn’t rushed at all.

The key to not being rushed isn’t doing it 1-134 or section by section, it’s having a clear timing plan regardless and sticking to it. But also being realistic that ~most people don’t finish the whole exam and have to guess some at the end and factoring that into your plan.

Imo!

I can’t give you any actual UMAT information as this is my first year sitting it, but LMG’s 30 min S2 —> 80 min S1 —> 60 min S3 technique is working wonders for me. I feel more free to put in adequate time for section 1 and still finish with up to 20 minutes to spare. I think the best thing about this plan is that you can do upto 15-20 S2 questions just in reading time. Otherwise one could be just spending those precious 10 minutes either reading S1 questions without understanding anything or scanning S3 questions trying to do them in one’s head.
Highly recommended to anyone who finds they aren’t getting enough time to do S1!

I definitely ‘did’ S2 questions in reading time, yep! Glad my suggestion is paying off for you, it seriously worked perfectly for me.

 

[Lear]

I have been finding the medentry emotive game app to be very useful. I also believe it is free. If any of you don't know about it make sure to check it out. It's great to do while on public transport or something.
God I probably sound like I was paid by Medentry. I just genuinely find it very useful.

 

[I_love_curry]

Hey guys! Just finished off ACER practice exam 4 and was wondering how’d you guys go? Is 107/134 a decent score with about 15 minutes to spare?

 

[Lear]

Hey guys! Just finished off ACER practice exam 4 and was wondering how’d you guys go? Is 107/134 a decent score with about 15 minutes to spare?

I'd say it's a decent score. I scored 100/134 unfortunately.

 

[I_love_curry]

I'd say it's a decent score. I scored 100/134 unfortunately.

That’s still a commendable score! Best of luck for Wednesday