Pre-UMAT 2018 Discussion Thread

[Lear]

This isn't a serious question but I am still curious. Any theories on why no one (or at least that's what I've heard) has ever managed to steal a UMAT booklet out of the centre. I'm sure some preparation companies would pay top dollar $ to get their hands on actual UMAT papers. Maybe they have a system where each booklet is connected to each individual student? Then again surely at least one supervisor there could easily sneak one out instead of shredding it.

Interesting

 

[A1]

A1 did you do the exam sequentially or by sections?

I did by sections, 1 then 3 then 2 in 75-45-60 minutes.
(I first chose these numbers for multiple quarters of hour, thought easier to track but turned out the test didn't start on the hour).

 

[adelaidemedplz]

Hmm, would you recommend to do your weakest first and strongest last or vice versa? A1

 

[DrDrLMG!]

This isn't a serious question but I am still curious. Any theories on why no one (or at least that's what I've heard) has ever managed to steal a UMAT booklet out of the centre. I'm sure some preparation companies would pay top dollar $ to get their hands on actual UMAT papers. Maybe they have a system where each booklet is connected to each individual student? Then again surely at least one supervisor there could easily sneak one out instead of shredding it.

Interesting

You don’t hand the booklets back as you leave, they are collected one by one while you still sit at your desk in silence/exam conditions (the same way exam booklets will be when you’re at Uni). It would be very difficult to steal one as a student, I’d think.

A supervisor on the other hand... I don’t know much about storage or cross-checking. It might be easier, it might not.

Hmm, would you recommend to do your weakest first and strongest last or vice versa? A1

I’d say strongest first, and that’s what I did, but others may suggest different.

I also personally recommend doing S3 last because non-verbal reasoning is much less susceptible to anxiety when compared to verbal reasoning, and the working memory load is less (no trying to remember sentences of text while you’re answering questions in that last mad half hour or so). YMMV, but that’s what I found worked best for me.

 

[A1]

Hmm, would you recommend to do your weakest first and strongest last or vice versa? A1

I did strongest first weakest last, after the advice given in the ME workshop (to boost your overall score with what you are best at).

However the extra risk with this ordering is if you don't manage properly you might run short of time on your weakest section and get a sub-50. So beware.

 

[John Myers]

So I have just averaged out all of my scores/percentiles from the 4 MEDENTRY and the 4 ACER exams that I did over the past four weeks and they are as follows.

S1: 37/48 (81 percentile) S2: 33/44 (77 percentile) S3: 32/42 (79 percentile).

Would you say this is good enough to get a combined score of maybe 125-130 for section 1 and 2 in the real UMAT? (applying for WSU, as GWS)?

PS: If it affects anything, my last exam (ACER #4) was today and my scores were as follows.
S1: 38/48 (84 percentile), S2: 42/44 (98 percentile) & S3: 37/42 (91 percentile).

 

[John Myers]

ME percentiles are meaningless, ignore them. Your own previous raw scores are the most useful data to compare your next performance to.

Do you mean the percentiles are meaningless because they will give you a lower percentile than you will receive in the real thing because of people going over time, cohort strength etc.? If so, about how many more percentile points would you likely add - is 10 percentile reasonable?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Do you mean the percentiles are meaningless because they will give you a lower percentile than you will receive in the real thing because of people going over time, cohort strength etc.? If so, about how many more percentile points would you likely add - is 10 percentile reasonable?

They’re meaningless because they’re necessarily a comparison to other ME users and you have no idea how those other users have been completing exams. Have they been under timed conditions? With no resources or calculators or googling? Has the user done that exam several times before? Etc etc.

You should only worry about the scores you’re in control of, and that’s your own raw scores.

 

[jiaxing]

So I have just averaged out all of my scores/percentiles from the 4 MEDENTRY and the 4 ACER exams that I did over the past four weeks and they are as follows.

S1: 37/48 (81 percentile) S2: 33/44 (77 percentile) S3: 32/42 (79 percentile).

Would you say this is good enough to get a combined score of maybe 125-130 for section 1 and 2 in the real UMAT? (applying for WSU, as GWS)?

PS: If it affects anything, my last exam (ACER #4) was today and my scores were as follows.
S1: 38/48 (84 percentile), S2: 42/44 (98 percentile) & S3: 37/42 (91 percentile).

ME exams are on the harder exnd if the spectrum, while ACER practice exams are on the easier end of the spectrum. Therefore, to average ME exams and ACER exams collectively for each section is unreliable.

As for ACER exam 4, this forum has extensively mentioned that some S1 and S2 questions were from previous years. According to this, your scores seem on the higher end of the spectrum. But if you got your percentiles from ME, they’re unreliable again - because the ME report card shows several students getting in the 0-10/134 range - which is almost improbable given ME students are a very strong cohort. Perhaps these students are merely doing this to read the explanations of the questions they get wrong afterwards.

 

[kiwikillaz]

ME exams are on the harder exnd if the spectrum, while ACER practice exams are on the easier end of the spectrum. Therefore, to average ME exams and ACER exams collectively for each section is unreliable.

As for ACER exam 4, this forum has extensively mentioned that some S1 and S2 questions were from previous years. According to this, your scores seem on the higher end of the spectrum. But if you got your percentiles from ME, they’re unreliable again - because the ME report card shows several students getting in the 0-10/134 range - which is almost improbable given ME students are a very strong cohort. Perhaps these students are merely doing this to read the explanations of the questions they get wrong afterwards.

Does Medentry have worked solutions for Acer Exam 4?

 

[jiaxing]

Does Medentry have worked solutions for Acer Exam 4?

Yes

 

[pha0015]

is the Medentry worked solutions for acer exam 4 free for everyone, or just people who bought one of their packages?

 

[jiaxing]

is the Medentry worked solutions for acer exam 4 free for everyone, or just people who bought one of their packages?

Hmm let’s use logical reasoning to deduce an answer to your question.

We know that the solutions for ACER exam 4 are available on the LMS. To go on the LMS, you need to log in. To log in, you need a ME account. To have a ME account, you need to have drained your bank account.
Therefore, you need to have bought a package to access the account. This means the solutions are not free.

Ta da!

 

[kei]

For those who did the UMAT section by section, how did you keep track of time / know if you're going at the right pace or not? For instance, if I want to allocate 30 mins for doing section 2, how do I even know if I'm going at the right pace and how many questions of section 2 I have left as I go? TIA!

 

[AMedWannabe]

Day 3 of no umat pr

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

I think I am finding Construct 3 easier than Construct 1.

 

[AMedWannabe]

How good is a score of 84/134 questions? Isn't 100/134 around 100th percentile?

Best strategies/list of all possible strategies for MISSING SEGMENT questions?

Also advice for arms/quadrant questions and grid with intermediate shapes questions?

 

[RandoSuddo]

How good is a score of 84/134 questions? Isn't 100/134 around 100th percentile?

Best strategies/list of all possible strategies for MISSING SEGMENT questions?

Also advice for arms/quadrant questions and grid with intermediate shapes questions?

Depends on which exam, and even then - there's probably very little correlation between what you've been getting and what you will be getting. Some people do plenty of preparation and don't do too well, conversely, others do almost no preparation and score in the high 90s.

 

[A1]

How good is a score of 84/134 questions? Isn't 100/134 around 100th percentile?

Assuming these are for the real test and assuming the approx average of 2 marks per correct answer: 84/134 gives 168 = sub-80%ile (practically useless for non-rural), 100/134 gives 200 = 98-99%ile.
> UMAT 2017 percentile curves courtesy of Ruffle

It shows how big a difference 12-15 questions - just 1/10th of the test - make, yet people keep claiming prep is no use.
(Oh by prep I mean prep, not necessarily expensive paid prep).

 

[Chrismm]

For those who did the UMAT section by section, how did you keep track of time / know if you're going at the right pace or not? For instance, if I want to allocate 30 mins for doing section 2, how do I even know if I'm going at the right pace and how many questions of section 2 I have left as I go? TIA!

I was thinking the same thing. Are there a certain number of questions in each section?

 

[toulouse]

I was thinking the same thing. Are there a certain number of questions in each section?

I don't know the exact number of questions off the top of my head but I suppose something like S1 -48q's, S2-44, S3-40.
I do know for sure S1 will have the most number of questions.