UMAT Studying (1 Viewer)

[drsabz101]

To the aspiring med students , how are u studying for umat? I have been doing a couple of practice papers, but my marks are really low for Section 1, Section 2 is very ambiguous and section 3 I absolutely love and get great results.

Can anyone advise any tips to help improve in section 1, or how they have learnt to improve in this section . I know for section 2 , I should be expanding my vocab , which I am doing but still ineffective at times :/

Thanks!

ALSO: FORGOT TO MENTION... how long for section 1 is the reading material, eg. like 3/4 's of a page, 3 paragraphs roughly? Are some passages a whole page long?

 

[bangladesh]

for me section 1 was about learning to organise information using diagrams little tables etc and get good at doing that quickly.

Source: got 95%ile in s1

 

[drsabz101]

Now tell me whether drsabz101 is also Persian?

haha, Why would you say that ?

 

[drsabz101]

lol that's fine. It's my nickname! I am not persion though.

 

[ishfish]

With Section 1, most people find it difficult and so do I. It will certainly be hard when you first start it. However, I find that I have come a long way with doing those kinds of questions. Here is a suggestion!
1. Attempt 10 questions with absolutely no time limits. Solve them however you want.
2. Check out the solutions and how many you got correct.
3. Check if the solutions have a quicker method. Eg. Instead of calculating the answer, you maybe could have just subbed in the options or eliminated them (hope you get what I mean)
4. Now try 10 similar questions, and attempt it the quicker way.
5. See if you still reach the same answer
6. Rinse, Wash and Repeat.

This seems like a really long process and frankly speaking, it certainly can be. I'm finding it helped me but I hope it helps you too! Keep in mind that it takes a while to get into that frame of mind, but PERSIST. You'll get better! By the way, you are better off leaving exams till the very end where you have learnt most techniques.

Also with section 2, the easiest way I find is not to put myself in their shoes, but to DEDUCE how they are feeling. Why would that woman say that? Does it make any difference if she said it loudly or quietly? What if she shook with nervousness or straightened her back with confidence?

I find those things are helping me but only UMAT 2016 shall tell.

Good luck.

 

[drsabz101]

To ishfish
Thanks, those were some really great tips in which I hope to incorporate in my studying! It's good to know that I am not the only one that has struggled with section 1 ... Anyways, all the best for the 2016 UMAT

 

[drsabz101]

In addition to the above question I posted, please also comment on when you started umat study and what resources you used. I know some people that haven't studied at all and have aced the UMAT, , with others maybe doing a couple of practice papers 2 months before and getting in the high 90's.

 

[Silky_Smooth]

Alright, so basically I'm in the exact same position as you atm, in that I am currently studying for UMAT. I have completed a few free trial exams and have found Section 1 to be the most difficult with Section 2 and 3 coming much easier to me . I have researched for UMAT preparation information, resources etc. and have decided to share some of what I have found:

SECTION 1:
Generally this seems to be the section that people struggle with the most (so you're not alone). Like you have mentioned there are often walls of text that need to be analysed critically and you must be able to draw logical conclusions from it. The best way to study for this section appears to be reading on a regular basis and critically analysing each source (includes newspaper/scientific reports or even your favourite novel). This way you will train yourself to read more proficiently while also being able to retain the information better at the same time. I also found this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ac2A8wyRPQ) quite useful in helping me with other areas in this section. Essentially, time is the biggest factor for section 1 as it mostly consists of 'walls' of texts, so try to improve your reading speed without affecting your understanding of the passage.

SECTION 2:
This section mostly comes down to natural ability and life experiences. I believe that the way the answers are chosen is through ACER surveying people on how they would feel in certain circumstances, so try to answer by considering how the MAJORITY of people would feel in the situation rather than how YOU would feel. This section could almost be described as an empathy test because of this. Other than this I think it is important to familiarise yourself with different emotive words and their meanings as ACER always incorporates complex words in the answer section.
I would attach a list that I have compiled but I don't know how to lol.

SECTION 3:
This is by far the easiest section to study for because with practise you can easily memorise common patterns and techniques. I recommend knowing the 3-2 rule (just search it up) because it applies to many of the different questions in this section. Ultimately, the best way to improve in this section is by continuously practising.

In addition to what I have found out so far I think that time management is an essential factor in performing well in the UMAT, so be sure to make this a focus while you prepare. I hope that at least some of this information was useful to you and good luck on your prep.

 

[drsabz101]

Silkysmooth thanks for great detailed the tips, and the link for the video Hopefully, I will get better at section 1 and 2 after all this studying... Anyways, good luck and all the best for your UMAT studying as well!
Forgot to ask, are you joined with medentry or medstart?

 

[Silky_Smooth]

Forgot to ask, are you joined with medentry or medstart?

Not currently, but I am planning join medentry in the future. Not too sure about medstart, though, as I haven't heard much about it...

 

[drsabz101]

Same! I have heard good things though about medstart... just stick between which one to choose though. I'm pretty sure though that medstart has video solutions as well

 

[ishfish]

I think the reason why some people who study hard for the exam, do badly is because of inflexible thinking. They become used to questions like those from Medentry/Medstart which are arguably very different from the real thing. Thats why I feel like some people who dont prep a lot do better, because they are not rigidly bound by the same ways of thinking.

 

[drsabz101]

Ohh, okay. How did you know that that the questions are different compared to the actual UMAT style, did you end up joining these programs or was it from general feedback?

 

[Silky_Smooth]

I think the reason why some people who study hard for the exam, do badly is because of inflexible thinking. They become used to questions like those from Medentry/Medstart which are arguably very different from the real thing. Thats why I feel like some people who dont prep a lot do better, because they are not rigidly bound by the same ways of thinking.

Not necessarily, I know someone that did only Medentry prep and got in the 96th percentile. I've also heard that some people have found that questions from the Medentry exams have appeared in the actual UMAT (don't know how this is possible though). However, I do agree that you should not rely too heavily on these programs as they are businesses trying to make money after all. In saying that I will still be using them in my prep

 

[A1P]

I think the reason why some people who study hard for the exam, do badly is because of inflexible thinking. They become used to questions like those from Medentry/Medstart which are arguably very different from the real thing.

My experience is to the opposite though. I did ~2 months worth of Medxxxxx weekend practices, went to its 2-day workshop which included doing a trial test. Guess what... all three predicted section scores were spot on what I got in the real test.

I suppose that means their questions are not so different in style/nature?

However I'd put it 80% natural ability, 10% luck on the day, 10% practice. Practice helps improve your score a mere few percentiles but who knows that might be the crucial edge you need if borderline for selection.

 

[bangladesh]

Not necessarily, I know someone that did only Medentry prep and got in the 96th percentile. I've also heard that some people have found that questions from the Medentry exams have appeared in the actual UMAT (don't know how this is possible though). However, I do agree that you should not rely too heavily on these programs as they are businesses trying to make money after all. In saying that I will still be using them in my prep

Absolutely not true.

Another thing you guys don't realise is that UMAT is an exam purely designed to separate students so I feel like a good UMAT prep is one that kind of gives you an idea as to where you sit amongst others and medentry seems to be the only one that does that with the percentiles because otherwise you have no way of knowing how you're performing.

I see people mentioning that they found 'section 1 hard and section 2 easy' yes that maybe true but say one year umat is easy and a section 2 mark of 80% only corresponds to a 40%Ile in that section and vice versa, a section 2 mark in a hard year of say 50% could be 99%Ile. So be really careful when interpreting your performance because the test is designed to rank people and it's where your mark sits amongst others is that matters not the actual mark per

 

[Butterscotch]

I did Medentry this year and the cartoon question for section 2 did appear in one of their practice exams. The one about the husband putting wallpaper on the wall

 

[Silky_Smooth]

Absolutely not true.

Really.... I think that it is still plausible

I did Medentry this year and the cartoon question for section 2 did appear in one of their practice exams. The one about the husband putting wallpaper on the wall

 

[bangladesh]

I did Medentry this year and the cartoon question for section 2 did appear in one of their practice exams. The one about the husband putting wallpaper on the wall

But where the question and the options the same? because I did the umat when a cartoon from medentry appear and the options were different. Furthermore, the medentry answer may be different to the ACER answer so either way its irrelevant.

 

[drsabz101]

I'd rather be safe than sorry and just join a program