General advice on UMAT

[orsel]

Preface

Having finally finished everything I've needed to do for this year(interviews over w00t), I've now gained some spare time, and so I thought I might try and contribute something to this community so that I won't be a total leecher .

And this is it! Its gonna take a while for me to completely finish it but I've posted a bit up so I can get some feedback. I'll be updating this as I go; all comments, suggestions, criticisms etc are welcome as I realise that I have no actual credentials regarding UMAT--all I'm doing is relaying my own preparation for it.

Ok now onto the show.

General Information

First step is to see if the course you wish to study requires UMAT. In general, most health sciences will require it, but check to be sure: www.google.com.au is your friend.

The next thing to do is to not underestimate the UMAT. Your UMAT score will likely be used as a major component in the allocation of any interview offers for your desired health course(s), as well as determining your final ranking by the university. Having said that, don't stress out too much either!

UMAT is available to any candidate whose educational level at the time of sitting the test is final year of secondary schooling or higher.

i.e. you should only sit UMAT if you are in year 12. However, rumour has it that year 11s have sat UMAT before and gone successfully undetected, and I assume that realistically, if you then used that result, ACER/the universities wouldn't have a clue; personally I wouldn't risk it as ACER may ban you from ever sitting UMAT again if you do this and somehow get caught.

Apply to sit the UMAT on their website: http://umatweb.acer.edu.au/

Registrations for UMAT2009 will open in April 2009. The UMAT registration fee is $160 (GST inclusive).
If you are eligible for concession(check their website), the registration fee is $70.

You will sit your UMAT a few weeks after your June holidays end(so use some of that time to prepare), 29th July to be precise, unless you present with a serious illness, etc misfortune. It will be a bitchin' two and a half hours long, continuous multiple choice test consisting of 3 separate sections(more info on this later). Make no mistake; although it is a MCQ test, the UMAT is tough by design. You must complete the sections in order and you are not permitted to go back to a section after the time allocated for that section runs out. No reading time will be given.

Again, though I do not condone cheating: since you will be filling out all the answers on the same answer sheet, it is possible to discreetly fill in any blanks in a section if you run out of time in that section.

I won't go into any more detail on the specifics of the process, as this will be available when ACER releases their 2009 information booklet in March.

Sections 1,2 and 3
I'll cover some general advice regarding all three sections before moving on to section-specific information, which will be attached as word documents.

Given that UMAT is a MCQ test, all the usual techniques for these type of questions apply:

- elimination: cross out the ones you know are definitely false so you don't waste time thinking about them again

- similar answers: often, there will be 2 answers that are particularly close to each other in meaning, so this may signal that one of them is the correct one

- working backwards: in some cases, its easier to quickly check the answers before reading the question stimuli than to do the question in the straightforward approach

- the most 'correct' answer: if two options are quite similar, you choose the one that is 'best'. The definition of the 'best' answer does vary though, especially between sections 1 and 2.

- try and get it correct the first time round: as it has probably been noted, you don't have much time to finish each section. However if you do get some time left over to check, don't panic about whether you should change an answer if you suddenly think you've found a better one.

The theory that a student should trust their first instinct and stay with their initial answer on a multiple choice test is a myth. Researchers have found that although people often believe that changing answers is bad, it generally results in a higher test score. The data across twenty separate studies indicate that the percentage of "right to wrong" changes is 20.2%, whereas the percentage of "wrong to right" changes is 57.8%, nearly triple.[5] Changing from "right to wrong" may be more painful and memorable, but is probably a good idea to change an answer after additional reflection indicates that a better choice could be made.

- skip it and come back later: don't get stuck on a question, most people don't finish the UMAT comfortably

- random guess: if all else fails, better than leaving it blank. Marks are not deducted for wrong answers.

UMAT is quite time-intensive. You will have ~1 min per question, for all sections. For this reason, I'd recommend that you take a look at speed reading, however some of the techniques for speed reading are inadequate for the UMAT, e.g. skimming, scanning as these involve skipping some of the information. You have to pay attention to detail or you may miss critical information.

I personally found chunking to work well. It basically involves reading words in groups of 4 or so instead of individually, since a lot of words are 'filler' anyway, so its only important to consider maybe 1 in 4 words. Google it if you want to know more, but keep in mind that you don't have to speed read if it doesn't work for you, and attempting to do so without significant practice will be detrimental to your UMAT score.

I guess I should also give some space to the psychological aspect of tackling UMAT. Try and eat well, sleep well, feel well during the lead-up to UMAT. Think positive, remain calm, and proceed forward throughout the UMAT while ignoring that voice telling you "ohnoes i definitely got that last question wrong". Focus, focus, focus, because time is of crucial importance. If you're like me then you'll be pretty burnt out after the first hour or so, but you have to keep thinking at 110% capacity till the test ends, you have absolutely no time to daydream or slack off.
Speed Reading for the UMAT
Reading quickly is a useful skill for any exam and UMAT is no exception. The faster you finish reading the given information, the more time you have to answer the question.

However, comprehension is also an important factor. It would be absolutely futile to read at 1000 WPM(words per minute) if you only retain 1% of it. Keeping this in mind, certain speed reading techniques that involve 'skipping' information, such as skimming, will probably be ineffective for the UMAT, since it is necessary to think critically about the information presented.

There are, IMO from personal practice, 3 main ways to increase reading speed without significantly reducing comprehension: chunking, avoiding subvocalisation+regression and reading faster over unimportant words.

Chunking:
In normal reading, most people look at words individually, continually fixating and moving their gaze as it passes from one word to the next. Chunking involves processing several words at one fixation, thus increasing overall reading speed.

Try focusing on a single word in this post (there are many to choose from lol), and relaxing your gaze a little. You'll notice that you can at least make out the two words adjacent to it through your peripheral vision. Now just rinse and repeat, skipping a fixation on the next two words, and you have it.

So now instead of reading it as "In normal reading, most people look at words individually", you would read it something like "| In normal reading | most people look | at words individually |".

One thing to note is that your chunking doesn't have to be perfect, i.e. you don't have to do it as neatly and precisely as in the example above. In your first reading of any UMAT stimuli, it is more important to 'chunk' around key words to give you an overall grasp of the information, rather than making sure you've seen every single word provided to you. After you've read the question, then you can quickly go back to where the answer is roughly located and start reading more thoroughly.

Significant vs Insignificant Words
Most words will contribute little to the overall meaning of the sentences they produce. Usually, these words are merely used to provide a structure for the sentence, and can actually be removed without significantly affecting the meaning. This especially applies for adjectives. Consider this: "these words...provide...structure for...sentence...can...removed without...affecting...meaning".

Now, I'm no expert in technicalities of English -- I can't tell my nouns from my verbs anymore, but in layman's terms these insignificant words are often descriptive words(e.g. merely, significantly) and 'filler' words(are, to, a).

The significant words are often positives/negatives(can, without), nouns(words, structure, sentence) and, for lack of a better phrase, 'unusual' words(provide, removed).

Read faster, practically skip, over insignificant words, while conversely reading slower over the important ones. This increases reading speed while maintaining comprehension.

Subvocalisation+Regression
Coming soon
Wow this is becoming a massive wall of text. I'll transfer the speed reading section to a word document once I've edited it to people's satisfaction.

Just to keep track, stuff still needed to complete: speed reading, individual aspects of sections 1/2/3, maybe something on UMAT prep courses or other practice material?

Any more suggestions?

[mystikal]

Do you suggest going to any of those UMAT courses?

[orsel]

Well, yes, to be honest I think I would've crashed horribly in the UMAT if I didn't take a UMAT course.

As it is, I only suffered a minor bump. However, I don't want you thinking that a UMAT course is necessary; there are people who do brilliantly in UMAT without it. Also, there is the factor of whether you / your parents have 200-1000 dollars to spare, depending on which course you want. Doing a UMAT course in no way guarantees you a higher score as your base intelligence will determine your capacity to achieve a better score, however obviously doing course > not doing course.

I personally opted for Medentry, based on my research(forum lurking) into various courses. In hindsight their guides on sections 2 and 3 emulated UMAT '08 quite closely, however there was a bit of discrepancy in their section 1 preparation, nothing major, just that the actual UMAT seemed much more focused on 'information'-style questions over 'logic problem'-style questions.

[dekoyl]

I keep hearing about speed reading which gets me worried. I'm not sure how much time is required to pick up this skill, but so far I haven't been making any progress.
I just can't seem to group that many words into one chunk.

[orsel]

Don't worry about it too much at this stage, you've got seven months after all, lol.

There are several different techniques in speed reading, so try them and see which works for you, if any. Chunking is just my personal preference, so no need to get too worked up about it if you're not that good at it. Anyway, you don't need to group too many words in a chunk; if you think about it, grouping words in twos pretty much doubles your reading speed already, and you can make up for it by reading the small chunks faster.

I'll expand the speed reading section more later in the morning if I'm not too sleepy, gotta do a bit of research into it to refresh my memory.

[lacoste]

for the actual UMAT exam orsel,
are there many very difficult vocabulary in the reading/understanding people section?

[orsel]

Yes, your vocab has to be fairly diverse, and essentially it tests your knowledge of English as much as your 'empathy' with fictional characters.

Its not so much difficult in the sense that they choose obscure words, but more that you need to know the specific nuances of many words. E.g. frustrated and angry are very similar, yet frustration also involves a hint of annoyance. There will often be choices like these on the UMAT, and you have to choose the best one.

So yeah, try and have a think about emotive words and their various connotations. I'll make sure to include this when I get to it (surprisingly busy atm with family friends coming over all the time).

btw, don't hesitate to give me more feedback/questions. Still kinda quiet, lol.

@dekoyl:

I need more time to thoroughly research and organise the info, but have a look at this website first, in particular points 4,6 and 8 seem quite relevant:http://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Speed-Reading

[lacoste]

Cheers Orsel,
Is the UMAT like the SAT etc from the USA?

Do you have any advice on how to approach the pattern type of questions, I'm really horrible at them?

[orsel]

Nah I don't think it would be like the SAT. As I remember, SAT is a knowledge-based test, whereas UMAT is more of an aptitude-based test, like IQ tests. It tests your thinking process rather than information recall.

Pattern-type questions in section 3 are actually relatively easy once you practice enough. You'll be able to spot common patterns in the sequence after becoming familiar with them. In general, look for simple sequences, not complex ones, and look at each component of the sequence separately, e.g. if its a square with a triangle in it, look at how they change separately. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but IMO its still important to work on recognising common patterns so you can do them faster. I'll try to give more specific advice when I get to it, probably sometime after new year's.

Practice significantly helped me here, I basically borrowed a heap of IQ/Mensa books from the library and worked on it throughout the holidays. If you've bought a UMAT prep course or the ACER practice booklets, just try and follow the style of the examples they've given in choosing questions to do from the books you borrow. There is/was a stronger emphasis on visual/geometric sequences over numeric sequences in the actual UMAT, i.e. things with shapes rather than numbers. Actually, now that I think about it, I can't recall a single question on UMAT '08 that had something to do with numbers, so you should focus mainly on shapes.

The main problem I found in the actual UMAT was that I was just absolutely dead tired by the time I reached section 3, so I would recommend you to try and improve your mental endurance if possible.

[NE2000]

Awesome orsel. A question: did you find that the questions in the actual UMAT, particularly for section 3, resembled those in the ACER practice booklets or the MedEntry practice tests at all?

[shinny]

Section 1: Most of it resembled it except the heavy emphasis on logic games by MedEntry. The actual UMAT was predominately reading comprehension and data analysis.

Section 2: Yep, MedEntry got it spot on I think.

Section 3: MedEntry has both shape and number patterns, whereas the actual UMAT pretty much only had shapes. They also weren't anywhere near as hard in the real thing as on the MedEntry system (which has some pretty ridiculous patterns mind you).

[orsel]

Well, shinjitsuzx has already said pretty much what I would have, lol.

I do disagree on one point though; for section 2 I have nfi whether Medentry actually helped me.

It could just be that my own empathetic skillz were off or something, but I didn't trust some of the answers they gave. I also didn't know if their training improved my ability in section 2, it seemed like doing literature helped me a lot more in the close analysis of the emotions of characters. The actual questions themselves were very similar to the UMAT, though.


Again, as usual, any more questions/criticism are welcome. I'll resume this guide after I get back from my vacation in about 2 weeks time. If you don't ask now, I won't be around at crunch time in July cos I'll probably leave this site after I finish this guide, before uni starts.

[shinny]

Heh I had the same problem. MedEntry didn't help me at Section 2 at all either and my horrible score shows this, but I don't think it was on fault of MedEntry that this happened. I think Section 2 is actually for once one of those things that are extremely hard to study for and yeh, that's pretty much it. Even on the MedEntry system, my scores varied between 30 percentile to 97, with an average of around 80. On the day, I got around 66 I think it was. My advice would be to give a try at improving your section two through practise, but if it consistently varies like mine did, then just invest your time into section 1 and 3 (ESPECIALLY 3) because they pay the best return on time spent. And yeh, you don't have to ace all three sections so don't worry; even with my 66 taking me down, I still ended up with 98 percentile so don't worry...almost EVERYONE at the high end screws up section 2.

[NE2000]

Thanks orsel and shinjitsuzx. Apart from speed-reading techniques which I'm trying out for a bit to see whether I can get the hang of them, and doing the practice tests, how else can you spend your time preparing for section 1? Section 3, I've heard IQ tests can be helpful in getting your thinking right when approaching these type of questions. But what about section 1?

[shinny]

I'd say just grinding MedEntry practise exams. If you don't have the luxury of doing so, simple things such as reading newspaper articles, or preferably something more scientific if you can, and recalling quickly in your head the main points and especially facts introduced in that article. This reading comprehension style question makes up a large proportion of the paper and often takes ages so get good at it. The other style are the logic game style questions, and these are quite hard to train up. I personally didn't find that much improvement in them, apart from experience giving me an edge when deciding on methods to solve these, such as drawing up tables (most common method). The last type of question is data analysis, and this is USUALLY quite simple, although it can become quite time heavy if they give you a dodgy question.

Overall, this leads to the greatest skill you need to develop. Knowing which questions to skip because they are just ridiculous either in difficulty, or in time. I personally left around 10 questions (well, guessed) on section one, and still came out at 95 percentile. My speed reading was horrible so the key to my success I believe was just doing all the questions which I knew I could do, and fast, while skipping all the hard ones, or ones which I could do, but would take ages (such as the ones where you have to compare sets of data and stuff). Just remember that you don't need to finish it, so just aim to get the maximum number correct in the time allotted.