The final years of high school are a stressful and demanding time for your son or daughter, and the need to sit the UMAT and face interviews places additional pressure on them during this time. Therefore, your active involvement in this process is crucial.

You can help your son or daughter in many ways throughout the year.

1. Get them interested

It is important to get your son or daughter motivated and interested in the UMAT at an early stage. Parents are advised to enroll their children into one of our programs as early as possible in year 12. Some parents even enroll their children in earlier years, some even in year 10 or 11!

This is important because the time pressures of year 12 need to be balanced with UMAT preparation. Further, some skills that the UMAT tests need to be developed over a length of time; it is difficult to ‘cram’ for the UMAT.

It is important that your son or daughter is aware of the crucial importance of the UMAT and interviews – in many cases they are more important than year 12 score in securing entry to health science courses such as medicine.

2. Choose the best preparation program

Selecting the best preparation course for the UMAT and interviews is crucial.

Be warned: the internet is a magnet for cheats, crooks, fraudsters, serial bankrupts and con artists; dodgy companies promising you all sorts of things and delivering very little; and worse, misleading you. Use of aggressive, unethical, misleading, deceptive and devious marketing strategies (such as operating numerous websites and anonymous forums) is their forte. Their classic formula is superficially slick but fundamentally fraudulent, so beware. They hide behind a façade of anonymity. All this sounds unbelievable? Yes, but it is true! Hence our plea: Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware. Don’t become one of the many who have been fleeced and found to their regret later that there is very little they could do. Please ensure you read Truths about UMAT Prep before you purchase.

Numerous students have been misled by the purchase of practice tests which have little resemblance to the real UMAT, which resulted in them performing poorly. Please make sure your son or daughter does not become one of these unfortunate students – you only get one chance per year with the UMAT.

"The bottom line is to avoid a site that does not say who is behind it" (Readers Digest January 2005, p26). Hence our plea: please do not buy from or rely on information from sites that are not authentic and hide behind a facade of anonymity.

Our promise to you: Our UMAT Prep team is made up of health professionals and future health professionals. We will one day be your colleagues. We do not believe in making false promises or undermining our integrity; we believe in offering you quality products and effective services. This is our promise to you!

Our quality guarantee: if you are not completely satisfied with the quality of our products, we will offer you a refund. Also, if you have been to another UMAT course and been disappointed in the quality of their service, we will offer you a free place in our workshop.

3. Be aware of university admissions requirements

It is important to be aware of the various deadlines to be met and applications to be made throughout the year. Each university has specific requirements for entry, and some can be complex. Missing a deadline could mean a missed opportunity for a place in a health science course.

It is important to contact the admissions officer of each course your child is interested in. To help this process, you can download our university contacts document from the free downloads page.

Please remember that the time and money you invest during these crucial years are a worthwhile investment in your son or daughter’s future. Having them achieve their goals and enter a secure, prestigious and worthwhile profession is an invaluable gift to give.

From the parents at MedEntry