The final year of school can be a tough year. If you want to do well and obtain entry into your chosen course, you have to put in the effort and work. On top of assessments and exams, there is also UMAT preparation. How do you fit it all in? We have tips for you below on how to optimise your time.  UMAT preparation is a subject A lot of students find it a difficult task to manage all their subjects and do UMAT preparation as well. But the process can be made easier starting with a simple mindset change....

Confused about how to approach UMAT preparation? When should I start my UMAT prep? Is there even a point to preparing for the UMAT? Well, if you are reading this, you would have started preparing already. What is the UMAT for? If you are interested in undergraduate medicine, dentistry or other health science related fields, you will need the UMAT. (More info: http://www.medentry.edu.au/faq/umat ) The UMAT (Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test) is a test administered by ACER to help in the selection of students for those given courses. It is usually sat in year 12 for students going...

Does patient confidentiality always prevail? Scenario:  You have been working at Pinehills Prison and Corrections Centre as the in-house physician for approximately six months. Being a physician in a prison has required you to slowly build a sense of trust with the inmates (many of whom suffer from serious psychological illness) over a long period of time. The process has been arduous and often emotionally draining, but you finally feel like you are building a positive rapport with the some of the inmates and have seen a steady improvement in both their physical and mental health as a result of your ongoing...

UMAT test tactics and preparation: an overview.   UMAT test tactics and preparation part 1: Avoiding multiple confusions in the multiple choice section of UMAT UMAT test tactics and preparation part 2: Process of Elimination in UMAT multichoice UMAT test tactics and preparation part 3: UMAT questions involving percentages UMAT test tactics and preparation part 4: Probability questions UMAT test tactics and preparation part 5: Counting Problems in UMAT UMAT test tactics and preparation part 6: Statistics problems on the UMAT UMAT test tactics and preparation part 7: Worded mathematical problems UMAT test tactics and preparation part 8: Practical tips...

Congratulations on your decision to pursue medicine as a career! Medicine is an interesting, valued and rewarding profession. The process of getting into medicine can be confusing, so here’s an introduction.   Criteria for getting into medicine Unlike most other courses, getting into medicine doesn’t just require a high ATAR. Entry into medicine at most universities is based on three criteria: ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank) UMAT (Undergraduate Medical and Health Sciences Admission Test) Interview (some universities also require a written application) Each university differs slightly in how they go about selecting students for medicine, so it is important to...

Why doing well in English is  essential  for gaining entry into medicine and succeeding in your medical course and career. Some students love it. Others hate it: Reading books, writing essays and analysing articles where the content matter is highly subjective and there is no definitive ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer. English is the polar opposite of many subjects favoured by maths and science minded students because essay questions require a highly critical and subjective thinking style in order to write high scoring responses. However, like it or not, all students looking to study undergraduate medicine or other popular health science...

Is studying medicine at Melbourne more prestigious than Monash? Is studying medicine at Usyd more prestigious than UNSW? And in the end, does it really matter? University rankings and prestige: how much do they matter for studying medicine? Prestige, prestige, prestige. It’s a battle cry often heard echoing from the halls of the oldest universities and repeated with an unwavering insistence of certain parents that: ‘my son will only obtain his the degree from The University of…’ (Well, we don’t need to name names here..) When selecting the university with the right medicine course for you, we would suggest that...

How are UMAT results calculated? Unfortunately ACER does not release the marking scheme that is used determine UMAT scores. There is some speculation as to the following: answering a question correctly that is not answered correctly by the majority of UMAT candidates will be weighted more heavily. And conversely, answering a question incorrectly that most UMAT candidates do answer correctly, will be weighted more heavily against a candidate’s UMAT score. However, because ACER does not release the marking scheme or question weightings for the UMAT it is impossible to be absolutely certain of this. What is certain though, is the...

Does patient confidentiality always prevail? Scenario:  You have been working at Pinehills Prison and Corrections Centre as the in-house physician for approximately six months. Being a physician in a prison has required you to slowly build a sense of trust with the inmates (many of whom suffer from serious psychological illness) over a long period of time. The process has been arduous and often emotionally draining, but you finally feel like you are building a positive rapport with the some of the inmates and have seen a steady improvement in both their physical and mental health as a result of your ongoing...

You wouldn’t run a race without a coach. You wouldn’t sit your final exams without a teacher. So why would you sit the UMAT without having done some preparation first? Isn’t the UMAT an aptitude test, so what’s the point in preparing? The  UMAT  may be an ‘aptitude’ test, but there can be no doubt that having seen UMAT style questions before, and understanding how to answer them, will increase your chances of succeeding in the UMAT. While practice may not always make perfect, practice does increase your ability to perform in the UMAT exam because you can hone those  thinking...

Which universities use the UMAT as part of their selection criteria for medicine courses? According to the official ACER website, the following universities require satisfactory completion of the  UMAT  as part of their selection criteria for students who are seeking to gain entry into  undergraduate medicine and health science courses.  There are also some universities which use the UMAT as part of their graduate entry programmes. For all of the following universities, performance on the UMAT will not be the only requirement to gain entry, but for most of these universities it will be the first criterion that students need...

By this stage, you will have well and truly completed your UMAT preparation. The day before the UMAT test is all about getting yourself in the right state of mind for the UMAT exam so that you can remain as stress-free as possible and perform at your best when it counts.   What should I do the day before the UMAT exam? -Make sure you know the location of your UMAT test centre and how to get there. Remember for some locations parking may be limited and inner-city traffic can be very heavy especially during peak hour.  If you’re planning...

Pressure, pressure: coping with nerves and stress on the actual UMAT test day. Having done UMAT practice exam, after practice exam, after practice exam, most UMAT candidates will be raring to go come July 30th. Whilst UMAT preparation  is key to your UMAT success, it is not the only factor that will affect your UMAT performance on the actual UMAT test day. Being able to cope with the nerves and anxiety that inevitably appear on the day of the UMAT exam will be the key strength that will help you out-perform your fellow UMAT candidates. Perhaps the only thing separating two...

We all know that sick feeling in the bottom of our stomachs just prior to walking into a big exam; we’re jittery, shaking and generally thinking that we’d rather be anywhere else but here. Nerves can be debilitating in the most terrible way for even the brightest of students. Thus, it is crucially important that your learn to overcome these nerves before the actual day of the UMAT test so that you can perform at your peak and ultimately succeed in the UMAT.   How do I know if I’m nervous about the UMAT exam? Nervousness is generally marked by...

Coping with UMAT stress and UMAT nerves prior to the UMAT exam: We all know that sick feeling in the bottom of our stomachs just prior to walking into a big exam; we’re jittery, shaking and generally thinking that we’d rather be anywhere else but here. Nerves can be debilitating in the most terrible way for even the brightest of students. Thus, it is crucially important that your learn to overcome these UMAT nerves before the actual day of the UMAT test so that you can perform at your peak and ultimately succeed in the UMAT.   How do I...

With UMAT 2013 just around the corner, and UMAT preparation of most students well and truly under way, we thought we would address the issue of nerves and anxiety that can happen on UMAT test day. Below is a simple check list of UMAT test tactics that you can utilise to overcome this UMAT pressure and tips on how to tackle the actual UMAT exam itself.   Firstly, don’t doubt yourself! Just because you don’t feel like you’ll be at the top, doesn’t mean you’ll be at the bottom either. Assuming you have sufficiently prepared for the UMAT, you are at no...

Worded mathematical problems on the UMAT exam: translating worded problems into mathematical symbols. comprehenisve UMAT advice from the  team at MedEntry UMAT preparation . Possibly the most confusing questions on the UMAT exam, worded mathematical problems can actually be solved relatively easily if you understand how the question is written and what the words of the question really mean in mathematical terms. Prior to solving worded mathematical problems on the UMAT exam, it is essential that you are comfortable with translating words into mathematical symbols. Below is a partial list of words and their mathematical equivalents. You should know these...

A brief comparison of studying medicine at UNSW or Usyd for 2014 onwards.   Whilst the release of final ATAR results may still be a while away, it is important for high achieving students to consider now whether they would choose to study medicine at UNSW or Usyd. Below is a simple and concise outline of what each of the UNSW medicine and Usyd medicine pathways, respectively, entail.   What has changed? Usyd will change from awarding MBBS to MD or Doctor of Medicine. The change to MD has not yet been finalised – it requires approval from the University...

Medicine entry via GAMSAT or UMAT? what’s the difference? It’s a question anyone wanting to gain entry into medicine will inevitably ask: ‘Am I better off sitting the UMAT and doing an undergraduate medicine degree, or should I sit the GAMSAT to gain entry into a graduate medicine course?’ To make things easier, below is a comparative summary of some of the key elements of both the GAMSAT (graduate entry pathway) and the UMAT (undergraduate entry pathway) so you can make up your own mind. See our earlier blog entries for a simple comparison of  studying medicine at Monash or...

How to approach statistics problems on the UMAT exam: Frequently a feature of UMAT multi choice, understanding the language of statistics and how to answer those questions involving statistics on the UMAT exam is essential for UMAT success. Below, we have explained, as succinctly as possible, what you need to know in order to answer this style of UMAT question. Statistics is the study of the patterns and relationships of numbers and data. There are four main concepts that may appear on the UMAT exam. Median   When a set of numbers is arranged in order of size, the  median...