Counting problems in UMAT: an essential summary. Your UMAT questions explained by the  team at MedEntry  as part of our new section  UMAT test tactics and preparation. They may seem simple on paper, but counting problems contained within the UMAT exam can often cause much confusion among students. If you can understand the basic principles of counting problems and recognize when to apply them, you will be able to master many of the typical counting problem question types presented in the UMAT exam.   When counting elements that are in overlapping sets, the total number will equal the number in one group plus the number in...

To Melbourne or Monash for medicine? That  is the question. It's a question often asked by aspiring med students: ' should I study medicine at Melbourne or Monash?' To help you make up your own mind, we've compiled a clear, concise and simple breakdown of each of the available medicine pathways at Melbourne and Monash. For a comparison of UMAT against the GAMSAT please see the following article: ' UMAT or GAMSAT? which is harder? which is easier? '.   In summary, Medicine via UMAT  at Monash is far better for the students and their parents, but GMASAT route  at Melbourne...

Probability questions in the UMAT: you’re probably reading this sentence right now…   Your UMAT questions explained by the  team at MedEntry  as part of our new section  UMAT test tactics and preparation.   We know what probability means, but what is its formal definition? Let’s use our everyday logic to define it. If there is no chance that an event will occur, then its probability of occurring should be 0. On the other extreme, if an event is certain to occur, then its probability of occurring should be 100%, or 1. Hence, we can deduce that  probability will be a...

What you need to know about percentage % questions before starting your UMAT preparation:     Problems involving percent are common on the UMAT. The word  percent  means “divided by one hundred.” When you see the word “percent,” or the symbol %, remember it means 1/100. For example,   25 Percent   25 x 1/100 = 1/4   To convert a decimal into a percent, move the decimal point two places to the right. For example,   0.25 = 25% 0.023 = 2.3% 1.3 = 130%   Conversely, to convert a percent into a decimal, move the decimal point two...

A starting guide on how to tackle the multi-choice of UMAT from the team at MedEntry UMAT preparation:   The ’2 out of 4′ rule in multi-choice:   In any multi-choice test, it is significantly harder to create a good but incorrect answer than it is to create the correct answer. For this reason usually only two attractive answer-choices are offered. One correct; the other either intentionally misleading or only partially correct. The other three answer-choices are usually ‘fluff’. This makes educated guessing on tests immensely effective. If you can dismiss the two fluff choices, your probability of answering the question...

Process of Elimination or POE in UMAT: the  best  of a  bad bunch.   Comprehensive advice from the team at  MedEntry UMAT preparation.   Once you have established  what the UMAT question  is asking you need to act efficiently and narrow down your options to reach the correct answer. Using the Process of Elimination or POE method can greatly improve your chances of scoring highly on the UMAT because it provides a way of tackling questions where there seems to be no ideal answer.   Firstly , be wary of simply picking what you perceive, at first glance, to be the correct answer. There...

Yes, we’d all rather be on Facebook or YouTube, or twitter, or asos, but before you throw your hands up in exasperated defeat and open another tab in your internet browser, consider this…    If you do well in the UMAT exam, you will only have to sit it once. It’s 3 hours of your time which can open the door to a lifelong, rewarding and satisfying career in medicine and/or the health sciences.    If you do not study for the UMAT, you may have to re-sit it or be forced find alternative pathways to reach your health career...

UMAT: a multiple guess or multiple choice test? You choose.   A university lecturer of mine, once made the comment prior to us all about to sit an exam, that he would cry if we didn’t answer every question because: ‘guys, it’s a multiple choice paper, so even a monkey could get one in every four questions right’.  Although I’ve never personally seen a monkey sit the UMAT exam, statistically speaking, it was a fair point to make, and for the record: not one student failed that paper.   Why prepare for the UMAT or do UMAT preparation courses? To truly succeed...

UMAT stands for Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test.  It is an exam administered by ACER (The Australian Council for Educational Research), and is a prerequisite for selection into undergraduate medicine, dentistry and health science courses at most Australian universities. The UMAT aims to test your suitability as a medical professional by testing your ability in three areas: logical reasoning and problem solving, understanding people, and non-verbal reasoning. The UMAT is an annual three hour test, with multiple choice answers. Your UMAT results together with your high school score and your performance at an interview are the three criteria...

Let’s face it, in those final school years you’ve got enough on your plate without having to slot in yet another class to your already busy schedule. There’s no doubt about it, you really need to prepare for the UMAT test, and you should treat your UMAT preparation just like another school subject. The best way to prepare is in your own time – whenever and wherever you can. To have to attend yet another class would be difficult to say the least. It might clash with your other regular classes, and the venue might not be geographically ideal. A...

As you probably know ACER has changed the format of the UMAT test for 2013. It will no longer be three separate sections each with their own time limit. Sections 1, 2 and 3 type questions will now all be mixed up together in one big exam of 134 questions and 3 hours duration. It would be a good idea to start practising with such type of questions, because that is exactly what you will now have to do in the UMAT test. The most efficient and effective approach to use in tackling such questions will also be discussed during...

UMAT Tip: Educated Guessing in the UMAT exam. When sitting the UMAT students may face a difficult question that they can’t quite get their head around or they are running out of time and still have some questions they haven’t answered yet. Some people choose to leave the UMAT question blank.  This is a problem because there is very little time in the UMAT exam to return to previous UMAT questions  and UMAT candidates will often leave a UMAT question so that they can go back to it later but then run out of time. Also, a blank UMAT question...

Easy UMAT questions have obvious and popular answers: how to avoid falling into UMAT answer traps! As you complete more and more practice UMAT exams you may start to notice the following UMAT trend: Easy UMAT questions have obvious and popular answers, whilst hard UMAT questions have unexpected and unpopular answers. It helps to think of UMAT questions as popularity contests. The answer to an easy question is the most popular choice. The answer to a difficult question is the least popular choice. In other words,  popular UMAT answer choices on difficult questions are traps. If you think about the...

Medicine via  UMAT  or GAMSAT? For a simpler comparison of UMAT against the GAMSAT please see the following article:  ‘UMAT or GAMSAT? which is harder? which is easier?‘. Our view is that UMAT route is far superior for several reasons including: 1. No guarantee: Even if you do ace your GPA and do well in GAMSAT, there is no gurantee that you will get in: there is an interview as well. 2. More stress and uncertainty: You have just finished a hard slog for your final high school exams. Do you really want to continue to do that for another...

Multiple choice questions are much harder than they seem. Even though they give you the correct answer as one of the choices, selecting it amongst the others can sometimes be quite difficult. The UMAT consists of  only  multiple choice questions so if you learn how to ace this type of question, it will help you maximise your UMAT score. The following tips will not only benefit you in the UMAT, but in any other multiple choice questions that you may face. ANSWER EVERY QUESTION: For UMAT sections 1 and 2 you have a 1 in 4 chance of selecting the...

Personal UMAT tutoring Melbourne will allow you to build on your strengths and improve your areas of weakness in a one-on-one environment. You will be coached by an experienced tutor who has performed exceptionally well in the UMAT, interviews and school. Each Melbourne UMAT tutoring session is tailored specifically to your needs as students are able to direct the sessions towards the areas they wish to focus on (no set curriculum for the tutors) so that they are able to get the most out of each session. In turn, this will help students with their self-directed learning when they are...

This is a difficult question because it depends on so many things. Overall, they are both equally hard. Some students may have strengths in some areas and it may suit certain tests. For example some students may find the writing exercise in GAMSAT matches their strengths. For some students, the abstract reasoning may be their strength and find Section 3 of UMAT particularly easy. Overall both are competitive tests but the cohort of people sitting the tests are different. Most people who sit the UMAT are school leavers whereas those who sit GAMSAT come from a wide range of backgrounds (new grads, postgrads,...

Personal UMAT tutoring Sydney will allow you to build on your strengths and improve your areas of weakness in a one-on-one environment. You will be coached by an experienced tutor who has performed exceptionally well in the UMAT, interviews and school and who is located in the Sydney area. You can organise when, where, and how you would like to use your tutoring sessions. Each UMAT tutoring session is tailored specifically to your needs as students are able to direct the sessions towards the areas they wish to focus on (no set curriculum for the tutors) so that they are...

Understanding people in the UMAT exam. Absorbing and recalling all of the information that you need from the passages you are given in UMAT section 2 can be quite difficult, however there are ways to tackle these long and dense passages so that you are able to process them and extract the important information more efficiently and effectively and thus improve your section 2 UMAT score. How should I approach section 2 (understanding people) UMAT questions? One of the best ways to process section 2 UMAT stimuli is to break the paragraph down into simpler forms through paraphrasing.  This means...

My friend got into Medicine without doing a UMAT course!   Many students who undergo training for UMAT do not admit it for several reasons (for example, it increases their competition). A student may have obtained 90th percentile for UMAT and got in to medicine without doing a course. If they had done our course, they would have obtained a higher score, say 100th percentile (and perhaps been awarded a scholarship to study medicine as well). Even those who may obtain 100th percentile without preparation will be at the top end of 100th percentile (i.e. obtain a higher overall score) with preparation,...