Biggest mistakes made in the UMAT

They say that learning from your mistakes is arguably one of the most effective way to learn. But rather, wouldn’t it be more effective if we could just learn from everyone else’s mistakes and avoid the issue altogether? That’s the dream right! I thought to ask a few fellow medical students what they wish they had known before going into the UMAT® Exam.

UMAT® Exam is a test of your ability to use logic and reason to interpret a variety of both verbal and nonverbal stimulus. An easy mistake to make is to underestimate the power of the mind. You will be amazed just how much a bad mindset can influence your ability to perform and undo all your hard work. Think about it, if you were in a really bad mood, or something heavy was playing your mind, how are you likely to view an emotional situation such as those posed to you in section 2? Chances are, your attitude will be reflected in your answer and this can often be disastrous. If you’re going through a rough time, as difficult as it may be, you have to put it aside for the day- or at least for 3 hours. Don’t make the same mistake as so many before you!

You need to look at the UMAT® Exam exam as exactly what it is: an aptitude test. They’re not really trying to test how smart you are, but they want to put you out of your comfort zone just enough to stress you. This often leads into two states of mind that have brought down many people in the past:

1. This exam is impossible: No! If you’ve done all the hard work for it, then this thought is just blatantly false. Never go into UMAT® Exam thinking that it is going to be too hard because if you think it, it will become your reality.

2. I’ve been sitting exams for years: it’s all basically the same: No! Feeling too stressed out, and feeling too chilled out has equal effects and they’re not good. The UMAT® Exam is not a HSC® Exam exam and should not be treated like a HSC® Exam exam. It has a completely different structure, requires alternative thinking and separate preparation.

Another good pointer is that you need to leave everything you know about the world at the door of the exam centre. Particularly in the first section of the UMAT® Exam, you are given a collection of information- some of which may be purposely absurd- and expected to interpret it and answer any related questions. One very common mistake is to use common sense as opposed to reading the information. For example, if you are given an extract from a report that explicitly says ‘sleeping causes cancer’, no matter how illogical it sounds in your head, this is the correct information to answer the question. If you use your own knowledge or common sense as opposed to using the information given to you in the text, you fail to demonstrate your ability to reason based solely on the facts given to you and will almost certainly answer the questions wrong.

Now this is one I am 100% guilty of and I know a lot of disappointed prospective medicine students are also: if you are bad at one section, do not think that if you just do well in the other sections and wing that one, you’ll be fine. Percentile wise, you might be fine, for example if you get 70, 47 and 80 in each section respectively, you’ll probably still come out with a fabulous UMAT® Exam percentile. However despite your killer UMAT® Exam score, a prerequisite for a majority of the undergraduate medical schools is that you pass each section. So if you are neglecting UMAT® Exam preparation for a section altogether, it could be your undoing.

Learn from the mistakes of my fellow medical students and myself. We have all agreed that if we had have known this information going into the UMAT® Exam the first time around, we would have been much better off! Take hindsight by the reins and ride it to the end, you’re almost at the finish line so good luck and happy study!