General UMAT preparation tips

Although the UCAT is an aptitude test, you can always prepare for it! There are so many strategies you can use to prepare for the UMAT® Exam.

Remember, everyone is different, so it’s all about finding what works for you.

The main aim of UMAT® Exam preparation is quite unlike other year 12 exams in which your main focus is to broaden your knowledge and make sure you KNOW everything. The UMAT® Exam tests aptitude, so there is not much you can memorize to help you do well. Rather, you want get familiar and a general feel for the exam; improve your speed and manage your time more effectively; and also just getting enough practice for certain questions so you can do them like it’s second nature.

First let’s first talk about specific sections and then move on to broader preparation tips.
 

Section 1 – Logical reasoning and Problem Solving
This section essentially tests how quickly you can solve problems or analyze data and almost always have some sort of textual or graphical stimulus accompanying the question.

So the best way to prepare for this section is to first and foremost improve your reading and understanding speed. This can be done primarily through simply reading an assortment of different texts and really trying to focus on both understanding and quickly reading it at the same time. Many also find it helpful to formulate questions around the text and answering them.

As with most UMA® Exam preparation, practice is also a key component to mastering this section – so I strongly recommend doing regular practice on this section.
 

Section 2 – Understanding People
This section generally has a few questions surrounding an excerpt of an interaction, personal reflection or some literary passage and largely focuses on a person’s feelings, thoughts or their behavior. Essentially the section wants to test your empathy and ability to understand people – and so is arguably the hardest section to train for, but it can be done.

Similar to section 1, since this is a reading section, the main way to prepare is by improving reading speed. This can be done by reading a variety of literary texts dealing with emotional encounters and possibly formulating questions.

Another important way to prepare for this section is to improve your vocabulary. This again can be done through reading widely or by learning a couple of words a day (either through a dictionary app or even by skimming the dictionary), however the latter is quite tiresome and not as effective.
 

Section 3 – Non-Verbal Reasoning
This section is all about patterns and sequences involving shapes, numbers and even letters. There are a variety of different types of questions involving picking the middle of a sequence, the next in the sequence, the odd one out and many more. This section is arguably the easiest to improve in as it can be heavily practiced.

The main way to prepare for this section is to learn methods to solve such question, which can be aided through a UMAT® Exam preparation course, or you can simply formulate these methods yourself. The next step would be to apply and practice these methods time and time again with practice questions.
 

General tips:
Keep in mind that although you can prepare for the UMAT® Exam, you do not want to OVER prepare for it. As I mentioned above, everyone is different and will require different amounts of preparation so don’t be fussed if someone is doing more or less than you – just be focused on yourself and if what you’re doing meets YOUR needs.

On average, most people tend to start in the beginning of the year (so about six months before the UMAT® Exam). At this stage you still don’t have to stress too much and can just begin to get a feel for the exam and the style of questions. You should also be trying to formulate methods to tackle certain questions and working out your weaknesses. As a rule of thumb – about 3 hours a week of UMAT® Exam preparation is good to start of with and this can be gradually increased. Practice exams are probably not necessary at this stage as you’re still working out the nooks and crannies of the questions.

Around 3 or 4 months ahead of the exam, you should start timing yourself and work on getting a certain number of questions done within the allocated time. By this stage you should also have an idea as to what section gets you down, and you should try and put in more effort in improving that section.

As a guide, and depending on the type of preparation course you pick and their resources, it is helpful to do one full-length, timed practice exam each week in the lead up to the exam. It may also be helpful to do a few questions from each section per day and ensuring you are doing these quickly enough.

It is also helpful to perhaps discuss the questions/practice exams with a couple of friends (especially helpful for section 2) to get to know different methods to tackling questions and understanding stimuli.

Lastly, remember a little bit of stress is good but a lot is bad! So feel free to take the few days before the UMAT® Exam off! Watch your favorite TV sit-com or just sleep. By this stage the UMAT® Exam should just be any other small exam that you can blitz through so don’t worry!