SMART goals for UMAT training

Setting goals is always difficult. There are so many factors that dictate whether or not you achieve your goals, but the most important step is actually setting these goals.

This is especially true for the UCAT, as it is a stressful time with year 12 always looming in the background. So when setting goals, I always like to follow a system called SMART.

Specific
Any goal you set should have very specific details on what you wish to achieve. If your goals are unspecific, you are much more likely to blow them of. Having a specific target also gives you something to always look forward to achieving. Furthermore the fact that you have this set goal allows you to gauge how close or how far off you are from meeting your expectations. This again gives you both motivation and structure when attempting to achieve a goal.
 

Measurable
If you can’t measure it, then don’t do it. In other words, make sure you have constant check in points where you can see your progress. It is important so that any improvements can actually be visualized and tracked.  Having a goal that can’t be measured also won’t give you a sense of accomplishment, so having numbers, even if they are arbitrary, will allow you to track your progress while giving you something to work for.
 

Attainable
Be realistic. If you set unrealistic goals, you are just setting yourself up for failure and this will have consequences on your state of mind. The UMAT® Exam is all about confidence and setting unreasonable goals will NOT help you build that confidence. This doesn’t mean you should set easy goals, that’s not going to achieve anything, you want to stretch for your aims but you should know how far you can stretch.  This is a good reality check and will stop you from giving up altogether.
 

Relevant
This is important to consider. All goals should be relevant and have something to do with where you ultimately want to be. It is useless to set goals which won’t improve your chances. All goals should be well-thought off and designed to improve your performance. For instance, there is little point in honing your advanced maths or cramming science material from the UMAT® Exam,  practicing your basic calculus and reading skills is a lot more relevant.
 

Time Based
Finally, all your goals should have expiration dates and timestamps. This is probably the most important step to setting good goals. If you have no exact time frame for a goal, you are much more likely to slack or even just disregard the goal. If you have an exact time that this needs to be achieved by, then there is that little bit more pressure getting you to knuckle down and get things done.

Now that we have talked about the five steps to consider let me give you an example of how I set one during my studies for the UMAT® Exam:

I wanted to get better at section 3 type questions:

S- Improvement in section three questions.

M- Improvement by at least 20% in the practice exams I used from the UMAT® Exam preparation course I purchased.

A- 20% improvement is defiantly realistic and after doing research it is possible to improve by this much 

T- I wanted to do this within 2 months.

By following this I did end up improving my section 3 scores significantly!

Happy Studying!