Taking a Gap Year to Resit the UMAT?

After taking the UMAT® Exam, it’s a common thing to consider your options moving forward. Of course, I hope for most of you this involves preparing for VCE® Exam/HSC® Exam and getting ready for interviews, but the fact remains that some of you will need to think about alternate options. There are many different paths you can take, one of which involves taking a gap year to re-sit the UMAT® Exam. Every year, a surprising number of people elect to do this for varied reasons. Perhaps their UMAT® Exam preparation during the first attempt wasn't enough or it could be because that they didn't utilise their UCAT prep course to its fullest potential. Either way, this is a massively important decision and so it’s important to think it through.

Why take a gap year?

If you find that a poor UMAT® Exam score is the only reason that your entry into undergraduate medicine has been impeded, then taking a gap year might be for you. Of course this means that you have utmost confidence in your ATAR and interview skills.  It is vital that you are 100% sure that your ATAR meets the current requirements and will remain competitive for the following year. Furthermore, you also need to be sure that your interview skills are up to standard so that if you do get given an interview you don't blow the chance. It is an extremely risky manoeuvre, as you are essentially postponing your future for the sake of sitting one controversial exam. Remember that you only will get one shot to repeat as your ATAR results are only valid for two years. Finally the reason people elect to take gap year as opposed to commencing an undergrad degree is that the moment you start your undergrad, you are no longer eligible to commence an undergrad medical degree (inter-faculty transfers are not possible when it comes to medicine).

What to expect in your gap year

People who take gap years tend to focus either on working, travelling or too often on just wasting time but for those taking a gap year for the purpose of re-sitting the UMAT® Exam, a gap year should be a little more purposeful. Unlike the others taking a gap year the first half of your year will be filled with UMAT® Exam preparation. Countless practice questions, prep courses and trial exams will take up most of your time. This is aside from the general reading, vocab improvement and stats study you should be doing as well. In spite of this, you will find that you have extraordinary amounts of free time: taking away school gives you a tonne of blank time during your day. I'd suggest that while travel might not be possible at this time that you find lots of hobbies or work to keep you occupied. Another suggestion is volunteering: working towards an impressive portfolio might come in handy at some point in the future and it will certainly give you maturity and life-experience that will shine through during interviews. Once the exam is over, you can start enjoying the freedom of a true gap year! Remember from this time there is nothing you can do to change your UMAT® Exam results- though keep in mind that interviews will be at the end of the year and that you should occasionally continue to prepare for them!

At the end of the day, taking a Gap year to purely re-sit the UMAT® Exam is a huge step and one that should not be taken lightly. It takes incredible conviction and determination. If you do take that step, be ready to have a lot of time on your hands and be prepared to call on some serious self-discipline in order to make appropriate use of all the free time you will have. Most of all don't get distracted and lose sight of the reason you are taking this gap year- work hard on your UMAT® Exam preparation and interview preparation! For now, good luck and happy studies!