UMAT: Understanding section 2

by Sarah Rea, 29 April, 2016
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Section 2 of the UCAT is the ‘Understanding People’ section. In this, you will find questions that assess your ability to understand and empathize with others whilst also considering the atmosphere of the text and others perspectives. Since a stimulus can prompt a variety of questions that may require distinct but often overlapping skillsets, it would be ineffective to prepare for this section by learning skills. However, there are 3 broad categories of questions that can be distinguished based around the type of stimulus you receive and its interpretation – this being dialogue, passages and reflection. Since these stimuli are very targeted towards this group of questions, it is difficult to develop the skills required to master this section. High school UMAT® Exam courses and other UMAT® Exam preparation courses can provide you with access to similar stimulus, allowing you to improve your ability to ‘understand people’ in a written context. They provide plenty of practice test questions and provide significant feedback to enable improvement in your weak areas. Within each category of section 2, there are further sub-topics or ‘themes’ that you can develop in addition to the overall categories:

1. Dialogues
In dialogue questions, you receive a passage that contains a conversation between two individuals, with minimal, if not any narration. This type of question assesses your ability to react predominantly from what is said in the context. The dialogue can be in any setting, however it is most commonly in the healthcare setting. The primary challenge with dialogues is utilizing your ability to interpret verbal cues to l figure out the context, inference and reason why things were said. However generally speaking, the primary goal of this type of question is to test your ability to empathize with the characters in the dialogues. There are usually 1-4 questions per stem, each with 4 multiple choice. The dialogue tends to be structured in the following format:

Person A: …
Person B …
Person A: …
Person B …

Some of the most common ‘themes’ that you will encounter include:

Parent Child Relationships
Health Professional + Patient Relationships
Office Relationships
Friendships
Romantic Relationships
Conflict Resolution

2. Passages
In a question where you are given a passage, you are to interpret the words and actions of others in the whole context in which they are said/done from the viewpoint of a third person. Since passages can delve deeper into situations than a dialogue, the questions and themes explored can be more complex. Often you will find passages have been taken from a book, or they will have a story that typically, but not explicitly, involves character interaction in any setting (You will find in the UMAT® Exam

Parent Child Relationships
Health Professional + Patient
Death/Terminal Illness of a family member/loved one
Cultural differences
Friendships
Romantic relationships

3. Reflection
Unlike dialogues and passages that can span across the past, present and future, reflections are stories that deal with a single character's perception on past experiences. There is little to no interaction with other characters and primarily focuses on the characters feeling and self insights, as well as how they perceive their self-growth. What they are assessing in this type of question is your understanding and interpretation of how the person of interest perceives themselves, their past and other people through reflection and self-evaluation. You will also be expected to compare the feelings conveyed in the reflection of their past, to how they used to/currently view themselves. Unlike dialogues and passages, you are not necessarily expected to analyze the actions themselves, but instead must understand the consequential effects of people's actions and feelings i.e. how they changed a person, how they altered their views, etc. Questions may also target the tone of the reflection- is it positive reflection, or does it have a somber, regretful tone surrounding it? Some of the major themes explored include:

Doctor Patient Relationships
Romantic Relationships
Parent Child relationships
Friendships
Dealing with mental/chronic illness

Dealing with terminal illness/death of self/family member/loved one