UMAT: Understanding section 3

Section 3 of the UCAT is the ‘Non­Verbal reasoning’ section. What this means is that it assesses your ability to think abstractly and draw conclusions from non­verbal content in order to logically solve problems. This primarily involves being able to isolate the relationship between objects within a sequence or picture and being able to apply this to a final frame. Because these kinds of questions are quite unlike any you might come across in your regular school subjects, it is very important that you get loads of practice. This is when buying a large number of MCQs from a UMAT® Exam preparation course really pays off. You will be asked 3 different types of questions that primarily utilize skills of consistent or progressive change:

1. Complete the series

In this type of question, you are asked to identify the rule that determines a pattern between the 4 images of a given sequence and choose which option most logically follows this pattern and completes the series. These questions can be solved by applying skills of configuration, repetition and structural change to the elements of each frame. In order to find a pattern, elements of the sequence should be isolated and tracked throughout (For example, if the sequence involves a square, triangle and circle, follow the square picture to picture and try to find a pattern, then individually repeat for the circle and triangle). In doing so, you are not only tracking the movement of each element, but also observing how they change frame to frame; this may be in shape, size, shading, number and orientation.
 

2. Complete the picture

In a picture composed of several segments or ‘frames’, you are asked to identify the option that most logically and simply fits the missing segment to complete the picture. To solve, it is expected that you apply rules and skills of observation to develop an understanding of the relationship and patterns between the given segments. The challenge with this style question is being able to think abstractly and utilize the ‘non­verbal’ information given to you as it involves multiple applications of the rules in an undefined direction. These types of questions often utilize skills of superimposed figures whereby when two frames of the image are overlapped; they either cancel out or remain in the final frame.
 

3. Pick the middle of the sequence

In this style question you will see a collection of 5 frames with internal and external components that when arranged correctly, will form a logical sequence. Your task is to determine the correct order for the 5 given frames and determine what the middle stage is (this will be your answer). This is perhaps the most challenging of the 3 types of questions as it as you need to first isolate the rules and then apply them to sequence a pattern. As this is a variant of the ‘complete the series’ style questions, you can utilize similar rules to deconstruct the elemental movement and changes. However, since we are not given the correctly ordered sequence, which is required to solve the question, the approach to finding these rules may differ. A common approach to this style question is to first identify the separate elements and examine them in each stage of the series using a ‘mapping method’. This involves giving each stage a letter (A­ to E) and placing each individual element on a common frame that is the same as in the question (Square, circle, triangle, hexagon etc). By doing this you can track the movement of each component, creating a ‘map’ of sorts that will help you identify the rules and patterns utilized in formulating the sequence. Importantly with this, once you have cracked the pattern, remember to pick the middle frame and not the final like in the ‘complete the series’ style questions. This may seem trivial but when you are under so much pressure, you will be surprised by the kind of silly mistakes you can make.