Hey people, so if you have been reading this blog and enjoyed its contents, I've created an eBook that I may be selling depending on demand. It consist of everything that I have posted on this blog but a whole lot more, with approximately 400 pages of content. Like I mentioned previously about the content and prices of premium UMAT preparation packages, the content given are quite pricey and overall it's generally giving you questions and providing explanations. It doesn't really teach you the proper techniques to succeed in UMAT. Before I get into this in a little bit more detail, I'd like you all to preview a sampler of my eBook content. There you can see snippets of my UMAT content, nothing too hard to understand yet in extensive detail. This is my UMATSUCCESS Guidebook. If you like the content and the tests that is freely available on my blog, then I guarantee you will enjoy my guidebook. It contains technique, tricks and approaches in solving questions. I also include a large number of tests for different sections and thorough explanations. I'm not here to compete with the UMAT prep courses available online. They specialize in giving you a multitude of questions and answers but I explain the how it works, how the UMAT authors create their questions and the thought processes behind required to come up with the correct answer!
How much for this guidebook? A low cost of $50 and a guaranteed improvement in UMAT question taking. It's very extensive, a lot of knowledge and tricks for a very low price. The content is beyond simple questions, but in depth study of Section 1 and 2. Email umatsuccess[at]gmail.com for interest.
Let's say you're this lady. A beginner cook who knows how to make, let's say spaghetti. In fact her spaghetti may be delicious and nice! However, for her to perform in a real restaurant, she would need to know more than just spaghetti. Had she only memorized the techniques involved in making spaghetti and nothing more pertaining to cooking, she would be at a great disadvantage in the real world!
I want you to be like this person - Chef Gordon Ramsay! An outstanding chef recognized internationally. He makes many dishes and creates modern variations of classic dishes!
Okay okay..... by now I realized this was a poor example!! What I was trying to tell you is that it's more important to know how to answer questions than memorizing the answers to questions. If you solidify yourself in technique and train your thought process around this area, the questions you face you can overcome in confidence.
For me and many of my fellow friends who have either sat the UMAT more than once, or even those who have failed UMAT and became doctors through the GAMSAT pathway.. one thing that we all agreed on is the quality and content of these UMAT resources available online - overpriced materials! There's too many preparation available and some websites are dodgy enough to make you stay clear, but they all tempt us with 'premium written content' or 'accreditation'. The best of these preparations can only construct or develop questions that will never be in the UMAT test. Never be (with an exception of one but I'll talk about that later).
Questions help prepare you mentally, to give you a "test feel", replicating the UMAT test environment in your home. The common student will fall for the trap that signing up to an online prep automagically improves their chances in scoring a high UMAT score. They tend to memorize the meaning of words, or simply do more repeated questions provided by the prep. These are helpful goals to attain but the mental approach is definitely wrong! Sadly, the repeated method works better with subjects such as Maths, Physics, Chemistry and so on. The more you exercise in these subjects the more you improve, as well as the faster you are in response! UMAT is not assessed in the same way. Your prep questions aren't going to be similar to the actual UMAT assessment. So when you arrive on the test day itself, you will be seeing many new questions! And if you're not confident, despite the relentless amount of time spent on online preps you may crumble under the pressure of the test and it's time limitations!
There's one UMAT prep course that somehow has ACER UMAT questions in its practice question pool. Students that have done this prep have recognized one or two questions in the actual ACER UMAT test. The reason for this is solely because the prep course has sent people to sit the actual UMAT test with no intention to pass it, but to memorize the questions. And if you are lucky enough, ACER may repeat it's questions. The probability of this however, is quite low but it has happened one or two times around 2006-2008. I would strongly advise you not to rely on this. The chances of getting a repeated test is extremely low. ACER knows students who have been unsuccessful are likely to try the assessment once again.
Let's compare UMAT materials. The ACER booklets cost around $AUD20-$AUD30 per booklet, and the questions are way easier than the actual UMAT assessment. The booklet is there to give you an actual feel of the test and how it's presented. I purchased all the books and found it different to the actual test. If you would like to consider this option, I suggest going to eBay to purchase a second-hand copy of the book. It's more affordable. ACER revises the UMAT practice booklets yearly, this is marketing strategy. If it is the same every year, then they will not be able to generate money - consumers would rather go second-third hand options! Furthermore, a new practice booklet that has a big stamp "2012", "2013" attracts consumer attention to the extent that repeat students would re-purchase it once again! Remember, the actual ACER UMAT test is revised yearly, so the questions are also different every year.
Here's an example of an online prep course. This one's a popular prep choice by default but let's look at its pricing. It ranges from $395 to $1890. This can get very expensive. If you fail, you can take the package again for $295. Online UMAT prep courses re-use questions. They don't update their question pool so much that every test becomes different each year. So to pay another $295 to do the same questions again I personally feel is a huge waste of money. Looking at the pricing above, it cost $790 for a platinum package that has a 2 day workshop. Doing the Math, the 2 day workshop costs $790-$395=$395 which is equivalent to a standard package. So what is the workshop?
I attended one in the past that lasted for only 3 hours or so from memory. It wasn't very helpful as we go at a class pace (slow, felt like I could have done more productive revision at home by myself). What is obvious from the above image is "Invaluable questions and tips". The one thing that excels a student in UMAT - I had to highlight this because this is what my guidebook is all about. My guidebook shows lots of techniques and tests with explanations - 300 pages of it listed in the content page. Students have to pay large amounts of money for a UMAT workshop in order to obtain such knowledge.. Furthermore, of the limited workshop time, they give you a practice UMAT exam. This exam is not a full exam, its a mini-exam designed to give students a "feel" of a UMAT test and provide a collective performance report relative to other prep course peers within the workshop. At the end of the workshop, they let you keep the question and answer booklets. And that's where most of your $395 money is spent within the 3 hours! So is the mini UMAT exam supplied at the workshop worth $395? I don't think so. It's very costly. In fact it could very well cost more than the ACER UMAT registration. I can't stress this enough, students fall for the trap that obtaining the questions immediately improves the probability of doing well in UMAT. This is a false. Once again, it's the techniques is what counts!
Going quickly through the list, students are already expose to Section 1, 2 and 3 in detail when they sign up to an online prep course. There is absolutely no need to spend extra attending a workshop. The online prep course will also provide full length practice exam questions leading up to the ACER UMAT test. We have already talked about the 'invaluable questions and tips' - that this is definitely very important but unfortunately not provided in extensive detail. The Q&A can be asked on online forums such as MedStudentsOnline for free. Strategies that maximise your performance are just common approaches in preparation to an exam such as healthy eating, effective time management, sleeping patterns etc. Finally, this last one is not really useful. You do not need to know how you are performing in relation to others. Let's say you perform well - should that affect you? It shouldn't. You should continue improving your techniques regardless. Now let's say you perform not too well.. you would strive to improve at your utmost ability! So what I'm saying is, don't get distracted by this... only ACER knows the nationwide UMAT cohort score and so they scale the scores accordingly. The representation group of those doing an online prep course is vastly different to the actual UMAT cohort, with online prep courses claiming their content is more difficult and therefore customer's performances will always be better that the actual UMAT cohort. This is false, misleading and definitely rubbish talk.. Unless the questions are constant and equal between ACER and online prep courses then yes, we may be able to deduce a thing or two. There are so many variables that affect comparing raw scores, and as a student, our job is to focus on performing well in exam. Let ACER handle the scores. Don't try to understand something that will not come up in the test for it may just confuse you!
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