Umat S1 (1 Viewer)

[tkdwhiz1188]

Hey guys!

I did the UMAT booklet and got 14/25 for S1, 18/18 for S2 and 13/15 for S3. I was shocked by my S1 scores!

Anyone who is gd at S1 pls post some tips! I've been doing LSAT strengthen/weaken questions and am pretty gd at it now...but there aint many such questions in the UMAT!

 

[m111]

My booklet from ACER hasn't even come yet!

 

[ishq]

Mine came just yesterday - I flicked through Section I - the passages are long and the font is small

 

[+Po1ntDeXt3r+]

S1.. isnt tat the logic games?
find a practice booklet i reckon... IQ type

well it was like tat back in my days

thats a respectable score.. lolz.. melb uni would prolly not be a good choice then

 

[nit]

These days the focus of section one is more on comprehension questions from extended passages, as opposed to logic games as such, which comprise, as far as I remember, maybe a quarter of the section. Speed reading - the ability to read and comprehend passages and their logical structures in a short space of time- is vital. Just probably try to analyse passages you read- any passage - and try to understand it and the logical progressions made in the text. That skill would no doubt be an indispensable one to succeed in the umat in my opinion.

 

[~*HSC 4 life*~]

yes i agree, speed read and practice (even though i screwed up S1 lol)

anyway it may be comforting to know that S1 is usually the section in which people generaly perform worst in

 

[Lexicographer]

Absolutely (and surprisingly) true for me last year - my rank of 88 in section 1 remained unchanged between the 2003 and 2004 UMAT.

 

[tkdwhiz1188]

Juz wondering...to those who did well in section 1 (>70th percentile)...Did u guys manage to finish it in time?

 

[Lexicographer]

Er I don't think I went all that well, but since I fit your criteria I guess I'll answer. On the first attempt, I finished within a minute of the time limit, and on the second one I "finished" a little early (because I knew what the time constraints were like) and went over the difficult ones again.

 

[mervvyn]

I got 98 in S1 (by far my best) and I finished early - I can't remember exactly how much time I had left, but probably ~5 minutes sounds about right, give or take a couple. However, it's obviously not just speed but accuracy as well, so pacing yourself is fairly important - common exam skills really.

 

[tkdwhiz1188]

Whoa!

98!!! May I ask what prep u did if any...?

 

[velox]

If i remember correctly, Mervvyn didn't do any preparation courses.

Funny how people jump to conclusions about the correlation between high scores and prep courses. No-one seems to see that some of these skills are intrinsic to one's self, and that some people are just smart.

 

[Lexicographer]

Funny how people jump to conclusions about the correlation between high scores and prep courses.

The exact same thought ran through my head about an hour ago. I only refrained from posting it because I'm tired of chastising people.

 

[inasero]

s/he wasnt waking an assumption,.....as evidenced by "if any"

 

[velox]

ur still in umat mode inasero

 

[Lexicographer]

s/he wasnt waking an assumption,.....as evidenced by "if any"

AND this is the argument that I knew someone would post about it.

But you must admit there's still an expectation there that preperation was undertaken. If this expectation were absent the question would emphasis the act of attending a course versus not attending ("did you do any prep?") rather than which course.

 

[tkdwhiz1188]

s/he wasnt waking an assumption,.....as evidenced by "if any"

Thanks inasero! It was such a harmless qn...i dun c a big deal abt it.

How about getting back to topic n sharing some tips on how to do well at S1...

 

[inasero]

yep i moved my tutorial i wrote up for section three last year but as for section one...as with any other thing the tip is to get your hands on practice questions and just work your ass off...

its kinda difficult as ACER doesnt release past or practice papers...so you have several options:
1) Go to a prep course
2) Buy materials from the course providers without actually attending their sessions- i.e. teach yourself off their materials
3) Practice off books- any good library should have a selection of logic game books. Other books you could look for are some MENSA books, which I highly recommend.

 

[velox]

yep i moved my tutorial i wrote up for section three last year but as for section one...as with any other thing the tip is to get your hands on practice questions and just work your ass off...

its kinda difficult as ACER doesnt release past or practice papers...so you have several options:
1) Go to a prep course
2) Buy materials from the course providers without actually attending their sessions- i.e. teach yourself off their materials
3) Practice off books- any good library should have a selection of logic game books. Other books you could look for are some MENSA books, which I highly recommend.

they do release the sample question booklet.

 

[Lexicographer]

Wilson's exposure to UMAT is a little dated.

The sample question booklet was a new and quite unexpected move from ACER. I didn't even hear about it until someone challened an earlier statement I'd made.

As for logic games, these aren't as helpful anymore because the focus has shifted to comprehension of passages and filtering of information. Short term preparation would be comprehension exercises, long term would be things like the English Competition (and its past papers, if you can grab them from your school).