The UMAT Files: Secrets of Top Scorers

Description

An excerpt from the Introduction:

There are basically two parts to this book: the first part is a collection of articles written by students who scored extremely highly in the UMAT (UMAT2011, UMAT2012 and UMAT2013), and some tips that they’d like to share with you.

Some authors focused on their own experiences, outlining the ups and downs of their own preparation as well as their struggles and eventual keys to success. The reason I decided to include this is because the UMAT is a highly-psychological test. If you have the right ‘mindset’, you’ve already won half the battle. However, may students fail to pick up on this and join in the hordes of students charging through their preparation, doing as much as possible and on the actual exam day feeling as stressed as possible. Others, like me, fall behind this race and end up feeling a little lost in the days leading up to the actual test. Many feel rather alone in tackling this test; it is, after all, something that schools don’t focus on, and for many, it can be easy to feel alone. These articles are designed to help you get through this and understand how countless other students felt, including the top-scorers. You’ll probably realise that what you’re feeling is completely normal!

Other authors focused more on the nuts-and-bolts of the test. Although it’s important to look through other people’s experiences and gain insight and lessons from them, it’s just as important to see how top-scorers actually tackled the exam. In these articles you’ll see a range of preparation and exam strategies, ranging from psychological preparation to individual question types. Many authors provided a mixture of the above, giving you a well-rounded view of their own preparation strategies and keys to success.

It’s important to note, though, that there will be overlaps and sometimes even clashes between opinions. Each person has their own viewpoint of the UMAT and had their own individual preparation strategies. That’s the beauty of this book; I wanted you to be able to see a whole array of different perspectives and tips that clearly worked for each student. It’s up to you to choose what suits you the best. There’s ultimately no right or wrong way.

And the second part’s the exciting part. For some. Basically, we wrote up a full practice exam. The part that makes it extremely unique is that through the extensive worked solutions, with each of us providing different ways of tackling the problems. Again, you’ll see a variety of different perspectives and even question types, depending on the person writing it. The main reason I wanted to include this is that there are so few hard-copy practice exams floating around, and it’s best to be able to practice in conditions most similar to that on the day. Plus it’s easier to demonstrate our strategies using actual questions!

But I’ll just stop here and tell you what it is NOT: this book is NOT a one-stop guidebook for the UMAT. If you honestly don’t know much about the UMAT at this point, it’s important to get a basic idea of it first, and perhaps even look at a couple of questions. This book is what I would consider a ‘padding’ to your preparation – it’s essential but not comprehensive. If you’re looking for a comprehensive book check out my other book: The UMAT Manual: A Systematic and Simplified Approach. With the two books (and two separate full practice exams), you’d definitely understand how to tackle it like no other student!