Umat 2011 Results-advice needed.

Basically I completely stuffed up my UMAT. . .

S1: 59
S2: 48
S3: 56

Overall: 54
%tile: 68

Should I try again next year and risk not getting into med? (otago or auckland preferably) Should I not try for medicine? How good are my chances? Will appreciate it tremendously if anyone answers any of these questions

Do you really, really want to do medicine and believe you can make it eventually if you stay for the long slog? If yes then obviously you should try again. If no then maybe you should consider something else.

Originally Posted by xyz

Basically I completely stuffed up my UMAT. . .

S1: 59
S2: 48
S3: 56

Overall: 54
%tile: 68

Should I try again next year and risk not getting into med? (otago or auckland preferably) Should I not try for medicine? How good are my chances? Will appreciate it tremendously if anyone answers any of these questions

Mate don't give up! Last year (year 13) I got 50th percentile...did it again this year and got 89th percentile...so scores can most definitely be improved on. If medicine is what you want, medicine is what you will get. With hard work of course =)

I do really want to do med. I think its a fascinating and noble study; what could be more rewarding than saving someone's life? I'll probably try again next year. With these scores, would it be safer to go to auckland or otago?

Originally Posted by xyz

I do really want to do med. I think its a fascinating and noble study; what could be more rewarding than saving someone's life? I'll probably try again next year. With these scores, would it be safer to go to auckland or otago?

I chose Auckland as I wanted to do first year biomed not health science. Looking back, I really wished I'd done Health Science not biomed, but too late now! In Auckland umat has very small weighting so its not reeeally that important. A good gpa and a great interview would get you in with that score. Otago weights umat much higher (34% i think) and they also scale it, although I'm unsure of how they actually scale it down there. But don't be disheartened by umat. Pick whichever university you think suits you the most, and do umat again next year

Originally Posted by atpno1

I chose Auckland as I wanted to do first year biomed not health science. Looking back, I really wished I'd done Health Science not biomed, but too late now! In Auckland umat has very small weighting so its not reeeally that important. A good gpa and a great interview would get you in with that score. Otago weights umat much higher (34% i think) and they also scale it, although I'm unsure of how they actually scale it down there. But don't be disheartened by umat. Pick whichever university you think suits you the most, and do umat again next year

Thanks for your help mate, yeah i think ill just try harder next year and choose my favourite uni. Did you do any sort of preparation for your 2nd attempt at umat (not really courses but like novel reading for sec 2)?

Originally Posted by atpno1

...did it again this year and got 89th percentile

I got 89%ile too we're buddies :P goodluck fellow 89er

hi5
another 89'er

Originally Posted by xyz

Thanks for your help mate, yeah i think ill just try harder next year and choose my favourite uni. Did you do any sort of preparation for your 2nd attempt at umat (not really courses but like novel reading for sec 2)?

Well i actually signed up for an un-named prep course, which may have slightly helped S1 and S3, but somehow my S2 went from 41 in 2009 to 64 in 2010, and all credit for that goes mum (lol!) for going over questions with me and trying to work out what they're actually after in that section. Basically I just did anything I could get my hands on for S1 in terms of speed reading and fast analysing. Things like timing myself doing sudoku and puzzles like that to get the brain working at pace. Reading novels at pace and for meaning probably helped with S1 and S2 as well. In terms of the prep course I actually hardly used it, didn't find it all that useful and preferred just doing things as mentioned above. Probably useful for section 3 though.

Otherwise the experience of having done umat before helped a lot...you know what your in for and don't get quite so nervous. Plus the whole having moved on from school to university and the different style of learning, and the skills you learn/need there helps a lot too.

Hmmm the above might not even make sense. It's late. I'm tired.

S2 also makes a lot of difference on how you feel emotionally on the day. im not saying this is the cause of good or bad scores but dont beat yourself up too hard if you were feeling bad on the day and work on making sure you dont feel this way again