START PRACTISING

1) Practise
2) Practise more
There are people out there who have been doing UMAT preparation since yr 8! You are already behind!
Take this exam seriously and take your practise time seriously. Its fine to make mistakes while you practise, but its not good if you dont improve. I went to a tutor, I bought NIE books and I used Medentry. I know people who used more services than me and still didnt get through. UMAT is HARD! But if you take it seriously and practice, you will do better than if you didn't!
I can't guarantee you will do well on the first try. But I'm sure some practise is better than none.

3) Know what to expect by practising heaps and aiming to finish everything before you run out of time. UMAT is essentially a race. Most people don't finish it. I didn't finish it and my percentile was 94. You need to be fast but you also need to be accurate. So get as many questions you can and practice them. Go through the books more than twice. Finish the section three book? Turn it upside down and do it! Finish doing that too? Turn it to the right! Medentry is good for keeping track of your timing and your speed, However NIE is good for section three because you can turn a book easier than a laptop!

I know a lot of people feel that the UMAT is a test which can't be studied for. But there actually is a lot which you can do to increase your chances of passing. The UMAT is a multiple choice exam which has 3 sections.

Section 1: Logical Reasoning
This is basically about comprehension, but it also has a bit of problem solving. If you go to St Dom's or any other school in Australia that does the Informatic's Competition, I think Section 1 is a cross between the informatics and an English comprehension question. The best way to prepare for these questions is to get your reading speed up and also your problem solving skills. Get your hands on as many logic puzzles as possible. Logic puzzles can be very tricky, but it is better to be prepared for something harder than the umat than something easier. Here's a link to an example of a logic puzzle, just remember in the umat you wont have time to use a grid! But use the grid to begin practising with! http://www.puzzlersparadise.com/onlinelogic/ShippingPackages.htm

Section 2: Understanding People
In this section, there will be a chunk of writing about a situation. It can be a conversation between a child and their parent, a convo between friends, coworkers or even doctor and patient conversations. Or it can just be an extract of a short story. eg, Paul is a farmer who lives with his family. His family has been living in the same house for 3 generations, growing the same crops on the same farm. He must come home to tell them that there is a catastrophic bushfire risk and that they must all evacuate. Then the question will be something like: How does Paul feel? BUT the way to prepare for this section is to know the meaning of different emotive words. We are very used to using the same words but never think of how strong they are or what the difference in meaning are. For example, Paul may feel Angry, Frustrated, Disappointed and Shocked at the same time. But you will only be able to choose 1 emotion as the answer. Hence, you will need to be able to learn EXACTLY which word is best to use about Paul. Going to different courses, I know that there are different ways to tackle this question as different people will think of different answers. However, a rough rule is to choose the VERY FIRST emotion that Paul feels. In this case, it will be Shock! THUS, YOU SHOULD KEEP A BOOK WITH ALL THE EMOTION WORDS YOU COME ACROSS THAT YOU AREN'T 100% SURE OF WHAT THEY MEAN AND LOOK THEM UP! Then maybe group them and order them from strongest to weakest later on. eg. Angry is stronger than Frustrated

For both section 1 and 2, READING SPEED IS SUPER IMPORTANT. So when you do have time. Read as many books as possible. I loved reading as a little kid and I read a LOT during the younger years of high school, but even with my familiarity with reading i still ran out of time during section 1 and 2. If this also happens to you, GUESS and colour those empty bubbls as fast as you can!

Section 3: Non Verbal Reasoning
This one is all about PATTERNS!
But don't stress, you don't need to be artistic, you need to be logical
OUT OF ALL THE SECTIONS THIS ONE IS THE EASIEST TO PRACTICE!
If you do well in Section 3, you are very likely to have done better than A LOT of people. Here's where there is a huge gap between people who practice and those who dont. If you practice, you get used to knowing what to look for and you can actually SEE the answer. Your brain clicks! but if you dont, you will have a huge headache and probably panic. Out of all the sections, you will improve the most if you practice this section. Hence, START PRACTICING SECTION 3 AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! This website has some free questions: http://www.indiabix.com/non-verbal-reasoning/questions-and-answers/
But (in my opinion) nothing beats Medentry and NIE. They give you so many questions = hours worth of practicing. Aim to do 20 questions a night for a week. then increase it to 50, 75 and 100. Also aim for 50% accuracy, then one you can beat that easily 70%. Then after you can get them 70%, start trying to do them faster. Ultimate aim is 60secs or faster per question!
Here's a funny thought, this is what people at the workshops said about how you know you are good enough at section 3, YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH WHEN ALL YOU CAN SEE AROUND YOU (IN NORMAL LIFE) ARE PATTERNS! This happened to me probably a month before UMAT. START PRACTICING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok.....
Any Questions?
Final comment.
Section 3 is easiest to practice. Once you get the hang of it (also once you go through the book twice) you'll memorise the answers/patterns/techniques and you will fly through it! (You'll also get better at guessing :D ) Anywho, Guessing will be another blog post!
Section 1 is the next one you can practice for. Lots of logic involved. Do heaps of maths problem solving questions. Anyone doing physics should be able to train up their problem solving skills with their physics homework. At the tutor's house, we were all given Mathletics books... Maths Olympics? Something like that. Questions like: If my mum is twice my age now and 10 years ago she was only a quarter, how old is she now? Those questions! (I'm not trying to advertise for them, I'm trying to help you! Share the cost of Medentry and NIE equally in a group and you will have plenty of questions to go round!)
Section 2 is the hardest to improve on. If you have bad social skills, make an effort to improve them. At least learn the emotion words!
That's all for tonight.
I'll post more specifically about each Section in the future too!
And answer any questions you guys give me :)
Hope this helps,
Annie