What is the best UMAT preparation course?

**linyen416** · 29-04-2007, 10:50 AM

Hi!
I'm in Year 11 and am interested in doing a UMAT preparation course as soon as possible. Can anyone who has taken one of these UMAT prep courses or anyone who knows something about them recommend an effective one for me to attend? Currently I am looking at ICARUS, MedEntry, are there any more good ones?

Thanks in advance.

**kimmy** · 04-09-2007, 03:57 PM

I am currently in 1st year university and I got some information from the National Institute of Education (NIE). I found that their service was extremely substandard and their preparation materials really not worth the money. I wouldn't recommend them at all.

**kimmy** · 14-09-2007, 04:36 PM

Has anyone else had the above dissapointing experience with NIE?

**agirl8** · 23-11-2008, 08:44 PM

hey guys
i did a number of courses, ever since year 11 in fact haha
the first course i did was dallus gibson's course (my brother did it a few years prior too). my brother and i both found his course terrible. he was really disorganised (e.g. forgot the key to the place and left students in the blistering cold for half an hour, made us students set up the room, made us then rearrange the room and move all the chairs to the opposite side of the room etc etc). By the time we had actually started we were already an hour into the course. On top of that, he was just plain rude to students and even made one student cry. He insulted a boy who had told him he was aiming for a perfect score. He insulted asians and indians. All in all, i found his course offensive and his method offputting. Rather than helping, he intimidated and i left without feeling i gained anything.

I also did the NIE course. Although they were good at the time, I found their material not to match the real umat questions later on. And a lot of the time, their answers got corrected my students... :S. When students questioned the right answers, they often did not have evidence to back it up so I was a bit lost a lot of the time!

I did AMEPP as well and I found that similar to NIE. Once again, their practise material was not at all similar to the real questions in the umat. i only discovered that later, AFTER sitting the umat which sucked!

I did Medentry in year 11 and 12 and I found that to be the most useful course of all. I did their course for actual UMAT prep and interview prep (as I had been told they were very good by older years). Their practise questions were surprisingly similar to the real umat questions (in fact i recall about 4 of the exact same ones...). They taught good techniques regarding how to approach questions.

So all in all, I would recommend Medentry and then AMPP/NIE and then, if desparate ( :P) Dallas Gibson.

Hope this helped!

**jhuang688** · 21-08-2010, 11:37 AM

I definitely think preparation for UMAT/HPAT helps because at least then you know what to expect and how to tackle questions. It's like any other exam that you have to prepare for. Doing practice papers definitely helps.

I did the MedEntry UMAT Preparation course and I managed to score 238 (100th percentile) in 2009. I'm currently studying Medicine at UNSW.

MedEntry had heaps of practice drill questions to do and papers that were really similar to the actual UMAT and they were separated into sections so you could practice whatever you were bad at. They also had detailed guides which allows you to read and learn at your own pace and apart from the online stuff, they also have a 2-day workshop with an experienced lecturer and private tutoring and interview practice available. I managed to get all 3 sections up to around the same level. (84, 74, 80)
The MedEntry website is: UMAT Courses, UMAT Preparation & UMAT Training Course
They have a couple of different courses depending on how much help you want.

I know some of my friends did other courses, but they showed me their papers and a lot of the questions were not similar to UMAT questions at all. I think if you're going to spend money on UMAT prep, you should go for one that you know is good. After all, you don't want to miss out on a place in Medicine or whatever Uni course it is you want to get into just because of a poor UMAT result. I'm really glad I did MedEntry because if not, I don't think I would have gotten into Medicine. I've never looked back since.

**ryan17** · 29-08-2010, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by linyen416

Hi!
I'm in Year 11 and am interested in doing a UMAT preparation course as soon as possible. Can anyone who has taken one of these UMAT prep courses or anyone who knows something about them recommend an effective one for me to attend? Currently I am looking at ICARUS, MedEntry, are there any more good ones?

Thanks in advance.

I did MedEntry and UMAT in 2008 and I would definitely recommend MedEntry. You can improve in UMAT by doing heaps of practice. MedEntry provides all the questions you need with drills for each section as well as 10 practice exams. All their questions come with answers and full explanations too. There are also guides on how to tackle specific sections/questions which are helpful. I found the practice exams especially useful for learning how to manage your time and maximising your score in the actual UMAT exam.

UMAT prep requires a lot of time and effort but it is definitely worthwhile. After doing all the practice on MedEntry, I manage to score 100th percentile in UMAT 2008 and that helped me got into medicine in the University of Auckland.

Hope this helps and here's a link to the MedEntry website if you want to find out more: UMAT Courses, UMAT Preparation & UMAT Training Course

**brandonlo** · 29-11-2010, 07:32 AM

Hi Guys,

I heard about a new place called MedStart UMAT Preparation and UMAT Training Courses. Has anyone been and does anyone have any feedback for their courses?

**Rosegirl** · 21-01-2011, 04:04 AM

Hi Kimmy
I did the course with NIE and got into medicine, their questions were spot on and were really hard when practising, before NIE I did some other courses which I found really not worth the money and the time spend, their workshops were really helpful with useful tips and tricks to tackle the real UMAT, and there are 3 separate teachers for each section, I would say NIE is worth the money and really recommend that.

**Rosegirl** · 21-01-2011, 04:11 AM

Kimmy their preparation materials are really spot on, and I would recommend them to anyone.

**prepgenie** · 14-04-2011, 03:37 PM

Hi,
Practicing practice questions offered by ACER helps to a great extent in cracking UMAT. AS for the others make sure to go through the net and check out the online quiz uploaded by those that offer prep materials. It gives a better understanding of the kind of stuff they offer.