UMAT 2015 Discussion Thread (6 Viewers)

[Queenroot]

Dropped from 99%ile 2014 to 74%ile 2015

4th time sitting the umat (72, 88, 99, 74)

My biggest piece of advice is to get a good night of sleep and go in to the exam relaxed. From 2013 to 2014 I pulled mmark from 88 to 99 with minimal preparation, I just went into the exam very relaxed and composed

This year I slept about 30 minutes total the night before, was on sleep meds which made me extremely groggy during the exam and was also very sick and stressed. Shows how important it is to be calm and composed during the exam.

Also S3 was significantly different this year compared to previous years. Using tactics I had learnt earlier this year did not help (I believe my S3 mark in 2014 was 100%ile and fhoz year it was the 50%ile)

Any specific questions anyone has, shoot em my way. While I didn't do particularly well this year largely due to those extenuating circumstances, I believe I've still got a fairly good handle on this exam due to my experience with it ^_^

Were you unsuccessful at receiving an interview with your previous score?

 

[Dellrune]

hey guys was just wondering do I have any chances of getting offers anywhere??

S1: 58 S2: 52 S3: 57 overall 76%
Atar 98.5+

 

[hscmathematics]

Were you unsuccessful at receiving an interview with your previous score?

Nope, got a JMP interview but my tertiary marks are that shocking that I don't meet the academic cutoff (but interviews are offered purel off UMAT scores) :/ UWS takes into account tertiary marks before offering interviews so obviously I didn't get an interview there (but they said my UMAT was adequate)

My 2013 mark secured me an interview spot with JMP as well but I was below the academic cutoff at that point too :/

My UMAT this year will likely get me an interview, and my tertiary marks are finally high enough to meet the minimum requirement LOL so fingers crossed

 

[relativity1]

How similar were acer past papers to the actual UMAT? and also what techniques did you learn that you found not very helpful during this years much harder exam?

 

[iMMORTAL153]

How similar were acer past papers to the actual UMAT? and also what techniques did you learn that you found not very helpful during this years much harder exam?

99% of what i learnt for section 3 was useless.

 

[relativity1]

What would you recommend doing to prepare then? haha

 

[A1P]

Several unis award places based on a weighted combination of ATAR, UMAT and/or Interview.

For simplicity let's say this Uni does no interviews and places are based on 50% ATAR 50% UMAT. Which ATAR marks & UMAT marks are used in this 50/50 formula?

For example, would 99.9%tile ATAR + 96%tile UMAT rank *lower* than 98%tile ATAR + 98%tile UMAT?
Thanks

 

[redjnr]

Several unis award places based on a weighted combination of ATAR, UMAT and/or Interview.

For simplicity let's say this Uni does no interviews and places are based on 50% ATAR 50% UMAT. Which ATAR marks & UMAT marks are used in this 50/50 formula?

For example, would 99.9%tile ATAR + 96%tile UMAT rank *lower* than 98%tile ATAR + 98%tile UMAT?
Thanks

I'd say 99.9 ATAR + 96 percentile UMAT is far stronger. No one really knows what the equivalence between ATAR and UMAT is, but percentiles in UMAT don't seem to be nearly as important as percentiles in ATAR (i.e. a 2 ATAR difference >>> 2 UMAT percentile difference). This sort of makes sense as far less people sit the UMAT, and the hence the scores will be more variable at the top end.

Also please note UNSW (I'm pretty sure Monash as well) use actual UMAT scores and not the percentiles. This can become important to note as due to the way scores are spread, higher UMAT percentiles tend to be disproportionately stronger than lower UMAT percentiles (99th percentile score - 90th percentile score > 90th percentile score - 80th percentile score).

 

[A1P]

Also please note UNSW (I'm pretty sure Monash as well) use actual UMAT scores and not the percentiles.

Thanks for your comment. I agree that 2 ATAR difference should be >>> 2 UMAT percentile difference; I used that example mainly to illustrate it wouldn't make sense.

On that point, since UNSW uses UMAT score divided by 3 for an out-of-100 average, I suspect they also use the ATAR score (not percentile) divided by 4 to match up. Do you think that's likely?

 

[redjnr]

Thanks for your comment. I agree that 2 ATAR difference should be >>> 2 UMAT percentile difference; I used that example mainly to illustrate it wouldn't make sense.

On that point, since UNSW uses UMAT score divided by 3 for an out-of-100 average, I suspect they also use the ATAR score (not percentile) divided by 4 to match up. Do you think that's likely?

You mean ATAR aggregate (out of 500)? I'm not sure if universities know that... But if they did it would be fair to compare against the UMAT score.

Actually it's a good idea because I've found people with very high ATARs (disproportionately higher aggregate scores) tend to get interviews even with average UMAT percentiles.

 

[A1P]

You mean ATAR aggregate (out of 500)? I'm not sure if universities know that...

I found this table A9, showing remarkable consistency over 5 years 2010-14
http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2014-tables/A8-A9.pdf

By the way I wrote divided by 4 because in WA the ATAR aggregate comprises the top 4 subjects.
Seems to be 5 in NSW.

 

[charlee30]

I got s1 49, s2 71, s3 49 --> 78th percentile (I really understand people but fail at everything else lol)
Atar estimate is around 98 but hoping to push it up in the actual HSC
Any chance anywhere? I know I shouldn't be thinking about UMAT and should be focusing on the HSC but AGHHH I'm just so disappointed in my umat results If someone could give me a reality check real quick that'd be great

 

[Xt]

I got s1 49, s2 71, s3 49 --> 78th percentile (I really understand people but fail at everything else lol)
Atar estimate is around 98 but hoping to push it up in the actual HSC
Any chance anywhere? I know I shouldn't be thinking about UMAT and should be focusing on the HSC but AGHHH I'm just so disappointed in my umat results If someone could give me a reality check real quick that'd be great

Not likely to get an interview anywhere. You can always try at JCU (no UMAT) or get a 99.5+ atar for GU.

 

[Natasha Romanoff]

What do you think my chances are of getting an interview at UNSW, USW, JMP with a UMAT of 99th% and an ATAR estimate of 97.65 (hopefully to go up)?
Thanks!!