FAQ's - Face 2 Face UMAT Preparation Centre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have a question regarding the following?

Our company
Our products and services
Our location
Our discount offers
Our purchasing policy
Our quick guide to the UMAT
Our advice on UMAT training

Our company

Who runs Face 2 Face UMAT Preparation Centre?

Face 2 Face UMAT Preparation Centre was created by three dedicated doctors while in medical school who have been tutoring the UMAT for over 7 years now. Our goal is to provide personalised UMAT tuition to prospective students of health professions around Australia.

How is Face 2 Face UMAT Preparation Centre different to other UMAT training courses?

From our name, you may have gathered that our company has the smallest student to tutor ratio (average 8:1) in Australasia, providing the most face 2 face and personalized UMAT tuition service. We also have the most up-to-date material and practice UMAT exam questions out of all the courses available. All to give each student the BEST chance of success.

Our products and services

What is the difference between the three packages?

All packages include the same course materials, questions and practice exams as well as a pass to the mock exam day held in July 2011. Ongoing support is available for all students at any time during the year.

The deluxe package is unique in that it offers students ONE on ONE tutoring allowing the tutor to tailor the tuition to the student’s needs and speed of learning. It also allows the bonus of 2 hours of dedicated revision which can be utilized at ay time until the exam.

The premier package involves tutoring in small groups (average 8 students) and allows students to receive tuition with their friends while the resource package does not include any personalised tutoring and is suitable for students unable to attend one of our classes or deluxe package.

What does the 6 hours of personalised UMAT coaching involve?

The 6 hours of personalised UMAT coaching involves the following:

All the relevant aspects of UMAT sections 1, 2 and 3 will be explained by experienced tutors.
Practice questions and worked examples in each section will be discussed to ensure student understanding.
Hints and tips for the actual UMAT exam will be provided.
Homework and practice questions will be given at the end of the lessons and throughout the length of the course.
Our teaching methods and an interactive learning environment are unique to increase retention and memory.

What else does Face 2 Face UMAT provide?

Face 2 Face Umat provides its students with a comprehensive range of products and services, taking students through from the initial teaching sessions through to the mock exam and the actual UMAT exam day.

Face 2 Face UMAT’s products and services include:

One-to-one and small class UMAT tuition
Comprehensive UMAT guides for each section of the UMAT
Weekly homework with solutions
A question book focusing on improving student skills with worked solutions
10 FULL LENGTH test papers with worked solutions
Mock exam day with percentile reviews and feedback session
Comprehensive UMAT and Interview guides
Application reviews
One-to-one and small class interview tuition
Real length mock interviews
An online Learning Management System (LMS) which provides instant feedback
Continuous student support by email, telephone and fax

What is the weekly homework?

Apart from full length practice exams, Face2Face UMAT Preparation Centre also provides weekly homework for its students during the length of the course. The weekly homework would consolidate the week’s teachings and enhance student understanding of the material provided. That means more practice questions for you! Worked solutions are available for the weekly homework in case you want to revisit the questions later in the year.

What can I access after I have registered?

After you have purchased one of our packages, you will be able to access different sets of materials at different times of the year. To ensure maximum recall, we release practice exam questions throughout the year up until June. However, the lesson materials and some practice questions will be available immediately after we receive your payment.

What can I access after I have registered AND paid?

How soon can I access the products?

For credit card transactions, you would immediately have access to our products. With other payment options, you will have access to our products as soon as we receive your payment.

Will I get a copy of the learning material in printed form?

Yes, if you have purchased either the Deluxe package or the Premier package. Printed copies of the learning material and the weekly homework will be provided during the tuition lessons for student reference. If you have purchased the Resource package, you will be able to access the learning material via our website. For copyright purposes, the learning material, weekly homework and practice UMAT exam papers will not be copyable or printable.

Will I be able to print learning materials and practice exams from the website?

Due to copyright reasons, you will not be able to print the learning materials and the practice UMAT exam exams from our website.

Where are the lessons held?

The time of the lessons will be determined by the availability of the students and their tutors. Each student will be personally contacted by the responsible tutor to discuss and finalise lesson times.

How long will I be able to access materials via the website for?

You will have full access to all released materials via our website after we have received your payment. One week after the UMAT exam, access to all materials, except the interview guide, will be suspended. Access to the interview guide will be suspended after the last interview has been held in January.

Our location

Where are the lessons held?

The address of the premises in Sydney is:
3 Avon Road
North Ryde
NSW 2113
Australia

Is Face 2 Face UMAT Preparation Centre’s services available outside of Sydney?

YES! We now have offices open in Melbourne, Adelaide and Coffs Harbour! Please contact us to receive more information regarding our other offices. Unfortunately, we are afraid our services are not available outside of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. If you are a student living outside of these cities and are unable to travel to these cities on a weekly basis, then we would recommend our excellent Resource package.

Our discount offers

How can I get the Group Discount?

The Group Discount is offered to students who sign up with two other friends (ie a group of 3). You do not need to attend the same class if you are not free at the same time and you do not all have to go to the same school. Ask around, there are many students planning to sit the UMAT course this year so it shouldn’t be too hard to find another 2 friends if you have not done so already.

Do my friends get the discount too?

YES! If you are in a group of three or more, ALL of you can enjoy our Group Discount!

Do all my friends have to pay at the same time for us to enjoy the discount?

No. We understand that people may not be able to pay at the same time for various reasons, so we are not requesting our students to do so. If you have indicated that you are in a group of three or more, you will be able to enjoy the group discount when you purchase our products and services. However, until the rest of your nominated group has completed their payments, you will not be able to attend our small group tuition classes, although you will have access to our material via our website.

Our purchasing policy

How can I pay for your products and services?

Please follow the steps below in order to make a payment

Go to our website www.f2fumat.com.au
Register if you haven’t done so already
Login in with your username and password
Choose the package you would like to purchase
You will be directed to the payment page
Follow the prompts

Which payment methods are acceptable?

You may purchase our products and services by any of the following means:

Credit Cards
Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
Personal or Bank Cheques – please make cheques payable to ‘Face2Face UMAT Preparation Centre’
Money Orders

We are happy to answer any questions regarding payment to make the process easy for you. Just contact us and we can help arrange payment in the method that suits you best.

Is paying by credit card over the internet secure?

We use PayPal (www.paypal.com) to process internet payments by credit card. PayPal's service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards and utilizes the world's most advanced proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment solution.

PayPal has quickly become a global leader in online payment solutions with 96 million account members worldwide. Available in 55 countries and regions around the world, buyers and sellers on eBay, online retailers, online businesses, as well as traditional offline businesses are transacting with PayPal.

For more information about PayPal's security go to http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_security-center-outside

I have just paid through the website, when will I be contacted for lesson times?

Usually, one of our tutors will contact you through your nominated telephone number within three working days after your payment to arrange lesson times.

Our quick guide to the UMAT

Is UMAT an IQ test?

No, UMAT is not a test strictly designed to test intelligence. The UMAT was introduced to assist in the selection criteria for health profession courses allowing universities to select students with a broader range of skills rather than relying solely on a mark given upon completing the final year of schooling.

Is the UMAT like any test I have done at school?

No. Although you may be familiar to the logical reasoning or comprehension style questions in section 1, sections 2 and 3 will have material which is unique to any style of test you would have done before.

What is the point of each section?

Section 1 is deigned to test your ability to draw conclusions and understand a block of information in a short period of time. Then you are required to solve questions relating to the text. This is relevant to any health profession, which relies on taking a patient history, understanding and drawing conclusions from it and then solving problems.

Section 2 is designed to test your ability to understand feelings of different people in different situations. These situations vary from clinical settings to chats with friends. This is relevant to any health profession as it is vital that a clinician can interpret patient feelings and address any concerns the patient may have.

Section 3 is designed to test your ability to solve problems involving sequences. Although this seems irrelevant to health professions, the idea is to test your spatial reasoning and your ability to see patterns, which is particularly relevant in diagnostic imaging.

What if I decide I want to do a health profession course after the UMAT exam in July?

Unfortunately without UMAT exam results, you can not qualify for entry for any health profession courses requiring the exam as a condition of entry. For this reason, it is very important even if you are only considering a course in the health profession field that you take the UMAT. Your results are valid for 2 years in case you change your mind the year after. If you do take it, you want to give yourself the best chances of doing well and hence training for the exam is vital.

The score I have been predicted is between 97 and 99. I have heard that only people with marks over 99 get into medicine?

This is definitely not true and we know this from experience. There are people with marks as low as mid 95 in UNSW and mid 92 in UWS studying medicine now. It is true that you have a better chance with higher marks and therefore assessments and exams are important. However, these marks are only one component of entry. With excellent UMAT marks, you can overcome any disadvantage from your school results. At the same time, very high end of school results are no advantage to a student who does not have good UMAT results. This is why the UMAT is so important. It has allowed many students who in the old system would not have been able to get a place, achieve their goals if they work hard at the UMAT and the interview. This again emphasises the point that even if you are unsure, you should still take the exam and give yourself the best possible chance of doing well.

What if I decide I want to do a health profession course after the UMAT exam in July?

The score I have been predicted is between 97 and 99. I have heard that only people with marks over 99 get into medicine?

Our advice on training for the UMAT exam

Is it possible to train for the UMAT?

OF COURSE!! Training for the UMAT exam maximises your potential of being accepted for an interview. With each section there a number of key techniques which need to be learnt to maximise your marks. The test is very daunting to anyone who has not been exposed to material beforehand and without training, it is difficult to get through all the questions in the allocated time.

Do I need to know how to speed read for section 1?

No. Speed reading is not recommended because it decreases your ability to absorb the important parts of the passage. The better you are able to understand each passage, the easier you will find it to answer the corresponding questions.

Is it true that I should not practice section 3 for a long time as this could be detrimental to my ability to succeed?

Again, this is not true. As tutors we have been exposed to section 3 questions for many years and have had many hours putting together and proof reading questions. Practice definitely INCREASES your ability to do section 3 questions, it does not decrease it!

I have been given old materials from current medical students. Is it still relevant?

No. UMAT is a dynamic exam and it changes each year. At Face 2 Face UMAT, we have been observing the changes over the past 5 years and are recognising the trends for the coming year. Section 2 changed dramatically after 2003, when the questions were of the type “so what would you do in this situation?” The questions since then have been of the type, “How does this make you feel”, therefore, testing your ability to appreciate how people feel in various situations, something vital in any health profession. This is the same for section 1 which has a greater focus on logical games questions and section 3 also.

Why is personalised tuition better than seminar equivalents?

Seminar based tuition is based on the fact that the more students you can cram into a lecture hall, the more money you can make per hour. It is ineffective because a lecturer teaches at a ‘general UMAT student’, who doesn’t really exist. Each student is different with different weaknesses and these can only be addressed by a tutor that has personal interactions with the student he or she teaches.

Are medical students qualified to teach the UMAT?

Medical students are probably the most qualified to teach the UMAT. To hold a place in medicine we have all had to perform exceptionally in the UMAT and in the interview. We sat the exam ourselves and thus know what it is like to be a student and know what students want in a tuition program. Beware of courses that are taught by doctors or even those that pretend to be doctors, as they most probably have not sat the UMAT to gain their place at a university and as such, are not as familiar with it as we are.

Can we contact you after lesson times?

At Face2Face UMAT we believe that easy contact to a tutor is essential for adequate education, because learning isn’t confined to lesson times. Anyone that wants more information about the course or students that want any further help with the lesson material can contact us via two routes. There is an enquiries email address enquiries@face2faceumat.com.au in which all enquiries are promptly answered. In addition, you can call any of our offices and ask us any questions about the homework or practice papers as well as about the course itself.

Is the material up to date?

The UMAT exam is constantly evolving. Many UMAT preparation programs find it difficult to keep their material and their teaching current. We, on the other hand, pride ourselves in keeping on the cutting edge of UMAT changes and changing our courses and material accordingly. Beware UMAT courses that teach in the old style of questions.

Is Year 11 (12 NZ) too young to start?

Not at all! Many of our students begin UMAT tuition in Year 11 or even Year 10 to familiarise themselves with the material before sitting the exam in Year 12. If you want to give yourself the best possible chance to attain a university position, then starting in Year 11 is for you.