about.met sect 1

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Introduction to Section 1 Structure AND CONTENT Section 1 of the UMAT has 44 questions and you will have 65 minutes in which to complete them. That is approximately 88-89 seconds per question. The questions can be broadly divided into: Logical reasoning questions Problem solving questions Many of the passages in Section 1 are medicine / science / research- based, but you will not need any prior knowledge to answer the questions. All of the information you need will be provided in the question booklet. However, a basic understanding of research methods is useful (this guide covers such concepts). Many of the questions involve data presented in tables, graphs and / or diagrams. Therefore, a section in this guide is dedicated to data interpretation. Some questions are ‘individual’ – i.e. only one question is based on a particular stimulus. Other questions will be grouped into ‘units’ and will be based on a larger amount of information / data. To aid learning, this guide is divided into various sections. Remember, however, that in the UMAT questions will often require you to combine skills discussed. For example, you may need to interpret data and research methods in a logical reasoning question. WHAT DOES IT TEST? According to the UMAT booklet, section 1 tests: ‘Your ability to comprehend, draw logical conclusions, reach solutions by identifying relevant facts, evaluate information, pinpoint additional or missing information, and generate and test plausible hypotheses.’ Essentially, section 1 tests how well you can solve problems and how fast you can interpret and critically analyse data and information.

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Page 1: About.met SECT 1

Introduction to Section 1

Structure AND CONTENT

Section 1 of the UMAT has 44 questions and you will have 65 minutes in which to complete them. That is approximately 88-89 seconds per question.

The questions can be broadly divided into:

Logical reasoning questions Problem solving questions

Many of the passages in Section 1 are medicine / science / research-based, but you will not need any prior knowledge to answer the questions. All of the information you need will be provided in the question booklet. However, a basic understanding of research methods is useful (this guide covers such concepts).

Many of the questions involve data presented in tables, graphs and / or diagrams. Therefore, a section in this guide is dedicated to data interpretation.

Some questions are ‘individual’ – i.e. only one question is based on a particular stimulus. Other questions will be grouped into ‘units’ and will be based on a larger amount of information / data.

To aid learning, this guide is divided into various sections. Remember, however, that in the UMAT questions will often require you to combine skills discussed. For example, you may need to interpret data and research methods in a logical reasoning question.

WHAT DOES IT TEST?

According to the UMAT booklet, section 1 tests:

‘Your ability to comprehend, draw logical conclusions, reach solutions by identifying relevant facts, evaluate information, pinpoint additional or missing information, and generate and test plausible hypotheses.’

Essentially, section 1 tests how well you can solve problems and how fast you can interpret and critically analyse data and information.

Remember that section 1 will be the first section you will complete on the test day, so it is also a test of your ability to handle stress. If you can tackle this section without getting too flustered, you will conserve energy and put yourself in a positive frame of mind for the rest of the test.

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how is it relevant to being a health professional?

Logical and critical thinking is a vital skill for any health professional. As a health professional, you will be bombarded with information from various sources, for example, government departments, the media, research papers and pharmaceutical companies. You will need to be able to critically appraise data, arguments and new research every day in order to provide patients with the most accurate, effective and up-to-date treatment and advice. Section 1 tests your capacity to do this.

It is important to note that the fields of medicine, dentistry and other health sciences are variable and ambiguous – there is often no ‘right answer’ or best treatment that will apply to every patient. Similarly, section 1 will include questions where alternatives are often imperfect. You will need to select the best answer in each case.

Problem solving is the basis of any health professional’s work. As a health professional, you will need to gather information about the patient’s medical history, presenting complaint and other pertinent information and use it to develop treatment plans.

Often patients will present with multiple and multifaceted problems, which complicates the picture further. Often also you will need to interpret information and data quickly to make a decision. Section 1 tests these skills.

What should I expect?

There are very few easy questions in Section 1 and many people find this section the hardest to finish. However, keep in mind that you can still get an excellent score if you do not finish every question perfectly. Your aim should be to complete as many questions as possible as accurately as possible.

Section 1 questions are the first UMAT questions you will be exposed to. Many people find that the first few questions of section 1 are very difficult, possibly because they have not yet got into the UMAT ‘mindset’ or the UMAT ‘rhythm’. It is important not to get flustered, but realise that the questions will get easier. Do not be afraid to skip the first question if you find it difficult.

The major difficulty of section 1 lies not in the amount of information, but complexity of the passages. This is why mere ‘speed reading’ will not help you. Woody Allen once said: ‘I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia !’ This illustrates that it is not just about reading quickly, it is about thinking quickly.

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TEN CRUCIAL TIPS FOR SECTION 1

1.       The most crucial strategy to remember for section 1 questions is to approach each question with the aim of Understanding the stimulus, rather than remembering parts of it

Questions will require you to use (manipulate, rearrange, comprehend, analyse) information. Unlike 'reading comprehension' style questions, they will not simply require you to parrot back bits of information.

2.       Use methods such as underlining, annotating and drawing diagrams to ensure that you actively interpret the information. You may also find it helpful to visualise information.

3.       It is vital to realise that the UMAT is testing your skills, not your knowledge, so you must Avoid bringing in your own biases You should analyse what is presented to you, not anything from your previous knowledge (except the strictly factual, such as the meaning of scientific terms).

4.       Read carefully and think quickly. Do not simply ‘skim over’ parts of the stimulus, unless you are reading a long passage and are seeking specific information.

5.Realise that you often need to invest some time in interpreting a stimulus. In year 12 exams, you often either know the answer or do not. In the UMAT, you need to think about the material. If you slow down and consider the material, it is less likely that you will have to read the information over and over again. Try to ‘crack’ the question open the first time.

6.       Previewing the question stem is particularly important for section 1 questions. This will help you sift through the not-so-relevant information and pull out that which is pertinent.

7.       Subvocalising (reading individual words in your mind) can be very useful, especially with more complex stimuli. It allows you to emphasise certain words and aids understanding. Contrary to popular belief, it is usually not a hindrance.

8.       When you are looking for the ‘best answer’ (usually logical reasoning / critical thinking questions), make sure you read and carefully consider all the options. When you are looking for the ‘right answer’ (usually problem solving questions) there is no need to consider other options. As soon as you arrive at the answer, move on.

9.       Learn to deal with ambiguity! Most of the time you will not be presented with a perfect answer, and more than one answer may seem ‘correct’.

10.   Problem solving questions can be solved using various techniques. Make sure you are familiar with these techniques and know when to apply them.

FIGURES & STATISTICS

Some section 1 questions may require you to interpret and manipulate statistics, ratios, percentages and proportions. While the calculations themselves will not be challenging, and will not require the use of a calculator, the manipulations may be difficult.  The following paragraphs explain why.

Are you the kind of person who can remember a phone number without writing it down? Or are you the kind who forgets it while fumbling for a pen? The answer may mean a lot in the UMAT. The UMAT has

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problems full of zigzags and double-talk, and it puts enormous emphasis on what psychologists call ‘short term working memory’. Though the computations behind the problems may be easy, the written scenarios are often confusing.

Another reason why these problems are difficult is because you are probably used to using a calculator, and more used to quadratic functions than simple calculations. Unfortunately in the UMAT you cannot bring in a calculator and there are no quadratic functions; there are only simple calculations. As one student put it, ‘The most challenging thing for me about these types of questions was that I hadn’t done any of this type of maths since about year six.’

You already know all of the maths covered in the UMAT. The trick is learning how to reason in new ways with fairly basic maths concepts. Remember that the UMAT is a reasoning test, not an achievement test. The UMAT is not designed to measure how much maths you know, but how well you reason with relatively basic maths concepts, and how you relate this to an often confusing scenario.

Following are some general strategies.

Be clear what the numbers refer to. Does the figure relate to the whole population, a subset of the population, or something else? If you are not clear what the number refers to, you will have difficulty answering the question.

Look for short cuts. Remember you will not be required to engage in complex mathematics. For example, 54% is approximately ½. Good UMAT-takers know that you don’t need to do any real calculations to get the right answer. By using approximate numbers, you can often estimate the number in your head and then scan your options for the right one.

Calculate only what you have to. You can spend several minutes calculating everything perfectly, but often it is not necessary and is simply a waste of time. Examine the answer alternatives to see how accurate you have to be and what calculation the question is actually asking for.

It may be helpful to assign symbols to unknown values eg. x, y. This can help when you manipulate the data.

Try plugging in the answers. Sometimes, the quickest way to solve a problem is not to try to solve it in the conventional way. With all the answers staring you in the face, an alternative is to plug them into the question and see which one works. Also called working backwards, or trial and error, plugging in can be a core strategy.

Try drawing pictures. On a test that puts enormous pressure on your short-term memory, jotted notes and drawings can be a big help. Drawing as you read takes only a few seconds, and you may be surprised at how much time you will save by not having to re-read or double-check your facts.

If you can understand what the question is really asking, you can almost always answer it. You may be thrown, for example, by the way the question is phrased. Try taking the question, and wrestling it into a form you can understand. Ask yourself: what’s really being asked here? Try putting it into your own words – this makes it less intimidating and easier to understand. 

 

Let's go through a worked example

Question 1

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Suppose that a jogger runs from her home to a park at a pace of 8 kilometres per hour, and then immediately returns home along the same route at a pace of 7 kilometres per hour. If the total time she spent was 1 hour, how many minutes did it take her to jog from her house to the park?

A) 34

B) 28

C) 24

D) 20

This can be solved as a ratio and proportion problem but you should only need a few seconds to get it by eyeballing and estimating. Look at the answers. Since the jogger was going faster on her way to the park than she was on the way home, option A is wrong. You know you’re looking for a number less than 30, but not a lot less. Option C would mean that it took her 36 minutes on the way back. Common sense tells us that a one-eighth decrease in speed won’t lead to a 50% increase in the amount of time needed to cover the distance. The answer must be closer to 30 minutes and therefore the answer is option B.

Now let’s try a more complex unit question

Question 2

Houses in the city of Westland have a high rate of termite infestation.  In response, many home-owners have purchased TermOut, a chemical which prevents houses from becoming infested.  Westland contains 20,000 houses, and 60% of those are protected with TermOut.

Of houses protected with TermOut, only 1 in 2000 will become infested in the following year.  For unprotected houses, 16% will become infested in the following year.

In the statement 'An unprotected houses is X times as likely to become infested in the following year compared to a protected house', what is the correct value for X?

A 16

B 320

C 16,000

D 32,000

Although this may seem like an easy question at first, it is easy to get mixed up with numbers such as those in this question (especially when there is significant time pressure). We should try to explain it to ourselves in statements of fact and make all of the percentages/numbers/fractions in one format. I.e:

1. For houses protected with TermOut, 1 in 2000 will become infested in the following year.

2. For unprotected houses, 16% will become infested in the following year.  This is equivalent to [(16/100) x 2000] = 320  in 2000 houses.

When we put the ratios in the same format (i.e "... out of 2000 houses") it becomes easy to compare and thus answer the question. Thus an unprotected house is 320 times as likely to become infested as a protected house (answer B).

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Question 3

How many of Westland’s houses will typically become infested in the following year?

            A 1,280

            B 1,286

            C 3,200

            D 3,210

Once again, let's firstly identify the relevant pieces of information in the passage:

1. Westland has 12,000 houses (60% of 20,000) protected with TermOut.

2. Westland also has 8,000 houses (the remainder) that are not protected with TermOut. 

3. Of the protected houses, only 1 in 2000 will become infested in the following year. 

4. Of the unprotected houses, 16% will become infested in teh following year.

Using (1) and (3), we can see that (1/2000) x 12000 = 6 infestations. Using (2) and (4), we can see that (16/100) x 8000 = 1280 infestations. Therefore, the total number of infestations will be 1,280 + 6 = 1,286 (answer B).

 

Question 4

Unfortunately, some people are allergic to TermOut, and experience allergic reactions of varying severity.  In most cases, they are unable to use TermOut in their house, although in some cases (if the reaction is sufficiently mild) TermOut can still be used.  Assume that 1 in 8 households includes a person who is allergic to TermOut, and that 1 in 10 of these households nevertheless uses TermOut to protect their house.

The percentage of houses that are unprotected and include an allergic occupant is closest to

A 5%

B 8%

C 10%

D 11%

Information that is relevant:

1. 1 in 8 houses, or 12.5% includes an allergic occupant.

2. Of these, 9 in 10 are unprotected. 

Therefore, (1/8) x (9/10) = 9/80. To change into a percent, multiply by 100. Therefore, 900/80 = 90/8 which is around 11% (answer D).

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Question 5

How many houses in Westland are unprotected but do NOT have an allergic occupant?

A 250

B 5,500

C 5,750

D 7,000

1. There are 20,000 houses in Westland

2. 2,500 (1 in 8) of these have occupants who are allergic to TermOut. 

3. Of these, 250 (1 in 10) are protected with TermOut.

4. That leaves 2,500 – 250 = 2,250 houses that are unprotected and DO have an allergic occupant.

5. There are a total of 8,000 unprotected houses in Westland (of the 20,000 houses, 60% are protected). 

It follows that 8,000 – 2,250 = 5,750 houses are unprotected and DON’T have an allergic occupant (answer C).

Question 6

Because a termite infestation in a given house represents a threat to other nearby houses, the mayor of Westland decides to offer a $300 cash payment to anyone who protects their house with TermOut.  His advisors believe that this will result in 20% of currently unprotected houses becoming protected.

Question: Assuming that the mayor’s advisors are correct, what percentage of Westland’s houses will remain unprotected?

            A 8

            B 20

            C 32

            D 80

1. Initially, Westland had 12,000 protected houses (60% of 20,000) and 8,000 unprotected houses (the remainder). 

2. Another 1,600 houses (20% of the currently unprotected houses) will become protected after the cash payment is offered

Therefore, there will be 8000 - 1600 = 6,400 unprotected houses after the cash payment is offered.  That is, [(6400/2000)x100]= 32% of Westland’s houses will remain unprotected.

Data Interpretation

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Introduction

In the UMAT, you are unlikely to be asked to simply ‘read’ information from a graph or table. However, many UMAT questions require you to analyse data that is presented in tabular, graphical or diagrammatical format.

Data interpretation questions test your ability to extract relevant information and apply that information to solve problems, draw conclusions or make interpretations. These questions will not require you to have extensive mathematical skills but may require you to have basic skills in estimation, percentages and simple calculation.

General Strategies

Look at the data from a bird’s eye perspective – what is the stimulus as a whole describing, examining, telling you?

Identify headings, labels and axes eg. dates, time periods If there is more than one graph / table / diagram, ask yourself: how are they interrelated? Is the data provided as percentages or raw data? What are the units? Look for annotations, small print, etc Can you make any immediate connections or interpretations from the data? Can you identify any

trends?

Following is an example of some data that is presented to you in tabular format.

Total populationAt birth    2000

At birth   200133.458.757.870.928.759.763.158.371.671.0

* WHO: World Health Organisation

** This is an excerpt from the full WHO listing which comprises of 191 member states

Look at the data from a bird’s eye perspective

The data describes:

The first 10 member states of the WHO (in alphabetical order) Life expectancy in the year 2001 The total population statistics as well as only male and only female Life expectancy at birth and life expectancy at age 60

Identify headings, labels, axes

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Headings: ‘Life Expectancy in 2001’, ‘Member state’, ‘Male’, ‘Female’, ‘At birth 2000’, ‘At birth 2001’, ‘At age 60’.

If there is more than one graph / table / diagram, ask yourself: are they interrelated?

There is not more than one table, rather there are elements within a table.

Is the data provided as percents or raw data? What are the units?

Raw data. The units are 'years'.

Look for annotations, small print, etc

WHO: World Health Organisation This is an excerpt from the full WHO listing which comprises of 191 member states

Can you make any immediate connections or interpretations from the data? Can you identify any trends?

This table illustrates the life expectancies of the first 10 alphabetically listed member states from the WHO

It provides data on the overall population in terms of life expectancy at birth if born in 2000 and 2001

It provides data for males only and females only – in terms of life expectancy at birth and further life expectancy at age 60

Let’s look at a question:

What can be concluded from the table presented above?

A)    Life expectancy rose in all the countries between 2000 and 2001

B)    Australia has the highest life expectancy of the WHO member states

C)    In general, females have a higher life expectancy than males

D)    Those who get to age 60 have a shorter life expectancy than average

Answer: C

Solution: Notice the word ‘all’ in option A. This should alert you because the only thing you need to do to refute this statement is find one of the countries in which the life expectancy dropped between 2000 and 2001. All of the countries’ life expectancies rose between 2000 and 2001 except Afghanistan which dropped from 33.8 to 33.4. Thus option A is wrong. Although Australia has the highest life expectancy from the member states presented, it is clear from the data that there are many other WHO members that are not presented. These may or may not have higher life expectancies than Australia – we do not know. Therefore, we cannot conclude option B. From the data presented, we can conclude option C because, in general, females do have a higher life expectancy than males. If option C were phrased ‘in all WHO member states, females have a higher life expectancy than males’ or ‘all females will live longer than males in the 10 countries presented’, it would be false because this would make conclusions that are beyond the scope of the material presented. Option D is a misunderstanding of the data in the table – the values in columns that

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represent ‘At age 60’ are lower than the ‘at birth’ columns but this is because these people are already 60 years old. In fact, the table shows that once they reach 60, people live longer than the average life expectancy.

LOGICAL REASONING

INTRODUCTION

In logical reasoning questions, you will be presented with a series of statements (with or without additional data) and will be asked to select the response that can be most logically drawn from the information provided.

Keep in mind that a response does not have to be ‘perfect’. In fact, most conclusions have some degree of faulty reasoning involved. The test-writers are simply asking you to choose the best possible answer.

Crash course in LOGICAL REASONING

What is logic?

Logic is concerned with distinguishing correct reasoning from reasoning that is incorrect. It is the cognitive process we go through to discover the ‘truth’. We use logic subconsciously every day in evaluating claims made by the media, advertising and people around us. When you hear something that employs incorrect logical reasoning, you may think to yourself ‘that doesn’t sound right’ or ‘that doesn’t necessarily follow’. The UMAT tests your ability to use these skills thoroughly, quickly and strategically in the context of a strictly timed, multiple-choice test.

As a health professional, it is vital that your skills in logical reasoning are highly developed. The job of a health professional is ultimately to discover truth and avoid error, which is the essence of logical reasoning.

What is logic applied to?

We know that logic is a way of discovering ‘the truth’. But what are these things that we call ‘true’ and ‘false’? These ‘things’ may be:

• Statements• Sets of statements• Arguments

Statements

A statement is a claim made by a person. For example, a claim may be ‘almost one in four Australians aged 25 years or older has diabetes’. Strangely enough, in logic (and in the UMAT) we do not worry whether a particular statement is factually true or false. Instead, we are concerned with whether the statement is logically true or false. While we do not need to go into details, there are two main criteria for judging whether a statement is logically true:

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1. Statements must be either true or false (there is no ‘middle ground’) 2. No statement can be both true and false

For the purposes of the UMAT, all you need to know is that you should accept each statement as fact and proceed accordingly. You should not dispute the factual accuracy of a statement, or bring in your own opinions, you should proceed as if each statement were true.

Sets of statements

A set of statement is a group of statements that we have decided to view together as one unit. Unlike single statements, we never evaluate sets of statements as logically true or logically false. Instead, we only evaluate them in terms of whether they are ‘consistent’ or ‘inconsistent’. What we mean by ‘consistent’ is whether all the statements in the set are true together. For example, the following set is consistent:

Jake loves MichelleMichelle loves BobBob loves Jake

A set is inconsistent if it is impossible for all the statements in the set to be true together. The following set is inconsistent:

Jake is taller than MichelleMichelle is taller than BobBob is taller than Jake

Why is this useful? Sometimes want to know if all the claims someone has made could be true. If we discover that they could not all be true together, we know that at least one claim they have made is false.

Arguments

The main concern of logic is how statements are connected with each other. Therefore, we usually consider a group of statements that are related in some way. Compare this with sets of statements, which are isolated units. Arguments are statements that are related to each other in a very precise manner. Because arguments are such as major part of the UMAT, we will consider them in more detail in the following section.

Arguments

An ‘argument’ in logic is not the same as people ‘arguing’. In logic, an ‘argument’ is a series of statements, where one statement (the conclusion) follows from the others (the premises). We call the single statement that is being argued for the conclusion of the argument, and we call each statement that provides evidence to establish the conclusion a premise of the argument.

Note that in logic the term 'conclusion' does not necessarily mean a 'summary statement' eg. the conclusion of an essay; nor does it necessarily appear at the end. It can appear anywhere in the argument. A conclusion is the main idea, what the author is trying to convince the reader of, what the author is claiming, or the point of the argument.

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It is important to recognise that on the UMAT, the premises will not prove the conclusion, they will support it.

It is often helpful to identify conclusions and premises to orient yourself. Premises usually appear first and conclusions often appear later. Certain words and phrases can also provide cues. 'Because', 'since' and 'it has been found that' suggest premises, and phrases such as 'therefore', 'it follows that', 'thus' and 'so' alert you to conclusions.

The transition or movement from premises to conclusion (the logical connection between them) is the inference upon which the argument relies.

There are two main types of inference:

Deductive inference

When the truth of an argument’s premises guarantees the truth of its conclusion, it involves a deductive inference. The conclusion follows with certainty from the evidence/premises presented (assuming the evidence is correct). Deductive reasoning holds a very high standard of correctness.

Here’s a basic example:

Premises: All dogs are mammals.All mammals are warm blooded.

Conclusion: Therefore, all dogs are warm blooded.

In this case, if we assume that the premises are right, the conclusion must be right. The premises provide absolute and complete support for the conclusion. This is a deductive argument.

Inductive inference

When the truth of an argument’s premises makes it likely or probable that its conclusion is also true, it is an inductive inference. The standard of correctness for inductive reasoning is much more flexible than that for deduction. An inductive argument succeeds whenever its premises provide some legitimate evidence or support for the truth of its conclusion.

Take a look at this one:

Premises: John’s mailbox is empty.The door to John’s house is unlocked.

Conclusion:Therefore, John’s wife is probably home.

This argument is an inductive argument. The conclusion does not follow with certainty – it is not guaranteed. The premises might be correct, but the conclusion is not necessarily correct. The conclusion does seem likely, but it might be possible that John’s son is home instead, or John didn’t get any mail and forgot to lock his house. Compare this with deductive arguments, where the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises.

In the UMAT, you will often be asked to select the option that can be concluded with most certainty from

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the information provided. Therefore you should look favourably upon answers that use deductive reasoning to reach the conclusion and be more wary of answers that rely on inductive reasoning.

Keep in mind that the argument may or may not be valid – we are not concerned with the validity of the argument, but rather the way it is argued.

FLAWS IN LOGICAL REASONING

In section 1 of the UMAT, you are most often expected to select which conclusion follows most logically from the information presented. In order to do this, you need to have a good understanding of common errors in logic. This section describes those that most commonly arise in UMAT.

Assumptions

An assumption is a premise, usually one that is hidden or unstated. It is often something we assume to be true, so we see no point in stating it explicitly. Since arguments would be much longer if every single reason needed to be stated, we assume certain reasons that seem sensible and logical. However, it is important to avoid making assumptions in the UMAT, especially those that are unwarranted.

Let’s try a simple example.

Robbery is an action that hurts another person. Therefore, robbery is immoral.

Let's start by identifying the components of the argument:

Premises: Robbery is an action that hurts another person.

Conclusion: Therefore, robbery is immoral.Assumption: (Actions that hurt others are immoral)

It seems unnecessary to state ‘Actions that hurt others are immoral’ because most people believe this statement to be true. However, some assumptions are more questionable. Try to identify the assumption(s) in the following passage:

The government’s decision to require doctors to prescribe generic alternatives to brand name drugs, when an alternative is available, is an excellent one. Now patients will be able to save a lot of money and yet get the same medical treatment.

The most important assumption here is that generic alternatives will have the same effect as brand name drugs. Otherwise patients will not pay less for the same treatment. But there are other assumptions, for example, that the difference in cost between brand name and generic drugs is sufficient to make a significant difference (so patients will be able to save ‘a lot’ of money).

The key point is to be wary of assumptions and avoid making assumptions when you select your conclusion. This can be difficult to do in UMAT, since your brain is used to drawing assumptions to make sense of the world around you. Since this point is worth emphasising, let us look at some simpler examples that illustrate how easy it is to fall into the assumptions trap.

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Let’s say the speed limit in Sydney residential streets is 50 kilometres per hour, and that John is driving at 60 kilometres per hour. What would you conclude? Probably that John is speeding. You might draw other conclusions, such as John’s likelihood of getting a speeding ticket if he is caught. But notice that we did not say where John is driving. For all you know, John could be driving in the slow lane at the Melbourne Grand Prix.

In real life, it would be ridiculous for someone to say that the speed limit in a city is 50 kilometres per hour, and that someone is driving 60 kilometres per hour – but in another city. You know that would be ridiculous, so your brain ‘figures out’ what the other person ‘really meant.’ But on the UMAT, you don’t want to interpret ridiculous statements, you want to eliminate them as wrong. In section 1, don’t interpret, or read between the lines, or search for hidden meanings. Train yourself to take everything you read in section 1 literally – without interpreting or over-analysing. Restraining yourself from making unwarranted ‘leaps’ may be something you must consciously remind yourself to do. Remember, there is a difference between drawing a valid inference and making an unwarranted assumption.

Now let’s consider the two seemingly innocuous statements below, one an opinion, the other a fact.

Every child should read as much as possible. The population of Adelaide is one million.

We’re already giving you a big hint by warning you ahead of time not to interpret these statements, but you’ll probably admit that both statements appear reasonable enough; certainly neither option would be likely to set off alarm bells in your head if you were to see them as options on a UMAT section 1 question. But let’s take a closer look at each statement.

The first statement is the kind of thing we would expect a well-intentioned schoolteacher to say. Unfortunately, if we put the statement under our UMAT microscope’s literal lens, it falls apart completely. So, every child should read as much as possible. Every child? Even three year olds? And as much as possible? Outside of sleep, then, every child should be reading continuously, even during meals?

Now you may be thinking we’re being ridiculous, that of course ‘the person didn’t mean that.’ But that’s what the statement says. If ‘the person’ meant to say that children who can read should do so as much as they reasonably can, why didn’t he or she say so? By the way, that was an actual UMAT option, we didn’t make it up.

Let’s consider the second statement. Even now, after everything we have discussed, it is hard not to read that sentence as saying that the population of Adelaide is about one million. But it doesn’t say that: it says that the population of Adelaide is one million, exactly one million. If that figure were true when the sentence was written, it wouldn’t be true a few minutes later, when someone in Adelaide was born, or died, or moved away, or moved in.

Keep in mind that those were relatively simple examples; UMAT options can get much more complex. It is not that the test writers try to ‘trick’ you – it’s that your own brain interprets too much. The take home point? Be wary of making assumptions, and interpret everything literally.

Scope

The ‘scope’ of the argument is the limits to what it says. Consider the statement:

Mrs Jones occasionally suffers from migraine headaches after consuming red wine.

From this statement alone, you cannot conclude that Mrs Jones always has migraine headaches after consuming red wine. To determine the scope of the argument, you often need to look for key qualifiers.

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Qualifiers may be words like some, none, never, always, everywhere and sometimes. These words can play a critical role in precisely specifying the facts to be used in your reasoning.

Qualifiers can also be words such as cities (not countries) and vehicles (rather than just motorcycles or cars). For example:

Statement 1: When an otherwise healthy person has a bacterial infection, the white cell count always increases. Statement 2: When a person has an infection, the white cell count always increases.

Statement 2 cannot be determined from statement 1, since it is outside the scope of the argument. Firstly, statement 1 refers to ‘otherwise healthy [people]’ only. Secondly, it refers to ‘bacterial’ infections, not infections in general (which could, for example, include viral, fungal and parasitic infections).

Take a look at this argument:

No other major department store offers you a low price and a 14 month warranty on parts and labour on this special edition of the Z-51 Panasonic television.

At first, this advertisement sounds pretty impressive. But when you pull it apart, the claim being made is limited. First, the advertisement is restricted to a comparison with ‘department’ stores, and ‘major’ ones at that. It is possible that a small shop or an electronics store has the same deal. Second, other stores may offer a better deal on the product, with a lower price or longer warranty, and the claim would still stand so long as no one else offered exactly a ‘14 month’ warranty. Finally, the advertisement is restricted to a ‘special edition’ of the television.

This example illustrates how the scope of an argument can be dramatically limited by only a few key words.

It is also important to pay special attention to the question stem, as this may limit the scope of the question. For example:

From the information above it can be concluded that in the city of Brisbane in summer…

Here the conclusion needs to (1) be valid, and (2) be valid for ‘the city of Brisbane in summer’.

Defensible statements

Remember that the test writers have a difficult task in developing questions. The writers must come up with a single option that they can defend as the right answer, and three more or less plausible options that cannot be defended due to an error(s) in logic. Also keep in mind that every single word of an option was carefully selected by the test writers, either to make an option right, or to make it wrong.

When answering a question in the UMAT, choose a response that is easily defensible. One way of doing this is to favour words like ‘could’, ‘perhaps’ and ‘may’ over more definitive words such as ‘must’, ‘only’ and ‘will’, and to generally be wary of extreme options. Extreme options are not always wrong, but they are always easy to attack, and so are often wrong.

Following is a more complete list of words that you should look out for:

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Easy to attack: all, most, none, the only, same, equal, entirely, solely, first/last, always, never, ‘est’ words (eg. best, tallest, greatest), ‘less’ words (eg. useless, meaningless, endless), cause, must, will, would

Hard to attack: some, possible, about, approximately, seems, apparently, primarily, generally, sometimes, may, might, can, could

You don’t have to memorise these words and phrases once you understand the basic principle of defensible statements. We cannot give you any hard and fast rules about qualifying words, however, because you must always consider the context. The phrase ‘the only’ is almost always wrong, but the phrase ‘not the only’ is often correct. Consider the examples below:

Easily attacked words Easily defended versionsAll Not allAlways Not alwaysThe only Seemed the onlyOldest Oldest knownThe first Among the firstSame About the same

As you can see, it is simplistic to think that any words by themselves are always right or always wrong.

Consider the following example, where we start with an extreme statement and see how we could make it progressively more defendable:

1. The recent discovery is the largest diamond in the world.2. The recent discovery is the largest diamond ever found. 3. The recent discovery is the largest diamond ever recorded. 4. The recent discovery is the largest diamond ever officially recorded. 5. The recent discovery is the largest diamond ever officially recorded in modern times.

The first and final statements both seem to be saying ‘about the same thing.’ However, while the first statement can be easily challenged (and would therefore not be a good answer to a UMAT question), the final statement is much easier to defend. 

The answer is not necessarily the longest or most qualified option. Indeed, the answer is often so simple and so general that you cannot argue with it.

This time let’s start with a general statement and see how we could make it progressively less defensible:

1. Discuss a problem.2. Discuss a cause of a problem.3. Discuss the cause of a problem. 4. Discuss the economic cause of a problem. 5. Demonstrate the economic cause of a problem.

Each time specifics are added to the original phrase, we gained more ‘points of attack’ during the process of elimination. The more detailed an option, the more likely it is that one of those details is incorrect.

Just because an option is defendable does not make it the answer. The important point is that on each question, every single word of every single option was specifically chosen by the test writers to make one option right, and the other four options wrong. The easier it is to challenge an option, the easier it is to eliminate that option.

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Personal bias

In the UMAT, it is important that you consider the information presented in an objective manner. It is vital that you do not bring in your personal preconceptions. This is important in work as a health professional, when you must avoid your beliefs and views influencing your decisions.

Consider this example:

Every day, areas of rainforest 50 times the size of the MCG are cleared. At this rate, there will be little rainforest left in 30 years.

In this case you cannot definitively conclude that the author wants to find a solution to this problem or even thinks it is a problem. You (along with most people) probably believe rainforest clearing to is highly undesirable, and are used to reading articles that argue that it is undesirable. However, this particular author may be from a logging company and believe such action is a positive move. It is important not to assume that the author shares the same views as you or the majority of citizens. As one student put it, ‘Logical reasoning questions have answers that are meant to confuse you. If you’re trying to decide between two interpretations of a passage in your mind, it’s quite likely that there will be answer choices that match each interpretation in every question. I would recommend that you don’t let your personal opinions get in the way. Try to become the author and use his or her point of view.’

The equivalent body of ACER in the United States comments that ‘answers can be both true and wrong.’ Although this is unlikely, the correct response is not necessarily the one that reflects circumstances in the outside world, but rather the one that expresses the appropriate response to the stimulus.

Remember, you must not bring your preconceptions and biases into the UMAT.

Correlation and causation

A cause-effect relationship is the connection between an action’s disturbance (cause) and its effect on the environment. This relationship lies at the heart of medical research, which aims to find links between certain causes (eg. disease, drugs, diet, exposures) and certain effects (eg. illness, disability life-expectancy). This concept is tested time and time again in the UMAT.

In every day life (and in the UMAT) it is common to find instances where there is a logical flaw related to the cause-effect relationship. The two most common flaws are:

• Correlation is erroneously equated with causation• The cause-effect relationship is confused

Equating correlation with causation

If you have studied psychology or research methods, you will be familiar with this type of flaw. For those who have not, it basically means that if two things happen together, it does not necessarily mean one causes another. For example:

The life expectancy of Aboriginal people is low. Therefore, being Aboriginal causes people to die early.

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Here, two phenomena (being Aboriginal and having a low life expectancy) are joined in a cause-effect relationship that may not exist. Low life expectancy among Aboriginal people is likely to be caused by other factors, such as social issues, poor health facilities and substandard living conditions, not the pure fact of ‘being Aboriginal’.

Confusing the cause-effect relationship

In the following example, the cause-effect relationship is reversed:

Every time the doorbell rings there is someone at the door. Therefore, the doorbell must call people to my door.

Following is another example:

People who have high blood pressure are more likely to suffer stroke than those with normal or low blood pressure. Therefore, stroke increases the likelihood of having high blood pressure.

In this example, the cause-effect relationship is fallaciously confused. The cause is actually high blood pressure, and the effect is stroke, not the other way around.

Generalization

In everyday life, it is common to find examples of generalization. Human beings have a natural tendency to classify objects and people to make the world simpler to understand. However, in this process some of the complexity and subtlety of life is lost. One example of over-generalization is stereotyping, which involves describing a phenomena and then fallaciously applying it to an individual case.

For example:

Most people cry when they start school, therefore my child will cry when he starts school.

Other examples of over-generalisation may involve generalising the results of a survey or experiment to a population. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as the sample is representative of the population and the investigation surveyed a sufficiently large and diverse group. For example:

Every household interviewed on this block responded that crime is a serious problem in this area. Therefore, residents in this neighbourhood believe that crime is a serious problem here.

The problem with this argument is the sample group (those living on ‘this block’) is not necessarily representative of the population to which the results are being generalised (‘this neighbourhood’).

In the UMAT, be wary of responses that over-generalise.

Irrelevance

If something is not discussed in a passage, chances are it is incorrect. Although it is usually quite easy to spot an option that is totally irrelevant, it becomes more difficult when time is limited and you only have time to ‘skim over’ the passage. Other people who get caught out on irrelevance are those who do not leave their personal knowledge and biases behind and are therefore caught out by distracter that include material not discussed in a passage. For example:

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The Australian sharemarket is expected to open lower for the last week of the financial year, after the price of oil neared a record $US60 a barrel. Fears about rising energy costs hit Wall Street on Friday, amid fears that the high price of oil could also damp consumer spending and in turn hamper economic growth. Current world oil prices suggest that the average petrol price is heading to $1.20 a litre. But for the economy as a whole it is not so bad to the extent that Australia benefits as a net energy producer. Energy-related stocks could get a lift if oil continues to march higher, but other sectors, particularly airlines and transport, could suffer.

What can be concluded from the passage?

Distracter: Middle East tensions have contributed to the rise in petrol price

The distracter provides a plausible explanation for oil price rises and one that may be true. However, the passage has nothing to do with ‘Middle East tensions’. It is amazing how many people would pick a distracter such as this.

You should aim to quickly identify irrelevant distracters and discard them.

Lack of proof does not disprove

It is important to realise that the mere fact that there is not enough evidence for something does not mean that it is untrue. For example:

A recent study failed to find an association between smoking less than five cigarettes per day and heart disease. Therefore, smoking moderate numbers of cigarettes is safe for the heart.

This argument is unsound for many reasons, one of which is that just because this study has found there is no increase in the risk of heart disease, does not mean the association doesn't exist. Maybe the study was carried out inaccurately, maybe there weren't enough participants to pick up the association, maybe the measures used were not adequate... the list goes on.

Circular arguments

In a circular argument, the premise is used to prove the conclusion and the conclusion is used to prove the premise. For example:

I am not lying. Since I am not lying, I am telling the truth.

Here, the argument is assuming the very thing that it aims to prove – that the author is telling the truth. These arguments have no substance behind their reasoning and are usually easy to identify.

Worked examples

Worked example 1

Early this century, the doctor was a comforter, expected to predict the progress of a disease or to help the patient cope with a struggle or imminent defeat, but not to work miracles. This situation changed with the coming of such drugs as penicillin, insulin, and antibiotics. Add the rapid technological developments of contemporary medicine, and we find the medical professional under pressure to defeat every disease, correct every physical defect, and maximize the patient’s quality of life. Society no longer is satisfied with the dedicated efforts of human beings; it now demands perfect performance of technicians as foolproof as the most sophisticated machines.

Which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the passage?

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A) The patient today expects results rather than sympathy from his or her physicianB)Medical incompetence is more widespread today than it was in the early twentieth century

C) As medical technology has advanced, health care workers have become less sensitive to the feelings of their patients

D) Because doctors cannot meet the often unrealistic expectations of their patients, they are subjected to an ever-increasing number of malpractice suits

Answer: A

Solution: The question stem asks you to make a reasonable inference from the passage. The passage is a brief history of society’s changing view of physicians. Option A is essentially a summarized version of the idea expressed in the last sentence of the paragraph. The ‘competence’ of physicians is not discussed in the passage (i.e. it is irrelevant) and therefore option B is not a valid conclusion. Option C goes too far. There is no suggestion that healthcare workers have become less sensitive; the emphasis of the passage is on the patient’s expectations. Option D is beyond the scope of the passage, as malpractice suits are not mentioned in the passage.

Worked example 2

Chocolate is derived from the beans of the tropical New World tree Theobroma cacao. When chocolate arrived in Europe around 1500, it was consumed only as a hot drink. In the mid-1800s, however, the Swiss invented the first method for producing it in a solid edible form. Today, millions more kilograms of chocolate are produced for eating than for drinking.

Which of the following can be inferred from the statements above?

A) Today, Theobroma cacao is grown only in the tropical New World

B) The number of kilograms of chocolate made for eating today is greater than the number of kilograms of chocolate that were made for drinking during the 1800s

C) Chocolate was not consumed in a solid form in the New World in the 1500s

D) If the Swiss had not invented a method for producing chocolate in a solid edible form, chocolate would not have become as popular as it is today

Answer: C

Solution: The stimulus tells us that Theobroma cacao is a tropical new world tree, but we cannot infer that this tree only grows in the tropical New World. The tree might exist in other countries. We know from the passage that more kilograms of chocolate are produced for eating than for drinking, but we have no information about how the amount of drinking chocolate in the 1800s compares to the amount of solid edible chocolate produced today. Although we may believe (from our own knowledge or intuition) that option B is true, it cannot be inferred from the passage. It is merely an assumption. Option C is valid. If the Swiss invented the first way to produce solid edible chocolate in the 1800s, then solid edible chocolate was not consumed anywhere in the 1500s. Option D is entirely unsupported by the passage. Just because the Swiss made chocolate into a solid, does not mean that nobody else would have done so if the Swiss had not. This is another unwarranted assumption.

SUMMARY OF STRATEGIES FOR LOGICAL REASONING

Accept every fact in the stimulus as true.

Only eliminate an answer option if a flaw in logical reasoning can be found.

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Use only the information in the passage as the basis for accepting or rejecting any response choices. Do not allow any outside knowledge to influence your thinking and do not make assumptions.

Pay careful attention to the question stem, especially for thought reversers (eg. ‘cannot’, ‘not’)

Pay special attention to words in the stimulus that identify the scope of the argument (eg. ‘all participants ’, ‘none of the countries’). Also pay attention to words and statements in the question stem that limit or expand the scope of the question (eg. 'always true', 'may be false').

In general, be wary response choices that contain absolutes that are extreme such as ‘all’ or ‘none’. They require a much higher level of evidence to be ‘valid’.

Be wary of answer options that involve

- Assumptions- Going beyond the scope- Personal bias- Confusion of correlation and causation- Over-generalisation- Irrelevance- Circular arguments

If you encounter a question that is difficult to understand, try drawing diagrams and breaking it up into parts. Subvocalising can also help.

Briefly try to predict an answer (if possible).

Read all responses carefully before selecting the best answer.

PROBLEM SOLVING

What is it?

Problem solving is a complex activity that involves the manipulation of information to arrive at a solution. There are no strict 'rules' for solving problems, and tests such as the UMAT may present problem solving questions in a number of forms. However, general techniques for approaching problems can facilitate the problem solving process. Such techniques are discussed below.

Note that problem solving questions in the UMAT do not require you to have knowledge of complex mathematics or other special ised skills.

GENERAL APPROACH

Following is a series of techniques that are a useful general approach in answering problem solving questions.

Preview the question stem so you know what you are looking for If the problem is complex, break it up into manageable parts Identify the components of the problem Assign the symbols to various parts of the problem Note down what you know - identify the conditions Determine the implications of conditions to find other 'hidden' conditions Eliminate answers Examine remaining answers for clues

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Draw a table or diagram to help organise information Use trial and error

We will use the following example to work through parts of this guide:

Robert, James, Henry and Philip are sprinters. Philip can outrun Henry, James will always beat Philip in a race and Robert will always be beaten by Philip.

Components of the Puzzle

The Units

The units are the objects, people or events that are bound by rules in the problem solving question.

In the example above, the units are:

Robert James Henry Philip

The other units in this scenario are the positions of the sprinters:

Position 1 Position 2 Position 3 Position 4

The Conditions

If we consider the problem solving questions a game, the conditions of the problem are the rules of the game. In the example above, the conditions are as follows:

Philip can outrun Henry James will always beat Philip Robert will always be beaten by Philip

It is important to identify the rules of the problem and understand how they interrelate. Therefore, time should be spent understanding the rules, not reading over them without analysis.

Assign Symbols to the Units of the Problem

In this case we could do the following:

Robert -> R Position 1 -> 1James -> J Position 2 -> 2Henry -> H Position 3 -> 3Philip -> P Position 4 -> 4

You should use whichever symbols / letters / numbers that you feel comfortable with but ensure that each unit has a unique symbol.

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Note Down What You Know

In problem solving questions in the UMAT, you will often be presented with large amounts of data. It is important to note these down in a simple, easily understandable form.

In our example, we know that

P>H (P is faster than H) J>P (J is faster than P) P>R (P is faster than R)

Notice the use of shorthand here. It doesn't matter what kind of shorthand you use as long as it is clear and works for you.

Implications

Examine the conditions that you have noted and look for any implications, or 'hidden rules'. Usually, these appear when the same unit is apparent in different conditions.

For our example:

P>H and J>P, therefore J>H J>P and P>R, therefore J>R

This can be presented in another form:

1. J

2. P

3. H, R

Eliminate Answer Choices Which Contradict Conditions

Look at the options in the question to determine whether any of them contradict the conditions we've established. Let's look at our question:

Which of the following can be concluded?

A)    Henry is faster than Philip

B)    Robert is faster than Henry

C)    Henry is faster than Robert

D)    James is faster than Henry

It is best to start the elimination process with your most basic conditions, as stated in the question.

P>H (P is faster than H) J>P (J is faster than P)

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P>R (P is faster than R)

Option A clearly contradicts one of our basic conditions (P>H), and can therefore be eliminated.

Now let's look at the conditions we made based on implications.

J>H J>R

From this, we can see that option D is correct.

 

Draw a Table or Diagram

Drawing a diagram

Drawing a diagram is one of the most useful techniques for problem solving and can dramatically clarify a seemingly difficult question.

For example:

Some toppies are loppies; all soppies are loppies; no soppies are toppies.

I. Some toppies are not loppies

II. Loppies are either soppies or toppies

III. Some soppies are not loppies

Which of the statements above can be concluded?

A)    I only

B)    II only

C)    III only

D)    I and II only

Answer: A

Solution: In this situation, a Venn diagram is very useful. An example of one is shown below:

 

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The question now becomes very simple. From the diagram, it can be seen that there are some toppies that are not loppies (I). It can also be seen that there may be loppies that are neither toppies or soppies (so II is wrong). Further, all soppies are loppies (so III is wrong).

Venn diagrams are often useful tools in the UMAT. Venn diagrams are used for questions when sets of objects have overlapping characteristics. The basic idea is to draw regions representing different sets, with interlocking regions representing overlap. In the example above, since 'some toppies are loppies', the toppy region and loppy region should overlap.

Other diagrams, such as the simple diagram in our previous example:

1. J

2. P

3. H, R

can also be useful in organising information.

Drawing a table

Drawing a table may also be helpful. For example,

Bob, Mary and David each have different occupations. One is a builder, one is in business and one is a journalist. Mary hates writing and would never be a journalist. The builder is male. David does not like physical labour, and is not a builder.

Which of the follo wing shows the occupations of the three?

Mary Bob DavidA)

Builder Journalist Businessman

B) Businesswoman Builder JournalistC)

Businesswoman Journalist Builder

D)

Journalist Businessman Builder

Answer: B

Solution: This question may be solved using a table. If we take the first two 'rules':

Mary is a journalist

The builder is male

And fill in the following table?

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Mary Bob DavidJournalist NOBuilder NOBusinessperson

Therefore, Mary must be the businessperson.

Logically then, no one else can be the businessperson:

Mary Bob DavidJournalist NOBuilder NOBusinessperson YES NO NO

The last 'rule', 'David is not the builder' completes the table:

Mary Bob DavidJournalist NO NO YES

Builder NO YES NOBusinessperson YES NO NO

From this, we can clearly see that option B is correct.

A final note on diagrams and tables

When a question is confusing you, you should always try and draw a diagram or table. You should use your judgement in deciding which one is best.

Trial and Error

Trial and error is often seen as a 'last resort': a technique that people use only when they cannot answer a question using logic. However, some questions are most easily solved using trial and error.

For example:

Four people make the following statements:

Adam: "Ben is the winner"

Ben: "Cassie is the winner"

Cassie: "I am not the winner"

David: "I am not the winner"

If only one of these statements is true, then who is the winner?

A)    Adam

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B)    Ben

C)    Cassie

D)    David

In this question, trial and error is probably the easiest method to use. We'll take each alternative, in turn, to be true and see what would follow:

1.      Adam is the winner

This would make Adam's statement false, Ben's false, Cassie's true and David's true. Thus this is the wrong answer (2 truths, 2 falses)

2.      Ben is the winner

This would make Adam's statement true, Ben's false, Cassie's true and David's true. Thus this is the wrong answer (3 truths, 1 falses)

3.      Cassie is the winner

This would make Adam's statement false, Ben's true, Cassie's false and David's true. Thus this is the wrong answer (2 truths, 2 falses)

4.      David is the winner

This would make Adam's statement false, Ben's false, Cassie's true and David's false. Thus this is the right answer (1 truth, 3 falses)

Here is another question can be answered by trial and error.

If only one of the contestant's statements is false, then who is the winner?

A)    Adam

B)    Ben

C)    Cassie

D)    David

We can use the working from the previous problem to solve this - we can see that if there is to be 3 true statements and 1 false statement, then Ben must be the winner.

Research Methods

WHY RESEARCH METHODS?

Even though the UMAT does not require you to have knowledge of research methods, many of the passages and much of the data presented are in the form of research trials or investigations. If you understand some basic

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concepts before you go into the UMAT, you’ll spend less time interpreting them in the exam and thus have more time to answer the questions.

THE BASICS

How researchers think

Researchers use two types of logic: general-to-specific thinking and specific-to-general thinking.

General-to-specific thinking occurs when researchers have already discovered a law of nature and wish to apply their knowledge to a specific area. For example, a researcher may wish to know how fast a pebble will be falling when it hits the ground three seconds after being dropped. There is a law of physics from which it can be determined that: On Earth, falling objects accelerate at a rate of about 9.8 m/sec2. The researcher could use this known general principle to calculate the specific information that he or she needs. Here, the researcher uses a general principle (the acceleration of any object falling on Earth) to find a specific fact (the speed of the pebble).

Specific-to-general thinking is a different kind of thinking in order to discover a new law of nature. In this case, researchers examine many specific facts and then draw a general conclusion about what they have seen. For example, a researcher might watch hundreds of different kinds of frogs live and die, and might notice that all of them developed from tadpoles. He or she may then announce a conclusion: All frogs develop from tadpoles. This type of logic is specific-to-general. The researcher looks at many specific frogs to find a general rule about all frogs.

This conclusion is called a ‘hypothesis,’ not a fact or a truth, because the researcher has not checked every single frog in the universe. He or she knows that there theoretically could be a frog somewhere that grows from something else. But until he or she finds such a frog, it is reasonable to think that her hypothesis is correct. Many hypotheses, in fact, are so well documented that they become the equivalent of laws in nature.

In your science classes in school, you mostly learn about general-to-specific thinking. Your teachers explain general rules of science to you and then expect you to apply these rules to answer questions and sole problems. The majority of UMAT questions involving research methods, however, involve specific-to-general thinking. The questions test your ability to see the kinds of patterns in specific data that, as a researcher, you would use to formulate your own general hypotheses.

How experiments work

Many UMAT stimuli describe experiments. Experiments help researchers do specific-to-general thinking in a reliable and efficient way. Consider the tadpole researcher above. In a real-world situation, what would probably happen is that he or she would notice some of the frogs develop from tadpoles and wonder if maybe they all did. Then she would know what to look for and could check all the frogs systematically. This process describes the two basic steps of any experiment:

Forming a hypothesis (guessing that all frogs come from tadpoles)

Testing a hypothesis (checking the frogs to see if this guess was right)

Researchers are often interested in cause-and-effect relationships. Having formed his or her hypothesis about tadpoles, a researcher might wonder what causes a tadpole to become a frog. To test causal relationships, a special kind of experiment is needed. He or she must test one possible cause at a time in order to isolate which one actually produces the effect in question. For example, the researcher might inject tadpoles with several different kinds of hormones. Some of these tadpoles might die. Others might turn into frogs normally. But a few – those injected with hormone X for example – might remain tadpoles for an indefinite time. One reasonable explanation is that hormone X in some way inhibited whatever causes normal frog

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development. In other words, the researcher would hypothesise a causal relationship between hormone X and frog development.

The relationship between hormone X and frog development, however, would not be demonstrated very well if the scientist also fed different diets to different tadpoles, kept some in warmer water, or allowed some to have more room to swim than others – or if she did not also monitor tadpoles who were injected with no hormones at all but who otherwise were kept under the same conditions as the treated tadpoles. Why? Because if the ‘eternal tadpoles’ had diets that differed from that of the others, the scientist would not know whether it was hormone X or the special diet that kept the eternal tadpoles from becoming frogs. Moreover, if the water was warmer than that of the others, maybe it was the warmth that somehow kept the tadpoles from developing. And if the researcher did not monitor untreated tadpoles (a control group), he or she could not be sure whether under the same conditions a normal, untreated tadpole would also remain undeveloped.

Therefore, a scientist creating a well-designed experiment will:

Ensure that there is a single variable (like hormone X) that varies from test to test or group to group

Ensure that all other factors (diet, temperature, space, etc.) remain the same

Ensure that there is a control group (tadpoles who don’t get any hormone X) for comparison purposes

Whenever you see an experiment in the UMAT, you should ask yourself:

What is the factor that is being varied? That is what is being tested.

What is the control group? It is the group that is not receiving the treatment etc.

What do the results show? What differences exist between the results for the control group and those for the other group(s)? Or between the results for one treated group and those for another, differently treated group?

DEFINITIONS

Here are some common words that are used in research methods that you should familiarise yourself with.

Participants / Subjects

Participants are people / animals that are involved in the experiment. They are often divided into groups and either given a treatment / intervention or a placebo.

Population

A population is a well-defined group in which members have particular characteristics (for example, male office workers living in Australia ). Participants in a study are taken from a particular population.

Control Group

The participants in the control group are used for comparison with the experimental group.

For example, let’s say that Drug A is being tested for its usefulness in preventing heart disease. The participants of the trial might be divided into two groups – the control group and the experimental group. The experimental group would be given Drug A while the control group would be given no treatment or a placebo. At the end of the trial, the two groups are compared to see whether Drug A helped prevent heart disease.

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Experimental Group

The participants in the experimental group receive the treatment, drug or intervention that is being investigated. See ‘control group’ for an example of an experimental group.

Placebo

A placebo is a substance that looks like the treatment / intervention but is actually inert. For example, when the treatment is a drug pill, a ‘sugar’ pill could be the placebo. In many experiments, the participants in the control group are given a placebo.

Placebo effect

The placebo effect occurs when the belief or knowledge that one is being treated can itself have a physiological effect. For example, some people who take a pill that they think is a drug (but which actually has no active substance) can improve in their condition simply due to the belief that they took a drug that would work. This can confound research findings. Single and double blind trials are used to reduce the detrimental effect of this phenomenon on research.

Experimenter bias

Experimenter bias is bias that is introduced by an experimenter, whose expectations about the outcome of the experiment can be subtly communicated to the participants in the experiment. For example, if an experimenter was testing how good Drug E was in helping with depression, his expectations that Drug E would work could be communicated to the patients, thus affecting the outcome of the experiment.

Single blind trial

In a single blind trial, participants do not know whether they are in the experimental group or the control group. This helps reduce any errors due to the placebo effect.

Double blind trial

In a double blind trial, both participants and experimenters do not know which participants are in the experimental group or the control group. This helps reduce any errors due to the placebo effect as well as any experimenter bias.

Independent Variable

An independent variable is the factor(s) whose effects are to be studied and manipulated in an experiment. For example, if an experimenter is examining the way different fertilisers help a plant grow, the independent variable is the type of fertiliser (i.e. the variable(s) that the experimenter changes).

Dependent Variable

Dependent variables change in response to changes in the independent variable. For example, if an experimenter is examining the way different fertilisers help a plant grow, the dependent variable is the growth of the plants (i.e. the variable that helps measure the effects of the independent variable).

Hypothesis

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A hypothesis is a tentative explanation of observed events that can be further tested. It is a prediction of the relationship between an independent variable and dependent variable in an experiment. For example, a hypothesis could be ‘Drug A will reduce the risk of having a heart attack in females above 50 years of age’. This can be tested in an experiment.

It is important to note that a hypothesis can never be proven. An experiment may show it to be false, but experiments cannot prove it to be absolutely true. However, a well-controlled experiment can help support a hypothesis.

Sampling

Sampling is the process of selecting a subgroup of participants from the population so that the subgroup can be used to make generalisations to the population as a whole. In general, the greater the number of participants in the sample and the more effective the selection procedure, the better the sample represents the population as a whole.

Randomisation

Randomisation is a technique of assigning patients to experimental and control groups that is based only on chance distribution. By using randomisation, any selection bias is diminished and variables between the experimental and control groups are more effectively controlled.

Questions in the UMAT most commonly focus on the concepts of sampling and controlling variables (which include the concepts of the placebo effect and randomisation).

SAMPLING

In a research study, it is important to have participants that are representative of the population under investigation so that inferences can be made about the population as a whole. For example, if a drug was being investigated, but the participants in the study were not similar to the population, it would be difficult to recommend that drug to the population, even if the experiment showed it to be successful.

Let’s take an example:

A researcher wants to investigate the usefulness of drug A in helping male smokers aged 40-45 stop smoking.

Independent variable: Being given Drug A or being given a placebo

Dependent variable: Whether or not the participant stops smoking

In this case, the population is male smokers aged 40-45 years.

Of course, it is impossible to have all males between 40 and 45 years of age as participants in the experiment. A sample needs to be taken from the population. A sample is a ‘subset’ of people that needs to have similar characteristics to the population.

The selection procedure is vital in ensuring that the sample is representative of the population under investigation. For example, if all of your participants were from one suburb in outer Sydney, your sample would not be representative of all smokers aged 40-45 years in Australia .

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The number of people in the sample is also important. For example, 5000 male smokers aged between 40 and 45 is likely to give a more representative sample than 50 male smokers aged 40 to 45 years.

Controlling Variables

Controlling extraneous variables

One of the most important elements of experimental design is controlling extraneous variables. For an experiment to be effective, all variables except for the independent variable (the one under investigation) should be kept constant. If this is done, then any changes in the dependent variable can be attributed to the independent variable.

Let’s consider an example of how an uncontrolled variable can impact on our study.

Suppose that the smokers in the control group were given their placebo and told that it contained vitamins. Those in the experimental group were given their drug and told that it would help them quit smoking. When the study was completed, those in the experimental group were found to have a much greater rate of quitting than those in the control group.

But what is this difference due to? Is it due to the activity of the drug? Or is it due to the fact that those in the experimental group believed they were being helped?

This example illustrates two concepts. Firstly, it demonstrates the importance of the ‘placebo effect’ in influencing an experiment. Secondly, it shows the degree to which an uncontrolled variable can affect the outcome of an experiment.

Extraneous variables therefore need to be controlled and kept constant in order to ensure the effectiveness of the study.

Experimental and control groups

One key variable that must be controlled in an experiment is the differences between control and experimental groups. It difference is not minimised, any disparity in results between experimental and control groups could be due to participant characteristics, rather than any treatment.

Of course, we cannot guarantee that each of the groups will be identical to each other in every way – even twins are different. The best that we can do is allocate participants to different groups randomly. If we do this, the chances are the groups will be similar.

In our study, it is important that the experimental and control group had participants that were similar in particular ways. For example, if all of the participants in one group had spouses that smoked, and the other group did not, this may confound the experiment.

EXAMPLE

In this study, adult Chinchilla rabbits were fitted with specially made soft contact lenses in order to determine the effects of lens use on the health of corneas (the thin outer covering of the eyeball). In Group 1 (15 rabbits), corneas were not fitted with lenses. In Groups 2 and 3 (15 rabbits each), lenses were left on the eyes for two weeks and then removed. Approximately half the corneas were examined immediately upon removal of the contacts, while the other half were examined five hours after lens removal. The corneas of Group 2 rabbits were treated with catalase (an oxygen-scavenging enzyme or protein) over the two-week period; the corneas of Group 3 rabbits were treated with 3-aminotriazole (a catalase inhibitor) during the

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period of lens use. All animals were examined daily, and the corneas were documented photographically. Additionally, enzyme activity in the corneas was examined at three stages of the study: at the beginning of the two-week period; upon lens removal; and, in some cases, five hours after lens removal.

In rabbit corneas not fitted with contact lenses, the activity of xanthine oxidase (an oxygen generating enzyme or protein) and catalase were balanced and present in high levels - both before and after the study. In rabbit corneas fitted with lenses, xanthine oxidase activity was high and comparable to levels found in the control group. In general, though, catalase activity was found to be significantly reduced upon removal of the lenses. But when corneas were treated with catalase during lens use, this decrease in catalase activity was prevented. In contrast, after treatment with the catalase inhibitor 3-aminotriazole, the activity of the catalase enzyme was nearly absent, and rabbits in this group suffered extreme inflammation of the eye. Further, for those rabbits whose corneas were examined 5 hours after lens removal, imbalances were also found to exist between the enzymes lactate dehydrogenase and lysosomal hydrolase.

Question 1

According to the design of the study, which group of rabbits constitutes the control group?

A) rabbits in Group 1

B) rabbits in Group 2

C) rabbits in Group 3

D) adult Chinchilla rabbits found in nature

Answer: A

Solution: Rabbits in group 1 were not fitted with contact lenses, though corneal enzyme activity was documented for this group of rabbits. It is therefore the control group and option A is the correct answer.

Question 2

Accrding to the design of the study, the most likely reason for examining some corneas immediately upon removal of contact lenses and some corneas five hours later is to determine

A) the activity levels of xanthine oxidase and catalase.

B) the activity levels of lactate dehydrogenase and lysosomal hydrolase.

C) whether additional disturbances appear after lens removal.

D) whether additional disturbances appear before lens removal.

Answer: C

Solution: Scientists recorded enzyme activity levels immediately upon removal of the contact lenses and five hours later to determine whether or not additional disturbances appear after lens removal. Therefore option C is the best answer.

Question 3

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The results of this study suggest that prolonged use of contact lenses can damage the cornea, primarily resulting from imbalances in the activity levels of which pair of enzymes?

A) catalase and 3-aminotriazole

B) xanthine oxidase and catalase

C) xanthine oxidase and 3-aminotriazole

D) dehydrogenase and lysosomal hydrolase

Answer: B

Solution: In healthy corneas without contact lenses, activity levels of xanthine oxidase and catalase are present and high. Wearing contact lenses reduces the levels of catalase, resulting in an imbalance in the cornea between the two enzymes. Therefore option B is the correct answer.

Question 4

From the results of the study, it can be hypothesized that supplementing contact lens use with drops of catalase

A) is insignificant.

B) can damage the corneas.

C) can prevent some damage to the corneas.

D) can inhibit production of 3-aminotriazole.

Answer: C

Solution: Treating eyes with catalase during lens use prevented the catalase activity levels from dropping. Treating eyes with 3-aminotriazole during lens use caused the activity levels to drop. Corneas treated with 3-aminotriazole were found upon conclusion of the study to be inflamed. It can therefore be hypothesized that catalase can prevent some damage to the corneas. Therefore option C is the correct answer.

Question 5

From the results of the study, which of the following statements holds true for the relationship between catalase and inflammation of the eye?

A) There is no relationship between catalase and inflammation.

B) Excessive amounts of catalase can lead to inflammation.

C) Presence of catalase can lead to inflammation.

D) Absence of catalase can lead to inflammation.

Answer: D

Treating eyes with 3-aminotriazole during lens wear caused the activity levels of catalase to drop. These eyes were later found to be suffering from inflammation. It can therefore be hypothesized that the absence of catalase leads to inflammation. Thus option D is the best answer.

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Question 6

The study suggests that in the corneas of non-contact lens wearers, the enzyme activity of corneal catalase is present in

A) high levels comparable to levels of 3-aminotriazole.

B) low levels comparable to levels of 3-aminotriazole.

C) high levels comparable to levels of xanthine oxidase.

D) low levels comparable to levels of xanthine oxidase.

Answer: C

In corneas of the control group of rabbits, the enzymatic activity levels of catalase and xanthine oxidase were present and high. Therefore option C is the best answer.

THE IDEAL STUDY

In summary, following are the main components of an ideal study:

Good sampling technique (large number of participants, representative sample)

Randomised allocation to control and experimental groups

Double-blind procedure to control the placebo effect and experimenter bias

All variables apart from those being manipulated are controlled

It is worthwhile keeping this list in mind when you are reading through a research study.

It is also helpful to have a good understanding of what the experimenter is testing or trying to achieve with the study.

READING IN SECTION 1

There are a few passages in section 1 that require reading lengthy stimuli. They do not form the majority of questions in section 1. However, they are covered here because many students find them difficult, and want advice on ‘speed reading’.

UMAT reading is different

Reading seems like a skill you learned a long time ago, but UMAT reading is different from the reading you do all the time in school or outside of school for pleasure. If you read a UMAT passage the way you read a textbook or a novel for homework, it is going to work against you.

Let us consider how and what you typically read. One important aspect of your reading is that you always have background information about the subject or at least a context in which to place it. When you read it is either a subject you are studying or an area of personal interest. If it is for school, the book or article is in a subject you are familiar with, and your teacher has probably discussed the main points. If you are reading for your personal enjoyment, you are probably quite comfortable with even difficult material.

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Do not underestimate how much all this background information paves the way for what you read. And if you get stuck on something – no problems. You can take your time to reread it as many times as necessary. You are not in any rush, so you can ponder what you have read for additional insights. If you are still confused, you can seek out additional references or perspectives in other resources or on the internet. In short, for your normal reading you have it pretty easy.

Now let us consider how and what you will be reading on the UMAT. On an UMAT passage, you are reading an excerpt in an unfamiliar area, totally divorced from the context that would help you understand it. If you are confused, tough luck: there are no class notes to refer to for an explanation, there is no glossary or index, nor any other source material for an explanation. If you do not understand a word, there is no dictionary or online encyclopaedia to look it up. Then of course there is the time pressure factor. You have barely enough time to read a passage once and still answer the questions, much less read it a second or even third time as you might at home.

And that is just what you have to cope with for a passage. Reading the options correctly presents its own set of even more difficult challenges.

How not to read an UMAT passage

Consider whether any of the following sounds familiar from your experience of reading a UMAT passage.

You read the first paragraph carefully, but by the end of the first paragraph you realise you are a bit confused. Undaunted, you push on (Mistake #1). You plod through the text conscientiously, sentence by sentence, trying to take in as many facts as you can. Perhaps you underline key words or phrases that seem important. You move through the passage doggedly, determined to get as detailed an understanding as possible (Mistake #2).

You’ve spent quite a bit of time on the passage (Mistake #3), so you are surprised that when you arrive at the end of the passage, you do not understand very much of the text and can remember even less. Now you are short of time – cannot reread the whole passage – so you rush through the questions (Mistake #4).

You simply do not have enough time to understand and remember all the information on most UMAT passages. Your short term memory has a very limited capacity. Once it ‘fills up’ with half a dozen facts or ideas (likely to happen some time in the first paragraph) your short term memory hits overload and your thinking capacity drops. Not only is getting a detailed understanding of a passage impossible on a timed test like the UMAT, but trying to do so is only going to get you confused. Further, you will need that time to spend on the questions.

Since you are operating under extremely rushed conditions, all you can hope for is a general understanding of the passage.  Fortunately, since a multiple-choice test provides you with all of the answers, a basic understanding of the passage is all you need to answer the questions.

The real challenge is the questions and options – not the passages

You would think that the difficulty of the questions comes from not understanding what the passages are about. In fact, most avoidable mistakes arise from not understanding precisely what the question is asking or what an option is.

That claim may seem remarkable. After all, how hard can it be to understand a simple question or the short options compared to understanding a difficult and sometimes lengthy passage? Think of it this way: if you misread or misinterpret an entire sentence in a 500 word passage, your overall understanding of the entire passage probably won’t be seriously affected. If you misread even a key word of a brief question or answer option, however, you’re very likely to get the question wrong.

The general principle is: the shorter the passage, the more carefully you need to read it.

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Improve your score by unlearning old habits and acquiring new ones

Obviously, if you are already scoring high on passage-based questions of section 1, do not change your overall approach; it is clearly working for you. Still, the techniques here can be added to your repertoire. Until you are achieving excellent results, try adopting some of these strategies.

Pre-read the question stem

This is discussed in more detail under ‘General Strategies.’

Read quickly through the passage, and slowly through the questions

Most students spend far more time on the passages than they should, not leaving enough time for the questions. They key is to get through your initial read of the passage as quickly as possible so you have enough time to work through the questions carefully. As you answer the questions you may need to re-read a passage every so often to verify a detail or clarify a point, but your initial reading of the passage should be quick.

Step 1: read slowly until you have identified the main point of the passage. Surprisingly, skilled readers actually read more slowly than unskilled readers over the few important ideas, and skilled readers make up for lost time by reading much faster over the larger mass of less important details. It is a bit like driving a race car: knowing when you have to slow down on the dangerous curves, and then letting the car rip on the straightaways. If you are confused by the end of the first paragraph – stop! You may think that if you continue reading, sooner or later the passage will begin to make sense. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that you become even more confused. It is vital that you come to grips with the main point of the passage. Until you do, the details will not make much sense. If you get stuck, try reading the last sentence – often this clarifies the main idea. You can then go back to reading the passage.

Step 2: once you have identified the main idea, speed up and force yourself to pay little attention to the details. No question about it, skimming a passage under time pressure is uncomfortable and sometimes scary. However, many of the facts are not related to any questions you have to answer. Remember that when you get to the questions, you can always look back to the passage to find any factor detail that you need to verify.

Step 3: now you have come to answering the questions. This is discussed in more detail in each of the section guides.