post-UMAT blog

well. what a day

around about 4000 people packing themselves into that massive hall over 2 time periods to sit a 2.5 hour exam (it was more like 3.5 hours actually with all the waiting)

i don't think i was as nervous or stressed as other people, probably because i didn't think of the enormity of this test. to me it was another practice test on medentry or one of those UNSW comp thingos. but i did start taking deeper breaths on the way driving there

do some preparation in the morning doing some medentry exams and that was a really nice confidence builder cause i got 99 percentile in one of them even though the mark wasn't that high

so get there about 15 minutes early. walk into the waiting area trying to find people i know, i first see aditi (deshwal) who's talking to her NSG friends and say hi and stuff and then i bump into arni, jessie and a few others. surprised at how many people there were actually
jero was telling me about how all these people would be smart people with ATAR above 90's since they were taking the UMAT. i didn't really think about that beforehand

so we get in and i happen to see all these randoms who appear on my facebook home page constantly posting statuses, people which i've never talked to before. and a coupla people i haven't seen in about 5 or 6 years. wasn't really in the mood to talk. so just went straight through to my exam table.

so after what seemed like an eternity, some big loud voice on the speakerphone started announcing stuff and info . you know that kinda jazz
and then after a while we start getting into it. it wasn't until question 4 where i thought, woah holy crap i'm doing the UMAT exam. can't screw up. so while i'm doing section 1, this chinese helper lady starts talking to this other supervisor. and i really can't read when there is noise around me, so i put my head up and gave em a dirty. then they stopped talking thankfully :)

to add to that, i brought a drink bottle with me and had taken a few sips of it before i did the exam. towards the end of the section 1 exam, i really feel the urge to pee. and i was thinking to myself. the exams 2.5 hours surely they'll let pee breaks? so i ask the lady and she tells me that i cant go during the interval (which turned out to be 30 seconds) and i have to go during the exam which kind of made me worried but it was ok cause i finish in time anyway.

so when i've finished my section 2, i really need to go and there's ten minutes left so i get off my chair and suddenly the lady goes
"I'm sorry there's only 10 minutes left, can you go as soon as section 3 starts"
i asked what was wrong with now. but for some reason i'm not allowed to go in the 2nd half of an exam or something which really annoyed me

so as soon as section 3 starts i bolt for the toilet, take a leak and get back to my seat within 1 or 2 minutes. for once moment i was thinking oh that'll be ok since section 3 turned out to be quite easy cept there was 1 or 2 i couldnt do which i might've done with tha little extra time

overall i was quite satisfied, got out of the hall after much waiting and had a little discussion with arni and victor and aryan about it. caught the packed train home and here i am.

doesn't feel like a school night, but it's probably wise for me to start working

take care all