Wrapping up DM

Use the Medify Top Tips for Decision Making in every question:

1. Identify the question type: Make a quick mental note so you can use your techniques and time-saving strategies specific to each of the six question types.

2. Read the question stem (multiple choice) or the first statement (drag-and-drop) first. This will guide you to start work immediately whilst also avoiding any extra steps that could delay progress or waste time.

3. Deduce, Notate/Calculate, Eliminate. Use these common techniques as you attack each question. Make deductions or notations based on the logic, working as needed in the notebook or calculator. Eliminate wrong answers at every opportunity.

4. Compare statements to the stimulus in five-part questions, one statement at a time. Do not compare statements to each other – only to the initial information.

5. Skip the most difficult questions and flag for review as soon as it seems very hard or time-consuming.

You must maximise marks on the simpler, faster questions, then you can return to the harder ones on a second pass with any remaining time.

Remember these further top tips for particular Decision Making question types:

1. In Syllogisms and Inference questions: If the statement must be true, the answer is Yes. Otherwise, the answer is No.

2. Logic Puzzles and Venn Diagram questions: Make a sketch in your notebook, do rough working or use the onscreen calculator as needed, but always keep the goal in sight. Otherwise, it’s easy to keep working unnecessarily after you have proven the correct answer.

3. Strongest Argument and Probability questions: These questions have the simplest logic and tend to require the fewest steps in DM. Aim for 30 seconds per question, but try to go even faster with the shorter, simpler ones as you practise. Drill them to solve quickly with minimal effort or error, and you can bank extra time for a second pass.

Syllogisms are all about deductive reasoning. You must apply the logic from the stimulus to each statement to see if it fits or contradicts the original logic.

• If the new statement fits the logic of the stimulus, it’s a Yes.
• If the new statement contradicts the logic of the stimulus, it’s a No.
• If you can’t tell if the new statement fits or contradicts the original logic, it’s also a No.

A statement fits the original logic if it includes the same groups in the same relationships. Use the Decision Making definitions to guide your analysis, which cover categorical statements (‘all’, ‘none’) as well as relative relationships (‘most’, ‘some’, ‘not all’).

Practise formal logic so you can notate statements in your head or on scrap paper and then form the contrapositive to deduce a new statement that keeps the same logic.

Syllogisms are usually the quickest five-part questions, and they are worth an investment in your efforts as you revise as each Syllogism is worth two marks.

Almost all Logic Puzzles will require you to make deductions from textual rules. The only exceptions are some algebra tasks that are traditional word problems, or that use symbols or shapes in equations.

Otherwise, you must translate rules into logic, then determine what must be true. You will likely need to combine rules to make further deductions, using the notebook as a handy tool to track your rough working as you make notations and sketches.

There are no degrees of strength in Strongest Argument questions, and you must not compare answers to each other.

Only one answer will persuasively answer the original question. It is the strongest argument because it directly impacts the original question on its own terms.

Three answers will fail to answer the original question because they are weak arguments. They cannot directly affect the original question – if one of them did, it would be a second correct answer.

It may be faster to eliminate wrong answers in a Strongest Argument question. The remaining answer – the one without logical errors or a shift in terms – must be correct.

Inference questions are about text comparison. You must compare each statement to the stimulus and see if it matches.

• If a statement matches the stimulus with 100% certainty that it is true, the answer is Yes.
• If a statement contradicts the stimulus – it must be false – the answer is No.
• If it is impossible to say whether a statement matches the stimulus – it could be true or false – the answer is also No.

The same principles apply when the stimulus includes visual data. Remember that any calculation or logically accurate maths is also a valid inference.

Try to develop a laser-like focus on comparing each statement to the stimulus. Avoid reading the stimulus in full or spending time studying the data – this can waste valuable time. The two marks in each question come from the statements, not the stimulus.

In Venn Diagram questions, apply the technique that will make quickest work of the particular format. Move briskly yet carefully, no matter the diagram format and whether diagrams are in the stimulus or the answer choices.

Be ready to turn words into shapes, and then to turn shapes into maths.

In many questions, you must eliminate wrong answers one at a time. Take care to compare each answer to the stimulus.

Watch out for overlapping shapes – it’s easy to miss out an overlap, to miscount shapes or options, or to make maths errors when working quickly. Build your speed and confidence across all Venn Diagram question formats without compromising accuracy.

Probability questions may include fractions, decimals or percentages. The sum of all probabilities for possible outcomes of an event is 1 (or 100%). Sometimes, it is faster to subtract from 1 (or 100%) to find the probability you want.

Take care to distinguish independent and dependent events when using the probability formula:

If a subsequent event depends on an earlier outcome, you will likely need to change the numerator and denominator to find the probability of the later event.

Many wrong answers will be mathematical or logical nonsense, so you may prefer a quick elimination approach.

Do only the minimal maths or logic required to prove the correct answer – or to eliminate the three wrong answers. Use Probability questions as a time valve to increase pacing and save time for the longer, harder questions elsewhere in the DM section.

From now until Test Day:

• Practise to refine your pacing and triage skills. Triage briskly and brutally.
• Keep to 30 seconds or less on each multiple-choice question. Push yourself to answer shorter, simpler questions in 15 seconds or less where possible.
• No more than 1 minute per question, unless you have extra time in your second pass through the section.
• Train yourself to recognise the tasks and formats in each question type and vary your technique as needed.
• Look for shortcuts and familiar twists so you can build speed and accuracy.
• Learn to work smarter, which means getting faster at question types where you score well and improving accuracy at question types you find difficult.

Decide on a triage approach for the DM section. Use the Medify approach for five-part question triage:

• Try to answer almost all multiple-choice questions in no more than 30 seconds on your first pass through the section.
• Skip and flag the toughest ones without attempting on the first pass, but keep tally marks on your notebook so you know how many multiple-choice questions you will need to cover in the second pass.
• Flag all five-part questions for review and save for the second pass, ensuring you have at least 12 minutes for them then. With practice, you might have 14 minutes or more for your second pass.
• No more than 1 minute per question in the second pass, unless you have extra time.
• Do the Syllogisms first in the second pass, saving the 1-2 hardest ones for last in that batch. Then, do the Inference questions next, with text-only questions before those with visual data. The ones with visual data may take more than 1 minute if you need to do a lot of calculations.
• Attempt any multiple-choice questions you flagged for review only after the five-part questions. This ensures you can lock in two marks on the five-part questions before returning to the questions worth one mark each.
• Save the hardest questions for the end of the second pass. It could mean that you leave a question flagged whilst unflagging other questions as you finish them in the second pass. If you must make a random guess, do it on the questions that would have taken the longest anyway.

Make a written note of the remaining time as you begin your second pass through the DM section.

It will also help to divide the minutes remaining by the unfinished questions, so you can get a rough estimate of how much time per question.

The other approach is to simply count the unfinished questions and compare to the number of minutes. Ideally, you will want at least a minute per question.

But you must maintain rigorous pacing in the second pass. Leave the hardest or otherwise most time-consuming questions for the very end. This will let you lock in marks on more questions before the clock runs down.

Prioritise five-part questions in the second pass since they require more work to ensure that you can earn both marks.

It can be frustrating to leave a very hard multiple-choice question for the very end of the second pass, but these items are only worth a single mark.

By comparison, you must press yourself to try and get all five parts correct in each five-part question in order to pick up two marks.

This is one of the most challenging elements in Decision Making – but your pacing skills can pay off richly in the second pass, allowing you to focus on getting two marks in the five-part questions and pushing your DM score higher.

As you revise, remember the first step for each question type and format.

This can vary significantly – learning the Medify Top Tips by heart for each question type will help you keep focused.

The Medify Top Tips will also guide you to improve efficiency with each question type. If you can shave off a few seconds here and there, the extra time will add up.

It’s all about refining your technique as you train your brain to jump in at the right starting point for each question type and format.

Practise using the onscreen calculator along with pen and scrap paper every time you answer DM questions.

It will help you simulate the Test Day experience, and you can see what is possible with mental maths or logic – along with what you will want to write or sketch in the notebook.

You are not assessed based on your rough working, so you can be messy and inelegant in your written notes and sketches. Use the notebook as a valuable tool to assist your thinking as you untangle each question and get to the correct answer as fast as possible.

Eliminate wrong answers briskly and ruthlessly, at every opportunity.

In DM, the wrong answers are often very illogical or nonsensical, so you may not need to linger on the detailed reasons why each one is wrong.

If you can eliminate three wrong answers, the remaining answer must be correct. You don’t need to demonstrate the reason why – click it and move on.

In five-part questions, a statement might be quite obviously No at first glance because:

• it contradicts or misaligns with the stimulus.
• it is clearly out of scale with the numbers in the data.

Again, you do not need to show the reason why it is Yes or No. Simply drag and drop No as soon as you see that a statement is far out of line and move on to the next one.

A Yes statement must be 100% true, so it requires solid logic, maths or a clear textual match. As you practise, you may find that your eyes get faster at matching statements to the stimulus, so you might select Yes more quickly.

Be careful to avoid tricky wording or other twists and traps, but learn to trust your gut. A statement that seems ‘obviously a Yes’ in most cases is ‘obvious’ because it’s a Yes.

Be ready to vary your technique for each question type.

Decision Making has the widest range of question formats and tasks in the UCAT. You will have to adjust your approach many times over the course of a full, timed DM section.

This means you must revise and learn by heart each technique that you find helpful for each question type, then you must activate the skills needed for each question.

It also means you must continuously adjust throughout DM, keeping an eye on the clock to ensure good pacing whilst using the best technique at any given moment.

Use mini-mocks to practise pacing and technique at the section level. Timed section practice is a chance to unify your approach and deploy your skills for maximum marks.

Build your DM score through consistent pacing.

For multiple-choice questions, that means 30 seconds or less.

Push yourself to work even quicker on shorter, simpler questions.

For five-part questions, keep yourself to 1 minute or less as much as possible.

Take control of the clock in your first pass, and even more so in the second pass. Be ruthless in time management so you can maximise your marks on flagged questions.