So, a couple of days ago, I finished with exams, hoorah! The actual exams were a kind of mixed bag...once again, an SAQ (Short answer questions - marks ranging anywhere from 1 through to 5), MEQ (Mini Essay Questions - generally short questions based on a scenario, in total worth 10-20 marks per scenario, 7 questions), and two MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions - yeah, I'm sure you're all more than familiar with them). Found the SAQ and the last MCQ difficult, MEQ and the first MCQ bearable but only slightly - which hardly raises my confidence levels, but what the heck - its OVER! Celebrate! *party poppers!* *streams of paper cover the room* *smiles all around*
Shame we had such a party pooper for our main supervisor in our last exam. Was really rather strict about no talking after the exam... I know, that's what is meant to happen, but it is nice to smile around, mouth "how did you go?", mouth back "omg that was so hard" and grin without being scolded for it.
At any rate, with the holidays now here, endless opportunity abounds. I could continue to learn guitar, start learning mandarin, maybe read some medical journals or finish summarising Boron... or continue dreaming, continuing procrastination methods, starting new games. Hmm. Endless opportunity... I would like to be optimistic these holidays, and believe I will at least moderate the two extremes and meet somewhere in the middle, like the good negotiator I am now supposed to be after intense training in student politics. I guess one can only simply start doing it rather than think about it, since thinking about it rarely leads to anything productive (for me, it leads to a game of minesweeper - reaching the 100 second mark on expert btw). Speaking of student politics stuff, these holidays will most likely represent my only significant chunk of time I can dedicate to it for this and next year; I'm getting the feeling that things like extracurricula are going to have to take second priority and be slotted in amongst the clinical attachments, which is probably a feeling amongst almost every full-time worker in the workforce; that everything seems to take second priority after work. Mulling on this, things like a family and religion may become difficult to maintain, and time management is really a rather critical thing to learn when young; when you hear statements like "your most precious asset is time", you think "hey, that makes sense, I agree!" but in real life I think that I, personally, forget about that, especially when procrastinating. Value your time, for it only comes around once...
On a more interesting note, I've just got wind recently of an exciting new project happening at UWS! A person that I'm working together with as part of the Campbelltown Campus Life Committee (mostly UWS Staff, and the sole student rep, me) is heading a new inter-professional project, whereby students of different professional pathways (Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Nursing, and of course Medicine - with a few more maybe added in together) are mentored by professionals of their own chosen pathways, as well as of others. The goal of this project is to foster holistic, integrated and thus (hopefully) a better standard of healthcare in our future professionals. I'm not entirely sure as to how much I can reveal, but essentially, the sessions of the project would occur in an integrated clinic that already exists, whereby clinicians take up students and guide them to facilitate the treatment of real patients, rather than be a wallflower and observe passively. This is the most exciting thing of this development - more clinical exposure, to better prepare us for the future! A friend of mine commented on how this would have been great if it were introduced earlier, seeing as my cohort will be in full-time clinicals next year anyway; but nonetheless, it will most likely be a wonderful opportunity for the future students at UWS. Hopefully it goes to plan and produces some positive results!
Anyway, I hope you have an awesome break, especially those of you who've just completed the wonderful journey that is secondary school, and I'll see you around!
Showing posts with label new. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new. Show all posts
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Friday, July 24, 2009
Awesome-ness
My textbooks arrived! Actually it arrived yesterday, but no-one was home so they re-attempted today. So I purchased 3 books from an Indian distributor on AbeBooks.com, at the cost of AU$160 including shipping, via FedEx. They were Rang & Dales Pharmacology 6th, Netter's Atlas of Anatomy 4th, and Boron & Boulpaep's Medical Physiology 2nd Ed - two softcovers and one (the Boron) hardcover. Being the hardcover, Boron's cost about half of the total bill, but there appears to be no softcover version of the textbook.
On first inspection, it appears that I got the cosmetic-damaged goods. The corners are either bent (on the Boron hardcover) or slightly damaged (softcovers); the softcover spines are a bit damaged on the bottom. I'm not very sure whether this is the case for all retailers, and when I purchase more books in the future, I'll be sure to compare experiences.
One thing I noted was that although the Netters and Boron were labelled "International Edition", the Rang and Dales wasn't. As a result, the Rang and Dales also came with a StudentConsult code, which was surprising - I wonder whether it was a mistake or if the Rang and Dales doesn't have an international edition...
The paper is of excellent quality, and in full-colour. So I think they're quite genuine (the Boron is printed in Canada), just subsidised for their target market (desperate med students from developed countries trying to save as much moolah as possible). Netter's atlas looks brilliantly vibrant, and from this, I'm generally quite happy with this purchase. The local editions of these books would be about AU$400, so there's a saving of about 2.5 times (after considering postage); the drawbacks are the cosmetic dings and the International Edition labelling.
In other news, I think HP6 doesn't deserve the bad beating its getting from some members of the public. It's a bold move to not contain an epic battle scene; certainly a departure from the norm. I was chuckling a fair bit during the movie too, twas nice to escape the general darkness of the film. But in short, yes it does depart from the book, no you shouldn't avoid it at all costs, but yes you may want to consider your expectations before watching.
On first inspection, it appears that I got the cosmetic-damaged goods. The corners are either bent (on the Boron hardcover) or slightly damaged (softcovers); the softcover spines are a bit damaged on the bottom. I'm not very sure whether this is the case for all retailers, and when I purchase more books in the future, I'll be sure to compare experiences.
One thing I noted was that although the Netters and Boron were labelled "International Edition", the Rang and Dales wasn't. As a result, the Rang and Dales also came with a StudentConsult code, which was surprising - I wonder whether it was a mistake or if the Rang and Dales doesn't have an international edition...
The paper is of excellent quality, and in full-colour. So I think they're quite genuine (the Boron is printed in Canada), just subsidised for their target market (desperate med students from developed countries trying to save as much moolah as possible). Netter's atlas looks brilliantly vibrant, and from this, I'm generally quite happy with this purchase. The local editions of these books would be about AU$400, so there's a saving of about 2.5 times (after considering postage); the drawbacks are the cosmetic dings and the International Edition labelling.
In other news, I think HP6 doesn't deserve the bad beating its getting from some members of the public. It's a bold move to not contain an epic battle scene; certainly a departure from the norm. I was chuckling a fair bit during the movie too, twas nice to escape the general darkness of the film. But in short, yes it does depart from the book, no you shouldn't avoid it at all costs, but yes you may want to consider your expectations before watching.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Entrance into Undergraduate Medicine in NSW
My main knowledge base, due to having trodden that path, is undergraduate (UG) entry into medicine in New South Wales. So if you'd like more information about Graduate (GD) Medicine entry, UG entry in other states, or pretty much anything else, I'd like to point you to an excellent forum: Medical Students Online (MSO)
So there are currently (as of 2009), four universities that offer entry straight from high school, or not having completed a degree yet. I'll go through them in order of how much knowledge I know about them, from least to most.
~ University of Sydney - USyd doesn't actually offer an UG Medicine degree, but they do offer Provisional entry (with a total length of 7 years spent in university) into their Graduate program for school-leavers. What this means is that they offer you guaranteed entry into their Graduate Medical program provided that you:
(a) Do extremely well in your final year exams. For NSW/ACT students, USyd generally only considers those who score 99.95 ATAR. This means you need to beat pretty much everyone in your state that year to even be considered entry. The only exception to this is the combined Music/MBBS program, which requires 99.5 ATAR but also a stellar performance in Music.
(b) Do well enough in their interview process (an MMI); anecdotally, the interview doesn't count for much and is a formality, but it still needs to be cleared. MMI - Multiple Mini Interviews - are essentially, multiple mini interviews (who would've guessed); anywhere from 8-10 stations consisting of a particular scenario or theme (e.g. testing empathy), in which you are given ~8-10 minutes of time to answer. They are generally quite hard to prepare for, or at least, harder than the traditional interview style; probably because they can test a large range of scenarios/themes. Don't worry though; your ability to talk for 8 minutes continuously is not tested - if you haven't answered a part of the scenario that they want you to answer, usually they provide you with prompts in the form of additional questions. Also, using all your time is not necessarily a good indicator of how well you did; conversely, finishing early isn't one, either.
(c) Be ready to do another degree other than Medicine for the first 3 years such as Arts/Sciences, and do well enough (credit average), to enter the actual Medicine course (which is 4 years in length).
They do not accept UMAT, although they do accept GAMSAT for entry into medicine the 'normal' way (Graduate entry).
~University of Newcastle/New England - Joint Medical Program (JMP) - This is a new program with a medically new university (UNE, or University of New England) partnered with a more established one (UNCLE, or University of Newcastle), which has been around, teaching medicine, for decades. The JMP has about 160 places, 60 in New England and 100 in Newcastle, and has a unique admissions process, by which they:
(a) Generally ignore final year high school results; they do require over 93.8 for urban applicants, but afterwards do not use it in their criteria,
(b) Use the UMAT result as a threshold value, not to be counted in admissions criteria; so UMAT is used by itself to rank applicants, and the top 800 or so applicants are offered an interview. After this, there is no discrimination in UMAT scores. Which leads to:
(c) The interview. With an approximately 1-in-6 or so chance at this stage, entry into JMP is especially unique because ONLY the interview score counts towards entrance. The interview is 100% weighted in the admissions criteria, and thus, it's a make-it-or-break-it situation.
Due to this, it's highly recommended that you should apply elsewhere in addition to the JMP scheme, although its generally advised to apply to as many universities as you possibly can. The JMP takes 5 years to graduate from.
~University of New South Wales - The University of NSW (UNSW) is the major established university for undergraduate medicine in Sydney, as USyd's program is Graduate Entry, whilst the JMP is outside Sydney. Their course was revamped in 2005, and they offer the most balanced of entry criteria, versus the other universities. Admission consists of:
(a) Even weighting of final year secondary school marks (ATAR), UMAT score and Interview (two interviewers to an interviewee, generally lasting from half-hour to an hour) process - i.e. each one contributes to a third of your selection score. However, UNSW is generally the most competitive university for UG medicine in NSW since it is the only one in Sydney that is well-established, whilst not being entirely exclusive to the elite of the elite (USyd's Provisional Entry program).
(b) They have an alternate entry scheme via their own Medical Science degree; essentially, those who do not make it into Medicine can take a year of Medical Science at UNSW, and the top nth percent (places reserved are in the single digits) enter the Medicine course with Advanced Standing (i.e. You don't start at Year 1). Forewarning: Medical Science is generally regarded as a degree with no real post-graduate future, apart from entering Medicine. In addition, Medical Science at UNSW is extremely competitive due to the amount of candidates wishing to enter Medicine through this stream.
(c) The cohorts at University of NSW are, in general, extremely academically gifted. Median UAIs, due to the counting of ATAR in the selection process, are firmly in the 99+ range. UNSW does offer EAS and rural consideration; so apply for those if they apply to you.
(d) The UNSW course is 6 years in length, though this includes a Research Project which is completed in one year. Depending on the situation, you can also negotiate for a combined degree at UNSW, such as Arts/Medicine, for 7 years.
~University of Western Sydney - UWS' Medical School is the newest of all medical schools in New South Wales; the first cohort was accepted in 2007, which is a year before the JMP scheme's first cohort. Admissions into UWS's Medical program is as follows:
(a) A minimum ATAR of 95, which is used as a threshold, much like the JMP process; there is no further discrimination of ATAR scores. Despite this, the median ATAR hovers around the 99 mark.
(b) A UMAT score which contributes to a third of the admissions criteria; it is currently speculated that UWS has placed a weighting on Sections 1 and 2 of the UMAT. Because UWS is the other university in Sydney that offers Medicine, in addition to not counting the ATAR of students, the UMAT score required for entry is generally amongst the highest compared to the JMP and UNSW (UNSW's minimum UMAT depends on your UAI, but median statistics generally point towards an even UMAT score for entrance into either university).
(c) An interview (MMI style, approximately 10 stations) that counts for two-thirds of the selection criteria.
(d) UWS places an emphasis on attracting local students, and as such, students living in the Greater Western Sydney region require 93 ATAR and a lowered UMAT score to receive an interview offer. However, there is no advantage given at the interview stage. UWS also considers Indigenous applicants separately.
(e) UWS has an alternate entry scheme, much like UNSW; entry into Medicine can be achieved by first completing a year of Advanced Science, ranking in the top nth or so positions (again, places reserved are in the single digits), scoring over 50% percentile in the UMAT, and sitting the interview process. Those who enter via this method are given no preference in the interview process, and do not enter the Medicine degree with Advanced Standing.
(f) UWS reserves about 30 places out of the ~120 local spots offered for the Late Round in UAC Offer rounds. The given reason is that those who take 2nd round interviews have to be reserved places so as to not disadvantage them. This however, means that the chance for entry into UWS in the Late and other rounds are substantial, and this, to a certain extent, can be applied to all universities.
The nature of the competitiveness of entry into Medicine means that many who are extremely keen apply interstate to as many universities as possible; and many successful applicants do also receive multiple offers from other universities, to which they must turn down. This leads to the extremely convoluted entrance sequence, whereby offers can be made independently of offer rounds and after the Final Rounds have been announced. Anecdotally, there have been students offered a place in the days before the course was to begin, and this is the case for all universities in Australia.
Post Edited: 03/09/09 - Changed to reflect UAI/TER/ENTER -> ATAR, USyd information
Post Edited: 08/12/09 - Changed a mistake in the JMP briefing, referring to final year "university" results, which should be "high school". Added a brief description of MMI in USyd's section (since it's the first one)
So there are currently (as of 2009), four universities that offer entry straight from high school, or not having completed a degree yet. I'll go through them in order of how much knowledge I know about them, from least to most.
~ University of Sydney - USyd doesn't actually offer an UG Medicine degree, but they do offer Provisional entry (with a total length of 7 years spent in university) into their Graduate program for school-leavers. What this means is that they offer you guaranteed entry into their Graduate Medical program provided that you:
(a) Do extremely well in your final year exams. For NSW/ACT students, USyd generally only considers those who score 99.95 ATAR. This means you need to beat pretty much everyone in your state that year to even be considered entry. The only exception to this is the combined Music/MBBS program, which requires 99.5 ATAR but also a stellar performance in Music.
(b) Do well enough in their interview process (an MMI); anecdotally, the interview doesn't count for much and is a formality, but it still needs to be cleared. MMI - Multiple Mini Interviews - are essentially, multiple mini interviews (who would've guessed); anywhere from 8-10 stations consisting of a particular scenario or theme (e.g. testing empathy), in which you are given ~8-10 minutes of time to answer. They are generally quite hard to prepare for, or at least, harder than the traditional interview style; probably because they can test a large range of scenarios/themes. Don't worry though; your ability to talk for 8 minutes continuously is not tested - if you haven't answered a part of the scenario that they want you to answer, usually they provide you with prompts in the form of additional questions. Also, using all your time is not necessarily a good indicator of how well you did; conversely, finishing early isn't one, either.
(c) Be ready to do another degree other than Medicine for the first 3 years such as Arts/Sciences, and do well enough (credit average), to enter the actual Medicine course (which is 4 years in length).
They do not accept UMAT, although they do accept GAMSAT for entry into medicine the 'normal' way (Graduate entry).
~University of Newcastle/New England - Joint Medical Program (JMP) - This is a new program with a medically new university (UNE, or University of New England) partnered with a more established one (UNCLE, or University of Newcastle), which has been around, teaching medicine, for decades. The JMP has about 160 places, 60 in New England and 100 in Newcastle, and has a unique admissions process, by which they:
(a) Generally ignore final year high school results; they do require over 93.8 for urban applicants, but afterwards do not use it in their criteria,
(b) Use the UMAT result as a threshold value, not to be counted in admissions criteria; so UMAT is used by itself to rank applicants, and the top 800 or so applicants are offered an interview. After this, there is no discrimination in UMAT scores. Which leads to:
(c) The interview. With an approximately 1-in-6 or so chance at this stage, entry into JMP is especially unique because ONLY the interview score counts towards entrance. The interview is 100% weighted in the admissions criteria, and thus, it's a make-it-or-break-it situation.
Due to this, it's highly recommended that you should apply elsewhere in addition to the JMP scheme, although its generally advised to apply to as many universities as you possibly can. The JMP takes 5 years to graduate from.
~University of New South Wales - The University of NSW (UNSW) is the major established university for undergraduate medicine in Sydney, as USyd's program is Graduate Entry, whilst the JMP is outside Sydney. Their course was revamped in 2005, and they offer the most balanced of entry criteria, versus the other universities. Admission consists of:
(a) Even weighting of final year secondary school marks (ATAR), UMAT score and Interview (two interviewers to an interviewee, generally lasting from half-hour to an hour) process - i.e. each one contributes to a third of your selection score. However, UNSW is generally the most competitive university for UG medicine in NSW since it is the only one in Sydney that is well-established, whilst not being entirely exclusive to the elite of the elite (USyd's Provisional Entry program).
(b) They have an alternate entry scheme via their own Medical Science degree; essentially, those who do not make it into Medicine can take a year of Medical Science at UNSW, and the top nth percent (places reserved are in the single digits) enter the Medicine course with Advanced Standing (i.e. You don't start at Year 1). Forewarning: Medical Science is generally regarded as a degree with no real post-graduate future, apart from entering Medicine. In addition, Medical Science at UNSW is extremely competitive due to the amount of candidates wishing to enter Medicine through this stream.
(c) The cohorts at University of NSW are, in general, extremely academically gifted. Median UAIs, due to the counting of ATAR in the selection process, are firmly in the 99+ range. UNSW does offer EAS and rural consideration; so apply for those if they apply to you.
(d) The UNSW course is 6 years in length, though this includes a Research Project which is completed in one year. Depending on the situation, you can also negotiate for a combined degree at UNSW, such as Arts/Medicine, for 7 years.
~University of Western Sydney - UWS' Medical School is the newest of all medical schools in New South Wales; the first cohort was accepted in 2007, which is a year before the JMP scheme's first cohort. Admissions into UWS's Medical program is as follows:
(a) A minimum ATAR of 95, which is used as a threshold, much like the JMP process; there is no further discrimination of ATAR scores. Despite this, the median ATAR hovers around the 99 mark.
(b) A UMAT score which contributes to a third of the admissions criteria; it is currently speculated that UWS has placed a weighting on Sections 1 and 2 of the UMAT. Because UWS is the other university in Sydney that offers Medicine, in addition to not counting the ATAR of students, the UMAT score required for entry is generally amongst the highest compared to the JMP and UNSW (UNSW's minimum UMAT depends on your UAI, but median statistics generally point towards an even UMAT score for entrance into either university).
(c) An interview (MMI style, approximately 10 stations) that counts for two-thirds of the selection criteria.
(d) UWS places an emphasis on attracting local students, and as such, students living in the Greater Western Sydney region require 93 ATAR and a lowered UMAT score to receive an interview offer. However, there is no advantage given at the interview stage. UWS also considers Indigenous applicants separately.
(e) UWS has an alternate entry scheme, much like UNSW; entry into Medicine can be achieved by first completing a year of Advanced Science, ranking in the top nth or so positions (again, places reserved are in the single digits), scoring over 50% percentile in the UMAT, and sitting the interview process. Those who enter via this method are given no preference in the interview process, and do not enter the Medicine degree with Advanced Standing.
(f) UWS reserves about 30 places out of the ~120 local spots offered for the Late Round in UAC Offer rounds. The given reason is that those who take 2nd round interviews have to be reserved places so as to not disadvantage them. This however, means that the chance for entry into UWS in the Late and other rounds are substantial, and this, to a certain extent, can be applied to all universities.
The nature of the competitiveness of entry into Medicine means that many who are extremely keen apply interstate to as many universities as possible; and many successful applicants do also receive multiple offers from other universities, to which they must turn down. This leads to the extremely convoluted entrance sequence, whereby offers can be made independently of offer rounds and after the Final Rounds have been announced. Anecdotally, there have been students offered a place in the days before the course was to begin, and this is the case for all universities in Australia.
Post Edited: 03/09/09 - Changed to reflect UAI/TER/ENTER -> ATAR, USyd information
Post Edited: 08/12/09 - Changed a mistake in the JMP briefing, referring to final year "university" results, which should be "high school". Added a brief description of MMI in USyd's section (since it's the first one)
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