First Year (FY) BHSc/BSC 2016 Chat/Enquiry

[blueeyes89]

Also, a HUGEEEEE congratulations to everyone that got an offer! It's been a bloody hard year, y'all definitely deserve it. Looking forward to seeing you all at Grafton next year x

 

[Rob]

I don't know about last year, but my cousin was in the intake for the year before and she said it was sometime in early Jan? It'll be around the time waitlist offers come out, I assume.

Yep, early Jan! Email came through, everything sounds intense but also very exciting!

 

[cat849]

Hey guys, yestersay has me really confused to say the least!
would I have had to get close to 0 on my interview to get straight out declined?. Just looking at the GPA/UMAT which got first round offers, I can't have been that far off? GPA 8.25, UMAT 35th %ile?.


Ps a massive congratulations to everyone with good news!

 

[blueeyes89]

Hey guys, yestersay has me really confused to say the least!
would I have had to get close to 0 on my interview to get straight out declined?. Just looking at the GPA/UMAT which got first round offers, I can't have been that far off? GPA 8.25, UMAT 35th %ile?.

Darn that sucks, I'm sorry you didn't get in! You'll get there eventually, though, I'm sure.
You probably would've been just below the cutoff for the waitlist. My interview buddy told me that you can request your interview score if you were declined. Maybe email FMHS about it? I don't think they give you the exact score but they should tell you about how you did i.e. well, average, bad

 

[Blueglacier]

Me too! It seems a lot easier than I thought so dontreally know what the hype was about

Ah I'm feeling so unprepared for umat. ..

How did you guys study for UMAT?

 

[Blueglacier]

I like him! Explains things well. I am preparing for things to get pretty hard, but I'm glad that medsci is the only core. I will probably end up putting more time into medsci than the other 3 papers combined.

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to UMAT. I am feeling OKish about S1 and S2, but S3 questions just take me way too long to figure out. The practice ACER questions were ok, but I have heard horror stories about what the actual S3 questions are like in the real test. Very glad that Auckland don't weight the UMAT very highly!

What were your scores for each section in UMAT?

 

[Blueglacier]

- statement about cyberbullying and its correlation with mental illness / suicide later in life. the question specifically asked what you would do (as a principal etc) to deal with cyberbullying at high schools
- acting station: An immigrant from England moved in next door and wants to ask me about the NZ health system. Explain to him the NZ health system etc.
- question asking why life long learning is important
- question posing hypothetical scenario where you think you might have ringworm and are weary of going to the doctor to get this confirmed for if you do indeed have it then you won't be able to continue work, which is at a cattery (where the ringworm could infect the cats / humans). your rent is due and you don't want to miss work. what do you do in this situation?
- station where I was present a graph of life expectancy past 65 against degree of mobility / functionality for males and females. Explain the what the graph is telling you and its implications for the NZ health system in the future
- Maori health station: statement about how government refused to fund a Maori health initiative that helped reduced SIDS, citing lack of evidence of efficacy. Govt. later changed their stance (due to public pressure). specific question was 'should the govt. fund Maori health initiatives?, if so why?'
- question asking for the pros and cons of two modes of leadership: one where the leader does the task by themselves, another where they delegate the task(s) to others.
- question about a life challenge I had experienced and what it had taught that I could bring to a career in health.

P.S. I am allowed to share all this information right?

What the hell kind of a answer could you give to the scenario regarding the ringworm? I'd be stumped. But I think i'd say that I'd go to the doctor anyway because my health is important? idek

 

[Blueglacier]

I was at 9 am. There definitely were a couple of tricky ones, and I don't think the interviewer was particularly impressed with my performance in the role play station, but I think I did alright in some of the other stations. You certainly won't have anything to worry about either looking at your GPA and UMAT!



Haha thanks, don't want to get too ahead of myself yet though!

Mind if I ask what were your questions like?

 

[Rob]

What were your scores for each section in UMAT?

I got 63 in S1, 61 in S2, and 57 in S3 (don't know how this one happened, I sucked so bad at section 3 questions!)

What the hell kind of a answer could you give to the scenario regarding the ringworm? I'd be stumped. But I think i'd say that I'd go to the doctor anyway because my health is important? idek

The ringworm question is an ethical one - if you have a ringworm and this would put animals/humans at your workplace at risk, you should not go to work by company policy - however, not going to work could cause you to miss out on paying rent. It can be good to weigh up the consequences of each option in your answer: if you go to work, you will be able to pay your rent which is good for you. However, this may cause you to pass on the ringworm infection to other people or animals. Aside from the obvious moral issue of deliberately risking infecting others, there may be possible liability for the company in this situation. You may also lose your job which would make paying rent far more difficult in the future, not to mention the possibility of a poor reference from your employer which could impact on future employment prospects.

If you choose not to go to work, then you are following company policy and not risking infecting others which is good. The downside of this is that you may lose income which could cause you to struggle with paying rent. There might be other options available to you in this situation, such as using paid sick days, or contacting your employer to let them know your situation - the honesty might be appreciated, and they might be able to help you to come up with a solution. Another option that would be good to bring up in the interview would be looking into seeking compensation from ACC - who will sometimes offer income compensation when you need to take time off work due to injury or infection.

The answer you give doesn't really matter - what they are looking for is your thought process and whether you can justify your statements using available evidence or logical reasoning. Certainly being able to bring in some knowledge of the health system will help, as they like it when people have done research into the field they are aiming to enter! You get 2 minutes of reading time to come up with some initial thoughts on the issue - they will often have some extra information to help guide you.

If the questions seem daunting now, don't worry too much! It can be very easy to underestimate how much you will develop as a person throughout first year biomed/BHSc, and if you do some reading up on current events, ethical issues in healthcare and in general, and on the healthcare system itself, and then spend some time practicing with others you will be able to handle questions about unfamiliar subjects. Worst case scenario you might not have anything to say, but in this case you can just go in and be honest that you are struggling with the question and it is very likely that they will help guide you through to be able to get some marks anyway - the interviewers are lovely for the most part and are looking to help you succeed rather than trying to find ways to fail you.

 

[Rob]

Mind if I ask what were your questions like?

I'm not too sure if we are supposed to share these, but then again I haven't seen or heard anything that says we can't! So here goes. From memory and paraphrased.

1. Income from pokie machines is used as funds for various sporting and community groups. What would be the implications of banning them?
2. Role-play station: your friend has been binge drinking 2-3 nights a week, and has been getting lower grades recently. Last night you had to stop them from driving home drunk. They are sober now, go and talk to them.
3. There is a policy where single mothers get less money through welfare if they cannot name the father of their child. More than half of the women affected by this are Maori. What are your thoughts on this?
4. There is poor compliance with hand-washing regulations by health professionals. Why do you think this is and what can be done about it?
5. A career in health can be difficult and stressful. What do you think will be challenging for you as a health professional? How will you cope with these challenges?
6. A patient with a mild viral infection has not seen improvement with medications. Would it be appropriate for a health professional to prescribe a placebo treatment (medication with no active effects) without telling the patient it is a placebo if this would lead to improvements?
7. Discuss a time when you didn't get something you wanted. What did you learn from this?
8. Are you a leader or a follower?

 

[Blueglacier]

I got 63 in S1, 61 in S2, and 57 in S3 (don't know how this one happened, I sucked so bad at section 3 questions!)



The ringworm question is an ethical one - if you have a ringworm and this would put animals/humans at your workplace at risk, you should not go to work by company policy - however, not going to work could cause you to miss out on paying rent. It can be good to weigh up the consequences of each option in your answer: if you go to work, you will be able to pay your rent which is good for you. However, this may cause you to pass on the ringworm infection to other people or animals. Aside from the obvious moral issue of deliberately risking infecting others, there may be possible liability for the company in this situation. You may also lose your job which would make paying rent far more difficult in the future, not to mention the possibility of a poor reference from your employer which could impact on future employment prospects.

If you choose not to go to work, then you are following company policy and not risking infecting others which is good. The downside of this is that you may lose income which could cause you to struggle with paying rent. There might be other options available to you in this situation, such as using paid sick days, or contacting your employer to let them know your situation - the honesty might be appreciated, and they might be able to help you to come up with a solution. Another option that would be good to bring up in the interview would be looking into seeking compensation from ACC - who will sometimes offer income compensation when you need to take time off work due to injury or infection.

The answer you give doesn't really matter - what they are looking for is your thought process and whether you can justify your statements using available evidence or logical reasoning. Certainly being able to bring in some knowledge of the health system will help, as they like it when people have done research into the field they are aiming to enter! You get 2 minutes of reading time to come up with some initial thoughts on the issue - they will often have some extra information to help guide you.

If the questions seem daunting now, don't worry too much! It can be very easy to underestimate how much you will develop as a person throughout first year biomed/BHSc, and if you do some reading up on current events, ethical issues in healthcare and in general, and on the healthcare system itself, and then spend some time practicing with others you will be able to handle questions about unfamiliar subjects. Worst case scenario you might not have anything to say, but in this case you can just go in and be honest that you are struggling with the question and it is very likely that they will help guide you through to be able to get some marks anyway - the interviewers are lovely for the most part and are looking to help you succeed rather than trying to find ways to fail you.

Thank you! This was so detailed and so helpful!

 

[smallgondola]

How did you guys study for UMAT?

I went to a med-prep course. I also did some of the Acer questions and some that floated around the pre-med cohort. I think the key to UMAT is consistent practice over a long-term, its definitely something you can't cram although getting urself into the mindset the night is good. Do something chill, like reading your favourite book. That helped me alot for section 2 which has always been my weakest section. Section 3 is the easiest to improve on though, after doing lots of practice there is definitely repetitive patterns that present themselves in different questions each year. There are also some impossible section 3 questions that you shouldn't waste your time on. Time management is really important in UMAT!

Wouldn't say the course helped that much, it was more draining then useful. My friend who did it with me got around the same number correct as me in the mocks and we ended up with very different percentiles in the real thing. It is good practice though and the questions were challenging, which is good as it helps you feel more confident and prepared. But there are so many resources online that you can access without paying the $$$

 

[smallgondola]

If the questions seem daunting now, don't worry too much! It can be very easy to underestimate how much you will develop as a person throughout first year biomed/BHSc, and if you do some reading up on current events, ethical issues in healthcare and in general, and on the healthcare system itself, and then spend some time practicing with others you will be able to handle questions about unfamiliar subjects.

I agree with Robbie! I had some pretty difficult questions in my interview as well and looking back, if I was presented with the same questions a year ago, I would not have any clue how to answer them and I'd probably freeze at the sight of it.

I got a question that was on the transfer of control over water flouridation from local councils to the DHB. If I had read that question a year ago, I'd be like wat. To be honest, I don't think I'm that much more knowledged on that question than I was last year, it was the first time I'd heard of it. But you really do develop as a person, both in your ability to speak coherently when faced with a challenging question and in your general awareness of society. (you don't need to read the NZ herald everyday like some may tell you to). poplhlth and the project you do really sparked my interest and motivated me to read up more on current issues

 

[Blueglacier]

Thanks @smallgondola and @robbieg93! Y'all have been awesome! Have a wonderful new year!

 

[Blueglacier]

Did they take Grafton hall out or something? Does it not exist anymore or has it just been named something else?