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General Interview Discussion 2018

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Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
Hi, can anyone tell me how many interview offers in total does the University of Sydney give out for their Med and Dent courses respectively? I know they take only 30 students in. - for double degree undergrad course.
I am wondering whether it is worth going to as I have already received an offer of place at Flinders. Any advice is welcome :)
IIRC it’s 45 interviews for 30 place offers, but for me a 6 year course at Flinders trumps a 7 year course at USyd - given you are a NZ student and NSW isn’t your home state I would just take the Flinders offer if I was in the same position as you.
 

Troy92812

Member
Just called up the med school, receptionist said she was told that interview invites will be sent tomorrow too. Theres hope! Fingers crossed :)

Oh really!? I called them up just then and the receptionist told me that she was informed that all interstate interview invites have been sent out and that if I hadn't received an email then I didn't get an invite ://
 
Just called up the med school, receptionist said she was told that interview invites will be sent tomorrow too. Theres hope! Fingers crossed :)
Cool! Gotta admit though these past few days of crossing fingers and waiting for so many things has been ROUGH; haha. All the best!
 
Just called up the med school, receptionist said she was told that interview invites will be sent tomorrow too. Theres hope! Fingers crossed :)

Oh really!? I called them up just then and the receptionist told me that she was informed that all interstate interview invites have been sent out and that if I hadn't received an email then I didn't get an invite ://

Which numbers did you guys call by any chance? the one from their website?
 

geek

Member
hello people,
I was just wondering whether extra curricular played an important role in the selection criteria for med and whether any med related extracurriculars were asked about specifically during the interviews, generally?
cheers
 
hello people,
I was just wondering whether extra curricular played an important role in the selection criteria for med and whether any med related extracurriculars were asked about specifically during the interviews, generally?
cheers
For undergraduate medicine courses I haven't heard about extracurriculars being considered. They could be asked about in interviews (i.e. 'what do you do outside of studying', leadership/teamwork/volunteering experience etc.) and I think they'd be important to give good answers and show that you have experiences and knowledge of things outside of your marks.
 

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qwerty18

Member
Does anyone know if Usyd or Monash interview offers for January have been released yet? A1 could you please help? Thanks a lot
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
Does anyone know if Usyd or Monash interview offers for January have been released yet? A1 could you please help? Thanks a lot
Monash invites are all out. I’m unsure about USyd sorry, but we haven’t had any reported here recently.
 

Numerouno

Regular Member
I have a general question about selection for the offer...I am breaking my little brain how to get this deciphered, can someone advise please?

If the offer is purely based on interview 100% - it is straight forward and simple (PQA/MMI like in JMP) and ranking is done.

If the offer is based on 40% ATAR, 20% UMAT and 40% Interview...the non-linearity in the equation arises in my brain.

How do they allocate 40% and on what reference point for ATAR - Is it 99.95? meaning those who applied with that score and interviewed will get 40 marks (if the total is 100 for example); And 20% UMAT - what reference point again? If a candidate with a top score of 215 in the cohort who applied an interviewed will get 20 marks and others get allocated based on that reference?

Then 40% allocation in MMI is subjective and objective...but at the least, it is marked to a standard reference and each candidate will get anywhere up to a max of 40 marks (if the total is 100) for example only.

I am not sure how the ratio is used to allocate ( to supposedly a reference number) for each candidate based on their ATAR and UMAT and ranked? There must be some numerical score allocation before the interview and/ or after the interview to arrive at a total score for ranking. Any takers. please? Thanks.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
I have a general question about selection for the offer...I am breaking my little brain how to get this deciphered, can someone advise please?

If the offer is purely based on interview 100% - it is straight forward and simple (PQA/MMI like in JMP) and ranking is done.

If the offer is based on 40% ATAR, 20% UMAT and 40% Interview...the non-linearity in the equation arises in my brain.

How do they allocate 40% and on what reference point for ATAR - Is it 99.95? meaning those who applied with that score and interviewed will get 40 marks (if the total is 100 for example); And 20% UMAT - what reference point again? If a candidate with a top score of 215 in the cohort who applied an interviewed will get 20 marks and others get allocated based on that reference?

Then 40% allocation in MMI is subjective and objective...but at the least, it is marked to a standard reference and each candidate will get anywhere up to a max of 40 marks (if the total is 100) for example only.

I am not sure how the ratio is used to allocate ( to supposedly a reference number) for each candidate based on their ATAR and UMAT and ranked? There must be some numerical score allocation before the interview and/ or after the interview to arrive at a total score for ranking. Any takers. please? Thanks.

This is 100% an A1 question.
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
I am not sure how the ratio is used to allocate ( to supposedly a reference number) for each candidate based on their ATAR and UMAT and ranked? There must be some numerical score allocation before the interview and/ or after the interview to arrive at a total score for ranking. Any takers. please? Thanks.

I know of two common methods: by using z-score or by rank, the latter is simpler to explain let's start with that first. Say they interview 200 candidates, each candidate will have three rank numbers between 1 & 200 for the three components. After weightings are applied the three weighted numbers are summed then ranked again against the other 199 applicants.

For example A is ranked 5th ATAR, 10th UMAT, 50th Interview whereas B is ranked 10th, 50th, 5th respectively. If the three components are equally weighted A and B would be equal in the final rank. With 40/20/40 aka 2:1:2 coefficients A= (5*2)+(10*1)+(50*2)= 120, B= (10*2)+(50*1)+(5*2)= 80. In ascending order B's final rank is higher.

In the other method the three components are each standardised to a common scale called z-score. It's a number indicating how many standard devs you are above or below the cohort's mean. Therefore regardless of how ATAR or UMAT or Interview score is presented you end up with a z-score mostly between -3 bottom and +3 top (meaning you are 3 standard devs above the mean for that component).

Weightings are applied to each candidate's three z-scores, then they are summed and ranked in descending order for the final ranking.
 

Numerouno

Regular Member
I know of two common methods: by using z-score or by rank, the latter is simpler to explain let's start with that first. Say they interview 200 candidates, each candidate will have three rank numbers between 1 & 200 for the three components. After weightings are applied the three weighted numbers are summed then ranked again against the other 199 applicants.

For example A is ranked 5th ATAR, 10th UMAT, 50th Interview whereas B is ranked 10th, 50th, 5th respectively. If the three components are equally weighted A and B would be equal in the final rank. With 40/20/40 aka 2:1:2 coefficients A= (5*2)+(10*1)+(50*2)= 120, B= (10*2)+(50*1)+(5*2)= 80. In ascending order B's final rank is higher.

In the other method the three components are each standardised to a common scale called z-score. It's a number indicating how many standard devs you are above or below the cohort's mean. Therefore regardless of how ATAR or UMAT or Interview score is presented you end up with a z-score mostly between -3 bottom and +3 top (meaning you are 3 standard devs above the mean for that component).

Weightings are applied to each candidate's three z-scores, then they are summed and ranked in descending order for the final ranking.
That was stupendous. Thanks a lot for deciphering this riddle in my brain. Both methods seem really logical. So, this answer to my question has unravelled the mystery of weightings for various components in the final offer rankings in the minds of other candidates. Thanks, A1. You are a genius.:yes:. Good morning!!!
 

weebuforreal

stats noob and a definite weaboo
Just a question - mainly for A1, but open to anyone - so, with University of Melbourne Bachelor of Biomedicine degree, do they have guaranteed full-fee MD positions for 99+ ATAR students even if they're not in the top 1/3 of their interview cohort at the end of 3rd year?
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
Just a question - mainly for A1, but open to anyone - so, with University of Melbourne Bachelor of Biomedicine degree, do they have guaranteed full-fee MD positions for 99+ ATAR students even if they're not in the top 1/3 of their interview cohort at the end of 3rd year?

Your interview score is *not* put up against the GEMSAS applicants so you don't need to be in the top third or whatever the ratio. In theory you only need to pass the interview (i.e. passing at least 5 out of 8 stations plus passing overall as well), but since UoM is limited to ~30 FFP spots if there are 40-50 99+ students vying for them UoM may see fit to raise the pass mark accordingly.
 

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weebuforreal

stats noob and a definite weaboo
Your interview score is *not* put up against the GEMSAS applicants so you don't need to be in the top third or whatever the ratio. In theory you only need to pass the interview (i.e. passing at least 5 out of 8 stations plus passing overall as well), but since UoM is limited to ~30 FFP spots if there are 40-50 99+ students vying for them UoM may see fit to raise the pass mark accordingly.

Thanks heaps, A1. :)
 

Ceyda

Lurker
Hey guys!!

First of all, Congratulations to everyone who got an interview offer so far, and for those who don't, don't lose hope as there are second round offers (or even third round offers!) to come, :).

Last year I handed out some interview preparation for students to practice with and use as resource and looking back at some of the questions, they were quite archaic and needed some updating to reflect the interview for this year and beyond. That is why this year, I am introducing a newer version of the interview preparation, to help you guys get through the daunting interview preparation. Some of the changes include more modern questions with a small guide as well as some MMI mock questions/cases.

If you want to use the interview preparation material and resources to practice on, just like this post and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

PS BTW I'm on holidays so if you have any questions about the interview process, you can ask me.

Good Luck everyone (I'm sure you'll smash it xx)!
Hi Skarzin can I please get a copy of the interview preparation material and resources to practice on. Thank you very much. My email address is [email protected]
 

Eliden

Year 4, B MedSci, MD @ UON
I’ve heard that JCU and JMP sometimes get you to teach the interviewer something as part of the interview, for example how to hold chopsticks. What other topics/skills are good to teach (and are easy to teach) in this sort of task?
Oh my goodness, I hope I get this, and I hope I get to teach them yoga! (I've been teaching yoga for 8 years 🤣)
 
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