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Auckland OLY1 (BSc/BHSc) 2013 chat/enquires

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KumaraMash

Member
Hi all,

I was under a different username on this forum (Midi2Med) but cannot remember the username, so have set up a new account.

If you read the first post for the 2012 thread, it has a little of my background. I ended up doing the Tertiary Foundation Certificate and graduated with A+ for mathematics, biology and chemistry. English grades were passable but not too hot, due to my lack of interest in film and theatre critique - I only did the bare minimum to pass (not a good attitude I know).

I was offered a place in biomed on the day of my TFC graduation, which I accepted straight away. I am also doing a Certificate of Proficiency in Science, doing a maths paper (MATHS 102) and a physics paper (PHYSICS 103) to prepare me for PHYSICS 160, over the summer period. I'm doing the Global Art History paper for gen ed, which I know probably isn't the best thing to do, but was the only paper that would fit into my schdeule.

Doing the TFC has added a year to the process of trying to get into medicine, but at least I completed it and I am happy with my results. I was able to learn under some of the lecturers who run some of the OLY1 papers - Judy Brittain, Mel Collings and Libby Hitchings.

I also got an offer for the BHSc, which I declined, because if I do not get into medicine, I will concentrate on the food/nutrition aspect of biomed; however, the number one goal is to get into medicine by the end of 2013.

I have a couple of questions for people who have completed the first year of biomed:

1. What textbooks do absolutely recommend I buy, and which ones should I just borrow from short loan?
2. How did you find PHYSICS 160, if you never did physics before? The last time I did physics was in 2004 at Massey University (which I did pass), but that was years ago, so my knowledge is a bit fuzzy.
3. What is the general workload like?

TIA :)
 

xenopus

Member
To be honest I found pretty much all of the first year textbooks a waste of time owning, it was easier using the information from the course guides and looking up things I didn't know and/or photocopying the few sections I did want. If money is no obstacle then buy them all, but if not then I'd wait as I bought most of them and then found ones like the chemistry text book I never touched. If you want problem exercises and so forth it's always better to get some old exam papers, otherwise pretty much everything in the text book can be found on the internet.
 

miss_universe

muse.
Emeritus Staff
You cant remember your username but found a post you have made? Can I help here?
 

hca12

Member
Hi all,

I was under a different username on this forum (Midi2Med) but cannot remember the username, so have set up a new account.

If you read the first post for the 2012 thread, it has a little of my background. I ended up doing the Tertiary Foundation Certificate and graduated with A+ for mathematics, biology and chemistry. English grades were passable but not too hot, due to my lack of interest in film and theatre critique - I only did the bare minimum to pass (not a good attitude I know).

I was offered a place in biomed on the day of my TFC graduation, which I accepted straight away. I am also doing a Certificate of Proficiency in Science, doing a maths paper (MATHS 102) and a physics paper (PHYSICS 103) to prepare me for PHYSICS 160, over the summer period. I'm doing the Global Art History paper for gen ed, which I know probably isn't the best thing to do, but was the only paper that would fit into my schdeule.

Doing the TFC has added a year to the process of trying to get into medicine, but at least I completed it and I am happy with my results. I was able to learn under some of the lecturers who run some of the OLY1 papers - Judy Brittain, Mel Collings and Libby Hitchings.

I also got an offer for the BHSc, which I declined, because if I do not get into medicine, I will concentrate on the food/nutrition aspect of biomed; however, the number one goal is to get into medicine by the end of 2013.

I have a couple of questions for people who have completed the first year of biomed:

1. What textbooks do absolutely recommend I buy, and which ones should I just borrow from short loan?
2. How did you find PHYSICS 160, if you never did physics before? The last time I did physics was in 2004 at Massey University (which I did pass), but that was years ago, so my knowledge is a bit fuzzy.
3. What is the general workload like?

TIA :)
Thanks for starting this thread up.
1. I would thoroughly recommend buying tortora and derrickson principles of anatomy and physiology, in particular for medsci 142 in 2nd semester. If you haven't done physics before then i would recommend getting the physics textbook (although an electronic copy is available also). The other ones i barely used - i didn't open the organic chemistry textbook, or essential epidemiology. campbell biology i used a few times, probably not enough to justify purchasing it in retrospect. For almost all of the papers the course guides and lecture notes cover the material in enough depth to do well without the textbooks (exception being medsci where readings are examinable but hardly ever examined).
3. Workload is quite heavy although it depends on the person. I found myself staying up till 1230-1 most nights doing daily summaries of lecture material and probably did 10 hrs per day in the weekends. It comes down to time management and in retrospect i wish i'd been better organised so that i would have been able to get away from having to put in so many hours. In many of the papers time spent studying is directly proportional to grades so this sort of encourages anti-social behaviour (long days of study and little time outside of biomed) i guess haha.
 

xenopus

Member
Yes be prepared to study like mad because if you really want to get in you're competing with people who are. That's not to say you definitely need some balance but don't expect to have a party year AND get straight A+s....

In regards to physics it's fairly straightforward and the lecturers go out of their way to make it nice and easy to follow - the text book was a waste of time and the lecture notes covered everything you needed to know.
 

takuro

Member
1. What textbooks do absolutely recommend I buy, and which ones should I just borrow from short loan?
2. How did you find PHYSICS 160, if you never did physics before? The last time I did physics was in 2004 at Massey University (which I did pass), but that was years ago, so my knowledge is a bit fuzzy.
3. What is the general workload like?

TIA :)

hca12 has already done a superb job answering those questions, but nevertheless, here are my two cents:

1. Apart from Tortora and Derickson, I would technically recommend you not to buy any other textbook, owing to the fact that textbooks can often be quite a distraction, especially when they offer conflicting information to the lecturers. Tortora and Derickson however bears the distinction in that "required readings" are set for lab assessments in Medsci142 in semester 2, although they will only end up contributing to a maximum of say 4 - 5 MCQs for the whole semester (in my own experience of lab tests). Also you may find e-copies of textbooks useful, if you prefer searching up the PDF for keywords, rather than flicking from the index. Alternatively, you could always go to the library to photocopy the pages required for the readings.

2. Physics160 was a rather fun paper in my opinon, partly because of the funny demos we had from the course co-ordinator. The course has moved on to being based on the free e-copy version of the openstax textbook, though unless you require extra practice porblems to build up confidence, the lectures are really self-explanatory, and it should be a nice filler paper that will probably command less of your focus than Medsci142 and perhaps Biosci106.

3. I personally found OLY1 stressful, so did all my friends. The workload is really dependent upon person, and how you learn. For the first time ever, I spent more time studying with friends rather than having fun with friends. It could seem like moutainloads of work to conquer at times, but I guess if you look back to why you are here in the first place, you may find the motivation to keep going; but as with anything pace yourself well, and take care not to burn yourself out.

With that said, all the very, very best, and enjoy the holidays while you can. :)
 

Rey

Regular Member
I wouldn't recommend buying any textbooks. Just selfishly hoarding the ones in short loan :D

Jokes aside if you do want a textbook, buy one from TradeMe and NOT UBS. Same book, usually near-new quality and much cheaper.
 

KumaraMash

Member
You cant remember your username but found a post you have made? Can I help here?

I know my old username, not the password or the email address I used for it. It is ok, I'll just stick to my new one now :)

As for other replies, thanks for your answers. So pretty much what I did in 2012 - just use the lecture outlines/notes I had written. I didn't even use my textbooks last year, which I could have saved money on. I still have my anatomy and physiology stuff from my midwifery days, so that should hopefully be helpful. The only things I will really need to purchase are the course readers, lab guides, lab coat and safety glasses - I didn't need to buy these when doing TFC, as it was included in the tuition costs.

And no holidays for me - I am back to uni on the 4th to do summer school. No rest for the wicked, I'm afraid ;-)
 

Rey

Regular Member
The only things I will really need to purchase are the course readers, lab guides, lab coat and safety glasses.

And no holidays for me - I am back to uni on the 4th to do summer school. No rest for the wicked, I'm afraid ;-)

For BIOSCI 107 they gave us the course book and lab guide in a soft copy format on CECIL so you might be able to save on those by printing out pages as needed.

See you in Summer school :)
 

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denane

Member
Hi all,

I was under a different username on this forum (Midi2Med) but cannot remember the username, so have set up a new account.

If you read the first post for the 2012 thread, it has a little of my background. I ended up doing the Tertiary Foundation Certificate and graduated with A+ for mathematics, biology and chemistry. English grades were passable but not too hot, due to my lack of interest in film and theatre critique - I only did the bare minimum to pass (not a good attitude I know).

I was offered a place in biomed on the day of my TFC graduation, which I accepted straight away. I am also doing a Certificate of Proficiency in Science, doing a maths paper (MATHS 102) and a physics paper (PHYSICS 103) to prepare me for PHYSICS 160, over the summer period. I'm doing the Global Art History paper for gen ed, which I know probably isn't the best thing to do, but was the only paper that would fit into my schdeule.

Doing the TFC has added a year to the process of trying to get into medicine, but at least I completed it and I am happy with my results. I was able to learn under some of the lecturers who run some of the OLY1 papers - Judy Brittain, Mel Collings and Libby Hitchings.

I also got an offer for the BHSc, which I declined, because if I do not get into medicine, I will concentrate on the food/nutrition aspect of biomed; however, the number one goal is to get into medicine by the end of 2013.

I have a couple of questions for people who have completed the first year of biomed:

1. What textbooks do absolutely recommend I buy, and which ones should I just borrow from short loan?
2. How did you find PHYSICS 160, if you never did physics before? The last time I did physics was in 2004 at Massey University (which I did pass), but that was years ago, so my knowledge is a bit fuzzy.
3. What is the general workload like?

TIA :)

I had wondered where you had disappeared! I will be doing OLY1 in Health Sciences this year. Thanks for starting up this thread. I was wondering if you were still going through MAPAS. Would love to meet a fellow MAPASee...
 

OUSchweiz

Member
Hi all,
I'm thinking of coming up to Auckland to do OLY1 in 2014 or 2015 and was wondering if one of the ex-BSc people could outline what was covered in each course. As I was originally planning on applying for med at Otago and I have friends that are there I have a good idea of the course content there but was wondering how it compared to that at Auckland.

Any info including a large essay would be greatly appreciated :D as I have to balance out a year filled with 300 level papers and revising high school science content, so I want to make sure I don't waste any time, and maybe have an idea of what I can study up on a little early.

Thanks
 

OUSchweiz

Member
Hey I was also wondering if anyone could clear up some confusion I have over the new UMAT policy:

From 2012 UMAT scores can be used for admission to any of the UMAT Consortium universities ONLY in the year following the test. For example, results from UMAT2013 can be used for undergraduate medicine or health science courses beginning in 2014 but NOT 2015. Do not register for UMAT2013 unless you are planning to apply for a course commencing in 2014 AND you meet the eligibility criteria specified in the UMAT2013 Information Booklet.

I assume this means that if I do OLY1 in 2014 and do UMAT in 2014 it can be used for my application for Medicine for the year of 2015. But if I did UMAT this year (2013) it could not be used.
 

xenopus

Member
Hey I was also wondering if anyone could clear up some confusion I have over the new UMAT policy:

I assume this means that if I do OLY1 in 2014 and do UMAT in 2014 it can be used for my application for Medicine for the year of 2015. But if I did UMAT this year (2013) it could not be used.

That is correct, it can only be used for applications in the same year you sat it i.e. you will sit it in 2014 and go through the application process at the end of 2014 to start in 2015. If you sit it this year it will simply be a practice run and can't be used, personally I think sitting it twice can backfire as if you do too well you may be complacent and do poorly the second time round when it actually counts.
 

Nogeat

Member
If you sit it this year it will simply be a practice run and can't be used, personally I think sitting it twice can backfire as if you do too well you may be complacent and do poorly the second time round when it actually counts.

Yeah true but it could improve your scores just because you've already experienced the atmosphere making you more relaxed and perhaps less pressured. But honestly i think it just depends on how lucky you are on the day :p
 

TracedInAir

Member
I thought i'd chip in and say what i think about the textbooks.

Semester 1 -

BIOSCI 107: Buy Tortora and Derrickson. It found it useful fairly often as an alternate source of information if I didn't quite get sometihng in the course guide. Even if you don't use it for 107, you NEED it for MEDSCI 142 in second semester.

BIOSCI 101: Campbell biology is optional. I didn't use it very much, but the few times I did, I was glad I had it. A lot of my friends never used it. Wait a few weeks and then borrow it from the library to see if you need it or not. Not essential, but personally, I was glad I had it

CHEM 110: I used the textbook about 3 times during the semester. I wish I didn't buy it. Everything you need to know for chem 110 is in the courseguides. All the textbook has that's useful are some really good diagrams of some things I found hard to visualise/understand. Borrow it from the library.

POPHLTH 111: Most people I talked to found the textbook for this useless. I disagreed. I don't think I could have gotten an A+ in that course without it. I didn't use it a lot, but the extra stuff I got from it helped me SO much, especially in the final exam. I was glad I bought it, but most others disagree.


Semester 2 -

Physics 160: They switched to a free online one last year, so there's nothing to buy.

BIOSCI 106: I didn't use it other than to check a few things up for labs. It was convenient to have for those situations, but it was a lot of money to just save a few library trips. Most people didn't use it. I was glad I had it because it did reduce stress a little knowing that, the few times I needed it, it was right there, but overall, it's really not required.

MEDSCI 142: As said above, you should buy Tortora and Derrickson first semester anyway, but you 100% need it for this.


Anyway, that's my opinion on it all. If anyone has disagreements about what I have to say on textbooks, post them so we can have a range of opinions for people to read.
If you have any questions about OLY1, don't hesitate to ask me. I know how stressful it can be, so I'll try and help!
 

OUSchweiz

Member
Hi AH,
A response to this message I posted at the top of the page a few days ago would be great. Thanks for your opinion on textbooks.

Hi all,
I'm thinking of coming up to Auckland to do OLY1 in 2014 or 2015 and was wondering if one of the ex-BSc people could outline what was covered in each course. As I was originally planning on applying for med at Otago and I have friends that are there I have a good idea of the course content there but was wondering how it compared to that at Auckland.

Any info including a large essay would be greatly appreciated :D as I have to balance out a year filled with 300 level papers and revising high school science content, so I want to make sure I don't waste any time, and maybe have an idea of what I can study up on a little early.

Thanks
 

TracedInAir

Member
Hi all,
I'm thinking of coming up to Auckland to do OLY1 in 2014 or 2015 and was wondering if one of the ex-BSc people could outline what was covered in each course. As I was originally planning on applying for med at Otago and I have friends that are there I have a good idea of the course content there but was wondering how it compared to that at Auckland.

Any info including a large essay would be greatly appreciated :D as I have to balance out a year filled with 300 level papers and revising high school science content, so I want to make sure I don't waste any time, and maybe have an idea of what I can study up on a little early.

Thanks

Semester 1

CHEM110 (CORE PAPER): Most of it is organic chemistry. If you did organic chemistry in highschool, imagine that sort of thing but much much much much more content. You cover a LOT of new functional groups, a LOT of new reactions, and all that in more detail that highschool. It's a lot of new info, BUT it does build up logically from highschool chemistry. There is some absolutely brand new stuff like Kinetics and Spectroscopy, but none of it is too impossible. Just think of it as highschool chemistry in overdrive. I found it to be a somewhat stressful paper, but in retrospect, I could have easily gotten better in it if I workld a bit harder.

BIOSCI101 (Non-core paper): The first half of this covers a lot of basic biology to do with cell structure and function (and some genetic if i remember correctly, this was a while back and i cant quite remember), not too difficult at all. The second half covers basic biochemistry and evolution. The biochemistry part has a lot of content, but it is well presented and not too hard to keep up with as long as you do the work. The evolution section is pretty damn easy. I did a bit of evolution study in highschool, and have read a book or two about it in my own time previously, and that meant all I had to do was lightly skim over lectures and I it was all covered. I got an A- in this paper without trying too hard, its a non-core so don't worry about it too much.

BIOSCI107 (CORE PAPER): Covers a lot of the very basic of human biology. Arguably the hardest paper in semester one. Covers stuff about different kinds of cells and tissues in the human body, embryonic development, some very basic biochemistry, DNA, cell communication, Absorption and secretion of different substances in the human body, Blood and Immunity, Neurons, Muscle Tissue. There is some overlap here with BIOSCI101, the occasional 107 lecture will have you sitting back and relaxing because you've already covered it before in 101, but apart from a few of those, its is a VERY interesting course. Quite a lot of content and detail. A challenging paper, but very doable if you put the work in, mainly just lots of memorisation.

POPLHLTH101 (CORE PAPER): The first half mainly focuses on measuring disease. How you can practically measure incidence/prevalence of disease in a population and what this means. Very conceptual and not too much memorising. If you like stats, you'll like this part of the course.
The second half features a lot more memorising, but still not too bad. There is lots about different health policies, health issues in NZ, and a lot more about the measure of disease in a population. It's hard to really explain until you do it. Opinions are split on this paper. A lot of my friends hated it and/or found it hard. I found it rather enjoyable, and quite easy. I ended up skipping over half the lectures during the year, and just quickly reading up on the slides the next day, and I managed to do really well in it. From what I could tell, it's a very "love it or hate it" kind of paper.

Semester Two

MEDSCI142 (CORE PAPER): Hardest paper in first year. Lots of content and some very tough questions. However, it is the most interesting paper also. It builds on everything you would have learnt in BIOSCI107, and teaches you about a bunch of different organ systems in the human body (Cardiovascular, Musculoskeletal, Reproductive etc). It's very challenging but lots of fun. Basically a crash course in human body structure and function.

PHYSICS160 (Non-core paper): A lot of it is high school physics, coverign the basics (mechanics, waves etc) somehow presented in a way to make it more confusing than previously taught. There's also a some new stuff, but my memory is failing me at the moment. I don't really what to say about this paper. Even though I took year 13 physics advanced, I still found this paper to be overwhelming and difficult at times, and I didn't study much for it, but somehow managed to pull an A out of nowhere. To be honest, I didn't really like this paper at all, even though I loved high school physics.

BIOSCI106 (None-core paper): The first half builds on all the biochemistry you will have learnt earlier in the year in 101 in much more detail. It's a lot of information, but it's covered well and is very satisfying to learn. I quite enjoyed the first half, despite the fact that I had to put so much work into it.
The second half is the worst thing ever. I just don't want to describe it. When you get there, you'll understand. I'm sure most of my fellow biomed students from last year would agree. If you REALLY want an explanation I might be bothered to do one later, but it was so bad, that i'd rather avoid reliving it :p

GENED: Whatever you want, there are some fun ones!
 

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sunny123

Member
Is anyone else having trouble enrolling in pop health 101 and 102 for their respective semesters? For example, 101 isn't showing up in semester 1 yet...guessing this is normal but just wondering about you guys

ETA: apart from enrolling in classes, there's virtually nothing else we need to worry about doing right now?
 
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denane

Member
Is anyone else having trouble enrolling in pop health 101 and 102 for their respective semesters? For example, 101 isn't showing up in semester 1 yet...guessing this is normal but just wondering about you guys

ETA: apart from enrolling in classes, there's virtually nothing else we need to worry about doing right now?

I was worried about the same thing until I went to the FMHS page and found the draft timetable for BHSc OLY1 students
http://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/soph/current/_docs/Timetables/OY1timetableS1.pdf

I'm guessing it's been swapped around? I'm enrolled in POPLHLTH 102 for Sem 1 and POPLHLTH 101 for Sem 2.
 
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