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Auckland OLY1 chat - archive
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kakarot
Member
Studying Methods and Experimentation - HELP ! ( Auckland Biomed OLY1 2011 )
Evening,
I'm new to MSO and the whole university experience. I'm doing the biomedical science overlapping first year at Auckland University and I have one issue that has kept me up for days, and through some luck I found you guys;
University is a very different experience to high school, and I seem to be running into one giant brick wall when it comes to studying to learn content with efficient memory retention.
I've completed my first week here, and I have endeavoured to try and get my head around this with different approaches.
1. Attempting to make notes by synthesising content from my coursebook + textbook + lecture slides + plus notes from my lectures that I wrote. I think on average it took over 2 hours at least for each paper, and I think that possibly shows I'm doing something wrong as I get to bed ranging from 3am to 5am.
2. Not making notes in lectures, but instead just listening to the lecturer's comments and explanations, then getting back to my hall to read the "reference" readings in the textbook and look over printed lecture slides/coursebook. This didn't take as long, but it just seems so unorthodox and I worry if a lack of writing will affect how much I will remember for examinations in the near future.
3. (haven't tried this yet) There is this tutoring service in Auckland for first year HSFY/Biomed students called "Avancetutors". They charge around $120.00 per week for 3 tutorials: one for POPHLTH 111, one for CHEM 110, and one for BIOSCI 107 - each session being 3 hours. They supposedly provide exam strategies, methods of tackling specific question types, and notes. They have a good track record with a large number of previous students getting into UoA medical school - having said that, i dont think its causality, merely a correlation... I am wondering whether this could be of great use as it means I do not need to worry about making good notes, and I can spend my spare time digesting and learning the notes.
The underlying issue behind my experimentations lie with one insecurity: to how much detail do I need to go to? (for an A+ as I am very eager to be a doctor) I look at the lecture slides for, say, a section on "ribosomes". The slides have 3 short sentences summarising this organelle, and when I flick over to the reference reading for it, there is almost half a page of small writing to do with it. None of it seems, particularly irrelevant. It all seems relevant. However with this sort of detail, the workload is immense, it takes a lot of time to read over all the details and then try to digest and put it into memory. Considering I have had only 3 lectures for each of my papers, at this rate, I will be swimming (or drowning) in this colossal influx of new information.
I apologise for writing in excess, I am just very confused at this point in time, and perhaps some of you med students can tell me a thing or two as to how you studied effectively. I need to sort something out quick before the workload starts piling in... I also want a non-academic social life within all of this -
Thanks
Evening,
I'm new to MSO and the whole university experience. I'm doing the biomedical science overlapping first year at Auckland University and I have one issue that has kept me up for days, and through some luck I found you guys;
University is a very different experience to high school, and I seem to be running into one giant brick wall when it comes to studying to learn content with efficient memory retention.
I've completed my first week here, and I have endeavoured to try and get my head around this with different approaches.
1. Attempting to make notes by synthesising content from my coursebook + textbook + lecture slides + plus notes from my lectures that I wrote. I think on average it took over 2 hours at least for each paper, and I think that possibly shows I'm doing something wrong as I get to bed ranging from 3am to 5am.
2. Not making notes in lectures, but instead just listening to the lecturer's comments and explanations, then getting back to my hall to read the "reference" readings in the textbook and look over printed lecture slides/coursebook. This didn't take as long, but it just seems so unorthodox and I worry if a lack of writing will affect how much I will remember for examinations in the near future.
3. (haven't tried this yet) There is this tutoring service in Auckland for first year HSFY/Biomed students called "Avancetutors". They charge around $120.00 per week for 3 tutorials: one for POPHLTH 111, one for CHEM 110, and one for BIOSCI 107 - each session being 3 hours. They supposedly provide exam strategies, methods of tackling specific question types, and notes. They have a good track record with a large number of previous students getting into UoA medical school - having said that, i dont think its causality, merely a correlation... I am wondering whether this could be of great use as it means I do not need to worry about making good notes, and I can spend my spare time digesting and learning the notes.
The underlying issue behind my experimentations lie with one insecurity: to how much detail do I need to go to? (for an A+ as I am very eager to be a doctor) I look at the lecture slides for, say, a section on "ribosomes". The slides have 3 short sentences summarising this organelle, and when I flick over to the reference reading for it, there is almost half a page of small writing to do with it. None of it seems, particularly irrelevant. It all seems relevant. However with this sort of detail, the workload is immense, it takes a lot of time to read over all the details and then try to digest and put it into memory. Considering I have had only 3 lectures for each of my papers, at this rate, I will be swimming (or drowning) in this colossal influx of new information.
I apologise for writing in excess, I am just very confused at this point in time, and perhaps some of you med students can tell me a thing or two as to how you studied effectively. I need to sort something out quick before the workload starts piling in... I also want a non-academic social life within all of this -
Thanks
Last edited:
g.walker
Regular Member
My study style was, and to this day remains number 2, and Ive managed to pull plenty of A+s and As so far. The truth is, the exams (especially for year 1) are mostly from what is already given to you. The lecturers always advocate extracurricular reading, but from my experience its mostly irrelevant, practically useless details that you will never be asked about.
Think about this: any exam usually has 1 or 2 (hardly more) questions about each lecture. Each lecture actually has plenty of information in itself, so it would be very bastardous of lecturers to completely ignore 1 hour of teaching only to ask questions about details that may have been found here and there.
With that said, you should try to do all the required reading and once is enough if you understand it. Since you're doing science papers, once you understand the content, you just need to memorise whats on lecture slides/coursebook.
As for tutoring, I advise you to stay away from it. Not only is the one you mentioned a complete ripoff, but it shouldnt be needed if you honestly plan to study medicine later on. There is no such thing as exam strategies or methods of tackling specific questions, in fact if you take a look at any past paper you'll see how incredibly straight forward they are, they arn't UMAT or anything
Last piece of advise is, if you want to know whether your study plan is working out or not, just take a look at the past papers and see how well you can do in them. From my experience, 95% if not more of the exam is entirely based on the the cecil slides
Think about this: any exam usually has 1 or 2 (hardly more) questions about each lecture. Each lecture actually has plenty of information in itself, so it would be very bastardous of lecturers to completely ignore 1 hour of teaching only to ask questions about details that may have been found here and there.
With that said, you should try to do all the required reading and once is enough if you understand it. Since you're doing science papers, once you understand the content, you just need to memorise whats on lecture slides/coursebook.
As for tutoring, I advise you to stay away from it. Not only is the one you mentioned a complete ripoff, but it shouldnt be needed if you honestly plan to study medicine later on. There is no such thing as exam strategies or methods of tackling specific questions, in fact if you take a look at any past paper you'll see how incredibly straight forward they are, they arn't UMAT or anything
Last piece of advise is, if you want to know whether your study plan is working out or not, just take a look at the past papers and see how well you can do in them. From my experience, 95% if not more of the exam is entirely based on the the cecil slides
Hi I'm doing OLY1 and am really new to this whole forum thing... so if I do anything wrong please tell me 
I've just started uni this year and we've been told the horror story of the first poplhlth111 test (20% of the class failed last year).
Could you please tell me how to study for the test (the questions on peerwise seem way too easy) and how important the test is?
Thanks!
I've just started uni this year and we've been told the horror story of the first poplhlth111 test (20% of the class failed last year).
Could you please tell me how to study for the test (the questions on peerwise seem way too easy) and how important the test is?
Thanks!
4everAlone
Regular Member
Hi I'm doing OLY1 and am really new to this whole forum thing... so if I do anything wrong please tell me
I've just started uni this year and we've been told the horror story of the first poplhlth111 test (20% of the class failed last year).
Could you please tell me how to study for the test (the questions on peerwise seem way too easy) and how important the test is?
Thanks!
My advice = memorize all the GATE notes! It wasn't only our year that did terribly, same thing with the year before us apparently =)
In the scheme of things the test isn't thaat important, in our year class average was C+ for test one and just below an A for test two, although if you can do well in it then it gives you a nice jump on the class!
So again, really just memorize the GATE notes and be prepared for some tricky questions that really make you think. They're very cleverly worded
Hopefully you've figured by now that you dont HAVE to do anything.
If recording lectures and listening to them later helps, then buy a voice recorder.
If you're someone who loves reading textbooks and making notes and that works for you, then buy textbooks.
People don't come in generic packages with identical traits. So figure out what works for you and use it to your advantage
Hi
More questions:
1. Are there any qualities that you notice all med students have? Are they all very nice, very friendly, very studious etc?
2. How important is it to have leadership role/s at high school? If you didn't have any leadership roles at high school, would you get a bad interview grade and not get into medicine?
3. And just wondering, would you say everyone studying med at Auckland are well-rounded, friendly, nice, academic people?
Thanks!
More questions:
1. Are there any qualities that you notice all med students have? Are they all very nice, very friendly, very studious etc?
2. How important is it to have leadership role/s at high school? If you didn't have any leadership roles at high school, would you get a bad interview grade and not get into medicine?
3. And just wondering, would you say everyone studying med at Auckland are well-rounded, friendly, nice, academic people?
Thanks!
4everAlone
Regular Member
1. We are all super good looking XD
2. I had no leadership roles at high school other than captain of a badly performing sports team. In the interview I didn't get asked a single thing about school, but I suppose it comes down to your interviewer. Plus, there are plenty of ways to show leadership outside of school, no matter how small and insignificant you may think they are.
3. Most people I've met are well rounded, friendly, nice, academic people!
The people in Med sound nice
Obsessive compulsive tendencies.. are they like perfectionists ?
1. How academic do you have to be to progress on to Medicine from first year Biomed? Would only one of the top students (grade-wise) in their cohort at high school stand a chance in Biomed going to Medicine?
2. Would you ever recommend someone skipping Year 13, instead going to uni a year earlier to do first year Biomed, to then try to get into Med?
THANKS.
Obsessive compulsive tendencies.. are they like perfectionists ?
1. How academic do you have to be to progress on to Medicine from first year Biomed? Would only one of the top students (grade-wise) in their cohort at high school stand a chance in Biomed going to Medicine?
2. Would you ever recommend someone skipping Year 13, instead going to uni a year earlier to do first year Biomed, to then try to get into Med?
THANKS.
g.walker
Regular Member
I think itd be a really good idea to do year 13 if you can. You'll study plenty of what is covered in biomed which is honestly a great load of the pressure, especially since semester 1 has 3 core papers, 2 of which are well covered in year 13 (chem110, biosci107)
psychiatrically medical students have higher rates of anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. Personality wise medical students a probably more narcissistic and obsessive compulsive (and perhaps a little dependent)
g.walker
Regular Member
controvertial, consensus is cambridge > NCEA, but any will do and students from both have gotten in before
4everAlone
Regular Member
Cambridge will cover it more from what I understand. I did NCEA and pretty much all of 107 was completely new, and most of chem was new too
MOST of Chem new?? Could you easily handle all the new topics and stuff though?
Anyway, I was thinking about going to uni earlier as I'm a Year 12 this year but will probably be getting my Level 3 Certificate this end of year (as last year as a Year 11 I did get my Level 2 Certificate). So, if I have my Level 3 Certificate I might as well go to uni.. but then I guess I could miss out on important things in Year 13 and maybe be less knowledgeable than others at uni, not have as good writing skills as people in uni, maybe be slightly disadvantaged in other ways, definitely have no chance at getting scholarships etc.??
And if I don't get into Med, then will I have limited options on what to do instead if I stopped doing Biomed, not having done that many Level 3 subjects? Cos I'm doing three Level 3 subjects and three Level 2 subjects this year. I think I can definitely get a Level 3 Certificate this year but I know its hard to get Excellences in Level 3 so I might just get a Level 3 Certificate with nothing or with Merit Endorsement. And if I stayed for Year 13 I would have a better chance at getting a Level 3 Excellence Endorsed Certificate.
So yeah, there's a lot to think about. But I do want to kind of move on to uni if I can, but I don't really want to be disadvantaged in any way.
Anyway, I was thinking about going to uni earlier as I'm a Year 12 this year but will probably be getting my Level 3 Certificate this end of year (as last year as a Year 11 I did get my Level 2 Certificate). So, if I have my Level 3 Certificate I might as well go to uni.. but then I guess I could miss out on important things in Year 13 and maybe be less knowledgeable than others at uni, not have as good writing skills as people in uni, maybe be slightly disadvantaged in other ways, definitely have no chance at getting scholarships etc.??
And if I don't get into Med, then will I have limited options on what to do instead if I stopped doing Biomed, not having done that many Level 3 subjects? Cos I'm doing three Level 3 subjects and three Level 2 subjects this year. I think I can definitely get a Level 3 Certificate this year but I know its hard to get Excellences in Level 3 so I might just get a Level 3 Certificate with nothing or with Merit Endorsement. And if I stayed for Year 13 I would have a better chance at getting a Level 3 Excellence Endorsed Certificate.
So yeah, there's a lot to think about. But I do want to kind of move on to uni if I can, but I don't really want to be disadvantaged in any way.
Firstly - Once you get into uni your NCEA results (and subjects) mean nothing.
I'm doing chem 110 this semester, and I did 7th form chemistry 6 years ago (and I only got achieved in it). I'm finding chem110 easy. Ok sure I've been at uni for 5 years now so I'm adjusted to the university system, but regardless I think its easy to transition from level3 chem to chem110.
Regarding taking specific subjects at highschool in preparation for biomed: Obviously its good to do chem/bio but its not required. I hadn't done any biology since 5th form general science (8 years ago) and I'm finding biosci 101 and 107 quite managable.
I'm doing chem 110 this semester, and I did 7th form chemistry 6 years ago (and I only got achieved in it). I'm finding chem110 easy. Ok sure I've been at uni for 5 years now so I'm adjusted to the university system, but regardless I think its easy to transition from level3 chem to chem110.
Regarding taking specific subjects at highschool in preparation for biomed: Obviously its good to do chem/bio but its not required. I hadn't done any biology since 5th form general science (8 years ago) and I'm finding biosci 101 and 107 quite managable.
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