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Auckland OLY1 chat - archive

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Arutha said:
I think I would rather let a horrible UMAT test decide instead of 3 people who are unpredictable :O.
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They aren't as unpredictable as you might think. By the way, the 3rd person isn't there to assess the interviewee, he or she is there to assess the interviewers.
 
blindspot said:
Yea I was pretty skeptical, there's just no way you can replicate Malpas's annoyingness through MCQs is there :P
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I didn't even have malpas when I did 142. He was on a sabbatical that year :P
 
Malpas' questions aren't that bad though. They're good because they are pretty much an invitation to write down everything and anything you could possibly think of, and know in relation to the topic.
 
lordgarlic said:
I didn't even have malpas when I did 142. He was on a sabbatical that year :P
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omg lucky you...

he was unanimously disliked (loathed actually) for his flowchart questions. They are almost as bad as one of those "ok spend 20 min writing everything you know about medicine" questions lol. Except it's worse coz you have many boxes and arrows everywhere, and then you want to add stuff to the flow chart you've already drawn, so by the time you hand in your script it looks like a confusing spider web.
 
toaster said:
Malpas' questions aren't that bad though. They're good because they are pretty much an invitation to write down everything and anything you could possibly think of, and know in relation to the topic.
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they are also an invitation to get stupidly low marks. I can't recall seeing anything that got over 19/24. Average was about 10-12
 
lordgarlic said:
they are also an invitation to get stupidly low marks. I can't recall seeing anything that got over 19/24. Average was about 10-12
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Yeah, the problem isn't because students don't know their stuff, it's more about them not including what Malpas thinks is important. Of course, you could try to include absolutely everything you know about the subject, but time becomes an issue.

His questions are just so annoying that I was close to not answering it at all. Just wanted to get out of that exam room...QUICK :lol:
 
Harder than anything you can imagine right now. No, I'm actually not kidding. But you kinda get used to it after a while...say bye bye to straight A+s :)
 
Awww nooo...oh well, at least the pressure for perfection will be off. Straight A+s have been and gone already unfortunately, stupid Gen Ed. Once gone, you can never get the 9.0 back...*cries*
 
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Being modest eh? Well seeing as toaster represented NZ at last year's international chem olympiad, I'd hope the med exams aren't light years beyond the test he sat at for IChO.

Do you know how Otago's med exams compare by the way? I was looking at some past papers for MICN201 and they looked sorta alright lol.
 
lol don't worry...getting GPA 9.0 is *almost* frowned upon in med. First, getting 9.0 means you are really devoid of a life (unless you are uber super smart, but that's like 1 or 2 people per year). Also, who's to say 9.0 for pre-clinical translates to kick-a55 doctor skills?
 
skyglow1 said:
Being modest eh? Well seeing as toaster represented NZ at last year's international chem olympiad, I'd hope the med exams aren't light years beyond the test he sat at for IChO.

Do you know how Otago's med exams compare by the way? I was looking at some past papers for MICN201 and they looked sorta alright lol.
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Actually, a few people in my class were either in the Bio or Chem olympiads. I personally almost made it into the Bio olympiad (top 8 or something in NZ, but i studied the wrong parts for the test). ANYWAYS, anecdotally, 2nd year exams at auck are much harder. There is just soooo much stuff to study!

I don't know much about Otago exams. But at auckland, 2nd year is probably the hardest of the 3 pre-clin years (1st year is by far the easiest).
 
Yeah...Im feeling like having a life next year, so it shouldn't matter too much. Anyway, when you come to apply for training places with DHBs, and specialties, it comes more down to your clinical years, right?
 
blindspot said:
Actually, a few people in my class were either in the Bio or Chem olympiads. I personally almost made it into the Bio olympiad (top 8 or something in NZ, but i studied the wrong parts for the test). ANYWAYS, anecdotally, 2nd year exams at auck are much harder. There is just soooo much stuff to study!

I don't know much about Otago exams. But at auckland, 2nd year is probably the hardest of the 3 pre-clin years (1st year is by far the easiest).
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So is it the exam itself that is hard...or the preparation you have to do for it? Or is it both?
 
toaster said:
Yeah...Im feeling like having a life next year, so it shouldn't matter too much. Anyway, when you come to apply for training places with DHBs, and specialties, it comes more down to your clinical years, right?
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No. Nobody will give a rats what grades you got in med school. Full stop. All other things equal, a C- candidate will have the same chances as an A+ student in gaining a training position.
 
skyglow1 said:
So is it the exam itself that is hard...or the preparation you have to do for it? Or is it both?
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Exams are hard because there is so much to cover. Also, sometimes it's hard to know what is expected of you. As a very very very rough guide (lordgarlic feel free to give alternative views), if you wanted to maintain 9.0 GPA from first year into the end of the 2nd year, expect to do about 4-5 times amount of studying.
 
toaster said:
What determines whether you get the training position you want then?
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Your performance as an intern and resident (NB don't confuse the Australasian resident with the American one). Things like recommendation letters and such.
 
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blindspot said:
Exams are hard because there is so much to cover. Also, sometimes it's hard to know what is expected of you. As a very very very rough guide (lordgarlic feel free to give alternative views), if you wanted to maintain 9.0 GPA from first year into the end of the 2nd year, expect to do about 4-5 times amount of studying.
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and why do you think I don't have a GPA of 9 :P

my GPA is above average and actually quite good. I still do more work than I did in OLY1 but a decent amount. My problem stems from the fact I understand things well but they come out all mushed up in exams haha
 
blindspot said:
Actually, a few people in my class were either in the Bio or Chem olympiads. I personally almost made it into the Bio olympiad (top 8 or something in NZ, but i studied the wrong parts for the test). ANYWAYS, anecdotally, 2nd year exams at auck are much harder. There is just soooo much stuff to study!

I don't know much about Otago exams. But at auckland, 2nd year is probably the hardest of the 3 pre-clin years (1st year is by far the easiest).
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I disagree. 3rd year exams are harder than 2nd year exams. The content taught in 3rd year is more complex. The reason why 2nd year exams seem relatively higher is because the workload jump from OLY 1 to year 2 is about 4-5x compared with 2nd-3rd year where there is no workload increase and you are used to the med school style
 
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