Auckland OLY1 chat - archive

[bristol1992]

Thankyou, just have to keep confident until the end of the year!

 

[Rey]

And our cohort is better performing than previous years

How do you know this?

 

[AlteredState1]

Was anyone else annoyed by how disorganized the Thermal Physics lectures were?

 

[hca12]

if we fail the end of year exam for 106, but still achieve a pass in the theory component and practical component, will that count as a pass in the paper? (from an OLYer who is completely out of his depth in 106 haha)

 

[Rotors]

if we fail the end of year exam for 106, but still achieve a pass in the theory component and practical component, will that count as a pass in the paper? (from an OLYer who is completely out of his depth in 106 haha)

Most papers I sat have said you need to get at least 50% in the final exam to pass however you will need to check with the Chemistry people to make sure.

Is 106 really that hard? The answer is active site and 1,6-fructobisphosposomethingaratherkinase ... or if you need a more sure-fire strategy go into the exam looking unshaven and deshevilled then write "Acetyl CoA" on the exam paper over and over and randomly yell out things like "GLUCONEOGENESIS!" or "DIABETIC KETOACIDOSIS!" (actually a very interesting condition biochemically) so when you get sent out and to the doctor you can plead "but the biochemistry doc, the biochemistry!...."

The doctor will understand cos he will be forced to relive the horrific nightmares of biochemistry lectures at Uni and give you an aegrotat

Note: Taking the piss, do not try this.

 

[4everAlone]

if we fail the end of year exam for 106, but still achieve a pass in the theory component and practical component, will that count as a pass in the paper? (from an OLYer who is completely out of his depth in 106 haha)

I'm 100% sure I failed the final exam for 106 but still easily passed the paper cheers to labs and test 1. So unless things have changed in the last few years you shouldn't need to pass the exam.

 

[Hopefully]

Was anyone else annoyed by how disorganized the Thermal Physics lectures were?

I agree with the fact that they were disorganised, but speaking from the perspective of someone who has never done thermal physics before, I think that the content is relatively solid yet approachable. In all fairness, the lecturer did give it his all, and the given notes and the lecture guide seem pretty sufficient for what we need to know. There is always the textbook which nicely supplements what we learnt as well.

(I hope I didn't misinterpret your question... Apologies if I did.)

(from an OLYer who is completely out of his depth in 106 haha)

From the review lecture this morning, the exam questions that he showed us were quite decent. Since most were the typical 'name the enzyme' and 'draw substance X', it's fair to say that the exam will be doable with study...

Are you guys finding the lecture objectives to be quite obscure? :/

[OFFTOPIC]Lol, even after saying that, I still feel out of my depth as well, like [MENTION=14740]hca12[/MENTION] said...[/OFFTOPIC]

 

[hca12]

yeah to be honest the questions he showed us seem fair, i've just been prioritizing 142 at the expense of my non core papers. i'm not too good with all the enzyme names etc... i feel that to do well in that paper would take a ridiculous amount of work, and i don't really want that to jeopardize medsci haha. umat results are out, so hope everyone did ok in that

 

[Favour]

yeah to be honest the questions he showed us seem fair, i've just been prioritizing 142 at the expense of my non core papers. i'm not too good with all the enzyme names etc... i feel that to do well in that paper would take a ridiculous amount of work, and i don't really want that to jeopardize medsci haha. umat results are out, so hope everyone did ok in that

How did everyone go? what were your scores current medders for those of you that were obviously successful. and do they factor UMAT in before or only after interview?

 

[Rotors]

do they factor UMAT in before or only after interview?

UMAT is not used for interview selection; provided your overall GPA is > 6.0 (B+) you are ranked on your four core papers only

Once you get an interview, your core GPA, UMAT and interview score are combined together to give you an overall score with a 60/15/25% weighting respectively.

Places are filled in descending rank order until the cohort is full.

If you search through the OLY1 archive for the past two years the cut off core GPA for med was 7.25 and 7.5 but I am not sure which way around it was.

 

[blahblah123]

Hi everyone. I'm currently in year 13 and thinking of doing health science or biomed next year. I have also been thinking of back up plans, and if I decide to do a conjoint degree later, do I have to go through the admissions process using NCEA level 3 again or will they use uni gpa (like what Australia does for non standard entry into medicine). Thanks!

 

[BC mso]

Hi everyone. I'm currently in year 13 and thinking of doing health science or biomed next year. I have also been thinking of back up plans, and if I decide to do a conjoint degree later, do I have to go through the admissions process using NCEA level 3 again or will they use uni gpa (like what Australia does for non standard entry into medicine). Thanks!

you need to be a bit more clear on what you are asking, entry into medicine is very different from just simply adding a conjoint degree. Presuming you have met the criteria for either a biomed or health sciences degree, adding on a conjoint is relatively straight forward, just need to complete the required papers and points for the conjoint...entry into medicine is totally different from taking up a conjoint degree...(there are an abundance of sources on this forum detailing medicine entry process in NZ unis)

Also note that a conjoint degree (double major) is also different from a double degree

 

[Rey]

Presuming you have met the criteria for either a biomed or health sciences degree, adding on a conjoint is relatively straight forward

Not always.
-You will have to make sure a conjoint is able to be taken with your current degree (Biomed isn't able to be taken as a major with a conjoint some degrees). For example: until this year people were not able to take BHSc/BSc.
-You will have to make sure you have met the GPA requirements for the conjoint - though in some cases these are relatively low.
-You will have to decide whether you want to switch with credit towards completion of the degree or if you are happy with not getting credit for some papers (remember you have spent money doing these courses). For example, if you pick a conjoint with BHSc you may not get credit for CHEM110 and BIOSCI107. Might be a similar case with POPLHLTH111 and Biomed conjoints?
-Some degrees are limited to a certain number of people thus you may not be accepted (some psych courses are limited to around ~500 people a semester).
-Some degrees require you to maintain a minimum or pass extra hurdles to continue with the pathway(law conjoint for example).

 

[Favour]

UMAT is not used for interview selection; provided your overall GPA is > 6.0 (B+) you are ranked on your four core papers only

Once you get an interview, your core GPA, UMAT and interview score are combined together to give you an overall score with a 60/15/25% weighting respectively.

Places are filled in descending rank order until the cohort is full.

If you search through the OLY1 archive for the past two years the cut off core GPA for med was 7.25 and 7.5 but I am not sure which way around it was.

Hey, thanks for this.I have looked over some past threads and they indicate that they do use your UMAT for interview selection. Which I guess to me makes sense. As the GPA's are categorical (i.e. 8, 7.75m 7.5 etc) they would surely need another distinguishing factor to decide which one out of all those with 7.5 get an interview? I don't imagin they could rank those with the lowest GPA cutoff score alphabetically or anything. The thread said that they allocate a score to your UMAT raw result similar to the GPA scoring .... 90-100 = 9, 85-90 = 8, 80-85 = 7, and so on and so forth. Then they give your GPA an 80% weighting and 20% to your UMAT converted score. This I think is how you can have people with a lower GPA but strong UMAT being selected for an interview over others with the same GPA but lower UMAT result.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Rotors]

Hey, thanks for this.I have looked over some past threads and they indicate that they do use your UMAT for interview selection. Which I guess to me makes sense. As the GPA's are categorical (i.e. 8, 7.75m 7.5 etc) they would surely need another distinguishing factor to decide which one out of all those with 7.5 get an interview? I don't imagin they could rank those with the lowest GPA cutoff score alphabetically or anything. The thread said that they allocate a score to your UMAT raw result similar to the GPA scoring .... 90-100 = 9, 85-90 = 8, 80-85 = 7, and so on and so forth. Then they give your GPA an 80% weighting and 20% to your UMAT converted score. This I think is how you can have people with a lower GPA but strong UMAT being selected for an interview over others with the same GPA but lower UMAT result.

The one and only criterion used by Auckland to select people for interview is GPA across the four common courses and nothing else. They interview approximately 2x as many people as there are places in the MBChB program.

The process (to me anyway) really does seem quite simple; they rank you in descending order based on your GPA and stop when they have 2 people for every 1 place (or most likely I would think slightly over 2x as they do say "approximately"). From there your core GPA, UMAT and interview are combined and weighed 60/15/25 and again, everybody is ranked in descending order and the first X number of people (however many places there are in Medicine) are selected and given a first round offer. An additional number of people (I think about 20) are given a place on the waiting list which means if somebody drops out you get a place and if not you do not. Historically, if you look at the old OLY1 thread, most people on the waiting list seem to get in (some do not) and I would venture a high bet that the number of people on the waiting list is formulated from careful analysis of the drop out/non acceptance of offer rates over a period of time so that there is a reasonable chance you will get in off the waitlist. This appears exactly the same process used in overselling a commercial flight that I've used in the aviation industry.

Auckland does not make it public how they score UMAT but I have hears something similar that they use raw mark and convert it an equivalent grade on the 9 point scale.

You can play a guestimate and say that if we take the previous highest cut off on MSO at 7.5 GPA, add a 50%ile UMAT and a 7/10 interview onto it (which I both think are reasonable numbers, others can correct me if they do not) we can surmise at least I feel in a reasonably educated manner that the total cumulative score to secure a place in Med2 not off the waiting list is at least 75/100.

 

[blahblah123]

Thanks Rey!

 

[Favour]

The one and only criterion used by Auckland to select people for interview is GPA across the four common courses and nothing else. They interview approximately 2x as many people as there are places in the MBChB program.

The process (to me anyway) really does seem quite simple; they rank you in descending order based on your GPA and stop when they have 2 people for every 1 place (or most likely I would think slightly over 2x as they do say "approximately"). From there your core GPA, UMAT and interview are combined and weighed 60/15/25 and again, everybody is ranked in descending order and the first X number of people (however many places there are in Medicine) are selected and given a first round offer. An additional number of people (I think about 20) are given a place on the waiting list which means if somebody drops out you get a place and if not you do not. Historically, if you look at the old OLY1 thread, most people on the waiting list seem to get in (some do not) and I would venture a high bet that the number of people on the waiting list is formulated from careful analysis of the drop out/non acceptance of offer rates over a period of time so that there is a reasonable chance you will get in off the waitlist. This appears exactly the same process used in overselling a commercial flight that I've used in the aviation industry.

Auckland does not make it public how they score UMAT but I have hears something similar that they use raw mark and convert it an equivalent grade on the 9 point scale.

You can play a guestimate and say that if we take the previous highest cut off on MSO at 7.5 GPA, add a 50%ile UMAT and a 7/10 interview onto it (which I both think are reasonable numbers, others can correct me if they do not) we can surmise at least I feel in a reasonably educated manner that the total cumulative score to secure a place in Med2 not off the waiting list is at least 75/100.

Hey, Just found this from a university admissions doc.

Following the successful completion of the eight prescribed first year courses, and the achievement of a B+average, applicants will be ranked on their grades achieved in the four common courses (highlighted below inbold) that are offered in both the BHSc and the BSc (Biomedical Science) programmes, and also their UMAT score.The UMAT score will contribute 20% of the combined grade.​

 

[Rotors]

Hey, Just found this from a university admissions doc.

Following the successful completion of the eight prescribed first year courses, and the achievement of a B+average, applicants will be ranked on their grades achieved in the four common courses (highlighted below inbold) that are offered in both the BHSc and the BSc (Biomedical Science) programmes, and also their UMAT score.The UMAT score will contribute 20% of the combined grade.​

Did you find this here? https://www.macleans.school.nz/guidance/careers/2008/infosheets/medicine.pdf

That is not current University policy; it is a document from a high school dated March 2008 and clearly states on the document to check the Auckland website for the latest information.

 

[Favour]

Did you find this here? https://www.macleans.school.nz/guidance/careers/2008/infosheets/medicine.pdf

That is not current University policy; it is a document from a high school dated March 2008 and clearly states on the document to check the Auckland website for the latest information.

Hey. Not sure it was in an email this week from a friend who is currently in their fifth year at Auckland. They didn't know the answer so am guessing they tried to find it?

I am still unsure how they would select which of those with the cut off gpa range ... lets say 7.5 .... they would select to interview if it was solely based on the gpa of the core 4?
i.e
student A = GPA 7.5
student B = GPA 7.5
Student C = GPA 7.5 etc .. .say there's 30 people with that exact gpa ...

Who gets the interview? they are all on 7.5. .... if you catch my drift. Sorry if it sounds dumb but am just trying to make sense of it all.

 

[mew2]

Hey. Not sure it was in an email this week from a friend who is currently in their fifth year at Auckland. They didn't know the answer so am guessing they tried to find it?

I am still unsure how they would select which of those with the cut off gpa range ... lets say 7.5 .... they would select to interview if it was solely based on the gpa of the core 4?
i.e
student A = GPA 7.5
student B = GPA 7.5
Student C = GPA 7.5 etc .. .say there's 30 people with that exact gpa ...

Who gets the interview? they are all on 7.5. .... if you catch my drift. Sorry if it sounds dumb but am just trying to make sense of it all.

hmm I'm assuming that they just interview all people with the cutoff GPA (so hypothetically speaking, lets say 7.5), because the university says that they will interview approximately double the people as there are places in med, so im guessing that they will just interview a bit more the double if lots of people happen to have this cutoff.

This is my guess though lol and the med students probs know more than i do haha