Common pitfalls to avoid for year 12 school leavers and other medicine applicants

[Lens]

Despite the fact your brother is intellectually inferior to you? Honestly mate you might struggle with a physc degree if you wrote in a paper that someone is intellectually inferior you would be marked extremely harshly it does not account for context and honestly screams I’m an elitist….

Yes

 

[Nonstandard983]

Yes

So you don’t see the issue with what you said there? Look this is just my opinion and I’m not even a med student yet but if you think that’s an appropriate way to speak about anyone saying they’re “inferior” to you in any aspect I dare say you need to re-evaluate what you think is appropriate or not and if you still come to that conclusion maybe consider medicine isn’t the profession for you considering you’ll be interacting with a lot of “intellectually inferior” people as you put it

 

[Lens]

So you don’t see the issue with what you said there? Look this is just my opinion and I’m not even a med student yet but if you think that’s an appropriate way to speak about anyone saying they’re “inferior” to you in any aspect I dare say you need to re-evaluate what you think is appropriate or not and if you still come to that conclusion maybe consider medicine isn’t the profession for you considering you’ll be interacting with a lot of “intellectually inferior” people.

I don't know if it was appropriate, it was just how my thought process was, flawed or not. I chose to write my thought process because thats what conversation is about and I appreciate any criticism, it helps me learn. Surely people make automatic judgements on people they see though right, should I just have not blurted out what I was thinking instead?

 

[Nonstandard983]

I don't know if it was appropriate, it was just how my thought process was, flawed or not. I chose to write my thought process because thats what conversation is about and I appreciate any criticism, it helps me learn. Surely people make automatic judgements on people they see though right, should I just have not blurted out what I was thinking instead?

Look I more took issue with the wording “inferior” it’s not a nice word at all and it’s connotations are not good. People have a variety of strengths and weaknesses and no-one is inferior to anyone. Maybe the reason your brother excels in his physc degree is because he is better at applying concepts that memorising them. Even cognitively there’s many different aspects to intelligence like some people may be gifted when it comes to sporting IQ and see plays the way none of us can and some are gifted at dealing with people in a empathetic way. I just really disliked the way you said that and I don’t think it’s appropriate to ever see someone as inferior to you if you understand what I’m saying.

 

[ucatboy]

I don't know if it was appropriate, it was just how my thought process was, flawed or not. I chose to write my thought process because thats what conversation is about and I appreciate any criticism, it helps me learn. Surely people make automatic judgements on people they see though right, should I just have not blurted out what I was thinking instead?

What does "intellectually inferior" even mean here? Do you mean your brother got lower grades than you in school, spends less time studying or something else?

 

[Lens]

Look I more took issue with the wording “inferior” it’s not a nice word at all and it’s connotations are not good. People have a variety of strengths and weaknesses and no-one is inferior to anyone. Maybe the reason your brother excels in his physc degree is because he is better at applying concepts that memorising them. Even cognitively there’s many different aspects to intelligence like some people may be gifted when it comes to sporting IQ and see plays the way none of us can and some are gifted at dealing with people in a empathetic way. I just really disliked the way you said that and I don’t think it’s appropriate to ever see someone as inferior to you if you understand what I’m saying.

You brought up a lot of good ideas, thank you. I can argue on the semantics of things but you're right about the connotations, I guess I need to improve in communicating my opinion better. For the record though I do not see anyones value as a person to be inferior, but things can be measured and maybe I'm not measuring the right things, so surely things can be higher or lower, just wanted to say my piece so I don't look like a complete ass. If you think my last few comments were also wrong then feel free to criticise but if not thats completely fine I think I understood what you were trying to get across.

What does "intellectually inferior" even mean here? Do you mean your brother got lower grades than you in school, spends less time studying or something else?

This is also a great point. The reason why i phrased it in that manner 'in my opinion intellectually inferior' is because thats how I thought of it, there wasn't a lot of precision in it and it might have been packaged in some feelings of disdain and frustration. But to answer your question I think I meant just from my own personal experiences of interacting with him, grades did play a part.

I think the reason why this conversation dragged on more might have been because of my comment, 'Yes'. I said yes because I was agreeing with the users thought process, not to double down on the notion of 'intellectually inferior', this was a mistake. All in all though I'm glad all of this happened because now I have something to chew on. Feel free to delete my posts if any mod feels like this inappropriately goes against the topic of the original thread.

 

[chinaski]

"Intellectual superiority" isn't necessarily a guarantee of success in a university course, or the mark of a good doctor. Emotional intelligence is of significant importance WRT these two things, as much as IQ (and arguably even moreso).

 

[JE_FR]

This is a very cool thread. Thanks everyone for contributing.
I’m considering doing graduate entry at UQ but they also let you do a postgraduate degree as a ‘key degree’. I was wondering whether anyone had experience with a postgraduate IT degree there and how hard it might be to get 7’s.

 

[Crow]

This is a very cool thread. Thanks everyone for contributing.
I’m considering doing graduate entry at UQ but they also let you do a postgraduate degree as a ‘key degree’. I was wondering whether anyone had experience with a postgraduate IT degree there and how hard it might be to get 7’s.

You’re probably unlikely to come across someone who has done this specific degree on MSO. However, the difficulty will generally correlate with your level of interest in the degree.

 

[JE_FR]

You’re probably unlikely to come across someone who has done this specific degree on MSO. However, the difficulty will generally correlate with your level of interest in the degree.

Are there certain postgraduate courses ‘notorious’ for being a bit easier when it comes to getting D’s and HD’s?

 

[2xq]

Are there certain postgraduate courses ‘notorious’ for being a bit easier when it comes to getting D’s and HD’s?

"The answer to your question is entirely subjective and will widely vary according to one's ability and personal situation. There is no such thing as an objectively and universally "hard" or "easy" degree or course of study." - chinaski​

 

[JE_FR]

"The answer to your question is entirely subjective and will widely vary according to one's ability and personal situation. There is no such thing as an objectively and universally "hard" or "easy" degree or course of study." - chinaski​

Oh I know. But what I meant was more whether there are certain courses or topics that are 'notorious' for dishing out low marks in particular that one should avoid, or certain universities that make it harder to get HD's than it otherwise would be.

 

[Nonstandard983]

Oh I know. But what I meant was more whether there are certain courses or topics that are 'notorious' for dishing out low marks in particular that one should avoid, or certain universities that make it harder to get HD's than it otherwise would be.

“Go8” (I hate that term) universities generally will have stricter marking due to the higher selection rank wether that be GPA or ATAR required to enter their courses when compared with a non-“Go8” university.

realistically most univeristies stick to a bell curve system meaning that in any course you should have a set percentage of HD’s/D’s this means that no course is objectively harder to get a HD/D in it is just where your strengths/weaknesses lie and how interested you are in the topic.

 

[Crow]

Go8” (I hate that term) universities generally will have stricter marking due to the higher selection rank wether that be GPA or ATAR required to enter their courses when compared with a non-“Go8” university

Do you have any evidence to attest to this claim? I’ve encountered this comment a number of times on here but nobody is ever able to back it up beyond anecdotal comments.

 

[JE_FR]

“Go8” (I hate that term) universities generally will have stricter marking due to the higher selection rank wether that be GPA or ATAR required to enter their courses when compared with a non-“Go8” university.

realistically most univeristies stick to a bell curve system meaning that in any course you should have a set percentage of HD’s/D’s this means that no course is objectively harder to get a HD/D in it is just where your strengths/weaknesses lie and how interested you are in the topic.

Thanks for the reply!

The stakes are just so high, that's why I'm asking these questions. I was also wondering whether you found it helpful that most topics have past exam papers that are pretty easily accessible. One would expect that more people would get high marks due to availability of all the free practice?

 

[Nonstandard983]

Do you have any evidence to attest to this claim? I’ve encountered this comment a number of times on here but nobody is ever able to back it up beyond anecdotal comments.

I haven’t got any evidence crow. More the line of thinking is students with a higher selection rank tend to be better students who are more capable of receiving higher marks due to the way universities bell curve this makes “Go8” univeristies harder to achieve higher marks in due to the higher number of capable students

disclaimer I myself do not go to a “Go8” university just the sentiment I have heard from this forum and tbf it sort of makes sense to me.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Thanks for the reply!

The stakes are just so high, that's why I'm asking these questions. I was also wondering whether you found it helpful that most topics have past exam papers that are pretty easily accessible. One would expect that more people would get high marks due to availability of all the free practice?

Other people’s marks are completely outside of your control. Choosing a course on the (tbh, misguided) basis that you can control this is honestly not advisable. Choose a course you’re interested in.

 

[Nonstandard983]

Thanks for the reply!

The stakes are just so high, that's why I'm asking these questions. I was also wondering whether you found it helpful that most topics have past exam papers that are pretty easily accessible. One would expect that more people would get high marks due to availability of all the free practice?

Again if more people get high marks this isn’t nessacarily a good thing for your grade if too many people secure a grade which will put them on a HD the university can scale a mark downwards resulting in a 80/100 score say now only being worth 75/100 because only ≈10% of the cohort can receive HDs

these are anecdotal numbers I’m not sure the actual numbers ect just an example

 

[dotwingz]

Is scaling a common thing in uni? I’ve never been curved ever

 

[chinaski]

Thanks for the reply!

The stakes are just so high, that's why I'm asking these questions. I was also wondering whether you found it helpful that most topics have past exam papers that are pretty easily accessible. One would expect that more people would get high marks due to availability of all the free practice?

You're aware that many university courses are graded on more than just exam marks, no?