General Interview Discussion and Questions 2020 Entry

[ABT123]

I have read somewhere the TACs (or at least UAC) will do a final round of ATAR/GPA update early January to be ready for offers calculation. Thus UNSW says your academic results must be available by early January to be considered.

As for interview selection my guess is when UNSW releases invites on/around 17 Dec, if your year-end results are not yet available they will provisionally use your 1st semester results. If that's not enough to get an interview but after the UAC January update (with year-end results) you are high enough they will invite you to the interstate round. I vaguely remember it has happened like that.

Just a thought, but if they don’t have the 2nd sem results by 17 Dec, given that UNSW only looks at GPA when 0.75+ FTE has been completed, could the interview be based solely on ATAR/UCAT in that case?

 

[A1]

Just a thought, but if they don’t have the 2nd sem results by 17 Dec, given that UNSW only looks at GPA when 0.75+ FTE has been completed, could the interview be based solely on ATAR/UCAT in that case?

I don't think so. The 0.75+ FTE rule counts to end of year, even if they don't have your 2nd semester results by 17 Dec they do see your enrollment record showing you've done 1 FTE by end of year.

 

[ABT123]

I don't think so. The 0.75+ FTE rule counts to end of year, even if they don't have your 2nd semester results by 17 Dec they do see your enrollment record showing you've done 1 FTE by end of year.

Damn that’s kinda annoying especially seeing how a 6.5+ GPA converts to a mere 98 for less than one FTE (according to the table), which would pretty much put me out of any real chance with a regular round interview.
Just to clarify though — what do you mean by enrolment record? I assumed UNSW would simply just receive something from UAC with the number of FTE competed and the UAC rank at the time

 

[A1]

Damn that’s kinda annoying especially seeing how a 6.5+ GPA converts to a mere 98 for less than one FTE (according to the table), which would pretty much put me out of any real chance with a regular round interview.

I'd expect them to use your 1st semester's GPA but on 1 FTE basis. Note the keyword provisionally (for the interview invite only), at the offer stage they will have your full-year GPA & equiv Rank.

Just to clarify though — what do you mean by enrolment record? I assumed UNSW would simply just receive something from UAC with the number of FTE competed and the UAC rank at the time

The UNSW team would be too busy to bother with your enrolment record. They let UAC deal with that chore and give them just your UCAT & equiv rank (inclusive of GPA conversion or any EAS bonus), that's all UNSW want.

 

[ponyswordz]

I'd expect them to use your 1st semester's GPA but on 1 FTE basis. Note the keyword provisionally (for the interview invite only), at the offer stage they will have your full-year GPA & equiv Rank.



The UNSW team would be too busy to bother with your enrolment record. They let UAC deal with that chore and give them just your UCAT & equiv rank (inclusive of GPA conversion or any EAS bonus), that's all UNSW want.

Out of curiosity, if my 1.0 FTE GPA comes out on the 5th December (about 1-2 weeks before official HSC atar comes out for UNSW), does UAC still only take my semester 1 GPA? Or does UAC combine my semester GPA in time for the interview offers? There's like a whole week for them to take into account my new results. Just asking since I got 6.25 for my first sem and on track for 7.0 for my 2nd sem (so much free time without ucat) to average out as 6.625. Getting a bit stressed ngl since a 1.0 FTE of 6.625 and a 0.5 FTE of 6.25 is a massive difference in UNSWn (and nowhere on the medicine website does it say that they take the 0.5 FTE as a temporary substitute for 1.0 FTE in distributing interviews -> woulda put more time into my first sem otherwise).

 

[ABT123]

Out of curiosity, if my 1.0 FTE GPA comes out on the 5th December (about 1-2 weeks before official HSC atar comes out for UNSW), does UAC still only take my semester 1 GPA? Or does UAC combine my semester GPA in time for the interview offers? There's like a whole week for them to take into account my new results. Just asking since I got 6.25 for my first sem and on track for 7.0 for my 2nd sem (so much free time without ucat) to average out as 6.625. Getting a bit stressed ngl since a 1.0 FTE of 6.625 and a 0.5 FTE of 6.25 is a massive difference in UNSWn (and nowhere on the medicine website does it say that they take the 0.5 FTE as a temporary substitute for 1.0 FTE in distributing interviews -> woulda put more time into my first sem otherwise).

I reckon 1-2 weeks has got to be enough time. I think the problem would mainly rise for unis that send results after 17 Dec, which for this year, applies to both USYD and UNSW I think.

 

[A1]

nowhere on the medicine website does it say that they take the 0.5 FTE as a temporary substitute for 1.0 FTE in distributing interviews

Back in the time UNSW conducted interviews earlier and sent out invites early Nov based on predicted ATAR, they invited non-standard applicants with only semester 1 results as well. I'm sure UAC would have converted their sem 1 GPA based on the 1+FTE conversion column (else many wouldn't have had enough).

My thinking is if they did that in the past no reason they won't do the same this year.

 

[PiKay]

Asking for a friend...

That friend has been practising martial arts for a long time (since childhood), put a lot of time into it and got pretty good with a black belt to prove the level achieved. Belives it was very beneficial to "life in general" and allowed to acquire a set of very useful skills.

Is this something best not mentioned during medicine interview?

 

[Crow]

Asking for a friend...

That friend has been practising martial arts for a long time (since childhood), put a lot of time into it and got pretty good with a black belt to prove the level achieved. Belives it was very beneficial to "life in general" and allowed to acquire a set of very useful skills.

Is this something best not mentioned during medicine interview?

Why would this best not be mentioned in an interview? Sounds like a very significant achievement that demonstrates persistence and dedication.

This isn’t to say said friend should go out of their way to mention this in an interview when not prompted to do so, as this would come across as a flex (not a good quality to show in an interview).

 

[PiKay]

Why would this best not be mentioned in an interview? Sounds like a very significant achievement that demonstrates persistence and dedication.

This isn’t to say said friend should go out of their way to mention this in an interview when not prompted to do so, as this would come across as a flex (not a good quality to show in an interview).

The possibility that some in the medical field may view this as learning to hurt people or opinions of that sort.

 

[Winger42]

The possibility that some in the medical field may view this as learning to hurt people or opinions of that sort.

Nah, it's self-defence.

 

[REGULAR JOE]

Hi. I'm completeting the unsw application and one of the questions is 'what is the most important thing you have done in the past 2 years and why was it important?'. Are they expecting an academic answer like doing my year 12 exams well, or personal like looking after a dog?

 

[Cal]

Hi. I'm completeting the unsw application and one of the questions is 'what is the most important thing you have done in the past 2 years and why was it important?'. Are they expecting an academic answer like doing my year 12 exams well, or personal like looking after a dog?

They don't really care when it comes to that for interview selection. But I wouldn't do academic because they mention it in the interview and everyone who has gone to the interview has done academics on the past two years at least that is my thought.

 

[Crow]

Hi. I'm completeting the unsw application and one of the questions is 'what is the most important thing you have done in the past 2 years and why was it important?'. Are they expecting an academic answer like doing my year 12 exams well, or personal like looking after a dog?

The application questions are there to give the interviewers some background info about you. If you want it brought up in the interview, then put it in the application. The interview isn’t there to assess your academic ability (that’s what ATAR is for) so I wouldn’t be putting in something academic personally.

 

[Otter]

Would paying for an interview prep course or hiring a tutor be beneficial?

 

[A1]

Would paying for an interview prep course or hiring a tutor be beneficial?

Rule 1: Don't pay exorbitant prices.
Rule 2: Imo it can be beneficial, the same as paying for UCAT prep (of course some people will say prep doesn't help). But important to note you should only learn from them on the hows, not the what to say in the interview. If you do the latter the interviewers can detect it as artificial and mark you down.

 

[Cal]

Rule 1: Don't pay exorbitant prices.
Rule 2: Imo it can be beneficial, the same as paying for UCAT prep (of course some people will say prep doesn't help). But important to note you should only learn from them on the hows, not the what to say in the interview. If you do the latter the interviewers can detect it as artificial and mark you down.

I think medentry already comes with some interview prep (although basic) so it might be worth having a look at that as well

 

[REGULAR JOE]

Hi. In interviews and written applications, for questions like 'what is your greatest accomplishment' or 'why are you an excellant candidate for medicine' how can I answer without sounding arrogant or boasting?

 

[Crow]

Hi. In interviews and written applications, for questions like 'what is your greatest accomplishment' or 'why are you an excellant candidate for medicine' how can I answer without sounding arrogant or boasting?

This question has sort of been touched on by whoartthou (who may have more to add) here: Medical Interviewer FAQ!.

Note that I’m not an interviewer so the following is simply my viewpoint.

For the first question, if you’re able to qualify why it’s your greatest achievement without sounding like you’re boasting then you should be ok. E.g. if your greatest achievement was winning a national competition, you could focus on how you’d worked very hard for months on preparing for it and how you were very proud that it all payed off. In contrast if you simply said “I won a competition and beat everyone else in the country” then that would come across as boasting. Focus on yourself, rather than the performance of others, and it should be ok. Naturally this is very much dependent on the achievement you choose (obviously not all achievements involve doing better than other people!).

For the second question: what is your answer to this and why do you think you’re boasting? If you focus on individual traits that you think would make you a good doctor then I think you can definitely do this in a non-arrogant manner. If your answer is that you think you’re very smart and that would make you better than others then naturally this will come across the wrong way. However, if you’re outlining personal qualities e.g. altruism, then tactfully qualify this by explaining why you believe you have this trait / ways in which you have demonstrated this trait in your life and how this links to making you a good doctor.

Remember that you are there to sell yourself, so while you don’t want to boast or be arrogant, you shouldn’t hide achievements or characteristics that you want the interviewers to know about. Have a practice answering these questions aloud with other people and ask them if they think it sounds like you’re boasting or being arrogant - if they say yes then there’s an indication you need to change something up. If not, then you should be ok.

 

[Helmut]

This might be a stupid question, but as WSU doesn’t ask for a predicted ATAR, how do they determine who to send interview invites to?