• Welcome to MSO!
    We are an online community for current and prospective medical, dental and allied health students and early career professionals from Australia and New Zealand.

    Please read: About MSO | Annual Welcome and Important Information | MSO Rules

    Quick Links To Forums
    Tests/Interviews: UCAT | GAMSAT | Interviews
    Entrance Discussion: Graduate Medicine | Undergraduate Medicine | Dentistry

  • Register with us

    Please consider registering on MSO. Benefits of registering are:
    • Able to post and participate in the forum
    • After 10 posts: Private Message Other Users
    • After 25 posts: Access to the Chatbox
    • After 100 posts: Custom user titles and Ad-free experience

    If you would like to get involved with MSO or have ideas, suggestions, comments, criticisms or other feedback please Contact Us

HSFY 2019

Status
Not open for further replies.
jaejoong said:
Wasnt there a law change for people studying long degrees like medicine to get an extended EFTS? Cant remember exactly but I do remember reading it somewhere...
Click to expand...

Hi there,

Yes, one may apply for the limit to be extended for another three years under various circumstances. Undertaking medicine is one of them.

How many loans you can get - StudyLink

There is a limit to how many Student Loans you can get in your lifetime.
www.studylink.govt.nz www.studylink.govt.nz

Fairy Bread said:
Hi there Stuart

I understand you're trying to give helpful and generic advice and not sure if you went through HSFY yourself but I don't think it's as simple as that. Perhaps it is for the people that ace it, but for the majority that slip through the cracks, there's a lot more to it that's left unsaid. Not meaning to sound rude mate, but by that same virtue, you could say that anyone can make the All Blacks if they train well- which like obviously isn't the case. For starters, for many you're away from home and away from family and for many that is a massive adjustment. Not only that but you're adjusting to 'University' which is in itself a new concept. And to add to that, you're expected to be acing all your tests and working hard from the get-go. Now obviously we are all in the same boat, but for some this in itself can be a huge struggle. But not only that, I've heard stories of people falling ill and having family problems which completely messed up their year. To be brutally honest, as with anything in life there has to be a crap ton of luck involved, but it's more mental fortitude more than anything that will make you succeed, on top of studying smart, being disciplined and having a relative amount of intelligence. And honestly what is the difference between a 95 and a 94 average and just because you get these averages doesn't mean you're gonna be a better doctor than anyone with a lower average. Not meaning to discredit anyone with fantastic averages.Just thought I'd share this, for the majority that don't make Med and don't get their voices heard. Because there certainly is this illusion on this forum, that people can just magically get perfect averages when unfortunately it's not the case for the majority.
Click to expand...

Hi Fairy Bread,

That wasn't an attempt to provide advice. It is my belief that an average student can achieve that. I don't expect anyone else to believe it as well. I don't know which average Joe you are referring to, but an average Joe also doesn't suddenly fall ill. Anyway, this isn't really the point of my argument. I do agree that it is not that simple to get A+ average in HSFY. There are many factors which get in the way. I am well aware of this. The internal and external pressure present in and during HSFY is definitely one of the biggest factor. You can throw in all sorts of circumstances to come up with a way one might have trouble achieve it. However, my argument or belief rather, is viewed with the premise that external factors are null.

There isn't much difference between 94% and 95%. It's just part of the process to select suitable applicants. Is it a perfect system? No. The minimum requirement for medicine is B+ like many other courses. It's the "market" driving the competition.

Finally, I understand "mate" is a commonly used slang term to mean a friend or simply another person (often a male), but please, call me Stuart as intended.
 
Fairy Bread said:
Hi Stuart
I'm not denying that it's possible to get such high averages. I just feel like there's this illusion on MSO that grades like those are a walk in the park and your average Joe can just get it.
Click to expand...

You're right, getting good enough marks for medicine means you are well above average, by definition. Getting through the year is an achievement in and of itself (for many of the reasons you've stated!) and getting consistent A+'s is brutally difficult for most people doing HSFY. Don't worry, most reasonable people aren't under the impression that getting in is a walk in the park, or the 'average Joe' can waltz in and ace the year.

The nature of such a competitive entry means that the threshold is pretty damn high, and plenty of intelligent people work bloody hard and can still miss out. Of course it doesn't mean they couldn't have become a great doctor, it's just a reflection of the competition.
 
From my viewpoint, if you are free of ailments etc and have no other commitments during first year (such as a job), the HSFY papers are comparatively easier to get higher grades in than other papers. I'm not a very naturally intelligent person, but worked my absolute ass off this year to get my average. The large majority of HSFY content is memorising facts, which I believe anybody has the capacity to do if they go about this memorisation in the right way. Yes, there is an absolute shit ton of things to memorise, but it is not impossible if you put the time in. Papers like PHSI / CHEM ask the same exam questions every year with slight variations in wording, so spending enough time doing practice for these papers should result in some pretty high grades. Although I do have to say, those who tend to pick up / understand concepts faster are at a great advantage for these papers. Also, most of HSFY is assessed through MCQs, which are objectively easier to score higher in than if we had to write full blown essays. If the HSFY cohort had any form of internal assessment involving writing reports or essays, the grades observed would likely drop quite a bit as these often have more subjective marking criteria.

I'm not saying that "anybody" can walk into HSFY and nail a high A+ average, but I believe with the right study techniques and hard work, the effort / time you put in often correlates to the grade you get out more than it would for other papers, due to the help provided by departments and objective marking of the assessments (fact based) instead of the whole course being similar to writing POPH essays (because fuck that).
 
Last edited:
To make it into med these days, you don’t need to be the best, but you definitely need to be above average in terms of academic ability and mental toughness. The people that think they’re average Joes and make it into med, aren’t actually average Joes😂
 
Boeing7478 said:
To make it into med these days, you don’t need to be the best, but you definitely need to be above average in terms of academic ability and mental toughness. The people that think they’re average Joes and make it into med, aren’t actually average Joes😂
Click to expand...
Agreed, it’s those ppl that say that na I haven’t studied much and end up getting A+++
 
Borderlineentry said:
I assume the “HSFY Paper Mark” is just the 70% threshold for each paper. What about the “HSFY Average Mark” only in the dent application
Click to expand...
Probably something to do with this "To be considered for admission in the HSFY category an applicant must enrolled in HSFY at Otago and pass all the prescribed papers for this programme, at first attempt, and achieve a minimum average of 70%, with no paper grade less than 65%."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

M
What does 'General Registration' look like in Australia for PGY1/2?
Replies
2
Views
770
MMD
M
Back
Top