Otago HSFY chat - archive

[skyglow1]

Hey people

So I've been stalking this forum for about a month now and finally decided to post.
I'm staying in arana this year and was wondering what the food is like since food is what keeps people going of course.

Also skyglow I saw on another thread you posted about you posted about a physics checklist? My teacher hated me last year and wasnt the best at her profession so if you could send me those it would be appreciated

I stayed at aquinas, where breakfast was cereal + a range of stuff like peaches and so on, lunch was only one choice most of the time, and dinner usually had 2 choices like chicken or beef. I really liked the food but everyone else seemed to hate it so I dunno.

Ya just post the email you want me to send it to and I'll send it.

hi there, got my NCEA results - so disapointed, i feel so mediocre writing this, all you guys are so smart. (i should stop saying sooooooo so much)
in my principle's rant last year he said that NCEA class of 2008 does not want to look back now and say that "i could have done better." but the thing is, i could not have done better. i was in the freaking prime of my exam preparation, which i had planned for months. maybe i am not good enough for a teriary education
anyway, i passed everything, just not with what i was aiming for. dont worry about me, i'll pick myself up.
so what if i shoot for the stars and end up falling back down to the ground!

Good thing is your NCEA marks won't count for anything at Uni. Try and think why you didn't do as well as you did, learn from your mistakes, and do better in HSFY

 

[Arutha]

hi there, got my NCEA results - so disapointed, i feel so mediocre writing this, all you guys are so smart. (i should stop saying sooooooo so much)
in my principle's rant last year he said that NCEA class of 2008 does not want to look back now and say that "i could have done better." but the thing is, i could not have done better. i was in the freaking prime of my exam preparation, which i had planned for months. maybe i am not good enough for a teriary education
anyway, i passed everything, just not with what i was aiming for. dont worry about me, i'll pick myself up.
so what if i shoot for the stars and end up falling back down to the ground!

Don't give up! NCEA means f... all when you get to uni, seriously. The style of Health sci is very different from NCEA.

 

[McNerdy]

hi there, got my NCEA results - so disapointed, i feel so mediocre writing this, all you guys are so smart. (i should stop saying sooooooo so much)
in my principle's rant last year he said that NCEA class of 2008 does not want to look back now and say that "i could have done better." but the thing is, i could not have done better. i was in the freaking prime of my exam preparation, which i had planned for months. maybe i am not good enough for a teriary education
anyway, i passed everything, just not with what i was aiming for. dont worry about me, i'll pick myself up.
so what if i shoot for the stars and end up falling back down to the ground!

Imagine me as an old guy sitting on a porch smoking a cigar and swilling whiskey when I say this (in a slightly gravelly and worldly voice):

"Relax. Sink a few beers, enjoy the summer and listen to your favourite sounds. Maybe chase some skirt. Chill out a little. HSFY is in another month. NCEA is a worthless piece of paper once you've entered Uni."

If you're female then:
beer = appletini
skirt = pant, unless... you know

 

[Deleted member 4350]

lol @ the chasing skirts/jeans and then at the "unless...you know"... By different, do you mean Uni work is harder than NCEA or just that the exams have a different structure?

 

[Pineapple]

Majohnna did you pass with excellence? If u pass with exc your pretty much top 5% of population. Meh and as long as you pass you can get into otago, next year matters for you, try really hard and have no life thats the way to go . Study,study, study.

I was disappointed too, my chemistry and english were dumb, i got EMMMA for chem and MAMAE for english. But apart from that i did allright because I got straight E's in bio physics and french (ewww). This is for lvl 1 btw. Im worried because apparently chem is important for HSFY. Oh well, only lvl 1. Overall i got 121 excellence credits including lvl 1 maths which i sat last year and lvl 2 maths which i sat this year (Our school makes the nerds do lvl 2 in yr 11 lol). Im still not sure im good enough to get through HSFY, I might try australia because they've got direct entry.

You guys are saying ncea means f.... all at uni, so does that mean uni tests will be way different? Hmmm HSFY seems real hard

 

[skyglow1]

I think one of the reasons people point out the CHEM191 paper as an important one is because the L3 chem doesn't cover a couple of topics in CHEM191, and learning something completely new while having to worry about the rest of the course and 3 other papers can be difficult. The pace of this course is also fairly quick. Take the NCEA L3 chem syllabus, add on a couple more topics and detail, squeeze it into half a year, and you get an idea of the rate at which you go through the stuff.

Since you've only just completed L1, there's still alot of time before L3/scholarship, let alone HSFY I'd say if you were able to pass scholarship chem then you shouldn't find the CHEM191 paper too much of a trouble.

Uni tests are quite different to NCEA ones. Firstly, multiple choice questions feature alot in the tests which can throw off some NCEA students if they dont have much experience in MCQs. The rest of the questions are nearly always made up of short-answer questions, which are usually worth 1 to 4 marks. There is a distinct lack of questions that require the skills which NCEA seems to talk to about in their scholarship exams, like integration and being able to see the 'big picture'. Instead, both the MCQs and short-answer questions test your knowledge in a specific area. I didn't come across a single question that required you to pull knowledge from many different areas and synthesise/integrate/whatever an answer out of that. It was basically, you knew the name blood vessel or understood that concept about radiation or you didn't.

Having observed other students throughout last year, I think the reason why HSFY is considered difficult is because of two main reasons. The amount of content and sheer memorisation makes it difficult in the first place. Some students do poorly just from the fact that they are not mentally prepared for this, or are simply not used to having to absorb so much stuff so quickly. Secondly, the environment in which you will be studying can be highly stressful at times. You are surrounded by students who are also competing for the same courses as you. As a result you are constantly reminded and aware of the competition, how you are doing compared to them, and the consequences if you don't perform. It's not surprising that mental breakdowns are not uncommon. Those who can adapt to the new requirements and pressures tend to do really well.

 

[Leafie]

uni choice

Hi, I got my NCEA results yesterday, and got into the pre-med courses in both Otago and Auckland.
Now i need to make a decision...frustrating! Does anyone know the difference between the 2 Universities? I heard that Otago doesn't require interviews. But i don't know if i'm an interview person.
And for those experienced (elders hehe), how did you come to a final decision?

 

[flower15]

Having observed other students throughout last year, I think the reason why HSFY is considered difficult is because of two main reasons. The amount of content and sheer memorisation makes it difficult in the first place. Some students do poorly just from the fact that they are not mentally prepared for this, or are simply not used to having to absorb so much stuff so quickly. Secondly, the environment in which you will be studying can be highly stressful at times. You are surrounded by students who are also competing for the same courses as you. As a result you are constantly reminded and aware of the competition,how you are doing compared to them, and the consequences if you don't perform. It's not surprising that mental breakdowns are not uncommon. Those who can adapt to the new requirements and pressures tend to do really well.

All i have 2 say is....Thank u so much 4 telling us this haha
got my textbooks and boy are they heavy... . Im so excited to be coming down!

 

[McNerdy]

Hi, I got my NCEA results yesterday, and got into the pre-med courses in both Otago and Auckland.
Now i need to make a decision...frustrating! Does anyone know the difference between the 2 Universities? I heard that Otago doesn't require interviews. But i don't know if i'm an interview person.
And for those experienced (elders hehe), how did you come to a final decision?

Well I'd spent roughly 7.5 yrs around the grafton campus and was thoroughly sick of it, so Otago was an obvious choice. I think there is more of a studenty atmosphere in Otago than Auckland. I certainly always found Auckland Uni's buildings and layout to be prosaic, boring and impersonal. Auckland is a top research uni and there is top world class stuff going on there, but it will have almost zero impact on the undergrad course you take. Besides, I've seen some impressive biomedical stuff coming out of otago as well.

Otago's class is much bigger as well, somewhere over 200 but I'm not sure exactly, which may or may not be a good thing.

I think clinically Auckland has the advantage because of Counties-manukau, Waitemata and Auckland DHBs have the nation's specialist units (bone marrow transplants, liver transplants, burns units, paeds (starship), remnants of greenlane neonatal cardiology, Spinal unit, Mason clinic [forensic psychiatry] etc...). But for learning the basics of care for the vast majority of patients I'd imagine any of NZ's centres would be fine.

I know in Auckland in 2008 (for med 2009) 1154 people applied for medicine including internationals (220). But remember the number of those intending to apply for med at the start of 2008 would've been higher than that, but some people don't bother because of low marks. I couldn't give you info for Otago.
Some rough numbers on veinasian.com seems to indicate similar numbers applying for Med but for more places. But remember regardless of which school you go for, you'll need an A average GPA (~8.0) and a decent UMAT to be confident of entry, plus be nice in Auckland interviews.

 

[skyglow1]

Leafie:
The main differences are firstly as you already mentioned, Otago doesn't require an interview for med. The interview has a pretty big important at Auckland. Secondly, UMAT is worth far more at Otago than at Auckland. At Otago it's 34% of your final mark, while at Auckland the difference between getting a good and bad UMAT is usually about the difference between getting an A+ and an A in one of your papers. The Auckland biomed course is slightly more demanding than Otago's HSFY course. There are also fewer places at Auckland for med than at Otago.

I know in Auckland in 2008 (for med 2009) 1154 people applied for medicine including internationals (220). But remember the number of those intending to apply for med at the start of 2008 would've been higher than that, but some people don't bother because of low marks. I couldn't give you info for Otago.
Some rough numbers on veinasian.com seems to indicate similar numbers applying for Med but for more places. But remember regardless of which school you go for, you'll need an A average GPA (~8.0) and a decent UMAT to be confident of entry, plus be nice in Auckland interviews.

Just a note, the grading system is slightly different at Auckland comapred to Otago. 85% is A+ at Auckland, while 90% is A+ at Otago. Auckland is faaaaaaar more forigiving of a poor UMAT than Otago, as long as the interview score isn't too bad.

 

[Leafie]

Thanks McNerdy and skyglow1.
I understand that there is no big difference between the 2 schools once you got into the second year. But it is that first step I’m worrying about.
In your post you mentioned that Otago has more places (for med) available than Auckland. Does it also have more people applying for those places? Also, how is it “The Auckland biomed course is slightly more demanding than Otago's HSFY course.”? Can you give me some particular examples as to how much more difficult and in which areas can the Auckland course be. Thanks again for your wonderful answers.

 

[Maiden_NewZealand]

I got my ncea results last night and I'm happy if not surprised, especially with L3 English all E's (read a few poems and 5 hours study max), I checked again today to see whether there had been a mix up but still there. Chemistry went as planned my only downfall was maths :huh:I actually studied my *** off for Algebra I got a a E last year ****. Oh well on the bright side I won't need to do any more english this year .

 

[McNerdy]

Leafie:
Just a note, the grading system is slightly different at Auckland comapred to Otago. 85% is A+ at Auckland, while 90% is A+ at Otago. Auckland is faaaaaaar more forigiving of a poor UMAT than Otago, as long as the interview score isn't too bad.

I'll just correct this slightly. When I did the first year at Auckland in 2001, the chem paper (chem110) required a ~90%+ for an A+, whereas biosci107 require ~>85%. So the goal posts aren't set in stone and they do change slightly year to year when they do post hoc analysis of mark distribution. It's a bit like scaling but they move the goal posts instead of the players. However we're talking +/-2-3%. They may have changed this since I did it however.
Just to brag, I had passed the chem paper before the final exam if it wasn't for the passing theory and practical components separately clause .
I did bursary chem, but since it's all organic I found it to be by far the easiest paper. I suppose I liked having a years worth of work compressed into a few weeks lol.

 

[skyglow1]

Thanks McNerdy and skyglow1.
I understand that there is no big difference between the 2 schools once you got into the second year. But it is that first step I’m worrying about.
In your post you mentioned that Otago has more places (for med) available than Auckland. Does it also have more people applying for those places? Also, how is it “The Auckland biomed course is slightly more demanding than Otago's HSFY course.”? Can you give me some particular examples as to how much more difficult and in which areas can the Auckland course be. Thanks again for your wonderful answers.

McNerdy has already expained the number of people who applied for med from Auckland. At Otago, because of the 70% threshold you have to achieve for all your papers, you can judge from the distribution of marks in tests how many people are actually eligible to apply for medicine. I estimated that number as best as I could, and I'm pretty sure there is a maximum of 500 students who make the 70% cutoff for every paper, and something like 350 to 400 would be a likely number. These are of course the best students out of the cohort.

I've only had a brief look through some of the content in the Auckland papers, and been discussing with toaster over the past year to compare the two curriculumns. I looked a bit through their biochem stuff, and it's definitely more demanding. There's just mroe detail and more material, like for example they had a question which had a diagram of a nucleotide, and was asked to name where 3 of the atoms came from. We had a similar diagram in our biochem paper, but we would never ever be asked such a ridiculously difficult question. Another example is they learn more detail in the reactions for glycolysis/krebs cycle/oxidative phosphorylation. There's just so much stuff in their paper. Whenever I asked toaster about "do you guys learn this" for the human body systems paper, the answer would often be yes, or yes and in more detail. There are hardly any cases where there is something in the Otago curriculumn which doesn't appear in the Auckland one, but the reverse case was quite common. An example from the human body systems paper would be the Auckland students having to learn about structure/function of articular cartilage like the Otago students, but also learning the loading cycle of the cartilage which Otago doesn't do. Most of the Auckland lectures contain more stuff than the Otago lectures.

 

[McNerdy]

I've only had a brief look through some of the content in the Auckland papers, and been discussing with toaster over the past year to compare the two curriculumns. I looked a bit through their biochem stuff, and it's definitely more demanding. There's just mroe detail and more material, like for example they had a question which had a diagram of a nucleotide, and was asked to name where 3 of the atoms came from. We had a similar diagram in our biochem paper, but we would never ever be asked such a ridiculously difficult question. They learn more detail in the reactions for glycolysis/krebs cycle/oxidative phosphorylation. There's just so much stuff in their paper. Whenever I asked toaster about "do you guys learn this" for the human body systems paper, the answer would often be yes, or yes and in more detail. There are hardly any cases where there is something in the Otago curriculumn which doesn't appear in the Auckland one, but the reverse case was quite common.

I remember the biochem paper. Oh yuss.
You have to put up with Peter Barling's self depricating fat jokes while he's teaching the fatty acid cycle.
It was like, draw the metabolites for this, this and this and give the name of the enzyme for each step. And then there was michaelis-menten equations and kinetics.
Example of study for biochem as I remember it fondly:
Is this a high energy phosphate bond? Yes? Why? Because it's covalently linking two highly electronegative atoms together whist distributing a -4 anionic charge through pi bond resonance... ect... will this help a patient someday? No! Shut up and recant the TCA cycle!!! You will learn until you puke NADPH!!!

 

[Maiden_NewZealand]

I remember the biochem paper. Oh yuss.
You have to put up with Peter Barling's self depricating fat jokes while he's teaching the fatty acid cycle.
It was like, draw the metabolites for this, this and this and give the name of the enzyme for each step. And then there was michaelis-menten equations and kinetics.
Example of study for biochem as I remember it fondly:
Is this a high energy phosphate bond? Yes? Why? Because it's covalently linking two highly electronegative atoms together whist distributing a -4 anionic charge through pi bond resonance... ect... will this help a patient someday? No! Shut up and recant the TCA cycle!!! You will learn until you puke NADPH!!!

Oh well that confirms it! Otago for me and I aint lookin back ^_^.
Not that I'm trying to avoid hard work and interviews ...yeah right!

 

[Leafie]

Wow, thanks guys!
OK, AU’s biochem paper has freaked me out!
If 1154 ppl apply for Auckland med and around 155 get in. And 500 ppl apply for Otago med and around 190 get in. Considering the ppl apply for both Uni’s are the confident ones. Does that mean it is easier to get into Otago second year? Well, that’s just my logic anyway. And it seems weird that Auckland cut off (1154-155) 1000 ppl solely based on interviews.
By the way does anyone know anything about Toroa House? I got offered a place in O’rorke in Auckland, but don’t know where I’m going to stay in Otago.

 

[McNerdy]

Oh well that confirms it! Otago for me and I aint lookin back ^_^.
Not that I'm trying to avoid hard work and interviews ...yeah right!

Word or warning: if we assume for minute that the statement "Otago's HSFY syllabus is easier than Auckland's", then it holds that Otago will be easier for all Otago HSFY students. This results in the topping out phenomenon where it is easier to get 100%, making the competition harder to beat, thus rendering the differences between the two schools immaterial.

 

[McNerdy]

Wow, thanks guys!
And it seems weird that Auckland cut off (1154-155) 1000 ppl solely based on interviews.

I didn't say that. I said that 1154 people applied for Auckland med. Many wouldn't have been offered interviews.
They cull according to marks, UMAT and of course failure to complete all paperwork appropriately (there's always one!).

 

[skyglow1]

Wow, thanks guys!
OK, AU’s biochem paper has freaked me out!
If 1154 ppl apply for Auckland med and around 155 get in. And 500 ppl apply for Otago med and around 190 get in. Considering the ppl apply for both Uni’s are the confident ones. Does that mean it is easier to get into Otago second year? Well, that’s just my logic anyway. And it seems weird that Auckland cut off (1154-155) 1000 ppl solely based on interviews.
By the way does anyone know anything about Toroa House? I got offered a place in O’rorke in Auckland, but don’t know where I’m going to stay in Otago.

That's not to say the BIOC192 paper at Otago is easy, especially considering NCEA covers nearly nothing in that paper, it's just that the auckland papers are slightly harder in my opinion.

No it doesn't mean it's easier to get into Otago. That's a far too simplistic way to look at it. I'm also excluding people who apply for medicine at Otago who aren't actually eligible (no clue how many).

Also, you can't just say one place will be easier to get into than the other. It obviously depends on the charactersitics of a student, and weighing up things like UMAT and interview too.

They don't cut them off solely based on the interview. They combine the interview score with GPA and UMAT.

Toroa house website if you haven't visited it yet: https://www.toroa.ac.nz/
Got a couple friends from there and they don't have any qualms about it. The college you get into won't be much of an influence, if at all.

Word or warning: if we assume for minute that the statement "Otago's HSFY syllabus is easier than Auckland's", then it holds that Otago will be easier for all Otago HSFY students. This results in the topping out phenomenon where it is easier to get 100%, making the competition harder to beat, thus rendering the differences between the two schools immaterial.

This assumes the Otago cohort is equal in ability to the Auckland cohort, which I'm not sure about the validity. For starters, biomed is a restricted entry course while HSFY is open entry. The papers are hard enough that only a very small handful of students get 100% on papers. There is enough difficulty to differentiate students effectively most of the time.