-
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 -
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
Otago HSFY chat - archive
- Thread starter jeavey
- Start date
- Status
Lol with my marks and my UMAT, I don't think I would've gotten any more than 1 or 2 interview offers at Aus. I'm just glad that I'm in ><
Health science at Auckland is more focussed on community health as opposed to the more science based subjects in biomed. There are far less people in health science than biomed, so you can't compare them that way. The marks used to decide if you get into med are from the 4 papers that the biomed and health science courses have in common, so it is fair.
Health science at Auckland is more focussed on community health as opposed to the more science based subjects in biomed. There are far less people in health science than biomed, so you can't compare them that way. The marks used to decide if you get into med are from the 4 papers that the biomed and health science courses have in common, so it is fair.
OK now I’m confused. So basically anyone can apply for med at Auckland, but only the ppl with B+ ave are offered an interview and the interviewed number < 1154. Then they rank you according to your results from course works, UMAT and interview to get top 155. Whereas in order to apply for Otago med you have to pass the 70% threshold and the number is around 500. Then they rank you according to 66% of course work and 34% UMAT to get top 190. Is that right?
By the way do you know if I can find information on interview at Auckland Uni anywhere on this web?
By the way do you know if I can find information on interview at Auckland Uni anywhere on this web?
The number of ppl offered an interview is about twice as many people as the number of spots available, so around 300 offers.
You can apply for Otago med even if you don't make the 70% threshold. You just won't be accepted for med. Of course it's a bit redundant to do that but I just added this note in for completeness. 500 is also the an estimated upper limit. The actual number would probably be lower.
The number of interview spots at both universities is increasing from year to year too.
You can apply for Otago med even if you don't make the 70% threshold. You just won't be accepted for med. Of course it's a bit redundant to do that but I just added this note in for completeness. 500 is also the an estimated upper limit. The actual number would probably be lower.
The number of interview spots at both universities is increasing from year to year too.
The AU person came to our school said that there were around 25 ppl got into med through Health Science, which is around a third of the number from Biomed. But of course there is far less ppl taking Health science. The proportion from the 2 pathways is about the same. She also said that health science courses are more English based, loads of essays and stuff on health systems. Whereas Biomed is more science based, like bio, chem and phys stuffs. And yeah, as skyglow1 said, they rank you based on the 4 common courses, UMAT and the interview results. Hope that helps.
Maiden_NewZealand
Member
If it's slightly easier then there would be a reduced workload and I'm aware everyone is going to be compared with the same yardstick for any given course but the reduced workload is enough of an incentive and being closerto home helps
.Nerd power yaaaaaaaa!
Love the last comment lol. HSFY sure is a step up from year 12...
Everyone says the weather was bad...it was freakin amazing! It was like persistently awesome even throughout winter. When it got cold it didn't even get that cold, just a bit colder than how Auckland is during winter. When it gets really bad then it does get really bad lol, but even then it's cool to see the hail cover the ground and stuff. Brought waaay more warm stuff than I needed. When the hills are covered with snow it's really something else (shoulda taken pics ><)
All you need to know to get into med at Otago is that you should aim for good marks and a good UMAT, and pretty much nothing else matters.
Love the last comment lol. HSFY sure is a step up from year 12...
Everyone says the weather was bad...it was freakin amazing! It was like persistently awesome even throughout winter. When it got cold it didn't even get that cold, just a bit colder than how Auckland is during winter. When it gets really bad then it does get really bad lol, but even then it's cool to see the hail cover the ground and stuff. Brought waaay more warm stuff than I needed. When the hills are covered with snow it's really something else (shoulda taken pics ><)
All you need to know to get into med at Otago is that you should aim for good marks and a good UMAT, and pretty much nothing else matters.
Otago med school: no charmers here lol
I had to say I prefered dealing with HOs from Otago over those from Auckland when I was at NSH. Just friendlier and more open to professional advice
. Maybe it's true, people are just friendlier from below the Bombay hills. (I'm from Auckland)Just a reminder, the guys who did HSFY and are doing the second year of a professional course now are eligible to apply for the Bonded Merit Scholarship from studylink. It's 3000 bucks per year for a mximum for 4 years, you have to stay in NZ after you graduate for as many years as you receive the scholarship. I think you have to have a low enough combined parental income (I think it's the same threshold as for student allowance, so if you're eligible for that then give this one a shot for sure). They rank all applicants on a system similar to GPA. Due date is 27th february to submit an application.
There are hardly any scholarships for old crusties like me
A lot of them exclude returning students, except the ones in the intro booklet. But I'll try and take what I can get Gotta be in to win!
Maiden_NewZealand
Member
Sure, Maiden, reduced workload XD Whatever helps you sleep at night
Hey, dreams are free
...and dammit studyit is still locked!Oh sweet I'll probably be gauranteed one then yaaaaay. Well I intend to do PGY1 and PGY2 in NZ to make things easy + anything else after that in NZ too so ya. And if you really really wanted to leave NZ then the scholarship just turns into an interest free loan which you have to pay back.
Last edited:
LightGrenades
Member
Hey, I was wondering if someone who has done HSFY, could let us know about "hidden costs" throughout the year? For example, UMAT registration is $160 isn't it? Are there many other expensive things like this that we don't initially know about?
Oh and also, how many breaks do we have in the year when we need to fly home, and roughly when are they? For example, the mid semester break in April starts on Good Friday and lasts 10 days, do we stay in our halls during that time? Sorry if this is silly question lol, but yeah.. >_<"
Thanks!
Oh and also, how many breaks do we have in the year when we need to fly home, and roughly when are they? For example, the mid semester break in April starts on Good Friday and lasts 10 days, do we stay in our halls during that time? Sorry if this is silly question lol, but yeah.. >_<"
Thanks!
Last edited:
https://www.otago.ac.nz/study/keyevents.html
Here are the dates of the breaks. There's a mid semester break for semester 1 and semester 2, and an intersemester break between the two semesters. Book early! Flights are hella cheaper if you book half a year in advance lol.
Hmm only hidden costs are maybe like if you want to buy the physics lecture booklet which has all the lecture slides printed out, that was 15 bucks or something. Can't really think of anything else. If you want to print stuff out its 10c per black and white page A4.
Here are the dates of the breaks. There's a mid semester break for semester 1 and semester 2, and an intersemester break between the two semesters. Book early! Flights are hella cheaper if you book half a year in advance lol.
Hmm only hidden costs are maybe like if you want to buy the physics lecture booklet which has all the lecture slides printed out, that was 15 bucks or something. Can't really think of anything else. If you want to print stuff out its 10c per black and white page A4.
LightGrenades
Member
Thanks skyglow!
So we don't stay in our halls during the mid semester breaks then?
After the plane ticket to get there, we need 3 return tickets (for 2 mid and 1 inter-semester break) and a one way for when the year ends? =8 flights in one year? Whoa lol!
Oh and $15 isn't too bad lol. Oh btw has anyone tried those Aptitute books for HUBS191/192? https://www.aptitute.co.nz
If so, what did you think?
Thanks again
So we don't stay in our halls during the mid semester breaks then?
After the plane ticket to get there, we need 3 return tickets (for 2 mid and 1 inter-semester break) and a one way for when the year ends? =8 flights in one year? Whoa lol!
Oh and $15 isn't too bad lol. Oh btw has anyone tried those Aptitute books for HUBS191/192? https://www.aptitute.co.nz
If so, what did you think?
Thanks again
You can stay in the hall if your like or you can bugger off during breaks.
Hidden costs... I looked into my bank statements and found:
Hidden costs... I looked into my bank statements and found:
- Umat: NZ$295.20 PLUS a foreign currency fee of NZ$7.38. Remember the price of UMAT is in Australian $.
- St John First Aid Course: $205.00 (but some halls have special deals going on that are as low as $90, but they were on during a time when it was unfavourable for me)
- Events that your hall throws e.g. balls, iceskating, trips to God-knows-where, etc.
- Transport e.g. plane tickets, bus tickets that have costed me a few hundred
- Stationery...best to buy it now while they've got back-to-school deals going on
- If you're like me you will definitely get sick of the greasy hall food/want snacks.
Last edited:
There's usually quite a bit of fuss at the start of the year over students getting 2nd year's lecture slides/notes etc. In my opinion, some students have a mentality that if they have extra notes or ntoes from past years, they will be at advantage because all the hard work would have been done for them already.
The hard work is much more than just making notes if you want to do well. It's about all the hours you put in to fully understand and memorise the material. Having notes on their own doesn't help you memorise anything. It's the process of listening in lectures, processing the information, and then physically making notes that helps you with the understanding and memorisation. Listening engages your aural part of the brain, processing the info engages your logic/language parts, writing notes engages the motor/coordination part of your brain, drawing diagrams and pictures engages the visual part, reading your own words while you write them further engages the language/visual parts and so on. Each of these steps helps you to be as fully engaged with the material as you can. Making your own notes is a process that immerses you in the material and thus stimulates learning.
That's also why casually copying the info on the lecture slides down is useless. I'm sure you've had that feeling when you copied out a couple of lines and have absolutely no clue what you just wrote. The danger of falling into this trap is also more serious when you're tired. Similarly, reading someone elses notes will not get you engaged much in the material. Instead, you have to listen to the lecturer while reading and processing the info on the lecture slides, then consider what is important/what you'll need to know, and write that down. Alot of students opted to print the lecture slides out before the lecture, then annotate them with what the lecturer says. Although the notes will be comprehensive, I feel a bit iffy about how engaged you are when you do this.
Notes that weren't written by you are nearly completely useless in this respect. The only thing they might be useful for is to check if you have not missed out some stuff in your learning, and even then that's dodgy because the syllabus changes from year to year. Everyone I know who did well did not need to rely on extra materials at all. Those who did have these materials would desparately read over them just before tests/exams and inevtiably didn't do very well. The notes gave them a false sense of security. The people who sell this sort of material know this and they know how enticing it is to a new HSFY student. Don't get conned by these people.
/end rant
The hard work is much more than just making notes if you want to do well. It's about all the hours you put in to fully understand and memorise the material. Having notes on their own doesn't help you memorise anything. It's the process of listening in lectures, processing the information, and then physically making notes that helps you with the understanding and memorisation. Listening engages your aural part of the brain, processing the info engages your logic/language parts, writing notes engages the motor/coordination part of your brain, drawing diagrams and pictures engages the visual part, reading your own words while you write them further engages the language/visual parts and so on. Each of these steps helps you to be as fully engaged with the material as you can. Making your own notes is a process that immerses you in the material and thus stimulates learning.
That's also why casually copying the info on the lecture slides down is useless. I'm sure you've had that feeling when you copied out a couple of lines and have absolutely no clue what you just wrote. The danger of falling into this trap is also more serious when you're tired. Similarly, reading someone elses notes will not get you engaged much in the material. Instead, you have to listen to the lecturer while reading and processing the info on the lecture slides, then consider what is important/what you'll need to know, and write that down. Alot of students opted to print the lecture slides out before the lecture, then annotate them with what the lecturer says. Although the notes will be comprehensive, I feel a bit iffy about how engaged you are when you do this.
Notes that weren't written by you are nearly completely useless in this respect. The only thing they might be useful for is to check if you have not missed out some stuff in your learning, and even then that's dodgy because the syllabus changes from year to year. Everyone I know who did well did not need to rely on extra materials at all. Those who did have these materials would desparately read over them just before tests/exams and inevtiably didn't do very well. The notes gave them a false sense of security. The people who sell this sort of material know this and they know how enticing it is to a new HSFY student. Don't get conned by these people.
/end rant
Last edited:
- Status