I remember reading in the ODT earlier this year that the 20 places (if approved, which seems likely considering that the med school is planning an increase in the number of lab and tutorial groups in anticipation) will be reserved for rural students, so the cutoff will only lower for those applying through the rural category. Then again, this situation may have changed since (and the ODT doesn't exactly have a reputation of reputable journalism).
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Otago HSFY chat - archive
- Thread starter jeavey
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I remember reading in the ODT earlier this year that the 20 places (if approved, which seems likely considering that the med school is planning an increase in the number of lab and tutorial groups in anticipation) will be reserved for rural students, so the cutoff will only lower for those applying through the rural category. Then again, this situation may have changed since (and the ODT doesn't exactly have a reputation of reputable journalism).
That would have gotten you in last year through general (non-rural) admission. Considering you are rural I'd say your chances are looking very good. The matter of the recount is up to you, but 85% is a good mark for HEAL192 (which tends to give people lower marks than they normally get). Unless you came out of the exam confident that you had aced it, I doubt a recount would be successful.
airuniverse
Member
Hey guys. I'm planning to study yr13 chemistry by myself as I joined in chemistry class in late term3. Do you think it's a good idea to study with NCEA level 3 study guide chemistry book which we use it for yr13 textbook, or will it be ok studying with textbook called 'introductory Chemistry : A Foundation' by Zumdahl? I only have a slight knowledge of aqueous system and real basic chemistry. Which do you think is the best material, textbook to study with during the holidays? If there's any other material or textbook you would like to introduce to me please do so. 
by the way please keep in mind that I'm going to take bridging chemistry course from late January in otago lol Thanx~!!!
by the way please keep in mind that I'm going to take bridging chemistry course from late January in otago lol Thanx~!!!ChickenPie
Regular Member
....managed to maintain my A+ average, just!
Now waiting for offers (or not :bored to come out...
Now waiting for offers (or not :bored
to come out...I did CIE myself, A level chem, bio, math, english and AS physics. The AS physics covers pretty much everything in PHSI191 except for 1 or 2 topics. A level physics goes way beyond what's in PHSI191, so don't worry about that. A level chem and bio are great cover for the HUBS, CHEM, CELS and BIOC (assuming they still have the biochem module in A level chem) papers.
CIE does indeed cover much more of the HSFY syllabus, but when it comes down to it, how much effort you've put in at school and how much effort you put in for HSFY matter far more than whether or not you did CIE or HSFY.
Here's a post that I made ages ago. There are bound to be mistakes because I'm not very familiar with L3 and also the course content for HSFY has changed slightly since I made this post but some of you may find it helpful to just skim read what topics there are.
[offtopic]
CHEM191 (copied from the paper sypnopsis and shortened)
Thermodynamics/energetics - gibbs energy (not covered in L3), enthalpy, entropy
Equilibria - equilibrium constant, solubility equilibria, energetics of dissolution (don't think covered in L3), pH, buffers
Reaction rates and chemical equilibria (not covered in L3 at all and many people struggle) - factors affecting rates of reaction, rate laws, reaction orders, catalysis, enzyme reactions
Metals in human biology (alot not covered in L3) - redox reactions, transition metals, donor atoms, classes of ligands, oxidation states, geometries, metalloprotein/metalloenzyme, binding, metal effect on ligands, ligand effect on metals
Organic Chemistry - E and Z, and R and S, enantiomers, diastereomers, functional groups, reaction types, reaction mechanisms including nucleophilic substitution, elimination, addition, polymerisation, condensation, acetal formation, nucleophilic acyl substitution, group transfer (mechanisms are not covered in L3 and many people find this hard to pick up, whereas CIE we had 2 years to learn a lot of different mechanisms)
Biological molecules - functional groups in biological molecules, relationship between structure and function, amino acids, peptides, saccharides (not covered in L3 or CIE and many people find this hard), nucleotides, enzymes, nucleic acids
CELS191
I wish I hadn't thrown away my objectives at this point. I have some of them but the rest I'll have to throw together from memory. Cell biology and genetics bit and some of microbiology are decent covered by L3
Cell biology - cell structure and stuff like organelles etc etc, theories on origin of life, plant vs animal cells, plastids, plasma membrane, cytoskeleton, nucleus structure
Genetics - mitosis, meiosis, polyploids, aneuploids, X-inactivation, human chromosal abnormalities, mendelian genetics, inheritance, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, biochem of genetics, lots on genetic techniques
Microbiology - classification, bacteria structure, ecosystems (chemoautotrophs and all that), genetics of bacteria (transformation, transduction, conjugation), Winogradsky column, applications of microbes, cheese (there was a whole page on this lecture in the mid-semester test lol), resistance, viruses, viral reproduction, infectious disease
HUBS191 (there's bound to be mistakes about if L3 covers this or that so bear with me lol)
Homeostatic principles - should be familiar with this? repeated over and over and over again
Musculoskeletal system - not covered in L3?
Nervous system - the "hardest" module, which is true for many people
Endocrine system - not covered in L3?
Immune system - not covered in L3
HUBS192
Cardiovascular system - not sure
Respiratory system - not covered in L3
Gastrointestinal system - not covered in L3
Renal and urinary system - not covered in L3
Blood system - not covered in L3
Acid base - not covered in L3
Reproductive system - not sure
BIOC192 (pretty much all of this isn't covered in L3 except for the really really basic stuff)
Protein structure - primary/secondary/tertiary/quaternary structure, domains, motifs, prions, immunoglobulins, haemoglobin, myoglobin, haemoglobin variants, collagen and elastin
Enzyme kinetics - michaelis menten kinetics, inhibition, mechanisms (fun fun lol), applications of enzymes in health
"Drugs" (I can't remember the name of this topic) - muscle proteins, muscle dystrophies, membranes, targets for drugs, stress response, drug discovery and therapeutics
Food and digestion - energy calculations, digestion and absorption of carbohydrates/fats/proteins, fat transport, heart disease, vitamins, minerals
Oxidation (hardest part for alot of people because it's so new if you did NCEA) - energy calculations, glycolysis, citric acid cycle, oxdiative phosphorylation, electron transport chain, beta oxidation, metabolism of amino acids, reactive oxygen species
Integration - alcohol, storage/mobilisation of fuels, starvation, exercise, diabetes, obesity
HEAL192 (I've said it a few times but alot of it just learning new things and alot of it is common sense)
Every lecture is like different and it's not really split into topics, but there's two big sections to the paper (split by the mid-semester test)
First section - internal and external validity (bias/confounding/chance), causation, external validity, measures of occurence/assocaition, study designs
Second section - (an application of the stuff in the first section) - ethics, disease prevention, alcohol, infectious disease, HIV, animal/human interactions, physical activity, suicide and self harm, obesity, oral health, climate change, patterns of disease, Maori health, poverty and health, social epidemiology, ageing[/offtopic]
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peterpanda
Member
Does anyone know that are the applications toward med and dentistry and all the health profession courses treated independently? as in not first preference second preference etc.
So that you just apply for all of them, and u could get accepted into everything, then you decide what you would like to do.
So that you just apply for all of them, and u could get accepted into everything, then you decide what you would like to do.
The applications are independent, so (if you want) you can apply for all 5 courses without compromising your chances in any of them. If you do get accepted into more than one then you just choose which offer to accept.
silentregrets
Member
I got gpa of 91 and weighted umat of 64
so the ranking score will be 81.8...
Does that cut it?
so the ranking score will be 81.8...
Does that cut it?
Hey
I just wanted to say that I did health sci this year and found it pretty good - as in extremely intense but I was happy with the marks I got (fluking umat certainly helped though!). I did NCEA level 3 last year and to be honest I put in pretty much no effort and did pretty miserably. I'm also really average at chemistry and physics. I did absolutely no preparation in the holidays. I think what I found is that health sci puts everyone on a fairly level playing field and it's up to you to make what you want out of it. As I said, I had bad NCEA marks but I worked way harder than I had ever worked before and kept myself motivated and I found that I was in no way disadvantaged by anything I had done pre health sci. Health sci is really a matter of how motivated you are and being able to maintain that motivation when things start to get busy, stressful and you're under a lot of pressure. It's also good to focus just on yourself and not constantly compare yourself to anyone else because as long as you're doing the absolute best that you can do then what everyone else is doing is irrelevant.
My main piece of advice would just be to keep on top of everything and don't let yourself get behind because as soon as that happens it gets really difficult to catch up again.
But if you're like me and were average at school then please don't feel that you don't have a hope because you most certainly do so long as you're prepared to put the effort in!
Good luck!!
I just wanted to say that I did health sci this year and found it pretty good - as in extremely intense but I was happy with the marks I got (fluking umat certainly helped though!). I did NCEA level 3 last year and to be honest I put in pretty much no effort and did pretty miserably. I'm also really average at chemistry and physics. I did absolutely no preparation in the holidays. I think what I found is that health sci puts everyone on a fairly level playing field and it's up to you to make what you want out of it. As I said, I had bad NCEA marks but I worked way harder than I had ever worked before and kept myself motivated and I found that I was in no way disadvantaged by anything I had done pre health sci. Health sci is really a matter of how motivated you are and being able to maintain that motivation when things start to get busy, stressful and you're under a lot of pressure. It's also good to focus just on yourself and not constantly compare yourself to anyone else because as long as you're doing the absolute best that you can do then what everyone else is doing is irrelevant.
My main piece of advice would just be to keep on top of everything and don't let yourself get behind because as soon as that happens it gets really difficult to catch up again.
But if you're like me and were average at school then please don't feel that you don't have a hope because you most certainly do so long as you're prepared to put the effort in!
Good luck!!
I'm going to have to be brutally honest here and say that I wouldn't rate your chances too highly. Your ranking score is 75.7, and last year the cutoff for direct entry (not off the waiting list) was 77.5
Having said that, pete7 (from this forum) got accepted off the waiting list the day before med (!), and his ranking score was probably similar to yours. As it stands I think you have a decent shot at getting put on the waiting list, but if you do get into med from the waiting list it'll be a close call. This is all assuming that the cutoff remains fairly constant. If the cutoff drops your chances increase, and if it increases I'd say it's unlikely you'll get in (so I can't say definitively how you stand).
Sorry I can't give better news
I tried looking for pete's post where he had his paper average but I can't find it. I can only find his 2nd semester results. If I remember correctly, he had a paper average of around 86% for the whole year. Combined with his UMAT, that would've given him a ranking score of 74.3, so bluesky I think with your score of 75.7 you have a shot at getting through via the waiting list.
And gg I calculated your one for fun....87.2. What a beast.
And gg I calculated your one for fun....87.2. What a beast.
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pete only posted his 2nd semester results - all he said in regard to his 1st semester results was that they weren't as good as he was hoping, and that his 2nd semester results (89.3%) were a "general improvement". His weighted UMAT was 51.5
If we momentarily assume that his 1st semester average was also 89.3%, his ranking score was 76.7, and this (applying appropriate weightings) drops by 0.38 for every 1% reduction in his 1st semester average below 89%, so for his ranking score (and therefore the final cutoff) to be 75.7 or less, his 1st semester average must have been 86.7% or less. That's all that can be said for certain. Given that the cutoff will most likely change to some degree this is getting all rather academic, but I think it unlikely that last year's final cutoff was below 75.5 - this year's is really a matter of waiting to see.
My ranking score was 87.4 btw - when I discovered that it was a full 10 points above the cutoff I was annoyed more than anything - I could have been so much more relaxed during HSFY (and avoided a LOT of stress).
If we momentarily assume that his 1st semester average was also 89.3%, his ranking score was 76.7, and this (applying appropriate weightings) drops by 0.38 for every 1% reduction in his 1st semester average below 89%, so for his ranking score (and therefore the final cutoff) to be 75.7 or less, his 1st semester average must have been 86.7% or less. That's all that can be said for certain. Given that the cutoff will most likely change to some degree this is getting all rather academic, but I think it unlikely that last year's final cutoff was below 75.5 - this year's is really a matter of waiting to see.
My ranking score was 87.4 btw - when I discovered that it was a full 10 points above the cutoff I was annoyed more than anything - I could have been so much more relaxed during HSFY (and avoided a LOT of stress).
I think posting cut off for future students is a good idea and I defiantly encourage the 2010 cohort to do the same. I remember somebody who was in my hall that got on the waiting list but never made it. His GPA was 87% and his weighted UMAt was 52.7 so his ranking score was 75.3. Hope this helps!
ChickenPie
Regular Member
My ranking score is 83.5. Lets hope the cutoff doesn't get higher!
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