Otago HSFY chat - archive

[greenglacier]

The majority of lectures are held in the St. David street lecture theatre, and all the labs are held in the adjacent buildings. If you want to look it up on google maps, it's at the St. David street/Cumberland street intersection.

You'll find though that it's actually really hard to end up in a flat that's more than a 15 minute walk away from lectures, unless you actively look for a flat that's a fair distance away. I wouldn't get too caught up in getting the closest flat you can, because it'll only make a difference (at most) of 5-10 minutes walking time each way.

 

[brin]

Yeah I wouldn't be so worried about it except that I've had a couple of leg injuries which have meant I'm not exactly a champion long distance walker. Cheers though, that's what I was after.

 

[Deleted member 4350]

Cheers! Good luck to you too. Are you going via postgrad? Was it challenging? :/

Thanks =]

Yeah I'm trying through the post-grad category. The content itself is not oberwhelmingly challenging, but the amount of content (depending on which papers you take) is very burdensome. Microbiology, for me, was the most challenging paper in terms of workload but it was the most rewarding paper in terms of interest and grades. To achieve impressive grades at 2nd and 3rd year doesn't require the ability to grasp extremely difficult concepts (because truly the majority of the concepts are fairly straightforward), but rather a high motivation to take on the workload is necessary. Nonetheless, I'm not disappointed that I didn't get accepted first time around as now my reasons for doing Med have been consolidated, my scientific scope of understanding has expanded far more than I could've ever imagined (which would benefit me as a doctor) and I will appreciate acceptance far, far more than I would have if I had got accepted in first time round. The more you sacrifice to achieve a goal, the more savouring the experience will be once that goal has been reached.

Best of luck for the 22nd!

 

[otagohealthsci]

Hi there, I'm going to study health sci next year and it would be great if I could get some advice of how I could prepare for it. Thanks

 

[greenglacier]

Hi there, I'm going to study health sci next year and it would be great if I could get some advice of how I could prepare for it. Thanks

Relax and make the most of your holidays. If you feel your understanding of year 13 chemistry and/or year 12 physics is poor maybe spend some time looking over those, and definitely investigate the bridging courses offered. Otherwise don't worry about trying to prepare. When you have a few hours spare (which shouldn't be hard to find given it's the holidays) read through this thread - it's full of gems of advice on tackling health sci and will probably answer most questions you may have. For any other questions you have that remain unanswered ask away - chances are you'll get an answer very quickly.

P.S. Welcome to MSO

 

[smile]

Last year (and the year before) offers came out on the afternoon of the 22nd (and the official word was also "by 11pm on the 23rd") - the admissions office gets to start their christmas break once offers are released, so they have an interest in doing it as efficiently as possible.

They send you an email with a load of information to read (such as disclaimers and how to access details on any courses you have been accepted for) and (most importantly) a number and a link. When you follow the link you get taken to a website which has a box asking for your number. Upon entering your number you get taken to another website which has your name at the top and lists any offers/waitlist places you have received. You then choose whether to accept or decline each of these (you can accept one offer and any number of waitlist places). So yeah, you find out everything at once.

Good luck!

Thank you so much greenglacier!!! Ekk just hearing that makes me nervous lol!
I can't believe this year is nearly over though and another lot of health scis will be coming in to replace us next year!

 

[otagohealthsci]

thanks Greenglacier! That helped a lot. So does year 12 physics matter more than lev 3? Also, would I be able to get any past years' lecture notes from anyone? I want to know what context I'll be studying etc. Wow.. I can't believe that I'm going to be doing health sci next year! So nervous lol. Oh, and I applied for a hall just for the tutorials but I changed my mind and didn't accept the offer. I would like to know if there's any disadvantage of not living in a residential hall? (since I won't get tutorials). THanks

 

[skyglow1]

Where will you be staying instead? The advantage of a hall is that everything is catered for you, so you don't have to worry about things like cooking food for yourself, leaving more time for you to concentrate on studies. Tutorials are helpful for some but others find that they can use their time in a better way. Also, you have other healthscis to go to for help if you are at a hall, and you can do group study etc.

 

[LaLola]

Hey guys Im going to be staying at Carrington next year doing HSFY quite excited and nervous seeing as I won't know a soul down at Otago but Im sure things will be fine Just wondering what sort of things you do in labs I mean I assume in HUBS you do dissections and such but what about for the other papers?

 

[otagohealthsci]

Thanks skyglow I'm going to stay at a studio. Would it be helpful for next year if I skim through the text books? Although I haven't bought them yet. um, from when will I be able to access the websites with all the notes and so on? Is that when health sci starts or before?

 

[skyglow1]

In terms of preparation, no I don't think skimming through the HSFY text books would help. Refer to GG's good post on prep over the summer:

Relax and make the most of your holidays. If you feel your understanding of year 13 chemistry and/or year 12 physics is poor maybe spend some time looking over those, and definitely investigate the bridging courses offered. Otherwise don't worry about trying to prepare. When you have a few hours spare (which shouldn't be hard to find given it's the holidays) read through this thread - it's full of gems of advice on tackling health sci and will probably answer most questions you may have. For any other questions you have that remain unanswered ask away - chances are you'll get an answer very quickly.

P.S. Welcome to MSO

Personally, if I were doing HSFY again and wanting to prepare myself over the summer, I would:
1. Get as much sleep, rest and relaxation as possible. Might not be so luxurious once you start HSFY.
2. Write down on a piece of paper/word document the reasons why I am doing HSFY and why I would like to gain entry into medicine/dentistry/etc, and I'd update this throughout the year if it changes. Being able to look back at this to remind yourself why you're putting yourself through hell is so important come halfway through semester 1. You'll be extremely motivated and excited at the start of the year, which is the case for everyone, but people lose motivation so quickly when the course starts getting really hard with tests etc., and people lose sight of why they entered HSFY in the first place.
3. Have a rough idea of how you're going to approach lectures and study. I say only 'rough' because it will surely change and adapt once you star the course. How are you going to make notes? How are you going to learn from your notes? Are you going to use a laptop in the lectures? How are you going to use your laptop? etc. There is some degree of experimentation when HSFY starts as to what the best system for you is, but don't be one of those that tries and wings it throughout the course.

The website with lecture slides, called "Blackboard", isn't available until the course starts, and the slides are put up as the lectures take place over the semester, so you don't have access to all the slides immediately or anything.

 

[otagohealthsci]

Thanks again that was very helpful. I shall relax and create a list of why I want to do health science. My note taking skill is not that great so I should do something about it. My notes are really messy and hard to read. Oh, in terms of the tests, are the questions directly from the notes etc or do they require some critical thinking and analysis kind of like the NCEA tests? I like multiple choice questions although they can be even more confusing. Anyway, I found it kind of hard to get excellences in the NCEA papers especially for the explanation questions in physics and biology in general. I liked cell biology, genetics and stuff but I always found ecology, animal behaviour and evolution hard. I assume that there won't be evolution in the health sci papers or is there??

 

[greenglacier]

Oh, in terms of the tests... do they require some critical thinking and analysis kind of like the NCEA tests?

No - there isn't anywhere near as much thinking involved in HSFY compared to NCEA. With the exception of CHEM and PHSI the concepts are all really basic and never tested to a high level (you never have to understand anything in as much depth as you need to in NCEA). You don't need to worry about explaining stuff in physics either because the exam is all MCQ (which doesn't really help with the calculation stuff but makes the conceptual stuff SO much easier). The biology paper covers cell biology, genetics, biotechnology, and microbiology - so definitely playing to your strengths.

The catch is however that the amount of content in HSFY far surpasses anything in NCEA - so while you won't have to think that hard about things, you'll have to work hard due to the sheer memorisation involved.

 

[kaixian0011]

Hey guys Im going to be staying at Carrington next year doing HSFY quite excited and nervous seeing as I won't know a soul down at Otago but Im sure things will be fine Just wondering what sort of things you do in labs I mean I assume in HUBS you do dissections and such but what about for the other papers?

Hey Im in Carrington too!
And not a soul =]
I think we have those gatherings in the halls to get to know each other.

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!

Hey Smile!
Im just wondering what are your grades for HSFY?

 

[greenglacier]

Hey guys Im going to be staying at Carrington next year doing HSFY quite excited and nervous seeing as I won't know a soul down at Otago but Im sure things will be fine Just wondering what sort of things you do in labs I mean I assume in HUBS you do dissections and such but what about for the other papers?

Yay, Carrington represent! You'll have a great time there - awesome hall (though I am just a bit biased on the matter).

As to your question, the labs are variable. Mostly they just reinforce lecture material through various activities - only in BIOC (and, to a lesser extent, CHEM) are the labs actually treated as learning opportunities in themselves. A brief summary:

BIOC - the best labs in my opinion. Focussed around learning important biochemistry laboratory techniques (e.g. pipetting, spectrophotometry, gel electrophoresis, centrifuging) and applying them (e.g. by measuring your own plasma cholesterol concentration).
HUBS - reinforce lecture material in a variety of ways, but generally pretty cool. The anatomy component usually consists of the chance to look at some real human prosections and occasionally do an animal dissection (e.g. deer joint), and the physiology component involves experimenting on yourselves (e.g. giving yourself an electric shock to make your muscles involuntarily contract).
CELS - pretty bad. The teaching staff themselves say that they are to "provide further assistance to struggling students", so you hardly do anything practical for yourself.
PHSI - take a more tutorial-style format with some activities to reinforce what you're learning (but nothing that far removed from what you'd do in school anyway). You can get through them really fast if you're up with the course content (my record was getting out 30 minutes after the lab had started).
CHEM - pretty much what you'd expect: a chemistry-related activity each session (e.g. titration). Some cool parts though (in one of the labs you get to make paracetamol!). Each lab has a test conducted in the lab under exam conditions that many people find quite difficult though, which can put a dampener on the whole thing.

 

[skyglow1]

You don't have to think really hard, but it seems like lots of students still struggle with concepts in PHSI and CHEM. It's probably a combination of poor lecturers, unfamiliarity with the concepts, robot-like students who can only rote learn etc. My strategy was to understand the concepts fully asap, ideally within the lecture (and by fully I mean to understand its implications and application) and then to spend all my time outside of lectures just memorising material.

 

[papermoth]

So... a friend recommended I invest in a digital voice recorder. I'm kinda doubtful though because it seems like you get lecture recordings anyway? What do you guys think.

 

[greenglacier]

So... a friend recommended I invest in a digital voice recorder. I'm kinda doubtful though because it seems like you get lecture recordings anyway? What do you guys think.

You're right to be doubtful - you get lecture recordings, and you're not allowed to just record any lecture yourself (you have to get permission beforehand).

 

[skyglow1]

On a related note, for those with a laptop and have office, OneNote is great because when you make a recording in it, it remembers what you were typing at the time of the recording. So if you click on a specific part of your notes for a lecture, it will automatically seek to the correct part of the lecture recording for you. Not very relevant for HSFY because you get the recordings but useful for other papers.

 

[papermoth]

Thought so. Thanks guys!

Skyglow, that actually sounds really interesting.