Otago HSFY chat - archive

[Ben]

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.

Oh wow, I really had no idea that OneNote was so useful- might have to open it up and have a look around, thanks Skyglow.

 

[ChickenPie]

TBH don't get too technical with notes - skyglow might advocate lecture audio, because he has the patience for it, but when you're studying for exams you don't have time to spend 40min listening to a lecture (which are almost always slow paced), unless you think that it's the best way to study.

I found writing down what the lecturer says the best way of taking notes, in which case, why listen to lecture audio?

Try a variety of methods and see what works best.

 

[beast_from_the_east]

Anyone from Wellington keen for drinks before going down to Dunedin?

 

[otagohealthsci]

GUys, thanks for all the good advice

 

[smile]

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

Hey I've got a 91 average. Would rather not post all my grades :S (they're not that fantastic!!) but i can pm the letter grades to you if you want?

 

[skyglow1]

TBH don't get too technical with notes - skyglow might advocate lecture audio, because he has the patience for it, but when you're studying for exams you don't have time to spend 40min listening to a lecture (which are almost always slow paced), unless you think that it's the best way to study.

I found writing down what the lecturer says the best way of taking notes, in which case, why listen to lecture audio?

Try a variety of methods and see what works best.

To clarify, I write down what the lecturer says when taking notes in a lecture, but sometimes I may miss something or they speak too fast. In that case, I use OneNote's audio seek function to listen back on the part of the audio that is relevant, and just pick out the missed part. So I end up only listening to about 10 seconds of the audio despite having recorded the whole lecture. May seem a bit overkill but I feel really uneasy when I don't have the exact wording they used. I would never dream of re-listening to a full lecture audio. A lot of students seem to do it and it seems like SUCH a waste of time, but perhaps they are auditory learners or something.

 

[Rahrah]

To clarify, I write down what the lecturer says when taking notes in a lecture, but sometimes I may miss something or they speak too fast. In that case, I use OneNote's audio seek function....

I also use onenote, but I found that the inbuilt microphone on my laptop gives a recording of very poor quality. Do you use something else for recording?

 

[kaixian0011]

It's alrighty 91% average is pretty much all I wanna know
How about UMAT %tile?
Also, pretty much you saying all tht matters is the work you do in HSFY
However how much work you put into it?
Like for example.
Study at least 2 hours everyday etc.

 

[skyglow1]

It's alrighty 91% average is pretty much all I wanna know
How about UMAT %tile?
Also, pretty much you saying all tht matters is the work you do in HSFY
However how much work you put into it?
Like for example.
Study at least 2 hours everyday etc.

I'd be rich if I got a penny every time I've been asked the question "how many hours a day do I need to study?" or "how many hours did you study a day?"

Answer: Just do as much work as you can manage without burning out and while still maintaining some sort of balance. I might be able to do the same amount of work in 1 hour that you can do in 2 hours. Everyone's different and everyone studies differently, so a statement like "study at least X number of hours a day to do well" is practically useless. It's also useless to ask others how much they study for the very same reason. Don't worry about what others are doing or what people are telling you you should be doing. Focus on your own work and your own strategy. Create a plan that works for you, and if it's not as efficient as it could be then tweak it. That plan does not need to have a prescription of X number of hours a day of study. It could be something like, "I'm going to aim to revise lectures on the same day that they are held, and then revise the week's worth of lectures during the weekend". Then work out what you need to do in order to achieve that.

 

[Pineapple]

Otago Health Science First Year tips!

Hi there,

I am going to otago next year to attempt to get into med, I'm in carrington, and this year I got 91st percentile UMAT. Does anyone have any tips/secrets at all to getting in? would be greatly appreciated.

Should I do any work over the holidays just to get my head around the stuff? I got all the lecture slides from someone.

What is usually the hardest paper?

How easy is it to balance life and health sci?

 

[greenglacier]

If you read through the thread "All Otago HSFYers listen up!" you should find detailed answers to all of the above questions. I appreciate that it's an insanely long thread, but given that it's holidays I suspect you have the time, and you'll pick up all sorts of insights into what HSFY is like. If you still have questions afterwards then by all means ask away

 

[skyglow1]

Yeah it is a ridiculously long read. There's also two other HSFY threads that are decently big, "HSFY Otago Student's Chat" and "HSFY Otago Q&A". And also the current HSFY 2011 thread has some questions and answers in it. The thread that GG quoted is the best though because he posts a lot in it and he has the most up to date info for HSFY.

 

[Pineapple]

okaaaay thankies

 

[smile]

It's alrighty 91% average is pretty much all I wanna know
How about UMAT %tile?
Also, pretty much you saying all tht matters is the work you do in HSFY
However how much work you put into it?
Like for example.
Study at least 2 hours everyday etc.

I was 95th %tile for UMAT
Yea what I found was that pretty much they give you all the info that you need to know in lectures - as in you don't really need vast amounts of prior NCEA knowledge its just that you need to actually put in the effort and learn everything that they tell you. I've seen so many people who just say oh i'm not that smart I can't do it so they don't really put all their effort in and then consequently they only get average grades which further cements that idea in their head that they can't do it.
Skyglow is totally right though about how everyone studies differently. My friend and I would start studying for a test at the same time and she'd be done like a couple of days in advance and i'd finish like 10mins before the test but we both got there in the end! i basically just put in as many 'productive' hours as i could but you have to recognise when you're like dying of tiredness that you're prob better off just going to sleep and studying in the morning!

 

[Pineapple]

is it possible to maintain work/life balance during HSFY? I have heard stories...

 

[greenglacier]

is it possible to maintain work/life balance during HSFY? I have heard stories...

Hard question to answer. I'd say it very much depends on you, and don't listen to the stories. There are definitely some people who lose all semblance of a work-life balance during HSFY, but most of the people who actually get into med wouldn't fit into that category. At my hall in first year there was a regular crowd who studied every saturday evening (the one time you should not be studying if you can avoid it), and none of them got into med. There is often a perception that success in HSFY comes to those who do the most study - I perception I believe to be fictitious.

Around exams, then yes, expect your routine to be sleep, eat, study, eat, study, eat, study, sleep... Other times I definitely think it's possible to get a balance of sorts. You have to be quite disciplined to make sure you keep up with all the content, but there's definitely time to relax outside of that. For the most part I was able to give myself friday evening and all of saturday off during HSFY, along with breaks scattered throughout the week. To be honest, I don't know of many people in med who would have done much more study than I did.

For you I think the thing to keep in mind is that your number one priority is keeping up with content in the course, and as it turns out, if you can do this, you can probably achieve a reasonable balance. Most of the intense study some HSFYers do comes as a result of falling behind (and it's very hard to catch up if this happens). Your second priority is in making sure you have some time in the week when you don't do any work unless you urgently need to. I find it helps a lot if you can say to yourself "it's Saturday evening (for instance) and any work I need to do by Monday can be comfortably achieved tomorrow, so it's alright for me to relax".

 

[OUSchweiz]

Do you believe HSFY is possible without Year 13? At the moment I'm enrolled for the Foundation Year that the University offers, but everyone always think it's a bit weird and think that I don't actually need to do it. Just thought I'd get your thoughts.

Also, why did everyone here choose to go for Med etc? I've had the idea of studying med since I was about 14, it's been all I've really wanted to do and then this year all of a sudden I get all confused about what I want to do in life and I get pretty self doubting that I can actually make it into Med. A lot of people say, 'you should just do law and an arts degree, essay writing is your strong point'. And yes it is but is that what I want to do. So, now my head is all confused which is not good.

 

[the_international]

hey.. late reply but there are flats - willowbank that is literally 5mins away from st david - not sure if there are any vacancies though
good luck

 

[skyglow1]

There is often a perception that success in HSFY comes to those who do the most study - I perception I believe to be fictitious.

I'd like to echo this. There is a perception witihn HSFY that "I'd do better if I only just studied more" or "that student is doing better than me because he studies more than me". How you spend your time and what you spend your time on are far more important than how many hours you put in. Always think about every detail of your study method. Is this the best way to learn this material? Is there some way I could do it more efficiently? Is what I'm doing even necessary or is there something else I can spend my time on which will be more productive?

Do you believe HSFY is possible without Year 13? At the moment I'm enrolled for the Foundation Year that the University offers, but everyone always think it's a bit weird and think that I don't actually need to do it. Just thought I'd get your thoughts.

Also, why did everyone here choose to go for Med etc? I've had the idea of studying med since I was about 14, it's been all I've really wanted to do and then this year all of a sudden I get all confused about what I want to do in life and I get pretty self doubting that I can actually make it into Med. A lot of people say, 'you should just do law and an arts degree, essay writing is your strong point'. And yes it is but is that what I want to do. So, now my head is all confused which is not good.

I did not sit foundation year myself but from the sounds of it, it will prepare you for HSFY better than Year 13. There was also a student from my hall who skipped Year 13 altogether and went straight into HSFY, and she ended up in med, although I would definitely not recommend that!

I chose med because of a number of reasons: interest in human biology, because I feel it's something worth getting good at (as opposed to some other professions), because you can make a huge difference in people's lives through relatively small actions, because a medical degree can lead into so many different fields and specialties, because you can take your degree practically anywhere in the world, and because of the financial security it provides.

 

[beast_from_the_east]

Wow everyone is so serious... people need to loosen up...