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Otago HSFY chat - archive

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Lol dont worry im sure the majority of people at Salmond will be going for med.. as everyone done as the start :P you'll find them when you get there
 
Hi guys,
I will be doing HSFY at Otago this year and I got B's in A-Level Bio and Chem, I was wondering if I'll find HSFY tough with those results? and should I start preparing in the holidays?

Also I got 70th percentile in UMAT, and got above 50 in all sections. Should I resit UMAT this year?
 
How do we opt for student tutorials (students who have done HSFY)? Who do we go to?
 
Hello everyone, I'm just curious as to how difficult PHSI191 is? Basically physics is my weakest area and it is the paper I'm most likely do worst on. By far my worst area in physics is electricity and electrical systems. How much of the paper is dedicated to this?

Also who is staying at St Margarets? Would be keen to get to know some other HSFY people there
 
Luckily, the electricity component is really really easy. Basic DC circuits, things like voltages, resistances and currents only. They might give you a circuit diagram of a simple circuit and ask "what is the current flowing through resistor B" or something like that. Other things they test on are like electric fields which are fairly easy too, and coulomb's law.

It really depends on the person as to how difficult PHSI191 is. I personally found it easy and straightforward, and loved the test and exam formats because it made it even easier. There are many others who would find PHSI191 the complete opposite and hate it to death.
 
nz3r said:
Hi guys,
I will be doing HSFY at Otago this year and I got B's in A-Level Bio and Chem, I was wondering if I'll find HSFY tough with those results? and should I start preparing in the holidays?

Also I got 70th percentile in UMAT, and got above 50 in all sections. Should I resit UMAT this year?
Click to expand...

B's aren't bad but aren't great either. I think just having done both A level chem and bio means that you're prepared quite well in terms of course content. A lot of the content in CELS, HUBS, CHEM and BIOC will be familiar to you already. You won't find anything hard per se. There are hardly any truly difficult concepts in HSFY. The difficulty in getting a good mark is simply in the amount of material.

Do resit UMAT. They take your best mark, not your most recent mark, so you have nothing to lose (apart from the cost of the test, and time spent on preparation of course).

In terms of preparation, this is what I wrote earlier:

"The best thing you can do in your summer holiday is chill out, get a ton of sleep and rest, and be very clearl in your head why you are going to be putting yourself through hell for a year. Most students lose motivation at about only halfway through the first semester. Don't let that be you."

I would not advise doing any specific preparation for the papers e.g. reading the textbook, but I can totally understand people wanting to get a head start etc. Personally, I think it is not helpful, but people are entitled to do what they want.

liria3 said:
How do we opt for student tutorials (students who have done HSFY)? Who do we go to?
Click to expand...

Are you staying at a hall? If so, your hall will probably provide tutorials for its students, in which case you sign up for them during O week. In terms of private tutorials, there will be many ads around the advertisement wall in the St David complex (which is where you have most of your lectures).
 
Do you have any information on the OUSA run tutorials skyglow (e.g where to sign up/get more information on them)? I'm not staying at a hall.
 
Thanks, sounds like nothing harder than Level 3 Physics, which relieves me. And when it comes to lab sessions how do they work? Do you have to write your name down somewhere reserving a place for a lab session in one of the time slots or something? Also do they hold just one preliminary lecture for the whole HSFY course or do they have separate preliminary lectures as well?

Thanks :)
 
Hi,
I didn't stay at a hall last year either, and I did the OUSA tutorials.
I would definitely sign up for them, the tutors were amazing, and we even had Tony Zaharic (the guy in charge of BIOC192 and also the most amazing lecturer ever) for biochem. You can sign up at the OUSA office, just go in and ask when they'll be starting.
Last year they also did a PASS session for us HSFYers for HUBS (normally the student learning centre sessions are only available for PE students) and they were amazing - not sure if they'll continue with them this year. They have tutorials for all subjects.
They may not be ask good this year though, coz heaps of the tutors graduated (one was a 9th year chem PhD and she was awesome).
Apart from that, I also made heaps of friends in the tutes where basically everyone was in similar boats as myself (because the tutes aren't available for people in halls)
 
That sounds great, thanks SaxGuy! One more question; what was the cost like?
 
Separate prelim lectures I think. A 2nd year will be able to tell you. Labs will be already scheduled onto your timetable. There is a small amount of leeway on lab scheduling if you are not happy with your lab times, but you have to have a good reason to be allowed to alter your lab times, and you must get in early if you want to change your lab time for the semester. Slight leeway too for going into a different time just for one week, but again, you'll need a decent reason. PHSI191 is mostly level 2 physics. Level 3 physics is beyond the physics in PHSI191 e.g. no rotational mechanics.
 
I can't remember exactly, I think they were something like $35 per subject.
But they also offer exam prep courses towards finals which are (I think) $15 per session and these are just extended tutorials.
 
Oh. That was long ago! :D I think I couldn't attend it either in my year cause of something I had to be at.
 
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There is circular motion but it's more linked to SHM, and it's not very hard because it's just a bunch of equations.
 
Yeah, I remember them showing the mathematical derivations for all the formulas, and how you relate circular motion to SHM by using trig, and then you realise you don't need any of that and just need to know how to put numbers into the equation lol.
 
haha, yeah I remember wondering whether we needed to be able to reproduce the proofs until I realised the final is all MCQ..
honestly though, the physics modules are so small you dont actually have to "know" a large amount of information as opposed to being able to apply it. I suggest health sci's to practice questions extensively and just make sure you understand the lecture slides
the book is great but some stuff you just dont need to know (you also dont need to know how to answer some of the questions, make sure you download the pdf telling you which questions are relevant to the course) since its MCQ you wont actually have to answer any very hard critical thinking word type questions.

also if you were good at physics (NCEA or CIE wont matter) at school this seriously should be a very doable A+ , I remember I only studied literally one day (no jokes, however I had all the other modules revised) for the electricity part of physics and this was before the exam (I got a bit behind and caught up with everything else except physics - took a big risk) and I got all the questions for this section correct and all I did was read the lecture notes once or twice and did questions from PHSI's website (the one where they have solutions pop up when you answer a question).
 
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