Otago HSFY chat - archive

[frootloop]

I know the question wasn't aimed at me, but NOTES FIRST. The course content in HSFY is enormous, and you actually have to know as much of it as possible before launching into old exam papers. Plus, you honestly won't know enough of the content to be able to answer the whole paper untill around the end of the semester anyway. My advice (and personal strategy) is to cram all the content into your head, make sure you know every last pedantic detail (and UNDERSTAND it, too many health scis rely too much on rote learning alone...), and THEN do some practice.
[OFFTOPIC]p.s, I scoured the internet for universities that have papers similar to HUBS and CELS, and there are actually some sites which are quite useful in terms of practice MCQS, so there is always a way of getting around things ^_^ [/OFFTOPIC]

 

[greenglacier]

I agree with frootloop. At school, I used past papers heaps because there was so much time to do so. I remember in some subjects all of term 4 was pure exam revision. At uni it's way different - you keep learning new content at a solid pace right up until the last day of the semester, at which point you then have a week of study leave before exams. By the time you're in a position to be able to optimally use past papers, you have very little time to do so. You can still use them throughout the semester as a rough guide to the extent you need to learn the content, but they act as just that - a rough guide.

 

[frootloop]

$135? S**t, why did I pay $240 D:

 

[SeeKay]

Thanks for the advices guys

I'll keep that in mind - NOTES > past exams (lol I better adjust my study habit now )

 

[frootloop]

I really wouldn't bother adjusting your study habits now tbh, you've got like 10 months before HSFY even starts for you. Enjoy those 10 months, trust me...

 

[SeeKay]

Lol I just think preparing myself to study everyday instead of cramming before exams (with extensive use of past papers!) would be beneficial

Haha how's the year going for you? Sounds like a lot of stress

 

[Cathay]

Well, to answer the question, no I haven't actually - whereas at high school you would do homework, assignments and what not, and all you'd really need to do to learn the actual course content is show up and be taught (and the teacher would spend time helping you if you weren't getting it), at university, staying up to date is a very real challenge - there is no such thing as "oh well the class is not up to it yet we'll take another day or two on this" - the lectures WILL occur as planned, and the rate at which new knowledge is taught would throw high school right out the window - I recall the physics lectures in mechanics that covered roughly two weeks of year 12 or 13 physics in each 50-minute lecture (although it's mostly not that intense.)

What I'm saying is that as GG said, you're literally flying through the course content (and having to do much work to keep up) right up until the week before exams, which means it's very important to be revising as you go, and even if you only take a day or two to consolidate the entire courses in your mind, you'll still only have a few days before the first exam, so it is, in my opinion, impractical to use many past papers then (and during the semester you can't use them to their full potential because there are questions you simply won't be able to answer), so really past papers aren't hugely practical. Just as well the exams focus on breadth of knowledge rather than depth of understanding - you won't need to read over the question styles and the marking schedule for the key phrases to include in your discussion, in fact, there's not much to discuss at all. Other than the HUBS mini-essays, I'd say the way to earn marks in SAQ would be to give concise, succinct (on-target) answers, no waffling like NCEA (or worse, schol - you literally only have to waffle about something remotely related to get some marks there), so you're far better off knowing exactly what you're talking about by learning stuff from your notes, rather than trying to find out how to answer questions to get the mark like in NCEA.


EDIT: It's not as stressful as it sounds, as long as you keep on top of everything. Also, wow I'm slow - the discussion has entirely moved on while I typed this post up...

 

[SeeKay]

Haha thanks Cathay, esp for the tip on schol (sitting 3 this year )!

 

[frootloop]

Haha how's the year going for you? Sounds like a lot of stress

I'm exaggerating, HSFY isn't as awful as I make it sound however, it is a serious workload compared to, well (from what I've seen), pretty much every other 100 level prescribed course. So although it isn't as hellish as many would have you believe, it certainly is no walk in the park.
p.s. Listen to everything Cathay and GG say, they speak the truth

 

[Cathay]

p.s. Listen to everything Cathay and GG say, they speak the truth

Do keep in mind that GG has every power to correct anything I say - I'm still a health sci, whereas GG has truly "been there, done that"

 

[frootloop]

On a completely unrelated note, if anyone wants to make the CNS lectures more interesting, should do it

 

[OUSchweiz]

I'm unsure if I eve want to sit UMAT anymore. Did the acer practice test for some reason had loads of extra time on each section but I got really bad results. Anyone have an idea of what results in the practice test would result in what approximate percentile/raw score in the real thing?

 

[frootloop]

I'm not the most knowledgeable on the UMAT topic, but please, read the last two or three pages of this thread. UMAT is NOT everything, your HSFY grades are sooo much more important. Also, it is only May, you have a long time to practice UMAT style questions, and get better at them. Also, remember that in UMAT you aren't trying to beat the paper, just the other people sitting it. If you really want to get into a professional course, don't let something as small as the UMAT practice books screw that up
As for how the practice books compare with the real thing, ACER says they are of similar difficulty, and so I'd imagine (and GG has mentioned it somewhere..) that the actual UMAT shouldn't be much different, except the added stress on the day.
EDIT: I see you're studying foundation, in which case, you get two cracks at the UMAT anyway, so you really don't have anything to lose by taking it this year as well.

 

[greenglacier]

If you look in the UMAT forum, this topic has been discussed much before. In brief, my view (though this is just my opinion - there are alternative views) is that it's pretty much impossible to predict your UMAT score. The best you can do is aim to get as many questions right as possible - which means, when it comes to the ACER practice books (which I feel to be a pretty good indicator of the types of question you'll get in the actual exam), you need to scrutinise EVERY question (whether you get it right or wrong) to analyse your thought process and how you could improve it to get more questions right. Focus on this rather than the actual percentage of questions you answer correctly.

The decision as to whether to sit the exam is yours to make, but if you're having difficulty with it this year, that isn't going to go away next year, and you can't hide from it by not sitting the exam. I would have thought the best thing is to do it this year - if you do well you don't have to worry about it any more, if you don't do well, at least you'll know where you sit (and what section(s) require the most work).

 

[Pineapple]

anyone know when cells is out?

 

[gtr8]

Just a word on the '91.00/20.44' figure, I think this may be the AVERAGE gpa and umat for a MED student. Because in my HSFY year I was told that whilst they dont release med cut off the average med student had a gpa of 92.5 and an average weighted umat of 20.6. I did HSFY in 2009 so I assume they mean the 2008 cohort. Just to further reinforce that GPA is way more important that umat I got in albeit via wait list with a GPA of 89.1 and my umat was S1 51 S2 59 S3 39.

 

[Cathay]

anyone know when cells is out?

EDIT: I completely dropped the ball and didn't realize I quoted this and forgot to say anything... Anyhow, replies to questions on the CELS discussion board (by CELS teaching fellows) show that we're at least a week from getting CELS.

in my HSFY year I was told that whilst they dont release med cut off the average med student had a gpa of 92.5 and an average weighted umat of 20.6..

The sentence, quoted by kidSq from his email, was "For your information, the current Health Sciences First Year (HSFY) category of admission average grade point average (GPA) was 91.00 (A+) and the average weighted UMAT was 20.44", which seemed to me as meaning these are two distinct averages, and I don't believe, based on this sentence, that they were quoting the stats of a particular student, which means they're not correlating 91.00 with 20.44 in any way...

 

[Pineapple]

oh man. thats ages, i was hoping for it coming out soon after we got back from the break. also does anyone know what the deal is with scaling of the marks? do any of our 1st semester papers get scaled usually?

 

[frootloop]

It really doesn't make any difference when they release it lol, just don't sweat it. And I'd imagine they're only going to get scaled if: a) The exam is ridiculously hard, or b) Our cohort does really badly in them. HSFY is a competition, so it doesn't make much difference (so long as you're nowhere near the 70% cut-off) how/if they scale the exams, all that matters in the end is how many people you beat. For example, if noone in the class got over an 80% average for the year, 79% would be amazing, despite a 79% average sounding, well, average.

 

[peanutbutter]

what the.. what did you guys pay for exactly? my GP did all my testing and immunisations free (bulk billed even) when i told her it was for med school! i quickly discovered as soon as you say those magic words, everyone is much more helpful.... odd... but im not complaining!! i even had to get my blood done twice cos i forgot about varicella the first time around... still no charge. maybe my dr is just really nice.