Otago HSFY chat - archive

[xyz]

Contaminated? oh dear you didn't vomit in the box, did you?

 

[frootloop]

I read on the BIOC192 discussion board that terms tests results 'should be out by next Wednesday'. So next week will be fun, between BIOC terms test marks, studying for the HEAL terms test, and the reasonable likelihood that UMAT results will be out late next week. Awesomesauce.

 

[Cathay]

I must say, that BIOC lab skills test, judging by the Blackboard Announcement, is more like a "if you can't do this competently, wtf have you been doing in the last 4 labs" sort of thing...

 

[Ben]

Contaminated? oh dear you didn't vomit in the box, did you?

Lets just say that I'm not looking forward to the skills test.

I must say, that BIOC lab skills test, judging by the Blackboard Announcement, is more like a "if you can't do this competently, wtf have you been doing in the last 4 labs" sort of thing...

Oh God...

 

[Cathay]

Whoops, sorry, I sounded a bit unideal there.

Dunno if it's just me being paranoid (though how shaky my hand is would justify the paranoia) but I've taken to holding whatever I'm pipetting into/out of in one hand while pipetting with the other, then securing the first container before transferring the material into the second container (again holding the container), or at least holding onto the first container if I'm pipetting into a test tube which is pre-secured in a rack. Has worked thus far.

 

[aaa24]

I agree with you cath, i thought it was going to be much harder than just some dilution and some absorbance measurements. Makes life easier though.

 

[sid_kudav]

Ugh bioc results coming out so early, man too much in one week haha.

 

[xyz]

Whoops, sorry, I sounded a bit unideal there.

Dunno if it's just me being paranoid (though how shaky my hand is would justify the paranoia) but I've taken to holding whatever I'm pipetting into/out of in one hand while pipetting with the other, then securing the first container before transferring the material into the second container (again holding the container), or at least holding onto the first container if I'm pipetting into a test tube which is pre-secured in a rack. Has worked thus far.

That's pretty normal, I think I did that straight from lab1. What's paranoid is looking for microscopic air bubbles and refilling your pipette till you have absolutely none...

 

[peterpanda]

Umat out, and I'm too scared to check :S

 

[Pineapple]

it seems everyone is doing pretty well this year. last year i got 91st percentile with a raw score of 60, and this year to get a 91st percentile you needed a raw score of 62, so i think that means people have got higher marks this year. that might mean average to get into medicine will go up.

 

[Doodle]

OOOHHH MY GOD. UMAT! My heart beat speed up when I saw an announcement and there's that familiar feeling of my chest constricting while the results page loads... *deep breaths* :cry:. But sigh, I guess not TOO bad... 80th percentile... for the amount of study I put in...

 

[frootloop]

it seems everyone is doing pretty well this year. last year i got 91st percentile with a raw score of 60, and this year to get a 91st percentile you needed a raw score of 62, so i think that means people have got higher marks this year. that might mean average to get into medicine will go up.

Even if the average UMAT raw score went up by 2 (which it seems to have, in fairness), that will only drag the required ranking score (see greenglacier's formula) up by 0.66. Which is the equivalent of 1% HSFY average. So for you, pine, it wont make any difference whatsoever, since you're well above the cut-off
And it's important to note that the UMAT raw score differences this year *only* have any effect on those who did not sit UMAT this year. If you sat it this year, fear not, the required marks to get into med will not be made higher by the apparent shift in UMAT raw scores.

 

[AmyT]

What is the formula for ranking? Thanks

 

[frootloop]

What is the formula for ranking? Thanks

Formula goes: (((aggregate of score in top 7 papers)*2)/3) + ((UMAT s1 score*0.45)+(s2 score*0.45)+(s3 score*0.1))/3).
Credit to greenglacier, who thought it up.
ETA: That's a great score, Doodle
ETA2: Last year's cut-off (using the above formula) was about 77.5 ranking score (not HSFY average).
And finally: My own UMAT: 92nd percentile. If you need me, I'll be at the Bog, celebrating Irish-style

 

[greenglacier]

Don't forget that the UMAT percentiles relate to the whole UMAT cohort, of whom HSFYers make up a small minority. I wouldn't read too much into the altered percentiles.

 

[peterpanda]

Hmm, I wonder how this all works.
The health sci departments says they take the highest UMAT out of the two years, and use the raw score as the selection criteria. And since Umat's is easier this year, and everyone essentially got higher raw marks with the same percentile than last year, doesn't this and make the raw marks between the 2 years a bit incomparable?

 

[greenglacier]

You've got no evidence that UMAT was easier this year. ACER adjust all UMAT scores to make them comparable between years. The most likely situation is that this years cohort just did (on average) slightly better in UMAT.

 

[peterpanda]

oh what I meant was, for the same percentile, meaning not improved or gotten worse, your raw mark would be slightly higher this year compared to last year.

 

[greenglacier]

I know that's what you meant. The fact remains that if you neither improved nor got worse then theoretically your raw mark (NOT your percentile) would be the same this year as last year. The raw marks are scaled to account for any difference in difficulty of the test. If the same raw mark = a lower percentile that means that the cohort on a whole did better, not that you did worse.

That's why the admissions office uses raw marks.

 

[xyz]

EDIT: Just saw the ranking formula posted. Cheers froot.