Otago HSFY chat - archive

[Hari]

Sorry I have a tendency to get confuzzled when posting as to which thread to post on.

1. So basically its up to destiny/god/what ever you wanna call it to decide what score you get. Oh well at least I have 2 years to take it, next year and in 2013.

2. I kinda assumed based on your calculations (if i understood it right) that if you got 7: 85's + eg 23 for umat you would practically get 79 ish right? I mean ultimately you would want to aim for the best for both umat and HSFY but that is kinda one possible combination if I understood it correctly?

I just didnt bother to assume that I would get >90 for anything because for one I have never done HSFY and two I have no idea if I am even capable of doing such things. I mean I can safely say that I am capable of getting atleast a few 80-85's especially in subjects like HUBS. But in theory how hard is it to get >85? especially if you do all of the course work to the best of your ability?

Ultimately I think no matter what the threshold is I am just gna work at it and try my best. I have 1 whole year left so I could just use that to do the umat twice, work and maybe some silly study here and there.

All the best for your results!

 

[greenglacier]

7 85's and a 69 for UMAT would give you 79ish, however, 69 is a very high UMAT score. You don't know if you'll get anywhere near 69 in UMAT, so you really have to be looking at getting higher marks than 85% - I'm talking at least 90%.

It doesn't matter what you think you're capable of at this stage because honestly you're in no real position to know. The fact is that you'd be very lucky to get in with 7 85's. How difficult you will find it to get >90% isn't something any of us can tell you because it depends on you. If you're pretty bright (like, getting a good mix of M's and E's at L3) then you should find it manageable (although not easy).

 

[frootloop]

Sorry I have a tendency to get confuzzled when posting as to which thread to post on.

1. So basically its up to destiny/god/what ever you wanna call it to decide what score you get. Oh well at least I have 2 years to take it, next year and in 2013.

That does seem to be rather how UMAT works... In my (and a few other's) opinion (ie: not grounded in fact) UMAT tests for something, and tests for it very well. As for whether or not this 'something' is actually what they're supposed to test for is another matter entirely...

2. I kinda assumed based on your calculations (if i understood it right) that if you got 7: 85's + eg 23 for umat you would practically get 79 ish right? I mean ultimately you would want to aim for the best for both umat and HSFY but that is kinda one possible combination if I understood it correctly?
I just didnt bother to assume that I would get >90 for anything because for one I have never done HSFY and two I have no idea if I am even capable of doing such things. I mean I can safely say that I am capable of getting atleast a few 80-85's especially in subjects like HUBS. But in theory how hard is it to get >85? especially if you do all of the course work to the best of your ability?

Well yes, that works. But getting 23 UMAT (weighted in rank score calculation) is no mean feat (ie: That'd probably out you in ~ the top 2-3% of UMAT scores). It's been said before, but your HSFY grades are *much* more under your own control than your UMAT marks are. But I do see what you're getting at, it is really quite difficult to predict what sort of marks you'll get in HSFY before it starts, and so UMAT seems like an 'easy way in'. For reference, probably ~20% of the class get 85%+ in any given test, and ~10-15% get 90%+ (subject to the difficulty of the test/paper in question. For example, 90% in PHSI191 is a *lot* more common than 90% in HEAL192)

Ultimately I think no matter what the threshold is I am just gna work at it and try my best. I have 1 whole year left so I could just use that to do the umat twice, work and maybe some silly study here and there.

All the best for your results!

That's the attitude we're looking for! All I can say is to give HSFY your very best.
(And thank you )

 

[Hari]

Based on internals for level 3 (which is a very bad judge of how smart you are, I got all E's in chem and bio and an M for physics). For the mocks I got 4 E's in bio, 1 M and 2 A's in chem and 1 M and 2 A's in physics so I am not really that smart. Probably chem may be a bit of struggle for me if its less memorisation, and physics maybe a struggle if its more calculation based (veeery weak with the calculation part of science).

So what would be a normal but desirable umat score? I just had this assumption that 60 was the mid score for most people haha! Boy that assumption was wrong

 

[greenglacier]

The average score in UMAT is 50. If you could reach the high 50's that'd be a pretty good place to be, and 60 would leave you in a good position.

I can tell you're not feeling overly confident about HSFY and looking to UMAT for a way out, but honestly you don't know how you'll go in either. Your NCEA results do not in any way preclude you from getting a really good HSFY average - HSFY is quite different to school. You've just got to hope you do well in both, and aim to do as well as you possibly can. Aiming for a particular UMAT score in itself is meaningless. The uncertainty is frustrating, I know, but none of us can make it magically go away.

 

[Hari]

Well said GG. I think the only reason why I feel veery worried is because since arriving in NZ NCEA has stripped away all of my confidence as I don't rely on memorisation alone and actually have to apply things (but thats not the main problem) what really gets me is the specificity of key words which has always brought me close to the threshold of excellence but always seemingly fail to step through!

But then I want to extract every point I can to give me the best chances (for what ever course I do after HSFY) hence the umat "supposed goal" but after listening to you guys I am just gna scrap that and do the best I can especially since thats all you can basically do.

Thanks btw, you probably cant make it magically go away, but answering the questions which I throw at you is a good start

 

[greenglacier]

If you're good with memorisation there's a good chance you'll prefer HSFY to NCEA, as it has far more memorisation and far less application. You'll never be able to escape the key words though.

 

[frootloop]

Hari, I may well be the exception to the rule (as gg is sure to point out, NCEA is supposedly a reasonable predictor of uni GPA ), but I got straight achieveds in L3 chemistry, NNAA in L3 physics, and something like a merit and a few achieveds in L3 biology. Which is fairly rubbish by anyone's standards, and wouldn't exactly predict good HSFY marks, but I ended up with a 90% average, which is non-terrible.
So it sounds to me like you definitely have enough of an ability to understand the subjects to an A/A+ level, it'll just require a lot of work (and the ability to interpret some terribly-worded questions, HSFY is full of those) to actually achieve that.

 

[Hari]

Probably and hopefully to both! I mean at the end of the day I think only the amount + efficiency of the work that I put in will dictate what I get which hopefully will be good XD! I do know that this is what I want to do (something health eey ) so I think when put into HSFY I will actually work really hard for it (or at least I hope I do).

I reaaally love the part about memorisation I now have this vision of myself listening to my summarised notes and funny acrostic poems. Hopefully chem and bioc dont bring me down XD

Probably for the rest of next year I will just revisit the foundations of chem/bio/phy and to some extent maths and just prep myself for HSFY.

 

[Nimbus2000]

@Hari , hi! Just to maybe make you feel a little better, I feel exactly the same way as you! I am really quite terrified that I might not live up to usual HSFY expectations of 90+ Averages. At the same time, there's the UMAT which I'm not too confident with either! I did the UMAT this year, for example, and I ended up getting pretty average scores - all scores between 50 and 60. As a result, I'm not really expecting to do fabulously well next year at UMAT either. Don't feel to scared, I'm pretty sure every single person that's going to do HSFY next year (including myself) is feeling pretty apprehensive. Try to remember, that it's uni, and its a new clean slate... the only thing that counts from your school life... is your actual results which will get you into the course. After that, nothing of that follows behind. Look on the bright side, it seems to me, like you have a good grasp on what your weaknesses in terms of studying and exams. If you just pinpoint those, and feel confident that you'll be able to fix those things, I'm sure you'll feel a new found confidence for HSFY! I'm sure you'll do fine next year, if you just believe that you can! (and now, I should probably go off and follow my own advice lol). best of luck!

EDIT: i just realised, that you'll be doing HSFY in 2013? LOL SORRY. still, same advice applies lol

 

[Hari]

[offtopic] Thanks for the kind words! I am pretty sure there are a lot of us who feel this way. I am the "planner type" so it calms to to plan or think I am planning way ahead of time! Yeah initially I wanted to do HSFY this year (I got accepted into Carrington! But had to turn it down *sigh*) unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control. But I think the year off will help me get back together (mentally becoming the old me again) plus probably earning a bit of money as I will be ineligible for both a loan and allowance for a weee while and probably gaining life experience and volunteer work as well. Ultimately I am going to do things which will strengthen my drive for med which will hopefully push me to do much much much better.

Hope you do well in HSFY! [/offtopic]

 

[Nimbus2000]

[OFFTOPIC] haha no worries! good luck for next next year! [/OFFTOPIC]

 

[Nimbus2000]

hey guys, i've got no idea where to put this :/ So mod's, please help me out?

the dunedin city bus timetables - they've only got a couple of stops on them - do they stop at any other "stops" on the routes? Or just the one's named on the timetable?

thanks

 

[Cathay]

Like Christchurch (where your Location says you are, supposedly), and I suspect the rest of New Zealand, the timetables name major stops like terminal stops and points of significance (malls, uni, etc), when there are literally dozens of stops inbetween. EDIT: It's highly unrealistic to predict times beyond rough guidelines for terminal stops and points of interest... It's not like a railway where the only factors are distance and speed limits...

EDIT: I do believe the distance between bus stops is more on the order of 300-400 metres...

 

[Nimbus2000]

thanks!, haha i'm not christchurch, its my hometown, and it's come up as my location :/

 

[Cathay]

thanks!, haha i'm not christchurch, its my hometown, and it's come up as my location :/

Heh, well that "Hometown" box does come up as "Location", which is why I changed it to Dunedin, even though I consider Christchurch to be my hometown

 

[greenglacier]

Right, offers are out guys - good luck!!!

If you're lucky enough to get an offer for med, this is no longer the thread for you to chat in because you're officially no longer HSFY (how sad) - I direct your attention to: https://www.medstudentsonline.com.au/f78/otago-mbchb-class-2016-a-24154/

 

[Bamboozle]

I'd just like to leave a note, thanking all the people who've posted on this thread cuz Gosh. you guys have, at times, been the only people that seemed to understand how awesome but stressful hsfy really is. And to all the people who've contributed to the hsfy mammoth thread. Cuz it's just plain awesome.

 

[skyglow1]

Congratulations to everyone! Hope you all got what you were aiming for.

 

[SeeKay]

Oh man, I'm so worried about next year now hearing that rank score has risen significantly D:

Seriously will have to work my butt off with my crappy UMAT...