Otago HSFY chat - archive

[chococroissant]

^amen to that! I fully know how that feels. I too have a crappy UMAT...sigh. At least our HSFY marks are more in our control

 

[greenglacier]

Hey guys, this I wrote this a couple of years ago, but some of you might still find it handy:




Graduate entry into Otago medicine – possible degrees/majors from HSFY.
According to the Otago website, graduate entry to medicine is available only to candidates who have completed a degree “in the minimum academic time”. The following list contains all the degrees/majors I could find in a quick search where it would be relatively straightforward to fulfill this requirement using HSFY as the first year of your degree.

However, this list is not exhaustive, and there may be omissions. Of note – your HSFY 8[SUP]th[/SUP] paper may make more majors possible, and sometimes it’s possible to waive 100-level pre-requisites. I hope this gives you some ideas, but ultimately you need to do your own research and check with the admissions office if unsure! Also note that some of these majors may require a bigger paper commitment than others.

(All the health science professional programmes, if you got into any)

Bachelor of Science: majors
· Anatomy and structural biology
· Biochemistry
· Chemistry
· Clothing and textile sciences
· Energy studies
· Food science
· Genetics
· Human nutrition
· Microbiology
· Neuroscience
· Pharmacology
· Physiology
· Plant biotechnology

Bachelor of Science with Honours: majors
· Anatomy and structural biology
· Biochemistry
· Chemistry
· Clothing and textile studies
· Food science
· Genetics
· Human nutrition
· Microbiology
· Neuroscience
· Pharmacology
· Physiology
· Plant biotechnology

Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences/Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences with Honours: majors
· Drugs and human health
· Functional human biology
· Infection and immunity
· Molecular basis of health and disease
· Nutrition and metabolism in human health
· Reproduction, genetics and development 


Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Sciences/Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Sciences with Honours: majors
· Clothing and textile sciences
· Consumer food science
· Human nutrition

 

[SeeKay]

Yeah let's just hope that our year isn't as bright as this year's bunch of HSFYers and rank score cutoff drops :S

 

[tanc12]

Hi, I just saw the discussion above on the academic excellence scholarship that Otago now offers so thought I should reply to eltee and others. I also know someone that got this scholarship this year, but it's most likely a different person than the one Scotty1 knows since this person is female lol. And she had pretty much straight Es throughout NCEA, did quite a few leadership things like prefect/school council/debating captain, had participated in numerous 'extracurricular' tests such as those Australian subject tests and had gained top results, was dux (and top of every year at her high school) etc etc... But I think her school would also have had a big influence on her getting the scholarship since they had to fill out a form and be her referee; so as said above you have to have both academics and well rounded and probably a lot of respect from teachers and peers. Also, because it was the first year that the scholarship was awarded this year, I heard only six were awarded nationally. However, this number may be false not to mention I would assume the number given out will be increased next year.
And this is very random (not to mention very behind the times lol), but on the topic of that 15 year old boy; I completely agree with greenglacier.

On a last note, good luck for you health scis next year!!! Even though there are so many horror stories, the best thing is to ignore and enjoy yourself as well as what you're studying because you'll most likely be quite passionate about it. Also, I personally found health sci more fun than 2nd year because it was so new and there were so many things to do like socialising, immersing yourself in balancing uni life, involving yourself in your hall's activities, taking occasional breaks with friends and by yourself whilst keeping on top of the health sci work (which really isn't as difficult as some people make it out to be though it's not easy). So yeah; have a good year and enjoy your current holiday!!!

 

[Nimbus2000]

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...

^amen to that! I fully know how that feels. I too have a crappy UMAT...sigh. At least our HSFY marks are more in our control

i'll say double amen to that! everytime I calm down, I get more scared again :S

Yeah let's just hope that our year isn't as bright as this year's bunch of HSFYers and rank score cutoff drops :S

and i'll amen to this too!

i'm so glad our friendly mod's all got offers though! congrats guys!

 

[Hari]

For the 8th paper, how hard is maori especially if you have little to no maori at all? Friends keep telling me to go for an 8th paper but push me to go towards maori because they say its an easy 90+ >.> which i think is stupid because I would much prefer psychology. With regards to that what area of psychology do you focus on and what are the tests like. (is there any maths at all?)

 

[Cathay]

For the 8th paper, how hard is maori especially if you have little to no maori at all? Friends keep telling me to go for an 8th paper but push me to go towards maori because they say its an easy 90+ >.> which i think is stupid because I would much prefer psychology. With regards to that what area of psychology do you focus on and what are the tests like. (is there any maths at all?)

[MENTION=10716]frootloop[/MENTION] would be more qualified for this (since he actually did it), but from what I've heard floating around, it's a paper about some interesting history and cultural stuff (and not language), and as far as I can tell, no prior knowledge is expected or required.

From what froot has said during the semester I gather it's not a hard paper to study for, at all, but I'll let him fill you in on the details, and leave you with a teaser that someone described it as stupidly easy to me.

PSYC on the other hand is said to require a fair bit more work to get the A+, and it has more contact hours (time in class) anyway - weekly 3 hour labs.

I'll be honest, from what has flown around on MSO in June/July (the main 8th paper choosing time), it would appear that MAOR102 and BSNS104 are, workload-wise, easiest (depending on whether you're an essay person or whether you prefer a bit of economics with some numerical stuff), PSYC112 requires interest, and a fair bit of work to get A+, and everything else is said to be difficult to get A+ (because HSFY papers are easier than most uni papers to get A+ in) so to take any of the others you'll need to have a genuine interest and understand that it may not boost your GPA.

PS: I'll move this to the HSFY 2012 thread, which is where it belongs.

 

[Hari]

To be honest I am really confuzzled now! I am torn between wanting to get into medicine and getting in because i deserve it, if i take maori just to get an easy A then that would prolly guilt trip me for a while, but as you said its more about history which may come in handy for general knowledge but then again pysch is interesting and may be more useful in a general perspective. Prolly need froot to ellaborate more.

Btw congrats on med cathay you deserve it!

 

[BigRedSky]

To be honest I am really confuzzled now! I am torn between wanting to get into medicine and getting in because i deserve it, if i take maori just to get an easy A then that would prolly guilt trip me for a while

If something is

a. entirely within the rules
and
b. something that other people you are competing against for a place will be taking advantage of

....and it's going to cause you guilt, then you'd need to possibly give yourself an adjustment with regard to what you should feel guilty about! Getting into med is hard enough without having some underlying feeling that you need to do it the hardest way possible.

(Put it another way: I know a couple of friends who have got into med with kids. Almost no question that such a thing is harder than without having kids. Are you about to go have a kid to level the playing field? )

 

[Cathay]

To be honest I am really confuzzled now! I am torn between wanting to get into medicine and getting in because i deserve it, if i take maori just to get an easy A then that would prolly guilt trip me for a while, but as you said its more about history which may come in handy for general knowledge but then again pysch is interesting and may be more useful in a general perspective. Prolly need froot to ellaborate more.

Btw congrats on med cathay you deserve it!

Thanks, and, uh, I will admit that I haven't heard the guilt of taking a cheap A+ paper before... I mean, the option for you (and anyone else) to get the said cheap A+ is there, so it's fair competition... I'm just saying, don't feel guilty - the 8th paper is a legitimate way to get in easier, don't feel guilty for taking advantage of the system, it's there for a reason.

EDIT: It's not like there's someone at the end to say "Oooh, you did it without an 8th paper, +2 cool points", lol.

 

[Hari]

Just saying i would rather get in with all A's in the core subjects which may or maynot mean that i know my stuff rather than get in barely because an A in x 8th paper boosted my gpa. Its more of a personal push thing rather than il be so gutted i want to jump off a cliff. Cause lets face it if everyone knows maori or what ever sub is the easiest thell do it and slack off in subs like epi bioc or heal because they have 1 fallback subject? Whic may or maynot happen for me hence i wan to take the sub because it is interesting or useful

 

[Pineapple]

Just saying i would rather get in with all A's in the core subjects which may or maynot mean that i know my stuff rather than get in barely because an A in x 8th paper boosted my gpa. Its more of a personal push thing rather than il be so gutted i want to jump off a cliff. Cause lets face it if everyone knows maori or what ever sub is the easiest thell do it and slack off in subs like epi bioc or heal because they have 1 fallback subject? Whic may or maynot happen for me hence i wan to take the sub because it is interesting or useful

don't overthink it. and cross the bridge when you come to it, most people register for an 8th paper once they know their marks from first semester. Do one (maori or BSNS104) if you want to replace a bad mark from first semester. Or if you want to boost your average. also I found Maori really interesting and a pretty refreshing escape from all the science. It also definitely boosted my average.

 

[Nimbus2000]

btw [MENTION=4444]Pineapple[/MENTION], CONGRATS! on getting into ur choice of course! can you also please give a little description on wat exactly you learn in maori studies?

 

[Pineapple]

Thanks haha im stoked. basically involved learning a lot about maori culture, customs traditions etc. we learnt about the traditional ceremonies, and also alot about maori identity today. The workload wasn't very much with only two lectures a week, the tutorials were fun, and the exam was rather straightforward! I really enjoyed it!

i was going to say dont stress about it all and enjoy your holidays and then I remembered what I was like during health sci lol *cringe*.

 

[Hari]

Pineapple thanks for the advice! I actually might take mapri considering i have very little knowledge of maori tradition and culture and it would probably be of interest plus useful from a cultural connection pov. Is it essay based or are there some mcq and etc.

Also do you think it was worth turning down the auckland schol to go to otago?

 

[frootloop]

Pineapple thanks for the advice! I actually might take mapri considering i have very little knowledge of maori tradition and culture and it would probably be of interest plus useful from a cultural connection pov. Is it essay based or are there some mcq and etc.

There's two essays (which total to 30% of your mark), and two online tests (10% each), leaving the (very easy) final worth 50%.
Lets put it this way: I did 30 minutes of study for Maori (like, directly before the exam ), and got 93%. It's an interesting paper in which high marks are relatively easy to obtain. If it sounds interesting to you, then it's a very good option.
Edit: Oh, and it's a cultural aspects paper, rather than a language paper. There's essentially two halves: The pre-contact part, with traditional customs/values etc, and then there's the contemporary part, where they get you to work out how the values etc taught in the first half of the course relate to modern day Maori society. All rather interesting.

 

[Hari]

The whole essay part sounds both fun yet daunting at the same time. I mean I have never gotten excellences for english essays but I always managed to get Excellence marks for bio reports >.< This is something I must consider. Though Maori sounds very very interesting.

Psych is looking very appealing atm just because of the whole essay thing.

 

[bignose]

you guys know you have to get through first semester before worrying about your 8th paper

 

[Hari]

XD I get that, but does it harm me in anyway to think in advanced? I mean theres nothing to lose but a bit to gain by thinking about it now vs later where if I waste time debating that could be time spent doing other things.

But then its just me, over thinking as usual Hahaha!

 

[Cathay]

*Puts Forum Development hat on*
Hey guys, since the offers are out for the 2011 HSFY cohort, the NZ Forum Development Team have decided to sticky this thread as the successor to the HSFY 2011 thread, which has now been closed and will presumably be archived soon.

Have fun, and play nice