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Otago Summer School 2018 Chat/Enquiry

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Stuart

Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
Hi everyone,

This is the place for students enrolled for Summer School 2018 at Otago University. You can ask questions, discuss and/or have a friendly banter.

Let us know what summer school paper(s) you will be studying!
 
Hey everyone, hope your enjoying your holidays.

As for me, I dunno if I should do summer school, and i'm pretty sure it starts very soon so i have to decide fast.
Are there any papers that someone who just finished HSFY, who wants to get to into med but now needs to take the graduate
entry? I'm still confused about how it all works in terms of GPA, what papers I should take (both summer school and regular) etc.

Thanks, your help is appreciated :)
 
notncea9 said:
Hey everyone, hope your enjoying your holidays.

As for me, I dunno if I should do summer school, and i'm pretty sure it starts very soon so i have to decide fast.
Are there any papers that someone who just finished HSFY, who wants to get to into med but now needs to take the graduate
entry? I'm still confused about how it all works in terms of GPA, what papers I should take (both summer school and regular) etc.

Thanks, your help is appreciated :)
Click to expand...

Hi notncea9,

It doesn't start til January next year so you still have enough time to relax.

In terms of the GPA, Otago uses the weighted GPA system where the first year is worth 25%, second year is worth 50% and third year is worth 75% (for a three year degree) for the purpose of admissions. For each year, the best 120 academic points will be used to calculate the weighted-GPA. There are plenty of information available here and on the Otago website. If you have any specific questions, I am happy to help you.

In terms of the SS papers, BIOA201, FORB201 and HUNT223 are the most popular choices - especially for the third years. However, there are other great papers. You can have a look through the older threads to get a good idea of what's what. If you have further question, I am happy to help you.

In terms of the regular semester papers, it all depends on your course. What is your major going to be? What's your plan?
 
In terms of major, I want to stick with anatomy but I have also read koochkooch's guide and a little confused.
Whatever major I pick, can I mix and match any paper I please (ofc if i revolve my papers around anatomy)

koochkooch's suggestion was
SS - MATH160 and MAOR110
S1 - PHSL231, MICR221, ANAT241
S2 - PHSL232, PHSL233, MICR222, MICR233

I've looked at the papers and seems pretty fine, I'll prob drop some microbiology papers and add anatomy papers
 
notncea9 said:
In terms of major, I want to stick with anatomy but I have also read koochkooch's guide and a little confused.
Whatever major I pick, can I mix and match any paper I please (ofc if i revolve my papers around anatomy)

koochkooch's suggestion was
SS - MATH160 and MAOR110
S1 - PHSL231, MICR221, ANAT241
S2 - PHSL232, PHSL233, MICR222, MICR233

I've looked at the papers and seems pretty fine, I'll prob drop some microbiology papers and add anatomy papers
Click to expand...

Hi,

That's correct. You have a lot freedom in comparison to highschool or HSFY. As long as you meet the major/degree requirements, that's all you need and you can graduate.

koochkooch's advice is a great place to start. However, it's not the only answer. Make sure to play your strength.
 
I think I'll wait till my exam results come out, just so I can be more sure of what I really want and not want to do.
Do you know when I have to choose my major by?
 
notncea9 said:
I think I'll wait till my exam results come out, just so I can be more sure of what I really want and not want to do.
Do you know when I have to choose my major by?
Click to expand...

Hi,

That is not a bad idea. You can take time thinking about it. It doesn't really matter when you choose your major. You choose it when you enroll but you can change it when you want. It's more important to choose the right papers.
 
Hi everyone,
I am thinking of doing summer school after HSFY and I am deciding to do two paper. Currently I am deciding among several paper. These are
BIOA201
JAPA131
MAOR110
SPAN131
MATH151
STAT110

I am quite interested in all of them. I have done STAT115 in Semester Two and did get an A+. Will that be better to do STAT110 in Semester One or Semester Two instead? I feel like I am more comfortable with Science paper in general(the paper which requires more memorization and weighs more in final examination.) Can anyone make some suggestion for me? I am being quite honest that I really want to boost my GPA:)

Thanks a lot!
 
xxxz98 said:
Hi everyone,
I am thinking of doing summer school after HSFY and I am deciding to do two paper. Currently I am deciding among several paper. These are
BIOA201
JAPA131
MAOR110
SPAN131
MATH151
STAT110

I am quite interested in all of them. I have done STAT115 in Semester Two and did get an A+. Will that be better to do STAT110 in Semester One or Semester Two instead? I feel like I am more comfortable with Science paper in general(the paper which requires more memorization and weighs more in final examination.) Can anyone make some suggestion for me? I am being quite honest that I really want to boost my GPA:)

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...

Hi,

Is this for your second year?

You cannot take STAT110 once you have passed STAT115.
 
Hey xxxz98 ,

If you wish to consider Auckland as an option post-grad Med, I would suggest taking a 200-level paper in summer school. Auckland does not count 100-level papers in summer school!
 
xxxz98 said:
Hi everyone,
I am thinking of doing summer school after HSFY and I am deciding to do two paper. Currently I am deciding among several paper. These are
BIOA201
JAPA131
MAOR110
SPAN131
MATH151
STAT110

I am quite interested in all of them. I have done STAT115 in Semester Two and did get an A+. Will that be better to do STAT110 in Semester One or Semester Two instead? I feel like I am more comfortable with Science paper in general(the paper which requires more memorization and weighs more in final examination.) Can anyone make some suggestion for me? I am being quite honest that I really want to boost my GPA:)

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
BIOA201 has a decent amount of content to remember for a summer school paper however if this is your only summer school paper then the workload is easily doable, and I found 3/4 of it interesting.

When I did it as SS in 2016:
L1-6 about basic anatomy of different bodily bones, joints, muscles, skull, teeth.
L7-9 how skeleton and teeth changes with age/sex (for archaeological identification purposes)
L10 how to estimate sex of a skeleton
L14 is chemical techniques (e.g using radioactive isotopes)
L15-18 Is learning about evolution (easy if you did biology at high school)
L19-22 Is comparative anatomy between great apes and humans on upper limb, spine and lower limb

The first internal is an anatomy rat race and you can get a high score if you flashcard all of the structures/function of anatomy in the first 6 lectures.

The 2nd internal is basically you get given a bag of bones that you must identify for age/sex/species and you have to tell a report/story of what animal (s) are present, what sex/age etc. Quite an interesting one and most people had easy bags to identify, my one I think was more difficult than others but you can ask for hints from the teachers and we still got a good mark overall in the report.
 
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Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the contributions. I would like to point out that these papers are considered "easier", but they do require effort to get a good great. Only a handful of students actually achieve A+.

Has anyone decided on their SS papers? January is just around the corner!
 
Hi everyone,

As I understand, there is only a week left of Summer School. It's hard to believe it has been about five weeks since my post above, but time really flies, as they say. I wish you all the best of luck for the last remaining week and the exam(s), if you have one.
 
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